A/N: Thanks again for everyone's great reviews. I take them all good or bad. Thanks to Steph!! Girl you are the cheese to my toast!!
Disclaimer – Stephenie Meyers owns all that is Twilight.
Chapter 4
The Vet Visit
BPOV
I spend most of Wednesday grooming Phoenix and just using the time to bond with her. It's important that I win over her trust, but I can already tell it is going to be a daunting task. Horses, by nature, are flight animals; which means if they are cornered or scared, they do whatever it takes to vacate the scene.
Phoenix definitely lives up to her name. Every time I come near her, she literally tries to take flight to get away from me. I just don't understand what this beautiful, once trusting mare could have done to deserve the mistreatment she has obviously received from human hands. Finally, after about an hour of moving slowly, she relaxes enough that I can brush her and comb out her mane, although her tail is a different story. She is alright with my brushing her as long as she can keep an eye on me, but when I step behind her to try and comb the tangles out of her tail; she kicks out with one hind foot. It is just a warning from her, but I take it seriously. All in all though, I feel a lot of progress has been made between the two of us today. I decided to end on a positive note, very thankful that I am able to walk away in one piece and pleased that Phoenix is actually looking like a horse again!
Thursday morning comes and I drive up to Renee's around eight thirty in the morning. She is already out in the barn taking care of the morning chores, so I decide to go ahead and hook up the gooseneck trailer to my truck. Once that is accomplished, I walk to the barn to get Phoenix.
"Good Morning Sunshine!" Renee yells from the feed room. My mom is such the morning person; me not so much.
I mumble "Good morning" back to her without putting much effort into the greeting. She just shakes her head and laughs.
I load Phoenix into the trailer and jump in to the truck, waiting for Renee. Instead of getting into the passenger seat as I expected, she walks up to my window. Confused, I ask her, "Mom, aren't you going to come with me?"
"Nah, not this time Bella. You need to do this on your own. You bought her by yourself; you can take her to the vet on your own." She smiles and pats my arm. I understand, and she's right, I can't rely on her all the time.
"I do want you to make sure Dr. Cullen looks that leg over real good though, Bells. Everything depends on what he says about it." I nod, understanding full well what my mom is saying, even though she's trying to be subtle so I won't worry so much.
Phoenix's whole career path relies on Dr. Cullen's findings. If the leg has been injured beyond repair than Phoenix will become a broodmare and have beautiful babies. However, if the leg is healed and we are given the green light, then I will be able to start conditioning her and hopefully put her back on the barrel pattern. I'm torn away from my thoughts when Renee hands me a piece of paper with directions to Dr. Cullen's clinic
*********************************************************************************************************************
I find Dr. Cullen's practice without any problems. As I slowly make my way up the long driveway, there is a white fence on either side with horses in both pastures. I realize then that the clinic is actually located at Dr. Cullen's home. The house itself is beautiful; it's Victorian influenced with a wraparound porch. I notice a shiny silver Volvo parked in the front and it doesn't surprise me that they would own a nice car like that.
The gravel drive winds around to the rear of the house to another building that must be the clinic. It's not huge, but definitely big enough to keep several horses on site and looks to have state-of-the-art equipment. It is an immaculately clean building, but still seems inviting rather than sterile and foreboding.
I park my rig under a large shade tree, get out and walk to the reception area where an attractive woman with reddish hair is sitting. Her hair falls in pretty waves past her shoulders. It looks perfectly styled, but she seems to be the type of woman who doesn't have to try look good. Probably she just let it dry naturally and it looked fabulous. She looked up from her desk and smiled warmly at me, "Can I help you dear?" She asks.
"Yeah, thanks, I'm Bella Swan; I have a ten o'clock appointment with Dr. Cullen." I return her smile.
"Bella! It is so nice to finally meet you. Your mom has told us all about you. I am Esme, Dr. Cullen's wife."
"Very nice to meet you Mrs. Cullen" I smile and extend my hand.
"No, no dear, that won't do. Please, call me Esme." She grabs my hand and clasps it between hers. Normally this kind of affection would have made me uncomfortable, but something about this tiny woman with her warm smile and motherly eyes made me feel right at ease.
"Wait right here dear I will go get Carlisle." She gets up and retreats to the rear of the clinic.
I start to have a seat in the reception area, but I look around and notice the pictures covering the wall. There are several pictures taken of horses in the winner's circle from racetracks around the country. I look over each pf them and it's evident that Dr. Cullen has treated a lot of high caliber horses. I continue scanning over the pictures and see one in particular that catches my eye. It appears to be an impromptu family portrait. I recognize Esme and there is an older gentleman standing beside her with his arm wrapped lovingly around her waist. I assume this is the famous Dr. Cullen. The third person in the picture literally takes my breath away; he is singularly the most beautiful man I have ever seen. He was standing off to the side holding a black horse, smiling as one hand rested on the horse's neck and the other holds the lead rope. He is tall, but with a muscular frame and his eyes were the deepest, purest green color I've ever seen. It was as though he could sear a hole right down into my soul. His hair was an unusual bronze color, it had no defined style to it really, and it just kind of went where it wanted. I'd call it "sex hair" because it looked like he just finished up a good roll in the hay.
I was mulling over exactly how sexy his hair was and thinking how much I'd like to run my fingers through it, grabbing a handful to pull him closer to me when I was yanked back to realty as someone behind me cleared their throat. I spun around only to be face to face with both Esme and Dr. Cullen.
Oh dear God in heaven, please tell me these two did not see me ogling their son in that picture. I feel the heat in my cheeks and I know I am blushing. I feel like a kid who just got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Man, oh man, what a cookie it is too! Okay, it's time to get a grip; these are his parents for God's sake!
"You must be Bella. I'm Dr. Cullen, but I prefer Carlisle, if you don't mind – nothing stuffy and uptight for us here." He smiles warmly and I can't help but blush an even deeper shade of red when I think of Alice and Rose practically drooling over him, because honestly, their descriptions just didn't do this man justice. He is positively gorgeous. My brain is snapped back into the moment when he continues, "Renee says you have a horse you need me to look at?"
Snap out of it Swan! The man is old enough to be your father!
I nod my head at this vision of perfection in front of me.
"Well let's get her unloaded shall we?" With that Dr. Cullen pivots on his heal and walks out the door. I smile at Esme and promptly follow him out.
I walk up to the drop down door of the horse trailer and untie Phoenix and then lower the ramp so that I can back her out. Once I get her unloaded, Dr. Cullen instructs me to lead her into the examination area of the clinic. I start to get butterflies in my stomach, scared to imagine what Dr. Cullen may find after he examines her.
Once I get Phoenix into the area designated for exams, Dr. Cullen starts asking me general questions such as her age, the last time she was vaccinated and the last time she was given medication for worms. All of this information will go into her chart for future reference. I answer his questions as best I can, then he sets his clipboard aside and turns to my mare. "Let's give her a thorough once-over, shall we?" I just smile and nod.
"Um Dr. Cullen? I am particularly interested in her right back leg. She has a nasty scar there and I want to make sure that there is no underlying damage." My voice is trembling, nervous about what he might find.
"Not a problem Bella. I noticed that right off the bat, actually. It does appear that whatever happened there was rather traumatic by the looks of the scar." He looks at me intently for a moment and then goes back to the routine exam.
I felt my breath catch and I gulp at what he just said, fearing the worst. I feel tears start to well up, those damn traitor tears have always been my Achilles heel. Every time I get scared or the least bit emotional, I cry and the tears just won't stop, no matter how hard I try to dry them up. There's just no use. I just turn my head away from Dr. Cullen and hope he doesn't see.
Dr. Cullen is very thorough and goes over my mare with a fine-tooth comb. After he makes notes on her chart, he bends down and picks up the once injured leg. He starts flexing it at the pastern, or ankle joint and at the hock, or knee. I know exactly what he's doing, he is seeing if Phoenix will show any signs of soreness in those areas. He's also checking her range of motion to make sure it hasn't been compromised. Phoenix never moves, not even to flick her ears, and I take that as a good sign. There may be hope after all!
Dr. Cullen turns to me and says, "Bella I honestly would like to take an x-ray of that right back leg just to be safe. There doesn't appear to be any soreness, but I want to make sure." I nod my head in agreement just as an attractive girl walks around the corner with a portable x-ray machine and a couple of slides.
This must be Dr. Cullen's tech. She is tall, lean and her hair is almost black. A cute pair of glasses rests on her nose. Her clothes are very casual, jeans and a scrub top that has little different colored horses all over it. Just from the looks of her I can tell she has a very good soul. I feel totally at ease as she walks over to me. The tech smiles a reassuring and sweet smile then says, "Hi, I'm Angela Weber, Dr. Cullen's tech. If you don't mind, I'll need to hold Phoenix while Dr. Cullen takes the x-ray." I hand Angela the lead rope and step back, not understanding why I couldn't hold my own horse. Then, I notice that Angela is putting on a lead vest. Well, no wonder she needed to hold the mare; I didn't have one of those flattering vests. I chuckle to myself.
As I lean up against the wall, the door opens from the reception area. Figuring it was probably Esme or another tech, I don't look up right away. When I heard a voice as smooth as pure spun silk the hair on the back of my neck stood up, my breath hitched. My heart raced as I heard him speak. "Dad, I just got finished unpacking my boxes from the move and wanted to see if you could use a hand?"
My head snaps up, eager to see who that beautiful voice had come from. That's when I saw him… the man from the picture in the reception area. Oh my stars, the picture did not do him justice! He was standing with his back to the door he'd just walked through. He looked like he just stepped out of the pages of GQ. Sweet mercy, he was still sporting sex hair! I quickly try to divert my eyes elsewhere, not wanting to get caught staring. For some reason, my eyes have a mind of their own and I can't stop myself from looking back up at him and than our eyes lock. The greenness of his eyes in the picture paled to their vivid color in realty. I was still unable to will my eyes off of this Adonis. My vision drifted over he chiseled face, seeing his strong, square jaw line and perfectly shaped lips. God, how I would love to suck on his bottom lip! In that instant, it was as though he could hear my thoughts as those divine lips turned up into the sexiest crooked smile. Dear God in heaven, I think I am in love! I know I've blushed ten shades of pink by now and finally Dr. Cullen's voice breaks me out of my daydream.
"I've got this, Edward. I'm almost done anyway." I think my heart actually sank a little, wishing Dr. Cullen would ask his son to stick around so I could continue staring and memorizing every detail of this beautiful man. "Bella, this is my son, Edward. He just moved here from Stephenville, Texas and is going to be joining me here at the clinic." Dr. Cullen's voice isn't irritated, but he's talking fast, busy working on getting my mare's x-rays taken.
With what seemed like one graceful move the god himself was standing in front of me with his hand stretched out for me to shake. If only he knew what I actually wanted his hands to do to me.
"Very nice to meet you Bella." He annunciates every word perfectly, I think I am going to faint!
I reach his outstretched hand and gasp when we touch. The electricity coursing through our hands when we touch almost felt like a static shock, but more intense and longer. An instant later, I withdrew my hand and wonder what the fuck just happened! I'm sure my mouth is hanging open in utter shock, confusion, lust and about a thousand other emotions.
"Bella, I'm going to process these films and I'll be back in a minute to go over them with you." Dr. Cullen says as he disappears into the other room. Angela hands me back Phoenix's lead rope and follows him out. FUCK! Fuck, fuck, fuck! That leaves me alone with this statue of male perfection. Sweet Jesus… please let me be able to form a coherent sentence.
"So um Edward you just moved here? How do you like it so far?" Shit, I sound like a complete fucktard; I am so bad at this! Someone as beautiful as this guy would never be interested in someone as plain as me.
"Well, I just got here yesterday, but so far I love it." His mouth forms that fucking delicious crooked smile again. Damn, this man is going to be the death of me! Hurry up hot daddy vet before I pounce on your son and have my way with him!
Just then, I hear Dr. Cullen call me into his office. I sigh, partly out of relief and partly because I want to stand here and look as this man for the rest of the day…well, maybe I wanted to do more than look. Shit! I mentally scolded myself. You're here for your horse, dumb ass! Get your head in the game!
I tie Phoenix up and turn back to Edward. "Well um…" Hot damn, I am really showing off my stellar use of the English language today! God help me, I hope he doesn't ask what I do for a living because there is no way he'll believe I'm an English teacher with the vocabulary I'm using today. I try to redeem myself and have only slightly better results as I continue, "It was really nice meeting you, Edward. Maybe I'll see ya around?" I look up at him as I bite my bottom lip. It's a nervous habit I've had since I was a kid and no matter how I tried, I never could seem to break it.
"Most definitely Bella, most definitely." That sexy fucker knows exactly what he's doing to me, I'm sure of it. I was blushing even more now and I knew I wouldn't be able to speak without sounding like a damn idiot, so I just pivot around and high tail it to Dr. Cullen's office.
~*~*~*~
End Note: Next Chapter will be from Edward's POV. Finally!!!
Don't forget to leave me some love!
