Concealed Attractions (Cedar Island Tales) (68 page)

“How can she be a decent vet
to
dogs and cats if she’s afraid of half of her clientele?”
Joe
l
asked
, mostly to himself
.
H
e
turned his gaze
in
Danni
’s direction
. 

“You’
re going with me to the farms
this week
end
and next week
end
. Bring your boots—we’re going into the fields
. And, i
f
you’ve got any pull with
last year’s
extern
,
tell
him I’ll pay him double if he
come
s back.
On second thought, scratch the double pay. Just tell him I’d be forever in his debt.”

Dannilynn
called Ben.
“Y
ou
’re never going to believe this.
”

“You sound excited. What is it?” He
shut
the door of his apartment with his foot.

“
Joe
l
has a woman
extern
this year.
”

“Yeah
, I know
.”
He frowned at the reminder.

“She’s the worst excu
se for an
extern
I’ve ever seen
.
”
Danni
giggled.
“’Course, I have only you to compare her to, but
Joe
l
hates her.
”

“Tell me more
.
”
Ben’s
mood
improv
ed
as he imagined Joel and the woman extern working around each other
. He
shov
ed
a
frozen pizza in
to
the oven.

“None of the big dogs like her. I
even
had to pull Schotzie into the exam room and
Mrs. Learman
was nicer to me than to Lucy.”

“That’s her name?”

“
Her
name is Lucille, and she prefers to be called that,
which
Joe
l
keeps
forgetting
.”

“What about Mrs. Learman?”

“She wouldn’t even come in the room to talk to her. I had to go out to get her so we could talk about Schotzie’s diet. Lucille si
mply wrote out what she called an acceptable diet
on a prescription pad and handed it to
her
.
Bronnie said
Mrs.
Learman
handed it back along with her check.
”

Ben chuckled.
“Is she
any
good at surgery?”

“She’s tops there, but really slow. You know how
Joe
l
is.
He’s good, but gets
things done quickly,
which means less anesthesia for the animals.”

Ben nodded
.
“
I remember.
Maybe she’ll
get faster
,
like I did
,” he ventured
.

“Well, it hasn’t happened yet. And
Joe
l
is getting less and less
pat
ient with her. He told me he’d pay you double if you would come back.”

“Given his slave wages, that’s not offering much.” He poured himself a
soda
and
set
the glass on the table.

“Then, he said that
if you came back, he’d be—
quote—forever in your debt!” 
Danni
laughed
. “Y
ou
have
thought about c
oming back here,
right?
”

“I think you
already
know the answer to that, Shortie.”
Images of their last night together flitted into his brain and settled in his groin.

“Well, I just thought I’d let you know
what’s happening here
.”

“What do you
really think of Lucy
? You’ve seen her up close.”

“I don’t know where to start. Bronnie told me she
made
Joe
l
mad
the very first day
by telling him she didn’t do
stuff
like walking the boarders on the days when
Kate and
I aren’t
here
.
She’s
okay
with cats, b
ut she hates going to the farms.
I did that the other day, and
Joe
l
had me hold
the calves he was vaccinating.
Exc
ept when one stepped on my foot,
that was
so
cool!  But
, I guess
Lucille doesn’t like getting dirty. Anyway, she brought a
towel to sit on when we
took
The Thing
to Woolley Acres.
I was asking Joel some questions about the
lambs
, so he had me
sit in the front seat, which meant she had to be in the back with the
two
lambs
we brought back to the clinic
.
I think Joel was testing
her, making her sit in the back
.”

Ben grinned.
“
I’m glad
Joe
l
’s having such a good time. How are
you
doing?”

“Fine. I’m ac
ing all my classes.
Joe
l
says I can help Luc
y
with surgery next week when I’m off for three days before the next session starts. I think he wants me
there in case she needs help,
but
she never takes any suggestions
, from me or Kate
.”

“
Her
loss,
Danni
. You knew more about how things were done than I did when I first started.
Hasn’t she figured
that out
?”

“I think she’s afraid to show
she doesn’t know everything.”
She paused.
“
Oh, and
I’m going to work with
two
of t
he wolfhounds that the Craigins
j
ust bought. T
hey
have no
manners
at all
. They’ve asked me to
train them
. And
they’re paying me.
”

“Of course, they
’
re paying you. They should be.
”

“You didn’t—with Happy.
”

“Hm
m
. You got me there, but—” he paused. “You got to keep him with you at school
—to finish off his guard dog training
.
How’re things at home?”

“Mom and D
ad are get
ting along really
well, and
Dad
has been extra nice to me since he came back
. He’s really not so bad, Ben.
When you get to know him, you’ll see that.”

“I’m willing to give it
a try,
as long as he lets me spend time with you.” He pulled the pizza from the oven, and slid it onto the plate.

“I’ve got to go
.
I promised
Joe
l
I’d go back and check on things.”

“
Okay
.” They exchanged phone kisses and hung up.

Ben
reached for t
he
unopened
letter he’d been staring at for a week, not entirely sure he wanted to read
it
.

Dear Benjamin:

You’ll excuse the formality of this letter, but
this letter is a facsimile of the
short version of my recommendation to your a
dvisor regarding your
extern
ship
time here.
I’ll begin with the clinical and professional skills.

1.
       
You started out slow
with surgeries
—like most new
extern
s—but quickly picked up speed without losing your touch
or making mistakes
. I was impressed with how you handled the cases involving
broke
n bones. More impressive was how you dealt with
the
nerve damage
cases
.
See the attached page for specifics on individual
procedure
s you completed.
Wally
was right:
you have
great
hands
and the
instincts of a
gifted
surgeon.

2.
      
In most cases, you were totally professional and caring with the families of the animals we treated. I believe time and additional maturity are all you need to
get
better than
what
you demonstrated this past year.

3.
      
You are a natural sales
man
of our services:
because
you worked
well
with the farmers and their animals we now have their business, too. I’m having some difficulty keeping them all as happy
as they were when you were here. More than one has said they
miss your goofy grin
when
you duck
ed
into low
plac
es.

4.
     
You sometimes care too much, too
dee
ply. This reflects your heart—a good thing—and also a need to develop some of that distance we talked about
,
so that when the difficult times come, you aren’t overwhelmed. We had more than our share of losses this year, and you and I both know what you need to do in this regard. I’ve recommended
to
Dr. Walker
that you
take
a sem
inar on professional distancing
so you can learn from the academics and also those professionals who work with health care providers
as they strive not to be callous, but rather to
develop and
maintain
appropriate
perspective.

5.
      
I have asked your academic advisor to get back to me to see
how
much
of
what you did here
can
count toward completion of your final six months of clinical work.
You did much more advanced work than most externs
because we had the cases
,
I trusted you
,
and you
handle
d
them well.
Remember those tapes we made when you conducted some of those
complicated
surgeries and I did running commentaries? I think
Wally
can use them to support my request,
which is why I insisted we do them.

6.
      
Finally
,
I want to offer you an Associate position with me here at New H
arbor Animal Hospital. If your a
dvisor agrees, this means—assuming you pass your Boards—
that you
could start here in January.  I’d appreciate if you would let me know your thoughts about this offer
after
you have
spoke
n with your advisor.

Sincerely,
Joe
l
Taylor, DVM

PS I’ve not said anything to my vet
assistant
about #6
above
, as I will never hear the end of it if things can’t be worked out, or you elect not to join me. I believe you will agree
it’
s best if we keep
this
confidential
until we know if it’
s possible, assuming
you want to
join me
.