Resilience (3 page)

And of course, he thought as he pulled up to his clinic, there sat Sheriff Dickhead in his cruiser, glaring across the parking lot at Adam.

“Yeah, well, fuck you.” Adam gave the man the biggest, fakest smile he could manage

on only a cup of coffee, then parked his car and got out. He laughed when the sheriff gunned his engine and roared out of the parking lot. Maybe he’d make the sheriff so mad he’d roll his damned vehicle or something. “Calm yourself, inner bitch.” He really needed to work on his temper, but he had a really bad feeling about Kaufman, and life was too short to put up with shitty people.

Adam tried to shake off his funk, let it get carried away in the cool early morning breeze. He unlocked his clinic—his, God, how he liked that!—and turned off the alarm before it could start blaring. He went ahead and turned the lights on, opening up officially even though his employees hadn’t come in yet. He checked the clock on the wall and grunted.

They had fifteen minutes before they were supposed to clock in. Adam didn’t know

Jade and Verna well, but they seemed like decent people. They sure didn’t seem broken up about getting a new boss. Adam didn’t blame them. The old vet had been an utter ass, and Adam would bet dollars to dog collars he’d not have sold the clinic to a gay man— knowingly. That was why realtors could be such a blessing, he mused.

Adam turned on the computer at the front desk then flipped the lights on in each room he passed. The dogs heard him coming, and the noise from the kennels attached to the medical building ratcheted up to un-frigging-godly. Adam grinned as he stepped into the small kitchen and started a pot of coffee. He really needed to get a new coffeemaker, one with a timer so the coffee would be ready when he got in to work.

Once the coffee had started brewing, and his mouth watering, Adam heard the

electronic bell that let him know someone had come in the front door. “Back here,” he hollered, figuring it was one of his employees since there were no appointments scheduled until…tomorrow. “Please tell me one of you brought some more of those sausages…” Spicy and wrapped in a crescent roll, those things were divine and addictive and Adam really shouldn’t eat them if he didn’t want a fat ass. Then again, he wasn’t looking for a man, right?

The lack of an immediate answer gave him a fissure of unease that turned quickly into embarrassment when an unfamiliar male voice called back, “Okay, you do know there’s so many ways that could be taken.”

Adam’s eyes about popped out of his head. The man’s voice was just slightly breathy, flirty. Maybe not noticeably so to someone who wasn’t attuned to such nuances, but he sure as hell couldn’t miss them. Obviously he wasn’t the only gay guy in town… Bad news if he was intent on keeping to himself.

Oh, shut yourself up, idiot. Just because he’s gay and I’m gay doesn’t mean there will ever be fucking of any kind involved. Jesus, I’ve had gay friends before that I never… Adam’s thoughts screeched to a halt. Even with Jameson, his best buddy ever, there’d been the occasional hand job or blow job when they’d been single and desperate…and usually really drunk.

Well. He would just have to cloak himself in asexuality then, Adam decided. He’d

meant it when he’d given up on finding a partner, and when he’d decided he’d had enough of his friends breaking his heart. Even Jameson, though he was only following his own, falling in love and being happy—and leaving Adam without a friend he could trust on the goddamned continent.

Yeah, better to not be too friendly. Adam tried to put the slightest bit of frown in his voice when he called back to the stranger. “Sorry, thought you were one of the girls.” Oh shit, ‘the girls’ would skin him if they heard him call them that! But he was trying to get some breasts involved somehow, and…and he was a fucking idiot. Adam sighed. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

“Sure.”

He jumped and sloshed coffee all over the floor. “Shit!” Adam set the pot down and

tried not to glare over his shoulder at the… Oh, God damn it, the handsome dark-haired man with the bright green eyes. Holding an adorable puppy, who looked at Adam with a world of misery in its woeful expression.

Adam’s irritation fled, as did his awareness of the man holding the puppy, except in the most basic of ways. “What’s a matter, little—guy? Girl?” He put a hand on the pup’s head and looked expectantly at the man holding it.

The man blushed and stuttered and Adam’s inner vanity slut did a “Woot! I still got it, baby!” cheer. “Uh, yeah. Girl. Um, this is Babs, and she’s been lethargic since last night, but the rest of her litter is fine.”

Adam took the puppy from the guy, forgetting about the coffee or manners or anything else. He peered into her eyes, then lifted her lip to check her gums. They were pale and his gut clenched just as it did any time he saw an animal suffering. “Has she and the rest of her litter been wormed?”

The man nodded. “I bought this worming paste from Pets R Us—”

Adam shook his head and tried not to melt the guy with a scathing look. “Do you know what kind, and for what internal parasites? Has she or the others had a fecal? And what about their boosters?”

Those green eyes snapped with temper as the man planted his hands on his hips. “Wait just a fucking minute! Don’t get all snappy with me! You don’t know a thing about me, or these puppies or the dogs I rescue—”

And that, Adam would reflect years later, was the inauspicious beginning of a friendship he’d never wanted but he treasured greatly.

“I kinda think he’s a douche.” Gabe shrugged and flapped one hand as if shooing away a fly. “Cute as fuck, but still. Then again, it’s not like I’ve never jumped to a wrong conclusion before. I have been known to have almost fatal cases of foot-in-mouth disease. Probably I shouldn’t be so judgemental.”

Todd grunted as Babs nipped his thumb. Puppy teeth had to be made out of freakin’

razor blades—“He seemed okay to me. Maybe it’s just that he actually cares about animals, you know. Like you do. So he’s protective…like…”

Gabe rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. He’s almost as awesome as I am.” He laughed and picked Babs up, planting a noisy kiss on her head. “He fixed this beautiful little girl, so he can’t be a total monster. I still think he has douche tendencies, but eh, who doesn’t? Push our hot button and we go off.”

“Some people have more buttons than tact,” Todd murmured, not really paying

attention to what he was saying. He really wanted to know if Gabe thought Adam was gay or not, but there was the whole issue about Todd never admitting to being gay, and Gabe never asking him, and him not being able to act on it anyways so what’d it matter what parts Adam liked?

Gabe thwacked him on the arm and glared as if he was the one who’d just been hit.

“What kind of comeback was that?” He glared harder and pitched his voice to an annoying—

more annoying—whine. “‘Some people have more buttons than tact.’ Really, Todd? You can do better than that!”

“Not really.” He wasn’t the brightest bulb in the flower garden, but he wasn’t going to say that because Gabe had already lectured him several times about calling himself stupid.

Todd wasn’t to even joke about his lagging IQ, at least not around Gabe. “Mind’s on work, I guess. Kaufman’s been a jerk—well, more of one. Found out he’s been giving my parents reports on who he sees me talkin’ to and whether he thinks I’m doing my job. Crap like that.”

Gabe set Babs down and closed the gate, leaving her to play with her littermates. “You do realise that’s all kinds of illegal, right?”

Todd nodded. “Yeah, but what am I gonna do? Go file a complaint? Get a lawyer?”

Gabe cursed and huffed and generally made his unhappiness with those options

known. Kaufman’s sister was the only attorney in town. “I’d say go to a paper in a big city, but they wouldn’t give a shit. So, I guess I’m just going to have to settle for making his life hell every chance I get.” Gabe got a look on his face that made Todd cringe. He knew that evil expression. Gabe was planning something devious. He was glad whatever it was

wouldn’t be coming his way. “Y’all don’t have those dash cams, right?”

Yeah, he really didn’t want to know what was going through Gabe’s mind. “Nope. And

Kaufman takes his cruiser home every night. He stopped driving his truck a while back.”

Todd wasn’t beyond helping a friend out, either. “Sleeps like the dead, too. Can’t rouse him hardly at all when there’s an emergency he needs to tend to. Rumour has it he uses Jack as a sleeping aid.” Todd ran everything he could think of regarding Kaufman through his mind, but he thought he’d covered the pertinent parts.

Gabe’s smile was just… Well, if there was a devil, he’d have to be terrified hell was fixing to be taken over by one very pissed-off Texan.

“Do I want to know?” Todd asked.

“Probably not.” Gabe winked and started walking back towards the house. “So, I can’t get any vibes off Dr Soames. Usually my gaydar is spot on—” Todd told himself Gabe was not looking at him when he said that, but Todd was too afraid to look at Gabe, so he kept his eyes glued to the ground. “But I can’t tell with him. Which, I guess that could mean he’s straight? Except that doesn’t feel right, but… Oh fuck, I dunno. Doesn’t really matter. Not like I’d wanna bang him if he is gay.”

That got Todd’s eyes bouncing up as he looked at Gabe. Why not? He’s gorgeous!

Something flickered in Gabe’s expression and Todd felt oddly, and frighteningly, exposed.

And he didn’t like it at all. He struggled to find a way to divert Gabe from thinking whatever he was thinking. “You said he was a jerk—sorry, douche, to you, but I think he’s probably an okay guy. If I’m right, I bet he’ll be willing to work with you on the strays we save from Kaufman. If I’m wrong, well…”

Gabe’s grin was so bright it about hurt Todd to look at him. “That’s a great idea! Maybe he’ll feel so bad about being a douche that he’ll volunteer to help for free! Great idea, Todd!”

Gabe batted his lashes and Todd chuckled at his best friend’s silly behaviour. Until Gabe asked, “So, when are you going to go ask him?”

“What?” Todd sputtered, “How’d I get dragged into asking him?”

Gabe sighed as if the answer was obvious. “Well, because it’s your idea, you brilliant man, you! And because if he says no to me I will want to bend him over and shove his head up his ass. Then you’ll have to bail me out of jail. Or not. Though if you leave me in there, I’m gonna sing Britney songs at the top of my lungs every time you’re in the office. You’ve been warned.”

“Not your singing, ugh!” Todd dodged a jab at his ribs, dancing quickly to the side.

“Anything but that!”

Gabe started then, of course, singing as loud as he could, or maybe not—Todd didn’t want to know if he could holler any louder. And he sang Celine Dion, which meant Todd wanted to stab himself in both ears with an ice pick.

“Okay, okay! You win!” he yelped when Gabe shredded a particularly high note.

“Jesus, I’ll go talk to him tomorrow or sometime soon!” Tomorrow, because he wouldn’t get any sleep now knowing he had a valid reason to talk to the sexy vet. Then it occurred to him that he’d actually have to talk and that meant he’d stutter more likely than not because he’d be nervous and, fucking hell, he was going to make a total ass out of himself!

“Come on, Lexie! Give me back my shoe!” Adam laughed as the boxer-mix puppy ran

out of his office, her nails clacking and skittering on the tile floors as she took the corner into the hallway. “Fire in the hole!” He’d taken to shouting the now-familiar warning to his staff when Lexie was on a tear. Normally, their boarder wreaked havoc with her favourite tennis ball. Apparently that was only because Adam hadn’t kicked his shoes off to rest his sore feet before.

Verna giggled as she jogged down the hallway. “Oh, shoot! I heard a crunch!” Jade

came running down the hallway and the laughter and shouts made Adam happy even if

other people would say it was all unprofessional. Fuck them anyway. Everyone needs a little fun occasionally, especially at work. And it wasn’t like he was going to be having any other kind of fun elsewhere.

Adam sighed and got up from his chair behind his desk. He gave a passing glance to

his remaining Italian leather Lucca shoe… Soon to be a chew toy, no doubt. Jameson would have shitted bricks since he’d bought the shoes for Adam’s birthday present a few years ago, but, other than the sentimentality of them, they were just shoes. Why the hell anyone would pay three hundred-plus dollars for shoes was beyond him.

Guilt poked at him. He should be more concerned since the shoes had been a gift. He

was an ass. Adam hurried after the noisy trio. By the time they got his shoe back from Lexie, it wasn’t good for anything more than playing fetch with. Adam held the slobbery leather between two fingers and gave Lexie a mock-severe look.

“Now I’m going to look so much more professional, running around here barefoot.”

“You’ve got socks on at least,” Jade pointed out.

“And they’re not holey,” Verna chimed in, “so it seems to me you’re about fancier than all the usual men in town!”

The two women snorted with laughter as they high-fived each other. Adam wasn’t so

sure they were joking. He was definitely not impressed with the men he’d seen, and, short of Gabe and Deputy Delish, as he’d taken to thinking of Todd Benson, it was a damned good thing Adam intended to stay single.

The front doorbell chimed and Adam waved off Verna and Jade. “Take care of getting

that shoe-eating pup put up and I’ll handle the front.”

“What about your shoes? Or lack thereof?” Jade asked.

Adam tossed the ruined one in a trash can. “You think they’ll notice? I’ll be behind the counter before anyone thinks to look down. And if not, oh well.”

One thing about being shoeless, it was a hell of a lot easier when your toes curled.

Adam’s did, his body’s reaction to finding Deputy Delish standing in the lobby

instantaneous. His dick went rigid and he tugged the front of his lab coat together before buttoning it as he moved behind the counter.