“I amsosorry, Dr. Wilcox,” I replied, reverting to her title. “I didn’t realize that my phone died. I’m really sorry that I wasn’t there for you.”
I walked into Shannon’s room with my face grim, scanning the walls for an open outlet to plug the charger in. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the way her smile faded when she realized that something was wrong.
“You’re supposed to be taking over yet there I was, treating a tribe of goats with acidosis at Roundabout Farm at two in the morning. It wasn’t pretty, and now my back is acting up again,” she fumed.
Roundabout was one of the farms on my wooing hit list, a massive working and tourist establishment that had a menagerie of animals that ranged from horses to tortoises. I’d interned at a small zoo during college and had experience with exotics, which would make me a home run choice for the place, as long as I could make nice with the owners. Now I probably looked like I wasn’t reliable, forcing Ruth to haul herself out there in the middle of the night instead of me. It was too much to hope that she’d made up a fib to cover why I wasn’t there. She was honestto a fault and from the tone of her voice, she was currently furious with me.
“I’m so sorry. It’ll never happen again,” I said as I paced around the room. “And I’ll head over there now to follow-up with them. Would that help?”
The line went silent while Ruth considered my offer.
“Yes, they could probably use a recheck. That would be fine.”
“Okay, I’ll leave right now. Dr. Wilcox, I’ll make sure to keep an extra charger on me from this point on. I’m truly sorry I dropped the ball. I feel awful about it.”
I could feel Shannon watching me from the bed.
“Okay, all right, stop apologizing,” Ruth grumbled. “These things happen.Once. Got that?”
“Got it. Hey, how about if I bring some apple cider donuts back to the office after I finish up?”
“Well now, you sure do know how to make up for a mistake. I’ll take you up on it. Now get going!”
She hung up before I could answer.
“What in the world happened?” Shannon asked, finally pulling her robe from the end of the bed and getting up.
“I missed a night call out to Roundabout Farm and Ruth had to go herself. She’s obviously not happy with me.”
“Oh no, I’m so sorry.”
“I need to run,” I answered, already plotting out what I needed to do once I arrived at the farm. “I’m going to have to do some major ass kissing to make up for this.”
I rubbed my hand across my eyes and sighed.
“Hey,” Shannon said, padding over and wrapping her arms around me. “It’s going to be okay. It’s one mistake.”
“I hope so.” I nodded and kissed the top of her head absentmindedly. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
During the drive to Roundabout, I thought about what Shannon had said. Toher, it might seem like it was just one mistake and not that big of a deal, but I knew that something bigger was going on, something I’d been afraid of since our first kiss.
The passion.
I’d given in to it, against my better judgment, and look what had happened. Poor Ruth was supposed to be settling into retirement, yet I’d forced her out of her bed in the middle of the night because I got too caught up in…that. I knew better than to shift my focus away from my work during such a critical time. If I wanted to buy the practice, I needed to focus on the job, not mess around with Shannon. I couldn’t afford to build a practice from scratch. The cost of equipment alone plus the space rental and supplies were well beyond what I had in savings. Plus, I’d be competing with whoever Ruth sold to insteadandJulia Lett’s practice. If I didn’t get my act together, I wouldn’t be Ruth’s chosen successor, and then my relationship with Shannon would be doomed anyway. It wasn’t like I could ask Shannon to leave her family’s ranch and her mother’s horses behind. We could try for something long distance… but no, long distance worked best when it was temporary. I couldn’t ask Shannon to committo someone who wouldn’t be living and working nearby and who had to be on call 24/7 in a new practice.
I squinted into the sunlight as I crested a hill. Of course I didn’t have sunglasses with me because I hadn’t expected to be out all night. I gripped the wheel tighter.
From this point on there was no room for mistakes. My goal was buying the practice, which meant that I needed to watch myself with Shannon. I could already feel how easy it would be to fall for her, to the point where I wouldn’t be able to focus on anything else. Passion would shift my attention away from what I needed to do. I couldn’t let that happen, couldn’t be like my parents.
Nothingwas going to stop me from taking over Ruth’s practice, and it didn’t matter how much passion I felt for Shannon.
From this point on, the only thing that mattered was the work.
TWENTY-THREE
DECLAN
Icouldn’t remember the last time I’d slept a full night. For the last three days, I’d been pulled out of bed in the middle of the night to attend to one emergency or another. Real emergencies, for the most part—not that I could differentiate between real or exaggerated based on the calls. Either way, I’d have to go out there to find out in person. I bit back another yawn, my jaw cracking as I tried not to open my mouth too wide.