Page 1 of Heal Me
Chapter One
“Hang on! I’m coming!”
Ric added a curse under his breath. He hated these bloody crutches. As slow as a hobbled horse, Ric swung his way to the front door as fast as his mastery of the crutches would allow. Reaching it, he yanked it open and stared into a gorgeous pair of chocolate-brown eyes, the painful path to the door forgotten.
“Dr. Donoghue?” Well, hell yes! Sexy vet. He almost wanted to buy a dog himself.
“Yes. You must be Ric Stanford, Emily’s brother.”
The woman’s beauty rendered him mute for a moment. Then he mentally shook himself and smiled. “Yeah. Sorry it took me so long to get to the door. I had to dodge around Coco’s, uh, accidents.”
He moved back to allow her entry into the house.
“That’s okay. You can just call me Kate,” she said. “Where is she?”
“I penned her in the laundry room so that she didn’t keep puking all over the place. It’s this way. Just watch out for landmines.”
As he led her through the living room and dining room, Ric was careful not to catch one of his crutches on anything. Clumsy and crutches went hand in hand, not the image he wanted in front of this beauty.
“Don’t worry about me. I’m used to dealing with that sort of stuff. Occupational hazard and all that,” Kate said.
Ric smiled. “I just didn’t want you to slip and fall on dog crap. One of us on crutches is enough. I really appreciate you making a house call like this. I still can’t reach Emily. Her phone must’ve died and I can’t drive since I’m on pain meds.”
“You did the right thing calling me. A first puppy is special and your niece, Hayley loves Coco so much.”
As they reached the kitchen, Ric stopped and grimaced at the small pile of dog poop on the hardwood floor. “Damn, that reeks.”
Having grown up riding and taking care of horses, Ric could handle the smell of shit, but Coco’s stank worse than anything he’d ever encountered before.
Kate sat her bag on the kitchen table and took out some Latex gloves. “Believe it or not, I’ve smelled worse.”
“You’re kidding?”
Kate’s shook her head a little and smiled. Ric noted that her pink, Cupid’s bow lips were devoid of lipstick or gloss. It didn’t look like she wore makeup at all. However, Kate wasn’t in need of cosmetics to enhance her natural beauty.
Rich, chestnut-brown hair hung down past her shoulders and thick, black lashes framed her dark eyes. High cheekbones, a straight, pretty nose, and a lightly tanned complexion combined to create one of the most arresting female faces that Ric had ever seen.
“I’m going to collect a sample so I can do a culture back at the clinic.”
“Okay.”
Ric watched her take out a collection kit. She crouched down in front of him and Ric took advantage of the opportunity to check her out. Her light blue jeans were faded and there was a ragged tear in the right knee. She wore beat-up tan cowboy boots and a red-and-black heavy men’s flannel jacket. The jeans fit her like a glove, showing off her shapely legs and heart-shaped ass. A tomboy. A verysexytomboy.
I wouldn’t mind climbing into the hayloft with her.He snapped his gaze away from her as she stood up, instead looking at the clock on the wall.
“Where’s the laundry room?” Kate asked as she deposited her specimen in a Ziploc bag and shut it.
“Right through here.” He hobbled through a doorway and down a short hallway. Putting a hand on the doorknob, he said, “I don’t know what we’re going to find.”
Kate laughed. “You make it sound like a murder scene.”
The slightly throaty sound and her sparkling eyes sent a jolt of awareness through Ric and he smiled back as he opened the door. Coco, a chocolate Spoodle puppy, bounded out of the laundry room, catching him off-guard when she jumped up at him.
Four months old now, Coco was growing rapidly and she was strong. One of Ric’s crutches slid out from under him and he fell back against the wall. It jarred his broken ankle, sending pain lancing through the offended joint.
“Fuck!”
Kate grabbed his left arm to help steady him.
