Free Rescue My Heart by Jean Joachim

She
cozied up to him, fiddling with the buttons on his
shirt.
    Hack stepped back from her. “And end
up in jail. Then, I won’t be around twenty-four seven. Would you
prefer that?”
    She made
a face, sticking out her lower lip. Wow,
she can be unattractive sometimes.
    “ Not everything is about
you, Felicia.”
    “ Can I help it if I missed
you?”
    I don’t
believe that for a minute. “Let’s not take
this fake engagement too far, okay?”
    “ Why does it have to be
fake? We’ve known each other for years, Hack. I think I can make
you happy.”
    “ Are you proposing to me?”
He arched an eyebrow and chuckled.
    “ Maybe I am.”
    “ Let’s not go there. As
much as I’d love to continue this, I have sick dogs, cats, and a
turtle to check out. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
    “ Did you have fun today at
that woman’s house?”
    “ Yeah, actually, it
wasn’t…” Hack stopped, embarrassed at what he’d
revealed.
    Felicia’s lips curled into a sly grin.
“Gotcha! I didn’t think this was all about you atoning for your
sins. Have you got the hots for that chubby little
manipulator?”
    “ She’s not chubby. I have
work to do, Felicia. Until tomorrow night, dinner,” he said,
opening the door. She moved away, blowing him a kiss.
    Relief
washed over him to have her and her pointed questions gone. He
focused on the charts of his patients and went back to being a
veterinarian. Do I have the hots for Rory?
How can I? But she’s sexy. He pushed
thoughts of her luscious body out of his mind and went out to the
waiting room to greet Muffy, the Himalayan cat.
    The next morning, as ten o’clock drew
near, Hack put aside his vet duties and prepared to head to Rory’s
apartment. First, he washed up in the private bathroom at the
clinic. After running an electric razor over his face, he splashed
on expensive aftershave. He ripped his T-shirt over his head,
donning a fresh one in its place, then a long-sleeve shirt. He
buttoned it up and straightened the collar, brushed his teeth, and
combed his hair.
    When Hack stopped at the front desk,
Mary eyed him up and down before speaking. “Well, well. My, oh my.
Don’t we look pretty,” she said, her eyes twinkling.
    “ I don’t know what you
mean,” he said, clearing his throat.
    “ All gussied up for little
Miss Mystery Writer, eh?”
    “ It’s a sentence, not a
date, Mary.”
    “ Could have fooled me.
Fresh shirt,” she said, stepping back, her gaze moving to the top
of his head. “Combed hair. Even the part is straight. How long did
that take you?”
    “ So, I combed my hair. Big
deal.”
    She sniffed loudly. “Even smell good.
Some of that fancy stuff slapped on your smooth face.”
    “ I’m going, Mary. I’ll be
back by three thirty,” he said, ignoring her.
    “ Have fun, Hack.” Then,
she added, “And love every minute” not quite under her
breath.
     
    * * * *
     
    Taking a break from typing, Hack
looked up at Rory’s library of books sitting in her
floor-to-ceiling bookcase. “What do you read?” He took a bite of a
homemade chocolate chip cookie. They were on a break.
    “ Mysteries and romance.
You?” She sipped her tea.
    “ Medical books and an
occasional thriller.”
    “ Does Miss Skin and Bones
read?”
    He shook his head. “Only
the fashion news.”
    Rory nodded. “Aha, I see. A real
intellectual.”
    “ She’s the best at what
she does.”
    “ I’m
sure the new, hot color of the year is front page news in The New York Times .”
    Hack laughed. “Okay, maybe it’s not of
Earth-shattering importance…”
    “ She’s a dummy. Face it.
You must be smart to have made it through vet school, though you
hide it well.”
    His face colored. “See here! I
graduated Magna Cum Laude from Cornell!”
    “ Well, whoopee! That and a
Metrocard’ll get you on the subway.”
    “ I’m not a dummy, and
neither is Felicia!”
    “ She isn’t? She doesn’t
even get my jokes. She has no idea when I’m laughing at her. She’s
not a