“We need to stop meeting like this, darling.” My eyes opened wide when I heard that voice, and my heart raced when I found myself face to face with her gray gaze. What I feared had happened. My sweetest torment was in front of me. Not a day went by that the memory of this woman didn’t cross my mind. I lived in front of the sea, so it was seeing it and remembering the beautiful color of her eyes. This beautiful woman never left my head. “Kane? Are you okay?” I snapped out of my poetic thoughts to focus once more on my favorite nurse, which reminded me why I was visiting the ER. “I'm sorry,” I murmured, my throat drying even more when Natalie stopped beside me with a worried expression. “They told me you hurt your foot,” She mentioned, and I couldn't help but tense at the feel of her palm on my arm before she leaned over me. “Did you hurt your head too, honey? You must be honest with me. You could have a concussion.” “I just hurt my right foot,” I said somewhat breathless as sh
Main Port, Oregon. Three years ago.“Jacob? Can you hear me? I need you to answer me.”I blinked several times trying to focus my eyes on the woman above me, but it was hard to do.“Jacob, I need you to nod if you understand me, can you nod, please?”I tried to do as the woman asked, but my head refused to obey.“How about you blink? Blink twice if you understand me, Jacob.”That I could do.I blinked twice or at least once before my eyes closed completely.“This isn’t working. Jim? Call Dr. Ruso, we have to move him to the OR immediately, he's going to bleed to death otherwise.”OR? What the hell was going on?I opened my eyes again using what little strength I had left in me and noticed that the woman was no longer looking at me. Her attention was on something on the other side of me.I tried to raise my hand to get her attention, but my body didn’t respond. I couldn’t feel my limbs.What was happening to me?“His heart rate is going wild, Nat. We need to move him or we'll lose him.
Red Falls, Oregon. Present day.“And I'm having my own room?”“You're having your own room.”“And Lily will sleep with me?”“When hasn't she?”I couldn't help but smile at my daughter's innocent giggles.“And is Daddy going to be able to stay with us when he visits?”“Of course,” I agreed amused. “You know Daddy will always sleep with you when he's visiting.”“Mom!” Taylor complained from the backseat, “Dad snores too much, can't he stay with you?”“And me having to endure that punishment all night?” I asked, trying to sound horrified. “Forget it, honey, I'm going to be working. He better sleeps in the guest room... Or you can do what you did last time.”I tried not to laugh at the snort my daughter let out.“Dad didn't appreciate me sticking my socks in his mouth to make him shut up. I should’ve never listened to you,” She accused me, and I couldn’t hold my laugh any longer.Welcome to Red Falls, home of the most beautiful waterfalls in the country.I smiled with happiness when I spo
“I hate when this happens,” I growled, finishing buttoning my clean shirt.Rocky, my four-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever, whined in response, lightening mood automatically.I took one last look at the image the mirror gave me and left my room, Rocky walking beside me.“Is that foal still giving you headaches?”I stopped in my tracks when the tone of my housekeeper's voice let me know she knew why I was home.I turned to the kitchen from where Silvia was looking at me with amused eyes and rolling pin in hand.“I'm not talking about it,” I growled again, heading toward the exit. “See you in a few hours. Tell George I need him in the stables.”“George went out to the Morgan farm,” Silvia explained without being intimidated by my tone of voice.I supposed that having changed my diapers as a baby made it difficult to intimidate her.“When is he supposed to come back?” I asked, patting Rocky's head as he rested his head against my knee.“I don't know, honey. He left an hour ago. He s
“So that's what Jeff meant when he said George was attending an emergency,” Vivienne agreed, walking beside me.“Yes, part of your job will be to help the farmers and Red Falls residents with their animals. The shelter reached an agreement with the town residents and so far, it has worked for all of us. And although emergencies are not that often, you will have a car assigned to attend them, so do not worry about your car.”“I wasn't worried,” She said, smiling like it was nothing.As if I hadn't insulted her minutes before or as if having to work harder than she thought wasn't a handicap in accepting this job.I cleared my throat a bit uncomfortable at finding myself walking so close to her.“I'm sorry George didn't explain this part of the job to you.”“Really, Jacob, don't worry. It doesn’t bother me at all.”“And I'm sorry for your daughter too, I'm sorry I disappointed her,” I added quickly.I looked up to find the girl walking several feet ahead of us with her little pig.Lily.
“Okay, this is the last one,” I said, leaving the bunny still sedated inside the incubator where his other five siblings were.“Excellent work, Vivi. You're quick and meticulous and I appreciate you taking this job,” My boss nodded, removing his gloves. “My previous partner left the country a month ago and I’ve barely slept since then.”“Well, now you can sleep because I'm not going anywhere,” I replied, sinking into a chair. “I love this place, George. Everything is so shiny and new.”I sighed with delight as I remembered how happy I felt walking through the front door and seeing what my new workplace would be.Clean and shiny floors, a reception and a waiting room with comfortable sofas were the first things I saw when I came in.With two consulting rooms, two ORs with first-rate medical equipment, a fully equipped laboratory, a radiology room, a staff of six qualified nurses and a receptionist who took emergency calls and made appointments for people in town, the place could easily
I took my hand out of the horse's mouth once I felt everything smooth and neat and nodded towards its owner.“I think this will fix the problem,” I said, setting aside the file I used on the animal's teeth. “When you get home, let him graze for a while before you feed him.”“I didn't know something so small could be so strong.”“I'm almost six feet tall. I'm not small at all, Mr. Jones,” I stated, grabbing my kit to carry it to my truck.“You can call me Darren if you prefer, darling.”I could call him a pig, but I didn’t want to offend them.I bit the inside of my cheek and closed the hatch with more force than necessary when I saw that the man had followed me.“And I didn't mean your height, sweetheart,” The man continued as I turned to him. His flirtatious smile made it clear what he meant.“I'm not interested in a Sugar Daddy, Grandpa.”It wasn't the first time I'd been hit on at work. It wasn't the first time a man older than my father had made a pass at me either, but at least I
“Listen to me, you son of a bitch. I'm not interested in hearing your fucking excuses. I told you I wouldn’t allow that kind of behavior to my female staff. Just because you have balls doesn't make you superior to them. In any case, you promote the stigma that men are animals.”“Come on, Coleman. I was just joking around with the girl. I’d be incapable of doing anything to anyone. Besides, I had to try. You don't get women like that in Red Falls, if you know what I mean.”“No, Jones, I don't know what you mean,” I growled, slamming my house’s front door once I was inside. “And you shouldn't know either. You're married, for God's sake.”“Please, Coleman, I've been with this woman for forty years. She doesn't get it up anymore,” He said, laughing in my ear. “She knows it and accepts it and rather insists me to look for something out there.”I really doubted his wife shared the same opinion about their marriage.“I don't care what your wife thinks, Darren, I care what the women who work