Ch 1 – That Perfect Someone

We’re gearing up for a release! That Perfect Someone is edited and the final touches and proofreading needs to be done, but we’re all ready to go. I know I posted this last month, but it’s undergone a couple of small changes so I’m posting it again. I’ll post Chapter 2 on my blog (lldiamondwrites.com) on Thursday, so make sure you stop by and check it out! So without further ado…

Chapter 1

Henry stared at her with the most mournful eyes while Lizzy tilted her head and scratched behind the Bassett Hound’s ears. He licked her hand with his sloppy, wet tongue, leaving behind a trail of slobber. She sighed. Without a boyfriend, fiancé, or husband, this was the best she could get. What a pathetic testimony to her personal life!

After she injected the sedative into the vein of his front leg, she continued to give him love until the medication took effect. Henry had been nothing but a small puppy when she’d first treated him. She’d been fresh out of vet school. They’d started a journey together that day, so the sad-eyed pup was a favorite out of her regular patients. Who couldn’t love such an adorable chunk of a dog?

As soon as his head began to droop, Mary pried open his mouth, and Lizzy aimed the tube.

“Lizzy!”

Son of a—! She jumped back from the dog and shot the fiercest glare possible at Lydia. “How many times do I have to tell you not to yell like that? For one thing, you scared the bejeezus out of me while I was trying to intubate Henry here, and second, I’m sure you could be heard all the way in the parking lot.” She nodded to Mary, who once again opened the dog’s mouth wide, allowing Lizzy to easily slide the tube down the dog’s throat. She scratched under his ear one last time when she laid his head on the table. “Good boy.”

“Whatever,” her youngest sister said, picking at her neon green nail polish. “You’ve got a dickhead with a horse out back. He asked for you specifically.”

Lizzy rolled her eyes. “Do you know who he is?”

“Nah ah.” Lydia dropped her hand and leaned against the doorframe. “I mentioned Chase is fully qualified to treat horses, but he insisted upon you. Besides, Chase is busy with Mrs. Goulding’s obnoxious little rat terrier. I don’t know why he doesn’t tell Mrs. Goulding to—”

“Because his job is to treat animals, who don’t always understand that we’re trying to help them. That’s why.” She and Mary rolled Henry to his side. “Now, did you leave the front desk unattended again?” With a huff, Lydia twirled away and stomped from the room.

“You need to talk to Dad,” said Mary. “You and Chase run the clinic now, and his lectures to Lydia about showing the customers and you respect have only made her behavior worse. She doesn’t care and she never will.” They kept hoping Lydia would grow up. She continued to disappoint them.

“I know.” Lizzy sighed and lifted Henry’s upper lip, giving his teeth a quick peek. “You know the drill. Clean them up. If you find anything concerning, come get me.”

Mary nodded and wheeled the machine to scale and polish the dog’s teeth beside the table. Once Mary had started, Lizzy headed down a hallway to the back of the clinic, grabbing a hoof pick from a hook on the wall.

The metal bar on the exit door pushed open with ease as she stepped outside. The brisk April breeze bathed her face, the verdant scent of spring tickling her nose. After being inside all morning, she paused, closed her eyes, and lifted her head, taking a deep breath before she reopened her eyes. She loved this time of year. The sun shone brightly in a brilliant blue sky littered with puffy, white clouds. Summer was coming, and she wasn’t certain she was ready for the seemingly unending months of scorching Texas heat.

At a heavy stomp, she had to smile. She adored all animals, but horses held a special place in her heart, and this one was gorgeous. A bay, with a striking white blaze and four white socks, stood proud and tall, its lead tied off on the stocks and one foot pointed forward. What a beauty! As with any horse she examined, she approached carefully before she placed a hand against the warm, toned muscle of the horse’s neck and stroked toward the shoulder. “Hello, gorgeous.” She trailed her palm along the back then peeked under his belly. “You’re a big boy aren’t you.”

“Who are you?”

Lizzy spun around to a man who stood just inside the gate. Woah! He would’ve been drop-dead gorgeous if it wasn’t for the intense scowl upon his face and the derisive tone of his deep voice. He strode up to her, his towering six-foot plus frame almost too close to her not so short five-foot eight.

“I don’t need a tech examining my horse. I specifically requested Dr. E. Bennet. Where is he?”

She clenched her hands into fists at her side and refused to budge an inch to his form of intimidation. He could scowl, raise his voice, and invade her personal space as much as he liked. She would not be fazed by him. “I see the confusion here. My name is Dr. Elizabeth Bennet. You must be looking for Dr. Eli Bennet, my father. He’s retired. My brother, Chase, and I now run the clinic. I’m capable of examining your horse, or if you’d prefer, my brother can do the honors. There’s also Hillside Vets thirty minutes from here, just outside Fredericksburg. They also treat horses.”

The man’s jaw worked overtime while he glared at her. “You look barely twenty. How long have you been a practicing veterinarian?”

Ugh! What an ass! She suppressed the overwhelming urge to roll her eyes and sigh. Was she really going to have to spell out her credentials? “Let’s see. I attended Longbourn Elementary, Middle, and High School, where I graduated with honors. I worked in this clinic every afternoon and holiday from the time I could walk and talk and finished my pre-requisite coursework at Texas A&M in two years when I was accepted into their vet school. I graduated four years later, at twenty-four. I’ve been a licensed veterinarian for seven years. Chase and I are the exact same age, so his experience and credentials are the same as mine, with the exception that he studied exotics for part of his curriculum, and I’m not fond of snakes.” The gelding again stomped his foot but returned it to the same pointed position as before.

“I—”

She turned to the horse and slid her hands down his leg. “Has he recently been lame?”

“A month or so ago, I noticed a limp in that leg while riding him. I rested him for a few weeks, and he seemed fine. He’d stopped limping during short walks around the stable, but when I tried riding him this morning, he favored that leg again.”

Lizzy pulled the hoof pick from her pocket and dug the dirt and debris from the underside of the hoof. “How long has he been pointing his foot?”

“I beg your pardon?”

He had no rocks or signs of infection, so she placed the hoof back on the ground. “When I came outside, your horse was pointing this leg.” She stood, shoved the pick into her back jeans pocket, and brushed her hands on the soft, well-worn denim. The horse shifted and moved that front hoof back out to its previous position. She bent, resituated the leg, and stepped back once more. Now, would he point it again? No sooner had she straightened than the horse stretched his leg forward. “You see this commonly with navicular disease. Is he a show horse?”

“Dressage,” said the man with a slight sneer to his voice.

“Sorry, I get a lot of Western Pleasure horses. We have a small English community around Longbourn, but…Well, this is Texas.”

He nodded and his brows drew down a bit in the middle. “Are you sure?”

Lizzy clenched the hand resting on the horse’s neck where he couldn’t see it. “The pointing is a tell-tale sign. We can x-ray the hoof, but navicular disease doesn’t always show up on an x-ray. You see, the name is kind of a catch-all that encompasses damage to the navicular bone as well as the soft tissues in that area. If the problem is one of the soft tissues, an MRI will be necessary to verify the diagnosis.”

She shifted back and scanned the gelding’s straight profile from its curved neck and back along the strong hindquarters. “Dutch Warmblood?” With a couple of steps, she touched her fingers to the animal’s shoulders and traced to its rear where she again slid her hands down the length of the leg. He was a lovely specimen. After she examined the hoof, she gave a wide berth of the back end. She’d been kicked before and refused to be kicked again if she could help it. When she reached the opposite side, she checked the last two hooves, paused for a moment to listen to the heart and lungs, then opened his lips to look at his teeth. “He’s twelve?”

The man’s head hitched back. “No, he’s thirteen, but he is a Warmblood.”

“Darn,” she said with a grin. “One year off.” That expression of shock when she surprised a skeptical owner was always satisfying. Her fingers found a sweet spot behind the gelding’s ear, and he lowered his head, pushing into her fingers for more. “What’s his name?”

“I call him Skylla.” His expression remained hard, his lips pressed into a fine line while he watched her work. The man needed to relax!

“Do you enjoy pulling Poseidon around, Skylla?” The name suited him. Even though she’d just met him, his owner seemed as full of himself as one of the Greek gods. She straightened and stopped petting the horse. What was this guy’s name? Most owners introduced themselves, but he hadn’t, and with his surly attitude, she’d forgotten to ask. “I’m sorry. I neglected to ask your name.”

He cleared his throat. “Darcy, William Darcy.” His name rolled off his tongue, in a dark, rich voice that sent a tremor through her.

After a couple more scratches, she patted Skylla’s neck. “Did you want the x-ray to start, Mr. Darcy?”

The gelding pushed on his owner’s shoulder, and Mr. Darcy put a hand to his nose. “Could it be anything else?” He rubbed the gelding’s head and straightened his forelock. “What’s the treatment?”

“I doubt it’s anything else. Arthritis in the knee can cause problems and occasionally the pointing to take the pressure off the joint, but it’s not swollen nor is it warm. As for treatments…” She bobbed her head back and forth. “We have several options we can discuss once we confirm the problem.”

The man’s unusual whiskey-colored eyes shifted from her back to his horse. He stroked the full length of the gelding’s nose before shaking his head. “I want a second opinion first.”

Her eyebrows rose, and she took a few steps back. What had he expected her to do? Either he wanted a simple answer or something she could fix right then and there. Unfortunately, no miracle cure existed and pushing never helped in these instances. He could haul the horse over to Hillside and let them take a look—unless he wanted to pay the fee for the vet to drive out.

“Okay, then. I’ll get the invoice ready for today’s examination. Once you have him loaded, go see Lydia at the front desk, and she’ll help you check out. He’s a beautiful horse. I hope you find the answers you’re searching for, but if you need us, don’t hesitate to call. We’ll be glad to help you treat him.”

Mr. Darcy nodded his head.

She lifted her hand. “Have a nice day.” Once she was inside, she walked straight to the large treatment room and sat down on a stool in front of one of the computers. “Crap,” she muttered at the sharp prod to her butt. She stood, yanked the hoof pick from her back pocket, and slapped it onto the counter. Why did she always forget about that thing? After she sat back down, she punched the exam code into the computer and hit save so Lydia could pull up the invoice at the front desk.

“Was he as big a douche as Lydia said?”

Lizzy spun around and leaned against the counter. “Yeah, a massive douche. I suppose he knew Dad, but hadn’t realized he’d retired.” She glanced over Mary’s shoulder into the next room. “How’s Henry?”

“I finished right when you came in. He’s unhooked from anesthesia and sleeping it off on the floor.”

Lizzy lifted her eyebrows. “You lifted him off the table by yourself?” Mary was no weakling, but Henry was a chunky seventy-five pounds of awkwardly long Basset Hound. She should’ve called for help.

“He wasn’t too bad. I promise I engaged my core.”

“Why’d you engage your core?” asked Chase as he stepped through the swinging door.

“I lifted Henry from the table after his dental.”

Chase peeked into the room where Mary performed the cleanings. “He’s gotten too large for you to do that by yourself. We’ll have to persuade Mrs. Shaw to put him on a diet.” He set a file down beside the computer and gave Lizzy a shove to move. “Deputy Collins brought his service dog to see you.” He snickered as he began to type. “You’re welcome, by the way, because nothing was wrong with that dog, and Collins was extremely disappointed to be stuck with me.”

She cringed and shuddered. “I don’t know how many times I have to turn him down before he listens, but Collins makes the client I just had seem easy in comparison.”

“The man with the horse? He looked every bit your type—you know, tall, dark hair, striking eyes.”

“Major stick up his ass?”

“Ooh.” Chase crinkled his nose. “How big? Like a twig or a full-blown sequoia?”

Lizzy joined Mary laughing, then leaned against the wall. “I’ll give him some credit and say a sapling. He looked at my initials, saw E. Bennet, and thought I was our father.”

Chase sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Let me guess. He then wanted to know if the female vet had the brains to treat his horse.” He sat back and shook his head. “Funny part is, he didn’t seem old enough for that. Usually, the old chauvinist boy’s club are men Dad’s age and older.”

“He didn’t say anything about me being a woman, but he did ask how long I’d been practicing.”

Mary shook her head. “I’m going to get the first surgery. I’ll be back.”

“You were done quicker than I expected. I thought you’d be outside for another half-hour at least. People rarely bring horses to the clinic for wormer or vaccinations. They get you to come out.”

After she explained the situation, Chase hit enter on the computer and dropped the chart into the tray to be filed. “What did the owner say? Did he want an x-ray or MRI?”

“He wanted a second opinion,” said Elizabeth with a shrug. “I told him we were here if he needed us and wished him a good day.”

“I know that had to be hard after him being such a dick.”

She couldn’t help one side of her lip from creeping upwards. “I didn’t say I gave him no snark at all, and I had to show him I know horses, of course.”

Chase chuckled and stood. “I can only imagine.”

She followed him into the surgical room. “Are you going to the Hill Country Equine Rescue fundraiser next week? Dad’s bugging me about it, but I don’t want to go by myself.”

“Yeah, he mentioned it to me too,” said Chase. “I’m thinking about it.”

Hill Country Equine Rescue saved horses from slaughterhouses and abusive homes, rehabilitated them, and found them forever homes—an endeavor she supported whole-heartedly. The charity fundraiser was a huge gala in Longbourn each year, a formal event that raised a huge chunk of much needed money for their work. Bennet Veterinary always purchased tickets and made an appearance, though Chase, for personal reasons, had never attended.

“You know I won’t force you, but I’d love to have someone to hang out with.” Maybe she could bribe Mary into accompanying her if Chase wouldn’t go.

“Jane will be there.”

“With Charlie, which means she’ll be glued to his hip for the entire night.” Her older sister had married Charlie Bingley six months ago. The couple was destined to be one of those who would act like newlyweds for the rest of their lives. They always appeared so blissful.

Chase propped himself on a nearby stool and rested his hands on his thighs. “I’ve spoken to Maria two or three times in the last month.”

Lizzy’s head popped up. “You never told me.”

“I know.” He scratched his head and shrugged. “She was only five when I told my biological family I was trans. She wanted me to know she accepted me, even if the rest of the Lucases didn’t. It’s hard for her, being stuck in the middle like that.” Lizzy chewed on her lip. Yes, Maria had been young and couldn’t go against her parents, but she’d turned eighteen four years ago. She could’ve contacted her brother then, if she’d wanted to. Why now?

When Mary entered with a tiny chihuahua, Lizzy started for the door, pausing to face Chase. “Pizza and wine at Antonio’s tonight? You can tell me about Maria.”

Her brother glanced up from the chart in front of him. “Yes, absolutely.”

“You know you’re my favorite brother.” Mary giggled at the line Lizzy had been saying to Chase since the adoption papers were signed.

“That’s because I’m your only brother.”

Lizzy laughed and shrugged. “Who’s counting?”