Animal Attraction Read online

  Adam flashed a rare grin. “Didn’t you wonder why Leanne didn’t play grab-ass with you this morning? It was because your receptionist turned herself into your fiancée.” Adam slapped him on the back. “Congrats, by the way. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

  “Shut up. You’re making this shit up.”

  “Are you kidding?” Adam asked. “No one could make this up. It’s too good. The question is, though . . . why would Jade come up with such a story? Unless something’s happened between you . . .”

  Dell didn’t respond to that. Didn’t know how to respond to that.

  Adam gave a shocked Dell a push down the hall and into exam room one.

  Eight puppies were crawling over everything, making soft, snuffling puppy noises. Their owners, Joey and Donna Mooreland, a couple in their midfifties were sitting, supervising the best that they could with four hands against thirty-two little paws.

  Adam had sold the couple their first Labrador several years ago now and had helped them through their first breeding cycle. He scooped up a black pup attempting to eat his shoelace.

  “I’m nervous,” Donna admitted, hand to her chest. “This is our first batch of babies.”

  “No worries.” Adam slid Dell a look. “There’s a lot of firsts going around here today.”

  Dell ignored him and bent over the puppies. There were four brown, two black, and two white Labs, all in various stages of mewling and climbing over each other, tails wagging, tongues out.

  “It’s just that we’ve been so frazzled with our daughter’s engagement,” Donna said, stopping the biggest pup from climbing on top of his siblings like a circus performer.

  “A lot of that going around,” Adam said.

  Dell gave Adam a look that said quite clearly Shut up or die. But Donna smiled at Adam. “Someone you know just get engaged?”

  “As a matter of fact,” Adam said. “Dr. Connelly here—”

  Dell stepped on Adam’s foot and ground into it a little bit.

  Adam drew a careful breath and stopped talking.

  But it was too late. Donna had caught the scent of a possible engagement. “Doctor?” she asked Dell. “Are you engaged?”

  “He is,” Joe said.

  Everyone looked at him in shock. Joe shrugged. “One of your clients in the waiting room was talking about it as she left.”

  Adam started to laugh, but Dell put more weight on his foot, and Adam turned it into a cough.

  “Oh, this is so lovely!” Donna said, clapping her hands, then leaning in conspiratorially. “You probably don’t know this, Dr. Connelly, but just about all the single women in the country have their hearts set on you. You’re going to break them all with this news.”

  Adam coughed again, and Dell took his weight off Adam’s foot because he felt a little woozy. And he was sweating. Christ, this was ridiculous. “The puppies,” he said. “Let’s concentrate on the puppies.”

  Adam smirked. Dell ignored him and picked up the runt, a girl. The tiny brown Lab had eyes bigger than her nose and mouth and her head bobbed as she stared at him solemnly. He smiled at her and she licked his chin.

  “So when’s the big day?” Donna asked.

  Try never, as it would be difficult to be married to a woman who lived seventeen hundred miles away. “The reports of my”—Christ—“engagement are overexaggerated.”

  Adam snorted.

  Dell checked the puppy’s teeth to make sure they were properly aligned, then inspected her eyes, examined her skin, and palpated her hips.

  “Is she okay?”

  Dell set her on the scale, having to keep a hand on her because her legs were scrambling for purchase. She had places to go, things to explore. “She’s slightly underweight, but she’s looking strong.”

  Both Donna and Joe looked relieved. “That’s the one my daughter wants to keep,” Joe said.

  “We’re going to wrap her up in a white silky bow on the day of the wedding,” Donna said. Her voice went sly. “Maybe you’d like us to save you one for your wedding?”

  Adam grinned and looked at him. “How sweet.”

  Dell resisted the urge to punch him and busied himself checking for defects the Mooreland’s might not have recognized, like heart murmurs. He found nothing ominous, and after the longest ten minutes of his life he managed to escape. He strode toward his office, taking a quick glance out front.

  Jade sat at the front desk, talking on the phone while simultaneously working on the computer, checking someone in, and checking two people out. She sat there, an oasis in the middle of a circus. As if she sensed him, she glanced up. And if he wasn’t mistaken, she grimaced slightly.

  He raised a brow.

  She bit her lower lip but didn’t look away.

  Adam, hot on his heels, leaned in and whispered, “Think we should tell your fiancée that you’re allergic to commitment? That you have abandonment issues? And, oh yeah, that you’re never going to let your guard down enough to actually marry anyone?”

  “You’re an asshole.”

  “So are you.”

  Dell sighed. “Yeah,” he said as Adam walked away. “But knowing it is half the battle.”

  By noon Jade had checked in and out a dizzying number of patients while managing to avoid being alone with Dell. He’d seen a bulldog with an ingrown tail, a duck with a mysterious throat infection that turned out to be a swallowed quarter, and a kitten with acne. He’d performed four surgeries.

  Jade had grabbed the sandwich from her bagged lunch and walked outside, needing a moment of sunshine.

  A soft nicker from the horse pen caught her attention.

  Reno. He was close to the fencing and flirting with her. She reached out to touch him and he snapped at her fingers. It was so unexpected that she jumped back and fell to the dirt. She scrambled back to her feet as a big hand settled on the nape of her neck.

  She screamed and whirled around and would have fallen again if Dell hadn’t caught her. “Just me,” he said calmly. “You okay?”

  They both knew she wasn’t but she nodded. “Reno tried to bite me.”

  Dell didn’t say anything for a moment, just slid an arm around her, making her realize she was backing away from both the horses and the man. “What do you know about horses?” he asked quietly, his delicious warmth seeping into her.

  “I know that the porcelain horse collection I had as a child wasn’t made to be played with,” she said, trying to lighten the tension. “But I did it, anyway, and kept breaking off their legs. My grandmother got fed up and stopped buying them.”

  “The grandmother you were named after?”

  “Yes.” She closed her eyes, concentrating on the feel of his hand on the small of her back. Comforting but something else, too. Her heart rate should have slowed by now from her fright, but it was still racing—for another reason entirely now. “They wanted me to be strong and tough like her.”

  “It worked. You’re the strongest, toughest woman I know.”

  She managed to choke back her startled laugh at that.

  “It’s true.” He paused. “Do you know anything about real horses?”

  “I know Reno used to like me.”

  “He still likes you.” He stroked his hand up her back, letting it settle at the nape of her neck again. “It’s important with any animal, especially a spooked one, to be calm, assertive. Dominant.”

  “Okay.”

  “A horse’s emotions depend on its surroundings and also on the emotions of its human counterparts.”

  She went still. “Are you saying that my emotions caused Reno to try to bite me?”

  His silence said he was going to let her wrestle with that one. “Relax your arms,” he said, making her realize she was hugging herself tight. She dropped them to her sides with effort.

  “And breathe,” he said.

  He was right, she wasn’t breathing. She sucked in some air.

  “Better,” he said, and leaned past her to rub Reno’s neck the way he was rubbing he