Page 7 of Tom's Chance
“I’m not paying, I said you should give me your credit card and I’ll pay.”
“Sorry, all I have on me is cash. What would you like?” His answer seemed to upset her, but he didn’t care. He wanted to get this done and over with so he could get on with his day.
They stepped up to the counter and he didn’t know if it was normal for Leslie to order something small, or if she was trying to impress him. He tried to study her profile as she studied the menu, but her looks didn’t impress him. As she placed her order, he placed his for a black coffee and a blueberry muffin. As they stood there waiting, Tom felt someone hit him hard in the back of the leg and whipped around. He immediately began laughing when a gigantic dog sat on its haunches staring at him. He swore Tator grinned.
“Tate,” Tom cried out in joy, and he rubbed the dog down, then stood and held out his hand to his owner. “Kent, how are you?”
“Good, you, sorry about Tator, he saw you and got excited.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Tom laughed as he went to pick up their order and went over to a table close to the corner. He ended up sitting with his back to the wall and two tables over sat Stone and Jake. He ignored them as he put the food down and held out the chair for Leslie. As he sat and sipped his coffee he looked at her and frowned.
“What’s wrong?”
“Why did you pet that nasty animal?”
“Excuse me?”
“That dog, it shouldn’t be allowed in public places, it needs to be chained up outside.”
“First of all, did you even read my profile before you agreed to go on a date?”
“Of course I did.”
“What did you read?” Tom was too pissed to eat, so he crossed his forearms on the table to lean into them as he stared her down.
“That you’re a vet.”
“Do you even know what that means?”
“Not really, I thought it meant you served your country in the military.”
“No, unfortunately as much as I wanted to serve my country, I wasn’t able to. I am a veterinarian. That means that I work with animals. All kinds of animals. Dogs, cats, rabbits, horses, cows, goats, sheep, you name it, I work on them. Tate happens to be one of my patients, and he is a search and rescue dog. I’m going to say this right now so you can decide if this will go further than this one date.” He looked at her and shook his head.
“No, this will not go beyond today. Your comment about having an animal chained up and left outside is considered abuse to me. I will not go out with anyone who believes it is okay to abuse animals. I am a veterinarian and have been for a long time. I am on call twenty-four seven. To me, the animals will always come first.”
“What about me?”
“What about you?”
“Why won’t you put me first?”
“One, because I don’t know you. Two, because you don’t like animals. Three…” He was interrupted before he could continue. He looked up when someone stood slightly behind Leslie and called his name.
“Tom? How are you?”
“Sparrow, hi, I’m good. You?”
“I’m good too.”
“What brings you here?”
“Just stopping in to have coffee with my husband.”
“Excuse me,” Leslie looked over her shoulder at Sparrow, the deputy sheriff, but she was wearing jeans and a tee shirt, not her uniform. Leslie didn’t wait for Sparrow to answer. “You’re homing in on my date. That’s very rude of you.”
“Sparrow, this is Leslie Warren, my date.” Tom cringed when he called her that.
“Leslie Warren from Colorado Springs?” Sparrow asked.
