was all for him. “Wish me luck, baby boy. Tomorrow, Mama’s getting engaged.”
Chapter Five
What was a girl supposed to wear to her own engagement?
Merry smoothed a hand down the front of her black Misfits T-shirt and wished she owned something a little more businessy. After all, this was more of a straightforward contract negotiation than a romantic love scene.
Bet Miss Manners never covered the dress code for the modern marriage of convenience.
Anyway, it doesn’t matter, she decided, lifting her chin and raising a hand to knock on Ben’s office door. He can take me as I am, no illusions, no bull, or not at all.
The idea that she might have missed her chance at this sent a weird tingle of unease to tighten the hairs at the back of her neck. She had no idea if she’d be relieved or disappointed.
This is bonkers. What am I even doing here?
Before her feet could get any colder, she swung open the door and marched into the vet clinic.
It wasn’t the first time Merry had visited the office—she’d dropped off the payment for the weekly bills Windy Corner Stables racked up a couple of times. Both times, she’d handed the check off to a sweet-faced woman wearing glasses, a messy bun, and a harried expression, and both times, Merry had considered asking the poor woman if she wanted to grab a drink after work. For sure, being Dr. Crankypants’s office assistant would drive anyone to alcohol. But since she’d been pregnant at the time, she hadn’t done it, and now look—the woman had quit several weeks ago, and she’d taken every last vestige of organization and efficiency with her.
Haphazard piles of paper littered the desk by the door, cascading from the overflowing black metal in-box and onto the floor. Three of the four drawers in the corner file cabinet were pulled open, with color-coded manila folders sticking out of them at random. As Merry stood in the doorway, eyes wide, the phone on the desk started a shrill pattern of ringing that clicked almost immediately over to the answering machine. Glancing down at it, she saw the red light blinking, frantically signaling that the answering machine tape was almost full.
“Whoever you are, go away! Unless you’re here about the job, in which case, pick up the damn phone and get to work.” Ben’s shout was muffled through the door of his exam room, but Merry could clearly discern his impatience. Not a subtle guy, her future husband.
If he was in the exam room, he might be with a patient. Of course, she wouldn’t put it past him to be hiding in there with a cup of coffee and his paperwork, keeping his head down and hoping the mess out here would magically disappear.
Giving him the benefit of the doubt, Merry rubbed her damp palms on her thighs and decided to wait. But the only chair in Ben’s completely inhospitable waiting area was the one behind the receptionist’s desk, and it was buried under a mountain of paper.
Merry sighed. It might be a long wait, and she’d been on her feet since Alex’s predawn wake-up call. She marched over to the chair and started sifting through the bills, prescription pads, advertisements for new medications, and payment notifications. But once she had the chair cleaned off and ready for duty, it no longer matched the rest of the disaster area of an office. And what the heck, she already had several piles going for later filing, so she just kept adding to them and adding to them, until finally she looked up and realized that she’d tidied up the entire desk.
Rolling her shoulders to stretch out her stiff neck, Merry jumped in surprise when the exam room door opened and a retriever with a plastic cone around his fluffy neck bounded out. In the next instant, Merry had a cold, wet nose in her crotch and her hands full of soft, curly fur the burnished gold color of the leaves falling off the maple tree out front.
Crouching down to the dog’s level as two people followed him out, Merry ruffled his silky ears.
Chapter Five
What was a girl supposed to wear to her own engagement?
Merry smoothed a hand down the front of her black Misfits T-shirt and wished she owned something a little more businessy. After all, this was more of a straightforward contract negotiation than a romantic love scene.
Bet Miss Manners never covered the dress code for the modern marriage of convenience.
Anyway, it doesn’t matter, she decided, lifting her chin and raising a hand to knock on Ben’s office door. He can take me as I am, no illusions, no bull, or not at all.
The idea that she might have missed her chance at this sent a weird tingle of unease to tighten the hairs at the back of her neck. She had no idea if she’d be relieved or disappointed.
This is bonkers. What am I even doing here?
Before her feet could get any colder, she swung open the door and marched into the vet clinic.
It wasn’t the first time Merry had visited the office—she’d dropped off the payment for the weekly bills Windy Corner Stables racked up a couple of times. Both times, she’d handed the check off to a sweet-faced woman wearing glasses, a messy bun, and a harried expression, and both times, Merry had considered asking the poor woman if she wanted to grab a drink after work. For sure, being Dr. Crankypants’s office assistant would drive anyone to alcohol. But since she’d been pregnant at the time, she hadn’t done it, and now look—the woman had quit several weeks ago, and she’d taken every last vestige of organization and efficiency with her.
Haphazard piles of paper littered the desk by the door, cascading from the overflowing black metal in-box and onto the floor. Three of the four drawers in the corner file cabinet were pulled open, with color-coded manila folders sticking out of them at random. As Merry stood in the doorway, eyes wide, the phone on the desk started a shrill pattern of ringing that clicked almost immediately over to the answering machine. Glancing down at it, she saw the red light blinking, frantically signaling that the answering machine tape was almost full.
“Whoever you are, go away! Unless you’re here about the job, in which case, pick up the damn phone and get to work.” Ben’s shout was muffled through the door of his exam room, but Merry could clearly discern his impatience. Not a subtle guy, her future husband.
If he was in the exam room, he might be with a patient. Of course, she wouldn’t put it past him to be hiding in there with a cup of coffee and his paperwork, keeping his head down and hoping the mess out here would magically disappear.
Giving him the benefit of the doubt, Merry rubbed her damp palms on her thighs and decided to wait. But the only chair in Ben’s completely inhospitable waiting area was the one behind the receptionist’s desk, and it was buried under a mountain of paper.
Merry sighed. It might be a long wait, and she’d been on her feet since Alex’s predawn wake-up call. She marched over to the chair and started sifting through the bills, prescription pads, advertisements for new medications, and payment notifications. But once she had the chair cleaned off and ready for duty, it no longer matched the rest of the disaster area of an office. And what the heck, she already had several piles going for later filing, so she just kept adding to them and adding to them, until finally she looked up and realized that she’d tidied up the entire desk.
Rolling her shoulders to stretch out her stiff neck, Merry jumped in surprise when the exam room door opened and a retriever with a plastic cone around his fluffy neck bounded out. In the next instant, Merry had a cold, wet nose in her crotch and her hands full of soft, curly fur the burnished gold color of the leaves falling off the maple tree out front.
Crouching down to the dog’s level as two people followed him out, Merry ruffled his silky ears.
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