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Chloe turned to Ash. “Okay, Ash – I’m going to need you to be my assistant too and do something for me.”

Ash nodded, his face grave. “Okay.”

“Bella is very stressed right now, and needs everyone around her to be really calm and not make any sudden movements or sounds,” Chloe said, her voice low and calm. “And if Bella starts to get panicky, I need you to stay back. Is that okay?”

It would be better for Bella to have familiar people in the room, but if she started to snap or struggle, Chloe couldn’t risk Ash or his mother getting hurt – she knew Bella would never hurt Ash normally, but a panicking dog could be dangerous to anyone.

She did not need to be worrying about their safety while trying to extract the ball.

If all else failed, she could sedate Bella, but hopefully she could calm her enough in order to make sedation unnecessary.

“Okay,” Chloe muttered, before devoting all of her attention to Bella, who was trembling on the exam table. “Hi, sweet girl,” she murmured soothingly. “Can I just have another look in your mouth? Is that okay?”

A low, ominous sound came from Bella’s throat, and Chloe steeled herself. Bella’s message was perfectly clear:

Stay back.

As much as she wanted to coax Bella into a relaxed state, it was starting to look more and more like sedation might be necessary.

“Good girl,” she said softly as she gently stroked Bella’s flank. “You’ll show me your mouth, won’t you, Bella?”

Bella bared her teeth with a snarl.

Well, I guess that kind of counts as showing me your mouth.

She opened her mouth, ready to warn Ash to stand back, when there was a sudden movement out the corner of her eye. Before she could even quite comprehend what was happening, Ethan was at Bella’s side, stroking her and murmuring soothing words into her ear.

And Bella… was surprisingly okay with this?

She still didn’t seem happy , but her signs of obvious stress were quickly subsiding, her growls dropping down to a sad whine. Chloe watched in astonishment as Bella leaned into Ethan’s touch, resting her head against his palm.

“Good girl,” he murmured. “You want to help the nice vet, don’t you?”

Chloe felt herself inexplicably flushing at the words, even though he was obviously just saying whatever was necessary to calm poor Bella down.

Note to self: make sure to call the recruiter back as soon as you’re done, so that you can snap this guy up.

Bella relaxed further under Ethan’s touch – if she were a cat, Chloe thought she’d just about be purring.

“Okay, Bella. Let’s try again, shall we?” she said, reaching forward to gently pry Bella’s jaws open – and Bella let her, obeying the instruction without any sort of hesitation or aggression.

“Good girl,” Chloe murmured, reaching the forceps into her mouth. “Good girl. Almost got it – just a moment more – a-ha! There we go.”

With a quick, skillful motion born of many years of practice, Chloe had the forceps around the ball in no time, before just as swiftly pulling them out of Bella’s mouth, gripping the ball tightly.

Yes! Got it in one!

Not wasting a moment, she put the forceps down on the counter, before quickly turning back to Bella, who was still a puddle of doggie calm as Ethan stroked his hand over her side.

“Good girl,” Chloe said again as she checked Bella’s mouth to ensure that there were no further obstructions or injuries, trying not to let her relief show.

It had been a pretty straightforward process in the end, but Bella’s distress and how unexpected everything had been had certainly made it a little more stressful than would have normally been the case.

But with Ethan and his apparently magical ability to calm down stressed dogs, that went completely smoothly!

I definitely need to bring him in as a receptionist – he must have some kind of animal handling qualification.

I’ve never seen anyone deal so well with a stressed-out dog!

I have to thank the recruiter for finding him. Maybe even send her some flowers –

“Can I pet Bella now?” Ash asked quietly, breaking into the whirl of her thoughts.

“Oh! Of course,” Chloe said quickly, coming back to herself with a rush. “Now that the ball is out, Bella is going to be absolutely fine.”

Ash positively beamed as he petted Bella, and Chloe realized that she hadn’t seen him smile up until now. The poor kid had obviously felt terrible about the situation, even though it hadn’t been his fault, and she was glad that he didn’t have to worry anymore.

“Thank you so much,” Ash’s mom said to her, as the two of them watched Bella giving Ash’s cheek a big, sloppy lick while Ethan loomed in the background, looking completely out of place in his still-immaculate suit. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am, especially since you hadn’t even started yet!”

“Please don’t worry about it,” Chloe said truthfully. “It was no problem in the end – I’m just glad you could get Bella here so quickly, before the ball could really block up her throat.”

“Still,” the woman said, “you really went above and beyond. Thank you.” She started digging through her purse. “How much do I owe you?”

“Owe me? Oh – please don’t worry about it,” Chloe stammered. She hadn’t even thought about charging for the procedure, given she hadn’t been on the clock – and in any case, she wasn’t even set up to handle payments at the moment.

“Since I haven’t officially opened yet, we can just say it was on the house.

Please,” she said with a smile, as the woman started to protest. “It only took a moment, and look –” she gestured to where Ash was laughing wildly as Bella continued to plant big, sloppy kisses on his cheek, “– that’s pretty much all the payment I need! ”

“Are you sure?” the woman said dubiously.

“Positive,” Chloe said, friendly but firm.

“Well, then,” she said, “can I at least leave an online review once you’ve opened up? It’s the absolute least I can do.”

Chloe nodded. “Yeah. Actually, that would be really helpful. I’m new in town, so I could use all the help I can get letting people know that Dr. Sugita might be gone, but they still have a vet they can rely on.”

Well, let’s hope they do, anyway, Chloe thought.

The woman nodded decisively. “I’ll do that.” She slapped her forehead suddenly. “After all that drama, I never introduced myself! I’m Diana.”

“Chloe,” Chloe said, before feeling sorely tempted to do a little facepalming of her own. “But you already knew that.”

“Nice to meet you, Chloe,” Diana said with a warm smile. “And welcome to the town. We’ll be sure to tell everyone that they should come here when they need a vet!”

“That’s lovely – thank you so much,” Chloe said, meaning it.

She was glad to have made a potential friend already – as excited as she’d been to move to Girdwood Springs in order to follow her dream, she had been worried about having a bit of a culture shock once she settled in and everything started feeling real.

Quaint country towns always sounded so attractive, but she knew that they could also be a hive of gossip and getting up in other people’s business.

Maybe I’ll just have to hope everyone here is as nice as Diana… and Ethan.

“Well, I’ll let you get back to getting to know your new assistant,” Diana said, with a completely unexpected waggle of her eyebrows.

“My what?” Chloe said, before her mind caught up with what Diana was saying. Her face started to burn hot, though she wasn’t entirely sure why. He was her new assistant! She did need to get to know him!

“Your new assistant,” Diana said with a smile that was a little too innocent. “Since you seem to have only just met him. You should, you know, show him the ropes. Get acquainted.”

Chloe was suddenly extremely aware of Ethan’s towering presence in the corner, completely motionless, as if he were carved out of marble like some sort of perfect Roman god. Surely he was hearing every single word of this horrible conversation.

I take it all back! Diana is no friend at all! She’s just here to torment me!

“Yes, I should show him around,” Chloe said stiffly. “Thank you for reminding me.”

Diana smiled at her as if slightly amused, but she didn’t seem to feel the need to comment on it again.

“Okay, Ash,” Diana called out. “Let’s get Bella home and let the nice vet clean up.” To Chloe, she said, “Thank you again – I’ll definitely be leaving a rave review. And Ash, you say thank you as well, please.”

Ash looked up from where he was hugging Bella’s midsection. “Thank you, Dr. Chloe.”

“You’re very welcome,” Chloe said, smiling.

He turned to Ethan. “Thank you, sir.”

Ethan looked surprised, and more than a little uncomfortable, which Chloe thought was odd – surely, as such a skilled vet’s assistant, he was used to kids thanking him for helping their pets by now? “Uh, don’t mention it.”

“Bye!” Ash called as Bella, seeming fit as a fiddle, leapt down from the table, following Ash and Diana to the door.

Chloe waved, and out the corner of her eye, she saw Ethan half-waving as well, a mechanical motion that didn’t feel quite natural.

“Wow. Thanks for stepping up,” she said, once she’d heard the front door closing behind her first two customers.

She turned to Ethan, forcing herself to look him right in his blue, blue eyes – and had to put in a lot of effort not to have her own eyeballs pop out of her head in a really cartoonish, awoooooga!

way as she did so. “You’re hired, by the way. ”

She stuck out her hand for him to shake.

He didn’t take it. He just stared at her as if she was some kind of crazy person, his eyebrows knitting together.

“Huh?” he said, and it was such a ridiculous, clueless sound when contrasted with his sharp-dressed, cool-guy image, that she couldn’t help but laugh.

Okay, maybe he wasn’t expecting to get hired on the spot, I guess?

“You’ve got the job,” she said, making sure to say the words clearly.

Chloe knew she’d have to get used to having someone so toe-curlingly sexy around all day, but given his performance just now, how could she turn him down? She couldn’t not hire him for being too hot! His calming presence around animals was invaluable.

Even if he was somehow terrible at working reception, those skills could be taught. Being able to bond with animals like that , on the other hand, was a gift.

He opened and closed his mouth, clearly trying to choose his exact words before speaking.

Chloe didn’t think anything beyond That’s fantastic, thank you so much was really required, but she supposed that she should be glad that he was the kind of person to think before he spoke.

Especially if Huh? was the kind of thing that was otherwise likely to come out.

“You’ll probably want to wear something different, by the way,” she said absently. “Not that you don’t look fantastic in a suit, but I’m thinking smart casual. At the very least, you should probably lose the jacket and tie.”

And the shirt, she almost added, before catching herself just in time. The blush from earlier came back full-force, and she had half a moment to see his eyebrows shooting up his forehead before she turned away in order to hide her glowing red face.

The silence extended out until it was definitely entering ‘awkward’ territory, and in the end Chloe had to turn around to face him again, red face be damned.

Ethan was still looking at her in a way that suggested he was not thrilled with the job offer she’d just extended to him.

“Uh,” she said, her eyes narrowing just a little. Is he… offended I want to hire him? She’d never hired someone before – had she somehow said or done something wrong? “Is there some kind of –”

It was a stupendous relief when her cellphone chose that moment to start buzzing, and she snatched it up out of her pocket and answered it before the first ring had even finished.

“Hello?” she said a little testily, not meaning to be rude, but more than a bit puzzled by the situation she was in.

“Hi Chloe,” the breezy voice on the other end said. “It’s Keisha from Alpine Professionals here. How are you?”

“Good, good,” Chloe said, a little too quickly. “Listen, he’s grea—”

“I’m really sorry to do this to you,” Keisha said, her tone turning apologetic.

“But the receptionist I originally set up for you to interview has just called up to say that she’s accepted a permanent position closer to home, and won’t be there today after all.

I’m truly sorry for this mess. I’m looking now for other qualified candidates –”

Keisha kept talking, and Chloe went Mm-hmm and Yes, of course in all the right places, but internally, she was screaming.

Ethan isn’t the receptionist?! He’s just some guy that wandered into the building… and I forced him to look after a dog?! She held back a groan, only just stopping herself from keeling over from embarrassment. And then told him to take off his tie?! And he just went along with it?!

Who did that kind of thing? And why had Chloe not realized that there was something wrong? Looking back, it was pretty damn clear from the moment he entered that he wasn’t a small-town receptionist.

But the way he calmed Bella down, just like magic…

She half-listened as Keisha promised to find her a new receptionist by Monday, and Chloe murmured her thanks before hanging up the phone, still facing away from Ethan.

The silence in the room was agonizing. Clearly Ethan was waiting for her to speak first, and she couldn’t exactly say she blamed him.

Just to make things particularly painful, the Sugitas had left an old clock hanging on the wall, and each excruciating tick echoed through the room. The fact that the clock was in the shape of a cartoon cat’s face and the eyes moved back and forth with each tick was not helping the situation.

There was nothing for it. Chloe clenched her fists, and forced herself to turn around and look Ethan in the eye.

He stared down at her impassively from his great height. And while she knew that he had every right to be pissed, something about his attitude just rubbed her the wrong way.

She narrowed her eyes.

“So just who the hell are you, anyway?”