Page 7 of Beneath the Scars
As much as I hated hurting her, it was for the best. What seventeen-year-old boy pulls away from the girl he’s hot for instead of kissing the hell out of her?
A broken one. That’s who.
I’ve always known something inside me wasn’t right. That day proved I’d never have a normal future with a gorgeous wife and maybe a couple of kids.
I accepted it. Adapted to it, even.
But then I went and told Addie I was the only man allowed to touch her. She seemed appalled, despite nodding her head in agreement—it probably wasn’t consciously done.
Maybe she’ll let it go.
Psh. Adalaide Jackson doesn’t let anything go if it directly affects her.
But…I can’t subject her to my level of depravity. What I’d have to do in order to fuck her isn’t what she deserves. Especially not for her first time.
I can’t believe I’m even fucking thinking about this.
No. I’m not thinking about this.
What if she finds someone else?
Fuck.
I’m doomed.
Chapter 4
Addie
“Don’t you dare come in here with those dirty boots, young lady.”
I freeze in the doorway at the back of Sonoma’s animal clinic. I’d hoped to sneak in and grab my stuff without our secretary seeing me. No such luck.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Susan Engles is not a woman to be trifled with. She’s worked at Sonoma’s animal clinic since it opened. Her age is a mystery to us all. Not even Uncle Ben knows how old she is, and his dad started the clinic.
“I’ll get your stuff, Addie,” Penny says as she walks by. Her scrubs have cats on them today and match the blue scrunchie she has tied in her red hair. “How was Shadow?”
“As feisty as ever.” Mr. Lambert’s rescue mare spent the majority of her life neglected and abused. She’s terrified of men and barely tolerates women. She also doesn’t like being cooped up, so taking care of her is difficult. We’ve slowly been nursing her back to health, and it seems I’m the only one she’ll allow to touch her. And even then, she often gets pissy with me.
“How was the rest of the day?” I ask Penny as she hands me my tote bag and lunch box. It’s still full of food since I spent all afternoon on the farm. Thankfully, Mrs. Lambert gave me a sandwich and lemonade while I was there, so I’m not starving.
Shadow wasn’t the only one who needed a checkup. I also had to examine one of Mr. Lambert’s pregnant heifers. My arm had to go places it didn’t belong, and it’s safe to say I’ll be showering about four times tonight—just to be on the safe side.
“Pretty good. You missed the Schafer’s puppies today.”
“Aw, man. I can’t believe they’re old enough for their shots already.”
“One of them crapped all over Ben. Mrs. Schafer was horrified, but the rest of us were dying laughing.”
“Oof. Glad I missed that cleanup session.” Though if anyone got a whiff of me, they wouldn’t know the difference. “All right. I’m outta here for the night. I’ll chart everything when I get home, Mrs. Engles.”
“You better,” she yells back as I head out the door.
The day we went digital was one of the best days ever. Uncle Ben was hesitant to drop the paper files completely, and I didn’t blame him. It’s nice to have a hard copy sometimes, but the town has grown, and so has the clinic, which means we see way more patients than ever before. Getting tablets automated everything and made our lives a whole lot easier.
I can take mine out to the farms with me and view the history of our patients right then and there. It’s actually saved a couple of lives when we noticed a pattern in the heifers that kept getting sick.
