Page 22 of Tom's Chance
“It took some time to explain to my parents that I wasn’t in any trouble, nor was I failing. See, those packs Mr. Booker gave me was books, but the paperwork was the actual final exams in those courses.”
“No.”
“I kid you not. He only gave me the books to read so that I could take the test. It was all explained in the instructions on how I was doing things. I didn’t find out until that meeting that I had aced all those exams. The meeting was to tell my parents that the school I was attending couldn’t really help me anymore. Not to toot my own horn, but they said I knew it all. The teachers present at the meeting as well as the principal apologized to my parents for labeling me lazy and disruptive. They said it was because I was bored.” He shook his head as he finished his coffee and got up to refill both their mugs. He settled back down with a small smile and a shake of his head.
“The rest of that school year had me taking the regents classes at the high school. I was in every single grade for a month. That wasn’t worded correctly. I completed a grade in a month. I could have graduated, but my parents refused to allow an eleven-year-old to enter college.”
“I can see where they would be concerned. What did you do?”
“I still went to my regular school, but I was in a special program. I had four different teachers, and they were all professors from the local college. When I was thirteen, I graduated from high school, but my parents still refused to allow me to attend college at that age. I continued to do in-person and on-line classes.” He shook his head and chuckled.
“Grandpa was a vet my entire life, Dad went into finance. Because of all the times I was sent to Grandpa’s because of my laziness, I worked with him, and really liked the idea of becoming a vet just like him, and eventually taking over the business. Back then, Grandpa did it all. All the office hours and went out to the surrounding ranches. When I turned fifteen, I entered the college campus as a junior. I received my Doctorate in Veterinarian Medicine at the age of eighteen. I started working for Grandpa, and…” he paused to lean forward, looked over both his shoulders, and leaned in closer to whisper, “No one knows this about me.”
“What?” Lorissa thought it would be something bad, but when he spoke next, she stared at him in utter shock.
“By the time I was twenty-five I had a second PhD in Bio Chemistry.”
“No way.”
“Way.” He sighed and sat back. “When Erin asked me about something years ago, I knew that second doctorate would come in handy.”
“With?”
“Do you know about Riceman Stallions?”
“No, what is that? Wait, isn’t that the on-line business? I heard about it, but other than being a stallion dating app, I don’t know about it.”
“I’ll get into that later. I’m not blowing you off, but I wanted to give you some background information, so you’d know what happened earlier today.”
“Oh, okay, I’m sorry, I forgot all about that. Please, continue.” They both froze when two different alarms sounded, and they looked at their watches. Without saying a word, they both stood, grabbed their coffee, and went into the clinic to feed the puppies. As they worked with the babies, he continued his story.
“Anyway, after Grandpa got up in his years, I took over going to the ranches to work with the large animals while he stayed back in the clinic. Fast forward to him retiring, I was out in the field more and more, so I hired vets to run the clinic. I have three full time vets, and three vet technicians/assistants, along with an office staff consisting of six women. They man the phones, do the billing, and keep the vets on track.”
“So, your clinic is run like a well-oiled machine?”
Tom looked up from feeding his last puppy and smirked at her. She hadn’t realized that it affected her until her stomach lurched. She quickly dropped her eyes and concentrated on the puppy she was feeding.
“More like a well-run military mission,” he chuckled as he shook his head, and picked up the next puppy. “Anyway, because of the business, and me being out in the field, I hardly ever work in the clinic. Lately, it seems like I’m only there to do the paperwork and sign the paychecks. I’m not complaining, much, but I don’t have time to try to find someone to date.”
“Ah.”
“Anyway, my office manager took it upon herself to sign me up for a dating app. It didn’t go live until she sat me down one night after hours and explained what she did, and why she did it. She said I was too young to work eighty to a hundred hours a week, then go home to an empty house. I didn’t think I had anything to lose, so I told her to go ahead and make it live, but on one condition.”
“Oh my, what condition was that?” she asked as she put her puppy back and grabbed the last one to feed.
“That if I get a date from hell, then she closes the app and never butts into my love life ever again.”
“Was there a time limit?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean did you state that if that date from hell happened in a three-month period?”
“No, whenever it happened, the app was to be closed. Be it the first date or the fortieth date, once it happened one time, I was done.”
Lorissa nodded her head in understanding and placed the last full puppy back in the nest with her siblings and mother. She checked on Rose, then Baby and her babies. Together, they both reset the alarm on their watch and went back into the kitchen. Tom had grabbed both their cups after he’d washed his hands and waited for her as she did the same. They settled back at the table, and she looked at him with a smirk.
“So, how many dates did you go on before you had the date from hell?”
