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H ere I am: Girdwood Springs Animal Hospital. Home sweet home.

Well, technically it was more like work sweet work , but the two were practically the same for Chloe Fenwick.

It wouldn’t have been too much of an exaggeration to say that she lived for her patients, and always had done.

One of her earliest memories was from when she was about four years old, solemnly carrying her stuffed toy cat, Max, into the dining room and asking her mom to show her how to sew up his torn leg after their actual dog, Bernie, had taken a bit too much of a liking to him.

She had carefully poked the stuffing back into his leg and helped thread the needle, before her mom had guided her through the slow, torturous process of sewing Max’s leg back together.

Her surgical prowess at the time probably wouldn’t have won any awards, but Max had seemed happy with the results, and that was all she had cared about.

From then on, it had seemed like a natural progression through life up to this point: running her own veterinary clinic.

A little thrill of excitement went through her stomach as she turned the key in the lock, and stepped inside.

My very own clinic.

As happy as she’d been about it from the moment she’d signed the paperwork, it hadn’t really hit her until now: it was her clinic.

No more dealing with unreasonable bosses or cliquey colleagues. No more changes of management whenever some new corporation bought out the company.

Now, for better or worse, it was all just her.

Of course, there was such a thing as too much of a good thing.

The actual business side of things wasn’t exactly something she was looking forward to, though she knew she could handle it.

The recruiter she’d spoken to about hiring a receptionist had told her that the candidate they’d selected for her would be coming around later today so she could interview them and make sure they’d be a good fit for her.

Chloe had never interviewed anyone before – it had always been her on the other side of the desk, getting grilled about her experience and skills.

But she’d find a way. Sure, if whoever the recruiter sent wasn’t a good fit then she’d have to find someone else as quickly as possible, which seemed hard when she’d only just moved to town herself.

Still, how bad could things be, when she was running her own veterinary practice in a beautiful old converted house?

She peered out the enormous front window, which framed a gorgeous display of brilliant red and gold fall leaves, offset by some green vines and blooming flowers that were surely out of season.

The overall effect was stunning, and, she hoped, would make for a nice environment for her patients and their people.

She really did want to create a place where people would feel comfortable, and the animals would be under as little stress as possible.

And as an outsider who had just arrived, she knew that she had to make extra sure to make a good impression.

Chloe strolled around the room, taking it all in. The previous vet, Dr. Sugita, had finished up yesterday, apparently starting a well-deserved retirement alongside his receptionist wife after the two of them had been running the place for forty-six years.

The Sugitas had kindly allowed Chloe to purchase all of their equipment and furniture along with the building.

While some of the chairs were looking a little…

pre-loved , everything here was functional.

She was hoping that she’d be able to spruce it up a little to her own tastes further down the line, but for now she just had to make sure she knew where everything was!

She already had some changes she knew she wanted to make before she received her first patient, such as rearranging some of the rooms so that cats and dogs would each have their own separate waiting rooms in order to reduce stress.

There were going to be a busy few days ahead of her, that much she knew, but she was up for the challenge –

“Hello? Is anyone there? The door was open, so I –”

Chloe spun on the spot, her mouth dropping open in surprise at the sound of the voice behind her – the clinic wasn’t open, she had no deliveries scheduled, and she definitely wasn’t expecting anyone to drop by.

And definitely not the someone she now found herself looking at – who, if he had been a delivery courier or something like that, would have had to be from the most upmarket delivery service she could imagine.

That’s a pretty nice suit, she thought, letting her eyes drift up over the immaculately fitted, charcoal-gray material, which was pretty obviously hanging off a very, very, very tall and very, very, very athletic frame.

Which would have been nice on the eyes anyway, but –

Wow.

Chloe blinked.

I didn’t know they had guys like this up here in the mountains! I should have moved up here a lot sooner!

The man standing in front of her now, looking around the clinic with a slightly puzzled expression on his face, had to be just about the handsomest man she’d ever seen.

His jet-black hair was cut short, but it still managed to have a little bit of a curl to it. His eyes were piercingly blue – the blue of a clear sky in the middle of fall. And Chloe was pretty sure she could cut a slice of bread on the sharpness of his cheekbones.

“Is, uh, there something – something I can help you with?” she managed to stutter out after realizing she’d just been staring at him with her mouth hanging open for at least three entire seconds.

A slight frown crowded his patrician features. “I’m sorry if I’m interrupting. But I was…” His frown deepened, pulling at his full lips. Chloe had to stop herself from biting her own lip as she waited for him to go on. “I was… told that I… I should come to this address, and –”

Chloe’s eyes widened.

Is he… the receptionist the recruiter sent?!

She only just resisted the urge to shake her head.

No, that couldn’t be true.

But I mean… he is kind of dressed for a job interview? Though at a Fortune 500 company, not a small-town vet. And –

“Hello? Hello? Is there anyone here?!”

For the second time today, Chloe jumped at the sound of an unexpected voice ringing out from the entryway, as the bell on the door jangled wildly.

Chloe, her head still spinning, looked around the tall man who was apparently her new receptionist to see a woman – somehow – carrying a large, fluffy golden retriever through the doorway, a wide-eyed boy following close behind.

“Oh, thank goodness!” the woman exclaimed, even as she teetered across the room, the dog heavy in her arms. “I didn’t think the new vet was starting until next week.”

Although she clearly was looking for the vet, the woman was looking up at the man the recruiter had sent – and, while Chloe didn’t blame her for staring, she didn’t need the assumption that he, and not she, was the vet.

“I’m not,” Chloe said quickly, hoping the woman would understand before things could get out of hand with a case of mistaken identity. “But what seems to be the problem here?”

The dog was obviously in distress, and she knew that the nearest emergency vet was a long way back down the mountain. There was no way she could simply send them away.

“She has a ball stuck in her throat – a small one,” the woman said, clearly struggling under the weight of the dog. “She won’t cough it up.”

Chloe glanced up at the man, who was staring at the woman and the dog with a faintly bemused expression on his face.

Okay, that dog’s clearly a heavy one, and I hate to ask him to crumple his suit, but –

“Sorry to throw you in the deep end,” Chloe told him briskly. “But would you mind bringing the dog into one of the rooms for me?”

The man swung his piercing blue eyes in her direction, opened his mouth, and then closed it again.

He, too, was clearly thinking about his beautiful suit…

but in the end, after clear signs of an internal struggle, he said, “Of course,” and, striding across the room, he lifted the golden retriever from the woman’s arms as if it weighed no more than a tiny toy poodle.

“What kind of ball?” Chloe asked the woman, as she opened the door to the examination room, ushering them all inside, the new receptionist placing the dog down gently on the stainless steel table.

“A foam ball, like those stress balls you can get.” The woman let out a nervous laugh. “It sure has brought us some stress, I’ll tell you that!”

“Mr. Davis at the corner store gave it to me for free,” the boy said wretchedly, misery written all over his face. “I never should’ve taken it.”

“That’s okay,” Chloe said soothingly as she peered into the jittery dog’s mouth – and there, sure enough, was a small blue ball right at the back of her throat. It didn’t seem to be fully obstructing her trachea as yet, but Chloe knew that these kinds of things could change in an instant.

She turned to the boy and gave him a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry – we’re going to help out your friend. What’s her name?”

“Bella,” the boy said seriously. “Her name’s Bella.”

Chloe turned back to the dog. “Well then, Bella,” she said, “I’m just going to go ahead and get that ball out of your mouth, okay? You’ll be good as new in no time.”

“Thank you,” the woman said gratefully, and the boy echoed her.

“Thank you, Doctor –” He hesitated.

“Dr. Chloe,” she said. She glanced at the receptionist. “And, uh, this is my assistant, uh –”

“Ethan,” the man said, after a slight hesitation. “Ethan Roan.”

Well, at least I know his name now, Chloe thought, as she leaned down over Bella again.

“Thank you, Dr. Chloe,” the boy said, with a slight sniffle. “I’m Ash.”

“It’s lovely to meet you, Ash,” she said, as she rifled around for a pair of forceps. The previous owners had shown her where everything was, but she wasn’t exactly feeling super prepared for all of this!

Luckily they were in a sensible place, and she turned back toward Bella, who stared at her with eyes like saucers, a low whine coming from her throat.