Page 2 of Shifters Awakening

“What would we have told Callie?”

“We would have told her the truth. We always tell the truth,” I said even though I didn’t want to think about it.

“Even to little kids?”

“Especially to little kids. They’ve got a better bullshit meter than most grown-ups.”

Riley snickered. “I’d say that’s for sure true of Callie.”

“What a way to finish out a Friday, huh?” I smiled at her then. After helping two families say goodbye to their beloved, aged dogs, it’d been a tough week for the whole office. “At least we don't have to tell her Sully-Boy isn’t coming home today.”

“Don't say that. You’re really going to make me cry.” Riley wiped the sweaty sheen from her forehead with a spare bandage, chucked her gloves, and washed her hands. Then she offered a wobbly grin as she re-gloved. “What do you think happened?”

“Probably a bad reaction to being under the anesthetic. Note it in his file, so we can try a different anesthetic if wehave to do this again.”

“Will do. What do you have planned for this weekend?”

“I'm going to the park to go hiking,” I said.

“Alone?” She gave me a sly look, her eyes half open, as though I had some news about my nonexistent love life.

“Absolutely alone. Who the heck wants to go hiking with me in humid Louisiana, even after a temperature drop?” I removed Sully’s breathing assistance, pleased to see his furred chest rise and fall on its own. Other wires and monitors came off next. Then I moved the IV bag from the hook on the surgical bed to the transfer cart.

“You know that fancy young contractor guy?”

“Logan? What’s his last name?”

“Blackwood,” she answered. “He owns a construction company.”

The man sauntered into my brain like he owned the place and flashed an easy grin. Today, if I were a cat, he might’ve been catnip, but I didn’t have time for a relationship in the middle of building my veterinary practice.

“He stopped by up here to ask about you a couple weeks ago,” she added. “He won't leave the front desk ladies alone. You could go camping with him and maybe shut him up?”

“Uh, no.”

“Why not?” Riley grabbed the closest edges of the transfer sheet. She wiggled her hips. “I think you want Logan to be yourMr. Fuck Me RightandMr. Right NowandMr. Always Right.”

She probably didn’t know I knew she was exaggerating his interest in me. Shannon, my other nursing assistant who doubled as a front desk receptionist and office manager, had mentioned he stopped by one time and called the front desk one other time, not at all to the extent Riley implied. The young woman wanted to play matchmaker, and I was a prime target for her attentions.

I snorted as I took hold of the other corners. “Are you kidding? Why would I go with him? I heard he's gone through a dozen women in town.” I paused a moment. “Lift in three, two, one…”

She raised the sheet. “There are only three in Willow Creek who aren’t paired off. I don't think that means much.”

Gently, we situated our patient onto the transfer cart. For a moment, I didn't respond. Instead, I double-checked the sutures on the rear leg of Sully-Boy before covering them lightly with a bandage. Why would I go into all the reasons why I didn't want to risk a relationship with Logan? I had convinced myself he wasn't my type. He wasn't going to be my type. There wasn't anything about him that made him different or more appealing than anybody else who had asked me out in the last six months. Yeah, so what if I was lying to myself?

“Sully-Boy’s good,” I said.

Riley didn't push the subject. “I’ll get that IV out and get him settled in recovery.”

She knew better than to argue with me about whether I should date for the sake of dating. She was tenyears younger than me, barely out of high school, and the world was her oyster. My oyster didn't come out to see the world too much anymore, but that was okay with me. I ran my own veterinary practice in Willow Creek. Running a business was enough for anybody. Throwing a budding romance when you were sometimes the only vet on call in the Louisiana parish was more than I cared to sign up for.

This is enough, isn’t it?I wasn’t missing anything from my life. Any feelings about something missing were simply because I hadn’t hooked up with anyone. My obsession with romantic movies didn’t hint at anything at all. It came down to biology. Nothing else.

I checked the pulse rate of the tomcat once more and then removed my mask. He would be coming around soon. It might have been a little touch and go, but I was sure we'd be okay. I'd call in the morning for an update on him before I left for my overnight hiking trip. I had two nursing assistants who came in on the weekends to check on all the animals, and Sully-Boy would be fine after twenty-four hours of observation.

The plastic gloves snapped as I pulled them off and chucked them in the trash can. “I guess we're ready. I’ll let Callie see him before she goes home for the day.”

“You know she's gonna cry buckets when she sees him.”

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