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FIFTEEN MINUTES AFTER Pete had left, Rand didn’t know what surprised him more, how hot the damn coffee was that Jessie Monroe served him, or that she slid into his booth after pouring him a cup.
“Mmph,” he mumbled, as some of the coffee dribbled back onto his chin.
“Too hot, I know,” she said.
And, as always happened when he looked at Jessie Monroe, he was struck by her eyes. Huge. And green, so green they looked like the new leaves that sprouted up around town. So green he found himself wondering yet again how the heck they could be such an impossible color. And then, as he always did when he caught himself staring, he remembered who she was.
“You could have told me it was hot,” he said, whipping the paper napkin off his place mat, the silverware tinkling as it spilled onto the Formica table.
“Why warn you? You’ve eaten here enough times to know it’s hot, and that it doesn’t taste very good.”
He did. And that irritated him all the more. She riled him. She always had—even before she’d been responsible for his cousin going to jail.
“Look,” she said, peeking over her shoulder toward the kitchen where Frank flipped bacon, oblivious to his employee’s defection, “I need to talk to you.”
Rand leaned back, his hand crumpling the napkin beneath the table. His whole body tensed, although truth be told he’d been on edge ever since he’d seen who his server was.
“What about?” he asked, his fingers digging into the paper.
“I want to work for you.”
If she’d told him she was about to rip her clothes off and dance naked, he couldn’t have been more surprised. “What?” he asked.
Actually, he might like that….
“I want to interview for your vet tech job,” she said, glancing at Frank again, the pink dress she wore gaping open as she leaned forward.
“But you’re not qualified,” he protested. Good Lord, the thought of Jessie Monroe coming to work for him…
“Actually,” she said, lifting her chin, “I am. I have a degree in animal science.”
What? “How?”
“Lots of late hours at the coffee shop while commuting to the Bay Area.”
“Which college?”
“Gavilan,” she said.
Something in his eyes must have made her think he wasn’t impressed, because she added, “It’s one of the top junior colleges in the state.”
“I know it is,” he said. It wasn’t the college she’d gone to, it was that she wanted to work as his veterinary assistant. Her. Jessie Monroe. Who as a wild-child teenager had let Tommy take the rap for her.
Rand absolutely would not hire her.
“Look, Jessie,” he said, “I’ve had hundreds of applicants—”
“Qualified applicants?” she asked, having obviously overheard him talking to Pete.
Rand tipped his head. “Some, yeah. My point being that there are people who’ve applied already, people I need to consider ahead of you.”
“But I might be better qualified than them,” she said. Her eyes seemed to shimmer. “Something you won’t know unless you interview me.”
“Nah. I’ve already looked over the applicants. A few of them have actual work experience, Jessie, not a bunch of college credits and a few lab classes under their belt.”
“How do you know that’s all I’ve got?”
“Educated guess.”
She leaned toward him. “Sometimes the most highly educated individuals are incompetent.”
“You got more than that?”
“Actually, I do,” she said proudly. “I’ve been interning at a breeding farm in the Bay Area part-time.”
“Then why don’t you go work for them?”
“Because the commute is killing me.”
He looked up at her. He didn’t really believe that excuse. “Then move to the Bay Area.”
“I don’t want to move. I like this town.”
“Jessie—”
“You just don’t want to hire me,” she interrupted.
“No. That’s not it—”
“Bull,” she said, slipping out of the booth. “Your refusal to interview me has nothing to do with my qualifications and everything to do with your cousin.”
“Well, yeah,” Rand said. “I’m not going to lie to you.”
She stared, and he could have sworn he saw hurt in her eyes. “You still think those drugs were mine?”
“With your reputation, why would I think that?”
“Because people are innocent until proven guilty.”
“There was nothing innocent about you.”
“And Tommy Lockford, cousin to the great Rand Sheppard, was a saint.”
“More of a saint than you were.” Rand took another sip of coffee, even though the topic of conversation all but turned his stomach.
“So you think.”
“So I know,” he said, throwing her words back in her face.
She shook her head, her bangs falling in her eyes. She pushed them away impatiently. “Why did I think you might give me a shot?” she muttered under her breath. “You wouldn’t hire me if I held a degree in veterinary medicine from UC Davis.”
All right. Time to cut to the chase. “You’re correct,” he admitted. “I wouldn’t.”
She stiffened.
“Order up!” Frank called.
Jessie half turned toward her boss, then looked back again. “We’re not through with this conversation, Dr. Sheppard.”
“Yes, we are,” he said in an equally stern tone. “You’re too late. I’ve already got someone in mind.”
She flicked her hair over her ears, her face coloring in a way that told him she knew he was lying.
“But if it looks like she’s not going to work out, I’ll let you know.”
“No, you won’t,” she said, walking away.
And he wouldn’t, Rand knew, because the idea of staring into those green eyes every day…well, it didn’t bear thinking about.
When he paid his bill a short while later, he realized why he was so worked up.
He didn’t want to hire Jessie because he had the hots for her.
And that was God’s honest truth.
Chapter Two
He hated her.
It was undisputable fact, Jessie thought as she finished her shift, Dr. Sheppard having long since hit the road.
By the end of the week, Jessie wished she could give herself a frontal lobotomy. Every time she recalled their conversation she went from burning mad to horribly embarrassed. She couldn’t believe she’d asked him for a job.
But no matter how humiliating, she didn’t regret it. She’d do anything to break into her chosen field.
Which was probably why she found herself listening in on yet another conversation in the lineup at the espresso shop on her way to work.
“Hear he’s had a devil of a time keeping up with all the work.”
“That’s what happens when you’re the only large-animal vet in a town of two thousand.”
“Yeah,” said the first guy.
The sound of a coffee grinder filled the air; the chocolate smell of the beans made Jessie’s mouth water. If only Frank made coffee as good as this place. “I tried to get an appointment with him this morning but his receptionist said he was on his way into the clinic for an emergency surgery.”
“Gonna have a hell of a time doing that without an assistant. Or did he find someone?”
“Not as far as I know.”
Surgery? Jessie thought, placing her order a moment later. If he was supposed to do surgery he would need help. Unless he sent the animal out to another clinic. But hauling a sick animal might put too much stress on it, which meant he’d have to—
“You know what?” she said to the young woman making her drink, who raised her diamond-pierced eyebrow. “Scratch that order,” she said. “I’ll be back in a bit.”
If the woman was mad at her for leaving, Jessie didn’t stick around to find out. She brushed by the people waiting in line and all but ran from the place.
Outside felt more like late winter than May. Los Molinos’s downtown strip was empty except in front of the Elegant Bean, where all the action usually took place this time of morning. Jessie snuggled into her down jacket, the faux fur around the hood tickling her cheek. The car she drove, a Honda that had seen better days, sat at the end of a string of vehicles. She was ten feet away when she saw the pool of radioactive-green coolant on the asphalt.
“Oh, Gladys,” she said, wincing and shaking her head. “Not today.”
A stream of vapor trailed her to the clinic on the other side of town. By the time she arrived, the motor gurgled as if it were on its last legs—and it probably was. She ignored it, choosing to deal with her engine’s lack of performance later, after she’d talked to Rand. If she talked to him.
That was a big if, she thought as she slipped out of her car into the cool morning air, her cheeks momentarily heated, saunalike, by condensation leaking from her radiator. On the glass door, the words Los Molinos Veterinary Clinic stood out in white letters. Her heart pounded like the horses that ran behind the low buildings.
Unfortunately, that same heart stopped the moment she saw who manned the front desk: Pauline Patterson, her childhood nemesis. Her old schoolmate really should have outgrown her animosity toward Jessie, but had never forgiven her for stealing the object of Pauline’s affection back in the seventh grade.
Oh, great.
“Can I help you?” she asked, her eyes narrowed as she stared up at Jessie. She still wore her brown hair feathered back even though Jessie was pretty certain that style hadn’t been popular since the seventies—long before either of them had been born.
“Is Dr. Sheppard in?” Jessie asked, inwardly wincing at the malice she saw in the woman’s expression. Jeez. What would she have to do? Whip herself with rosary beads and wear a crown of thistles?
“What do you need to see him about?”
“I swallowed a mouse and I need his help getting it out,” Jessie said, shifting her purse to her other shoulder. Like the rest of her wardrobe, it’d seen better days. The faux leather bag was peeling away from its cotton backing. She hid it under her armpit. Not that it mattered. Pauline’s eyes hadn’t left her own.
“Okay, seriously. I heard he was on his way here with an emergency surgery. I wondered if he might need help.”
“He’s not available right now.”
She hadn’t asked if he was available, Jessie almost pointed out. “Is he prepping for surgery?”
“I’m not at liberty to say.”
Did Jessie have to pull a gun on her? “Okay. Well, will you tell him I stopped by? And that I’m available to assist?”
“You?” Pauline asked, her fleshy arms coming to rest on her desk. “Available to assist?”
“Yes, me,” Jessie said, holding on to her temper by a thread.
“Since when do you know anything about veterinary medicine?”
“Since I graduated with an A.A. in veterinary science.”
Pauline huffed in a way that had nothing to do with laughter. “Let me guess,” she said, “you got it over the Internet.”
Okay, that did it. “Pauline,” Jessie said softly, drawing on the psych class she’d been forced to take for college credits, “I really don’t understand your animosity. But I wish we could bury the hatchet, especially since I’d like your help in convincing Dr. Sheppard to hire me.”
Silence. “You want Dr. Sheppard to hire you?” From the expression on Pauline’s face, it was as if Jessie had announced her intention to cure cancer using nothing more than nose drops.
