Read Online Cowboy Take Me Away by Jane Graves - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jane Graves
Tags: Romance
Ads: Link
another story.
She’d come from Waco to be near her grandmother, who’d just moved to a nursing home in Rainbow Valley, and she had experience in a medical office. She might have been five feet tall if she stood up really straight, but she had the kind of curves a woman her height rarely did. He’d been so distracted by her Kewpie-doll lips and Betty Boop eyes that before he knew it, he’d offered her the job. Then she came to work, and he wondered if he hadn’t made a big mistake.
Things started showing up on her desk. A small stuffed rabbit. A ceramic frog. A wooden pencil cup from Sea World. A big bowl of Starlight mints. Swirly metal frames filled with photos of people and animals he would never meet, but there they were in his clinic, looking at him every day of his life. And plants. Everywhere there were plants.
And, as it turned out, she wasn’t quite as sweet and compliant as he’d originally thought. In fact, sometimes she was borderline insubordinate. She did what he asked, but usually in her own time, and differently than he would have done it. But his patients seemed to love her, and if she contributed to his bottom line he could put up with damn near anything.
Velma disappeared every day at lunch, and he still had no idea where she went. Cynthia, on the other hand, microwaved the lunch she brought from home every day, then sat at the tiny table for two in the kitchen, her nose buried in a book. Russell felt weird about sitting down next to her. So on days he didn’t go out for lunch, he waited until he heard her talking to a patient on the phone. Then he nuked a frozen dinner and took it into his office to eat it.
But none of that mattered. What did matter was that he was finally running his own practice in a place where he wouldn’t be shown up by other guys, where he wasn’t the last man on the totem pole. It sure as hell hadn’t been that way at Vantage Dental, a group practice in Dallas where every other dentist there was a high flyer who seemed to attract more patients than he ever could. But now he was building a life in Rainbow Valley where there wasn’t all that competition. His practice was thriving. People looked up to him there.
And he was finally dating a woman who would do him justice.
Shannon thought the first time he saw her was at the shelter when he came to adopt a cat, but he’d noticed her long before that. Fortunately for him, he had his dental practice, so the cat he adopted could be a shop cat and not a house cat. If Shannon had liked hot cars, he’d have gotten one of those instead. He looked at the cat sometimes and thought, Barf up one more hairball, and I’m replacing you with a convertible.
Why Shannon had come back there after her successful job in Houston as a CPA, he’d never know. But at least in this town, being director of the shelter was respected in a way other jobs weren’t. And she was from a good family, with a father who was a retired lawyer who clearly pulled down some serious bucks, and a mother who was the town social director, philanthropist, and fashion plate for the over-fifty crowd.
Yes, Shannon was definitely his future. And he had all the patience in the world to wait for her to decide he was her future. They weren’t dating exclusively yet, but that would happen soon enough. In this little town, did she really have another choice?
Russell thought about Jessie, the fluffy orange tabby he’d adopted, who’d taken to lounging on the sofa in his office most of the day. For some reason she’d decided she liked it there, even though she’d shown no signs of actually liking him . She shed all over his furniture. She meowed for no reason. She got underfoot at least a dozen times a day. But she was part of the big picture, so he had to be patient about that, too.
Then he reached for his phone to make a call, and that was when he felt it. Right there under his foot.
And the last of his patience disappeared.
Shannon left Lola’s Pet
She’d come from Waco to be near her grandmother, who’d just moved to a nursing home in Rainbow Valley, and she had experience in a medical office. She might have been five feet tall if she stood up really straight, but she had the kind of curves a woman her height rarely did. He’d been so distracted by her Kewpie-doll lips and Betty Boop eyes that before he knew it, he’d offered her the job. Then she came to work, and he wondered if he hadn’t made a big mistake.
Things started showing up on her desk. A small stuffed rabbit. A ceramic frog. A wooden pencil cup from Sea World. A big bowl of Starlight mints. Swirly metal frames filled with photos of people and animals he would never meet, but there they were in his clinic, looking at him every day of his life. And plants. Everywhere there were plants.
And, as it turned out, she wasn’t quite as sweet and compliant as he’d originally thought. In fact, sometimes she was borderline insubordinate. She did what he asked, but usually in her own time, and differently than he would have done it. But his patients seemed to love her, and if she contributed to his bottom line he could put up with damn near anything.
Velma disappeared every day at lunch, and he still had no idea where she went. Cynthia, on the other hand, microwaved the lunch she brought from home every day, then sat at the tiny table for two in the kitchen, her nose buried in a book. Russell felt weird about sitting down next to her. So on days he didn’t go out for lunch, he waited until he heard her talking to a patient on the phone. Then he nuked a frozen dinner and took it into his office to eat it.
But none of that mattered. What did matter was that he was finally running his own practice in a place where he wouldn’t be shown up by other guys, where he wasn’t the last man on the totem pole. It sure as hell hadn’t been that way at Vantage Dental, a group practice in Dallas where every other dentist there was a high flyer who seemed to attract more patients than he ever could. But now he was building a life in Rainbow Valley where there wasn’t all that competition. His practice was thriving. People looked up to him there.
And he was finally dating a woman who would do him justice.
Shannon thought the first time he saw her was at the shelter when he came to adopt a cat, but he’d noticed her long before that. Fortunately for him, he had his dental practice, so the cat he adopted could be a shop cat and not a house cat. If Shannon had liked hot cars, he’d have gotten one of those instead. He looked at the cat sometimes and thought, Barf up one more hairball, and I’m replacing you with a convertible.
Why Shannon had come back there after her successful job in Houston as a CPA, he’d never know. But at least in this town, being director of the shelter was respected in a way other jobs weren’t. And she was from a good family, with a father who was a retired lawyer who clearly pulled down some serious bucks, and a mother who was the town social director, philanthropist, and fashion plate for the over-fifty crowd.
Yes, Shannon was definitely his future. And he had all the patience in the world to wait for her to decide he was her future. They weren’t dating exclusively yet, but that would happen soon enough. In this little town, did she really have another choice?
Russell thought about Jessie, the fluffy orange tabby he’d adopted, who’d taken to lounging on the sofa in his office most of the day. For some reason she’d decided she liked it there, even though she’d shown no signs of actually liking him . She shed all over his furniture. She meowed for no reason. She got underfoot at least a dozen times a day. But she was part of the big picture, so he had to be patient about that, too.
Then he reached for his phone to make a call, and that was when he felt it. Right there under his foot.
And the last of his patience disappeared.
Shannon left Lola’s Pet
Similar Books
