Falling for the Vet - Chapter 3

It wasn’t so much the surprise of Maia saying that she was on her honeymoon that bothered Leo.

It was how disappointed it made him feel.

How stupid was that? The last thing he wanted was a woman in his life so the fact that Maia was unavailable should have been a relief. He should be congratulating her. Instead, he found himself frowning.

‘Where’s your husband?’ he asked. A legitimate question, mind you, because why was she driving around by herself? And why had she said ‘I’ve’ got a motel in Katoomba?

Maia shrugged. She had begun unwrapping the bandage on the dog’s leg. ‘I have no idea,’ she told him. ‘He could still be in Bali for all I know. That’s where he went when he ran off with my best friend. The one who was also supposed to be my bridesmaid the next day.’

Leo could feel his eyes widening. ‘And this was supposed to be your honeymoon?’ Being a calm person was one thing. Being this calm so soon after the life-shattering experience of being jilted was…well, it was a bit weird.

Maia glanced up to catch his expression and she grinned at him.

‘It’s the anniversary,’ she explained. ‘I had to cancel the honeymoon suite in a hotel at Coogee Beach and they gave me a voucher which would expire if I didn’t use it within a year.’ She pulled on a pair of gloves to examine the wound beneath the bandages. ‘It was a hell of year,’ she said quietly. ‘I decided that getting through it was something to be celebrated so I’m going to use the penthouse suite. By myself.’

‘Wow… Go you.’ Leo’s admiration was genuine.

Instead of something weird, this was inspiring. Maia had faced something that was, in some ways, worse than what Leo had gone through but here she was—moving forward and embracing life. Alone. She had no idea of how much they had in common, did she?

But Maia didn’t seem to have heard his praise. She was focussing on the nasty wound on the dog’s leg—a deep laceration that needed layers of stitches, even it if hadn’t damaged tendons or major blood vessels. Even touching close to the wound made the dog yelp in pain so she stopped and stroked his head, leaning down to talk to him, rather than Leo.

‘Sorry, sweetheart. How `bout I find something to make you nice and sleepy so we can sort this out without hurting you too much?’ She glanced up. ‘Could you see if there’s a key to the drug cabinet on that bunch?’

Leo blinked. He’d been a bit mesmerised by the tone of her voice as she talked to the dog, to be honest. That sound of someone who cared so much had seeped in through his ears to wrap itself around his heart. It had made him feel oddly…what, lonely?

‘Sure.’ He made his own tone enthusiastic, both to cover up that slight hesitation and to distract himself from wherever that unwelcome train of thought might have been leading. He could hear echoes of the conversation he’d had with his beloved grandmother just before he’d left Brisbane last week.

You can’t spend the rest of your life alone, Leo. Sophia wouldn’t have wanted you to be unhappy.

I’m not unhappy, Nonna. My life is exactly the way I want it to be.

No…it’s not. You just can’t see it, mio caro…

*

Maia sedated the dog and clipped off enough hair to see exactly what was going on. She could examine the whole leg more thoroughly as well.

‘I don’t think he needs an X-ray,’ she said. ‘Nothing’s broken. I think the tendon’s intact as well but I could have a better look at that and get everything stitched up if you could help me give him a proper anaesthetic. Have you got the time?’

‘Sure.’ Leo met her gaze over the blanket wrapped bundle of baby kangaroo in his arms. ‘Let me find a place to put this little guy down.’

Maia found herself watching Leo find a cardboard box and settle the joey while she found the drugs and equipment they would need to administer an anaesthetic. Apart from helping her carry the dog into the clinic, Leo hadn’t put the joey down at all. Why was it that seeing a man caring for something small and vulnerable like any kind of baby added a level of emotional attraction that was just as powerful as anything physical?

‘You don’t need to get back to work?’ she asked when she had the breathing tube in place and had run Leo through how to use the anaesthetic machine to deliver the mixture of gases that would keep him asleep.

‘I’ve got a day off. More if I want them. I covered some shifts with someone else from the practice. And I’m not on call this weekend.’

‘Nice.’ Maia used a scalpel to debride the wound and then flushed it out with saline.

‘Yeah. I’m covering a position of a GP while she’s on maternity leave for six months and there are enough doctors in the practice to make it easy. After the hospital in Brisbane I was working in, this feels like I’m on holiday which is exactly what I needed—a total escape—with time to work on my PhD thesis as a bonus.’

‘Oh?’ Maia was happy that there was no tendon damage so she reached for her first suture to start repairing the injury. ‘You didn’t like your job?’

‘It wasn’t the job that I needed the break from. It was my family. My mum and my nonna. They’re determined to marry me off but I’ve been there, done that. I’ve got the tee-shirt and it has capital letters on it. Never. Again.’

Wow… He sounded vehement enough to make Maia blink. She was silent as she carefully placed dissolvable stitches to close the layer of muscle.

‘Sorry,’ Leo murmured into the silence. ‘Makes me sound like I hate women. And I don’t. I just don’t want one in my life on a permanent basis. Or even a semi-permanent basis, for that matter.’

Maia tied another neat knot and clipped the last internal suture. ‘I hear you,’ she told Leo. ‘I feel the same way about men, believe me.’

His huff of expelled breath was sympathetic. ‘I can imagine.’ She could hear a wry smile in his next words. ‘An occasional one-night stand is perfect, isn’t it?’

‘I wouldn’t know,’ she said. ‘I’ve never tried one.’

There was another silence as Maia turned her attention to bringing the edges of skin together and deciding whether to use sutures or skin glue. She knew Leo was doing the embarrassing math and figuring out that she probably hadn’t had sex for at least a year.

Was he also tuned in to what was going through her head now?

He had no interest in a relationship with a woman.

She felt exactly the same way about men.

Maia hadn’t felt so safe in male company for the longest time.

They were perfect for each other.

*

Holding a baby kangaroo was kind of like trying to hold onto the world’s biggest spider at times with those big back legs kicking out. But in the moments when this little guy was perfectly still and looking at him with those big eyes framed by the enormous, bat-like ears, Leo could feel a squeeze on his heart that brought a lump to his throat.

Leo had the awkward bundle in his arms again after the surgery on the rescue dog and was surfing the internet on his phone, looking for information about caring for an orphaned kangaroo baby. Maia had given the still sleepy dog some antibiotics and painkillers, tucked it into a safe crate in a room at the back of this small veterinary clinic and was now on the phone. Judging by this end of the conversation, she was talking to Hazel again—the friend of the woman who owned and ran Two Tails.

‘It’s not a problem,’ he heard her say. ‘It’s only one night.’

She seemed to be brushing off gratitude after that, listening some more and then remembered something just before she ended the call.

‘Oh…we’ve got a baby kangaroo here that we rescued from the accident scene. What do we need to do to look after it?’

We…

Leo liked that. It made it sound like they were a team. He liked Maia. He was impressed with her attitude to life and the surgical skills he’d just watched her demonstrating. He was enjoying her company on a level he hadn’t experienced in far too long, he realised. Because he knew there was no possibility of any expectations he’d have to disappoint?

She came back to where Leo was.

‘I’m going to stay here tonight,’ she told him. ‘Kiara—the vet who owns this place—has had a scan and there’s some bleeding going on in her brain. They’re going to watch her overnight and see if it stops or if she needs surgery. Hazel’s staying with her so I said I could stay here tonight and look after things.’

‘That’s kind of you.’

Maia shrugged. ‘I quite like the idea of having something to do. It’ll save me sitting by myself in a motel and thinking too much about what was happening this time last year.’ She was close enough to Leo to reach out and touch the joey’s head. ‘Hazel said they often get a joey brought in here. There’s a local woman who fosters them but, in the meantime, there are supplies in the storeroom. Pouches and bottles and formula. I can look after him.’

‘But…’ Leo found himself tightening his grip just a little on the bundle. ‘I’d kind of like to look after him myself. There’s probably a lot of other stuff that you’ll need to do, isn’t there?’

Maia nodded. ‘There are dogs in the kennels that need exercise and feeding and medications. There’s a chart inside the house. Hazel told me to help myself to food and wine and anything I need. And she said the spare bed’s always made up because she often ends up staying here herself.’ She stroked the joey’s head again. ‘First things first, though. Let’s find a pouch for your baby and feed him.’

Leo grinned. ‘It’s probably my Italian blood,’ he said. ‘But I do love babies.’

‘Excellent. You can hold the bottle. And clean up any messes.’

Leo followed Maia to the storeroom. ‘I’m a great cook, too. Just sayin’…’ Because he didn’t want to leave anytime too soon? Because he didn’t like the idea of Maia sitting alone anywhere and thinking about what had happened this time last year?

Maia laughed. ‘Even better. I can’t cook to save myself. Consider yourself invited for dinner.’