Stitch

The Trident Series
STITCH
Jaime Lewis


Copyright © 2021 Jaime Lewis
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, events, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
The Trident Series - Stitch
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the author.
ISBN: 978-1-952734-10-6


Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter one
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Epilogue
Book List
About the Author


Chapter one
"Okay, you little rascals, try not to give Lou any trouble tonight," Mia playfully warned the five chocolate and tan Dachshunds puppies as she gave each one a gentle scratch behind the ear before securing the crate. They were the cutest little furballs, especially as they burrowed close to each other. Lou was the clinic’s night time cleaning guy.
Mia stood and adjusted the room's lighting, so it wasn't too bright or too dark. After checking on a couple of the other animals, she made her way down the clinic's main hall, flipping off light switches as she passed by exam rooms. It had been another busy yet productive day at New York's Riverside Animal Hospital. She sighed. She had been hoping to go for a run after she got off work, but once again, Dr. Walters had called and asked if she could cover his appointments. The last few weeks, it had become the norm—the first one in and the last one to leave.
She had only been a couple of months into the job, and she already had begun to feel burned out. Dr. Walters had done a phenomenal job building the facility to be the city's top-rated animal hospital. The schedule was insane as they dealt with various cases, from routine check-ups to evasive surgeries. She was definitely getting the experience she had hoped to gain by accepting the job that Dr. Walters had offered. With the holidays approaching, it seemed as if they were double booking appointments to squeeze everyone in before they shut down for the four-day holiday weekend.
She would never let on how she felt, as she didn't want to disappoint Dr. Walters.  He had taken a gamble on her through word of mouth from one of her professors. Plus, she heard from a few staff members that a few doctors before her never even lasted a full year. When she questioned why, they told her it was because of the long working hours, and when they complained about it to Dr. Walters, he found reasons to terminate them. That wouldn't look good on a resume for someone like her, fresh into her career.
What kept her going was the drive and determination to become the next great veterinarian. It didn’t matter if she was a workaholic; it wasn't as if she had a life outside of work anyway. She had a few friends from the clinic, and they would get together for dinner or drinks every so often, but that was the extent of her social life. At least in the city. When she could get a weekend off, she'd usually spend it at her soon to be sister-in-law and brother's house in Virginia Beach. It was there she felt at home. She always made sure that her brother was in town, because that meant the odds of seeing the one man who had captured her heart was guaranteed.
Evan "Stitch" Watson was a member of her brother, Ace's SEAL team. She had met Stitch a couple of years ago. The team had been on leave for an extended weekend when Ace invited Stitch to spend it on their ranch in Oklahoma.
Stitch possessed every quality she had looked for in a guy. He was polite, funny, caring, and not bad on the eyes. Their paths had crossed a few times after their initial meeting, but when she moved to New York to continue her studies, they hadn't seen much of each other until last Christmas when she spent the holidays with her brother and Alex. Those two weeks had been a whirlwind yet eye-opening. She and Stitch had been seated next to each other during Christmas dinner, and the conversation between them flowed so smoothly. The more they spoke, the more she realized how much they had in common. There had been a connection with him that she never felt with any other man. They had spent practically every waking moment together in between his work schedule the days following Christmas. When she went back to New York, they had kept in touch.
At the time, she had been dating Terek, her now ex-boyfriend. Mia knew before the holidays that their relationship had fizzled out. In the last few months, the relationship had become monotonous. When he wasn’t working, he would grab take-out and bring it over to her apartment. Even then, his mind seemed elsewhere. Granted, he held the top security position at one of the busiest buildings in Manhattan, and she understood the stress he was under, but there just wasn’t any spark left between them. Being around Stitch during Christmas and seeing what she could have in a relationship had solidified that it wasn't fair to either her or Terek to continue seeing each other. One night after work, she went to his apartment to talk to him, but she surprised him and herself when she found another woman in his bed. Sadly, she wasn't even really that upset, proving that she had made the right decision to end their relationship. Terek had been the one who seemed most affected by it.  Whether it was guilt or the realization of what he had lost, she didn't know, nor did she care.
As the months went by, she and Stitch danced around the attraction they had for