Chapter One
Lora
‘Heard you had a bit of trouble the other night,’ Justin says from over the table where he is currently placing stitches in Flopsy’s abdomen. He has been my boss for a little over two years now and what started as admiration for him turned into a crush, and then a full-blown desire for the man currently standing opposite me.
I know he is referring to the attack on my friend that took place at my house. ‘I’m so glad that no one was seriously hurt,’ I say, still focusing on the carefully placed stitches. I know if I look at him when we are standing this close, I’ll blush, giving away my feelings as clear as if I wrote them down.
Our eyes briefly meet, and I can tell he is smiling, even beneath the mask. His light eyes glisten and are made all the bluer by the mask. I imagine what it would feel like to run my hand over his close-cropped hair, feeling bristly beneath my fingers.
Why did I have to fall for my boss?
‘I’m glad everything is resolved now for her and for you.’ He ties off the last stitch and drops the instruments into a metal tray with a clang. ‘Hopefully, that will be the end of that,’ he says, referring to the cat. ‘Bring her round and put a collar on her so she doesn’t chew at them.’
Flopsy is notorious for tearing out her stitches, this isn’t my first rodeo with the crazy cat that insists on running through its nine lives as though she has ninety. Mrs Warwick is elderly and firmly believes cats should be out at night. Only Flopsy likes to pick fights with animals much larger than herself and gets herself into all kinds of trouble.
‘At least while you’re here you can’t get into mischief,’ I say to her as she comes round from the anaesthetic. The moment she realises she has a collar on she will get mean, so I transfer her to a cage where she can rest on a warm blanket.
I begin disinfecting the operating room and change my scrubs as I hear Mr Simpkins arrive with his border terrier.
I’d always wanted to be a vet, to help animals. It’s a dream I’ve never fully realised as partway through my education my mum got ill and I had to return to the island to look after her.
Then a few years later when Justin arrived on the island to build a sanctuary to treat the wild animals here, it just seemed easier to slip into the role of a veterinary nurse until I could go back and finish my studies.
And the practice is gorgeous, he spared no expense building the clinic or the adjoining stables for when one of the wild horses needs treatment. We treat everything that comes through our doors, even Laslow Perrin’s lizard, Draco, that has a habit of eating cotton wool.
But even this was only supposed to be temporary. I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with the sanctuary or Justin.