Persuading Spring: A Sexy New Zealand Romance (The Four Seasons Book 4) (9 page)

“I told him to fuck off and die,” Hitch
said. “Sorry about that.” He didn’t look sorry.

Bridget gave a small laugh. “Yeah, well,
I’m glad. I don’t care if I never see him again.”

She tried to inject vehemence into her
voice, but it wasn’t easy. He’d hurt her terribly—but she wasn’t sure how she’d
feel if she saw him again. She’d invested her life in loving him, and it was a
huge wrench to give all that history up overnight.

If he crawled to her on his knees with that
sexy smile and his big green eyes and told her he was sorry and that he loved
her… Would she tell him to get lost? Or would she cave and hear him out?

Her brain said no—she’d never exchange
another word with him—but her heart had never done what her brain told it, so
she didn’t know why it would start doing it now. She didn’t want to find out.
She wanted to go away and hide where he couldn’t find her.

“Do you have my stuff?” she asked.

“Of course.” Rowan fetched the bag she’d
left behind with her purse, phone, and keys.

Bridget stood, catching sight of herself in
the mirror. A melancholy wistfulness swept over her as she remembered how she’d
looked the morning before, so full of hope and happiness at the thought that
she was marrying the man of her dreams.

Her gaze fell to Aaron’s sweatshirt and his
baggy track pants. She could still smell his aftershave on the clothes.

Her lips curved up a little. Yesterday,
she’d felt as if her world had ended, but the Earth had kept on turning, and
today was a new day. She had a long way to go until she was healed, but maybe
she was stronger than she’d thought.

Nearly all the animals that came into
Aaron’s surgery for operations were frightened, and it was tempting to take all
of them home and hand-feed them himself until they recovered. His assistants—Pam
and Izzy—knew how susceptible he was to a whimper and the sad face of a dog or
cat feeling sorry for itself. They normally banned him from the cages, so he’d
trained himself to leave his patients alone once he’d done the stitching up,
and let the others tend to their recovery.

Mandy was different. A beautiful boxer
bitch belonging to an adorable family who loved her to pieces, she’d escaped
through a gate someone had left open and had been missing all night. Although
they’d searched everywhere for her, barely getting any sleep, they’d only found
her when the sun had come up, lying by the roadside half a mile away, having
been hit by a car. Her front leg was broken, and yet the good-natured dog was
neither irritable nor vicious in her pain but just whimpered in Aaron’s arms
when he took her from the father to lay her on the table. The two young boys
with the dad were in bits, openly sobbing to see their beloved pet broken.
Seeing his own son in them, Aaron had promised he’d take special care of her
and that he would ring them as soon as she was through surgery.

He x-rayed the dog and gave her a general anesthetic
before fixing the leg with pins and metal plates. He then made himself leave
her with Izzy in the cages to recover, and rang the family to say she’d made it
through but that it would be best if she stayed at the surgery overnight so
they could keep an eye on her.

He kept thinking about her, about her large
brown eyes and the kids’ heartbroken faces, so before the afternoon clinic
started he went to see how she was doing, only to discover Izzy close to tears
herself as she listened to the dog’s pathetic whimpers.

“It’s all right, lovely girl,” Izzy
whispered to her, fondling the dog’s velvety ears as the bitch shivered with
pain and fear. “You’ll be okay.” She turned watery eyes up to Aaron. “I was
just about to come and get you. I think the anesthetic’s wearing off. Shall we
give her some more pain relief?”

“Yes, of course.” He gave the dog a shot of
an opioid analgesic and an anti-inflammatory while Izzy continued to reassure
her.

She kissed the dog’s ear. “Aw. Poor little
thing. I can’t believe someone would hit an animal and just drive on.”

Mandy gave a heart-breaking whimper and
turned her big, sorrowful brown eyes up to him.

He sighed. “Okay, I give in.”

Carefully, so as not to cause her more
pain, he wrapped her in a thick blanket and lifted her into his arms. She was a
small boxer, a brindle with a black smudge on her nose, and he kissed it as he
walked slowly through the surgery, rocking her in his arms and humming to her while
he stroked her back.

“Is that a Barry Manilow song?” His
partner, Joe, was just making himself a mug of tea in the kitchen before the
afternoon clinic started. A steadfast, down-to-earth Maori guy, Joe had been
his best mate since high school. He came over as he saw the dog in Aaron’s
arms.

“Her name’s Mandy. It seemed appropriate.”
Aaron continued to hum the ballad to her.

“Is that the bitch from the accident? Poor
thing.” Joe fondled the dog’s head and gave an “Aw,” as she managed to lick his
hand. “She’s a sweetie.”

“She really is.” The dog’s large brown eyes
looked pleadingly into Aaron’s. “It’s all right, sweetheart. It will get
better, I promise. You’ll soon be running around again, right as rain, only
next time you have to swear you won’t go out onto the main road.”

The dog stared into his eyes with complete
and utter trust. For some reason, it made him think of the way Bridget had
looked at him.

“You shouldn’t have picked her up,” Joe
said. “Now you’ll never be able to put her down.”

“I don’t care. I’ll hold her all night if I
have to.”

Joe rolled his eyes as he headed back to
his room. “You’re far too soft. You turn to marshmallow every time you see a
creature in need.”

That made him think about Bridget again.
“Yeah, I know.” He sighed.

It was Friday, and there had been no sign
of her all week. Throughout Monday and Tuesday, he’d waited for her to call to
say she was at Kerikeri airport and to ask him to pick her up, but she hadn’t.
He’d then spent Wednesday and Thursday cursing himself. Had he really thought
she would come? No doubt as soon as she was on her own she’d breathed a sigh of
relief that she’d escaped from the madman in one piece and thrown his number in
the trash.

He was surprised at how sad that made him
feel.

Mandy shivered in his arms, and he rocked
her gently as he walked through the surgery, kissing her nose again while he
hummed.

“Oh Aaron, you’re going to make me swoon,”
said old Mrs. Lyttle where she sat waiting, her cocker spaniel sitting with his
head on her knee.

He laughed and glanced over to where
someone stood in the doorway, then stopped dead, his eyes widening at the sight
of Bridget standing there.

She wore jeans and a pale blue sweater
beneath a darker blue jacket. Her face was flushed, and her bright blonde hair
was a little wild and windswept, so he suspected she’d just caught the ferry
across and had stood out on the deck for part of the journey. She looked young
and beautiful, hesitant but hopeful as she waited for his reaction.

A smile spread across his face, and he
walked up to her. “Hey.”

“Hello.” She shoved her hands in the
pockets of her jeans and hunched her shoulders. “It’s me.”

“So I see.” He was so thrilled he couldn’t
think what to say, so for a long moment they just studied each other, smiling.
Was it his imagination, or had the sun just come out?

Eventually, she dropped her gaze to the dog
in his arms. “Who’s this?”

“This is Mandy.” He wondered if she’d think
he was foolish. Nita would have rolled her eyes and mocked him for treating a
dog like a baby. “She was knocked down by a car yesterday. She broke her leg,
and she’s a bit scared after her op. I’m just… um… reassuring her.”

“Aw.” She stroked the dog’s head, and Aaron
had a flare of jealousy at the way she fondled Mandy’s ear. “Poor sweetheart.
Will she be okay?”

“She’ll be fine. She’s young, and the break
wasn’t too bad.” He kissed the dog’s nose again. “Some of my patients need a
personal touch, that’s all.”

“Yes, we do,” Bridget whispered with a
smile.

He met her gaze again, loving her blue
eyes, the color of the evening sky. “I’m glad you came.”

She gave a little shrug. “I’ve spent a few
days travelling around the Northland, battling with myself. I wasn’t going to
come—I thought it would be stupid to be so impulsive when I hardly know you,
but I…” She dropped her gaze back to the dog and stroked her nose. “I wanted to
see you again. Is that crazy?”

“If it is, then I’m crazy too.”

Her face filled with relief, as if she’d
worried she might turn up and he’d be disappointed to see her. Did she have no
idea what effect she’d had on him?

She looked over her shoulder as a woman
walked into the surgery with a cat in a box. “I shouldn’t keep you—you’re
obviously busy.”

He wanted to beg her to stay, but the
afternoon clinic was about to kick off. “Maybe we can catch up later?”

“I’d like that.”

“Where are you staying?”

“At a bed and breakfast called Jacaranda
Lodge, not far from the church.”

“I know it,” he said. “How about I pick you
up from there at six, and I’ll take you somewhere nice for dinner?”

She nodded happily. “Okay.”

“All right then. See you later.”

He watched her walk out of the door and
blew out a long breath.

“Pretty girl,” Mrs. Lyttle said.

“Almost as pretty as Mandy here.” He winked
at the old lady and walked back across the waiting room, stopping when he saw
Joe leaning against the door, his arms crossed.

“She came, then,” Joe said.

“Yeah.” While drowning his sorrows in a
glass of malt whisky the night before, Aaron had told him what had happened on
Saturday.

Joe gave him an appraising look. “Are you
sure about this?”

“About what? I’m taking her out to dinner,
that’s all.”

“Yeah. She’s come all this way for the
Sweet Penguin’s seafood chowder.”

“She might have. It’s world famous in New
Zealand.” He kissed Mandy’s head. The pain relief combined with the comforting
cuddle was having an effect. She’d stopped shivering and her eyelids had
drooped.

Joe gave a short laugh. “So if anything
else was on the table, you wouldn’t be interested?”

“I’d be interested wherever she offered it,
including the table, but that’s not the point.” He stopped for a moment and
glanced over his shoulder. There were now five people in the waiting room, and
they all gazed intently at their feet or at the ceiling, studiously avoiding
his gaze—all except Mrs. Lyttle, whose eyebrows had risen into her hairline as
she stared at him.

“Sorry,” he said.

“Don’t apologize,” Mrs. Lyttle replied. “We’ve
all been waiting for some young thing to sweep you off your feet. It’s about
time you settled down, Aaron.”

He cleared his throat, ignoring Joe’s snort
of laughter and the smirks from the other customers. “Yes, well. Anyway…” He
sidled into the corridor, bringing Joe with him with a jerk of his head. “As I
said, that’s not the point.”

“The point is that she’s on the rebound
like a tennis ball hit by Andy Murray.”

“No, the point is that she needs a bit of
TLC. Look at me, Joe, I’m holding a boxer dog like it’s a bloody week-old baby.
Who could be better to look after her than me?”

“So you’re taking her out to dinner out of
the kindness of your heart?”

“Yes, absolutely.”

“Is taking her back to your place part of
this plan of consolation?”

Aaron glared at him.

Joe held up his hands in surrender. “I’m
just saying. I happen to agree with Mrs. Lyttle—it is time you moved on from
Nita the Nutter. But this girl has obviously come here to get over her breakup.
I don’t want her using you for a bit of light relief before she flies back to
make up with her boyfriend.”

Aaron ignored the twinge of unease that
Joe’s words gave him, which echoed her brother’s so closely,
He’s got some
kind of hold over her… she’s always gone back for more
. Sometimes it was
difficult to make that break—hell, he knew all about that—but even Bridget
wouldn’t go back to a guy who’d jilted her in front of her friends and family,
would she?

“If she wants light relief, I’m happy to
supply some,” he said, carrying Mandy back to the recovery room. “I could do
with a bit myself.”

Joe watched him place Mandy back in her
cage and close the door. “She looked at you as if you were her whole world.
Just remember that she’s going back to her family after she’s done here.”

Aaron straightened and stared at Joe, not
sure whether he was talking about Bridget or the dog. He saw Joe’s raised
eyebrow and realized that was the point. “Haven’t you got any work to do?”

Joe waved a hand and disappeared.

Aaron sighed and leaned on the cage. Mandy
had dozed off and her shivering had stopped.

“She looks better.” Izzy joined him and
smiled.

“Yeah, she does.”

“Don’t mind Joe,” she said. “He means well,
but he’s got a foot the size of Mount Taranaki and it’s always in his mouth.”
She and Joe had been married for years, and Aaron thought of her like his
sister.

“He’s probably right.”

“Yeah. But not everything’s about forever,
is it? She’ll go back, but she’ll never forget the guy who took care of her
when she needed it most.”

Once again, he wasn’t sure if she was
talking about Bridget or Mandy, and once again he realized it didn’t matter. “I
have to be careful or I think she might break my heart.”

“And I think the damage has already been
done.” She patted him on the shoulder. “Go on, clinic time. I’ll keep an eye on
her and I’ll call you if we need you.”

He walked away, hands in his pockets.
She
looked at you as if you were her whole world.
Slowly, his lips curved up.
Izzy was right—not everything had to be about forever. He wasn’t going to feel
bad that Bridget had taken him up on his offer. For Christ’s sake, a beautiful
girl had just walked into his surgery and announced she’d flown all this way
because she’d wanted to see him again. Besides which, he flew down to
Wellington every other week. If they spent some time together and they both
decided they had something worth pursuing, at least he’d be able to see her
occasionally. Bearing in mind that his son was down there, maybe he’d even
consider moving there one day.

He paused in the doorway, looking across
the reception area to the waiting room. He and Joe had started this business up
six years ago. In retrospect, it wasn’t the best location to open a veterinary
surgery. The town of Russell boasted only a thousand residents, although their
reputation had grown and many customers now came from Paihia, Opua, and other
areas in the bay. It wasn’t unusual, either, for them to be called out to one
of the one-hundred-and-forty subtropical islands comprising the bay, whose
inhabitants tended to use their services rather than travel to the mainland.