Page 11 of Heal Me
“Well, there are certain words that they pronounce differently than us and they don’t say the letter ‘z’ like us. They say ‘zed’. X,Y, Zed. Stuff like that.”
“So he faked being a Canadian supervisor so that he didn’t get yelled at by Canadians?”
“Mmm hmm. Which is hard to do with a Texan accent. But my friend is resourceful like that,” Ric told her.
“He sounds funny.”
“He is, but back to this pie situation. What kind are you going to have?”
“We haven’t even gotten to order lunch yet,” Kate said.
Ric held up a hand and waved. “Cletus! Where’s Portia? We’re starving over here!”
Kate’s face turned pink as she giggled, but Ric’s confident, authoritative manner wasn’t lost on her. Obviously, he was the sort of man who was used to being obeyed when he gave an order.
“Portia! Go get Ricky’s order!” hollered a man from the kitchen.
“Ricky, huh?” Kate teased.
Ric made a face. “Cletus has known me since I was born. Portia and I went to high school together.” He sighed. “I’ll always be Ricky to some of the people around here.”
“Your sister doesn’t call you that.”
“Nope. Took a while to break her, though,” Ric said as a slim blonde sashayed up to their table.
“Hi, Ricky. Sorry to keep you waiting.” She pointedly ignored Kate as she smiled ingratiatingly at Ric. “How’s your ankle?”
Kate was startled to see Ric’s whole demeanor change. One minute, he’d been warm and amusing and the next cold and businesslike.
“Fine, thanks. We’d like to order, please.”
Portia pouted at his abrupt statement. “Fine. What’ll you have?”
They placed their order and Portia left, but the angry glint in Ric’s eyes didn’t completely fade.
“Is there something wrong?” Kate asked.
Ric shook his head. “No. I just have to put a stop to Portia’s behavior before she makes things awkward. She’s always had a thing for me, but I’ve never been attracted to her. I’d rather not give her any hope than respond to her flirting. She doesn’t know when to quit so I have to make sure she doesn’t even start.”
Kate said, “Remind me not to piss you off. You’re a little scary.”
Ric laughed. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be. Well, sometimes I do, but not with sexy veterinarians who clean up after puppies when people are too wacked out on pain meds to do it.”
And with his witty remark, the previous playful mood was restored and the next half-hour went by before Kate knew it. Ric was so engaging and genuine that she hadn’t been paying attention to the time until her text message alert went off.
“Sorry,” she said as she hit the message icon. Alarm shot through her when she read the text from Robert. “Oh, God! I’m ten minutes late for an appointment! I have to go. I forgot to set my alarm.” She hastily grabbed her coat and stood up. “I had a great time. Thanks so much.”
Ric nodded. “Me, too. Is it okay if I call you?”
“Yes. Absolutely.” Kate was so rattled that she bent down and kissed Ric’s cheek. “Oh, God! I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have… I mean, um, I’ll see you later.”
Kate knew her face was beet red with embarrassment because it felt like it was on fire. She turned and fled the Diner before she did something to make herself look like an even bigger idiot. All the way to her truck, she mentally kicked her ass and when she climbed in the cab, she rested her forehead on the steering wheel and groaned at her stupidity.
Then she started the truck and peeled away, flooring it as she hurried off to the clinic, certain that she’d seen the last of Ric.
