The Vet's Unexpected Houseguest
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Juliette Hyland
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CHAPTER ONE
THE RHODES ANIMAL SERVICES sign swung in the wind as Dr. August Rhodes stepped from his beat-up truck. Either the paint he’d used as a teenager had remarkable staying power, or someone had made sure that the navy blue color his father enjoyed never faded. Probably the latter.
Dr. Jeffrey Rhodes set high standards for his clinic, and for his son. And when those standards weren’t met, well, the wall of silence the man could build was impenetrable. The half a dozen sentences his dad had uttered today were the most he’d said since the day of August’s high school graduation.
That explosion had been epic.
He still wasn’t sure how his father could’ve been surprised by the fact that he wasn’t one of the top students. But he’d graduated, a feat that even August hadn’t been certain he could pull off when he saw his English score at the midterm.
Dr. Jeff’s only concern was his vet clinic and his reputation as the best vet in town. And August had not been the best at anything. Hadn’t even tried to meet the standards his father set. An unforgivable sin.
Still, he’d excelled at the local community college before transferring to the state school. To his surprise, he’d loved biology and animal husbandry. So, he’d applied to veterinarian school and been stunned when the acceptance letter arrived. The four years had flown, and he’d loved every minute.
August had hoped his new devotion to the career his father loved would change their relationship. He’d sent his dad an invitation to his vet school graduation. The olive branch had gone unanswered.
He’d sworn that day that he’d never try to prove anything to his father or anyone else. You could take him or leave him, but he was enough, just as he was.
So what am I doing here now?
The question had rattled around his brain as he’d hit the Tennessee state line. He’d almost turned the truck around several times, but he’d already finished his relief contract with the Stonybrook Veterinary Clinic. The small Arizona clinic had been a nice change after the cold of Alaska. When they’d begged him to stay on, to consider joining the practice as a partner, he’d considered it.
Then the wandering nature he’d inherited from his mother kicked in. His need to be somewhere else, anywhere else called to him. So, he’d said no, made his goodbyes and hit the road.
Maybe he wasn’t meant to find roots. But he had a career he loved. As a relief vet, he made his own schedule, worked where he wanted, when he wanted.
And most importantly, August Rhodes was not his father. Clinics and the clients they served made him smile and brought him joy. But he refused to let his life revolve around one. Refused to push away the ones he loved for a practice. He was already more like the man who’d barely raised him than he was comfortable with.
Yet, here I am. If Dad got a call about me being in the hospital at three in the morning, would he have come to my aid?
August didn’t want to consider that question too closely. He’d answered the call. That was what was important. The nurse had said his father had been injured in a car accident, that he’d be spending weeks in the hospital followed by at least a few weeks in a rehab facility. Then she’d asked him when he could be in Foxfield.
Bitterness had reared its ugly head as he almost told her never, but since he suspected that was the answer his father would give in this situation, August found himself saying two days.
Once he’d uttered the words, he’d felt honor bound to see them through. Just to prove that he wasn’t like the man who’d sired him. The man who pushed away everyone he loved with impossible standards.
He’d stopped at the hospital first, another chore he probably should have left to later. But the small boy in him that cried out for his father’s affection had never completely gone away. Though August swore that today was the last time that piece of his soul got a say in his decisions.
His father had looked tired, and so much older than he’d imagined. His tongue had been just as direct though. No words of affection after their long estrangement. No sorrys or regrets.
Nope, just orders about the clinic. His father claimed that the vet he’d hired a few years ago wasn’t able to handle the load on their own. That he was worried about the vet.
Worried. That word hung in August’s mind. His father didn’t worry about people, only animals. Before he could ask more, his father had said he didn’t want the animals to suffer. And he was concerned if the vet couldn’t handle it, that it would hurt the clinic’s reputation. And just like that the man he knew was back.
More concerned about the clinic than people. Still, with a list of faults that could stretch a mile, his father truly cared about animals.
It was the one quality August was proud to share with the crotchety doctor he was forced to admit he was related to. That was why he was standing in front of the place he’d sworn he’d never set foot in again.
Animals couldn’t complain about what was bothering them, and for most owners they were part of the family. They deserved the best care, and if his father wasn’t here to handle it, helping out for a few days, a week at the most, at least until he had a better plan was good start.
But all those thoughts didn’t keep the keys his father pressed into his palm, after August had said he needed to find a hotel room, from burning. Nor did they stop the urge to simply walk away.
He didn’t owe the man anything.
Flipping the keys over, he took a deep breath. He was already here. He looked at the keys, the first was to the clinic, and the second was to the small house his father maintained behind it. A rental that his father was constantly looking for new tenants for. Ones that would live up to the high standards he expected...demanded.
He tried not to let it hurt that his father had offered him a room there rather than his old bed at home. Not that he wanted to return home. And the rental was a huge improvement over a hotel... Still, being asked if he wanted to stay at home would have been nice.
He threw that thought away as he tried to push the emotions he’d kept behind walls in his heart back in their place. He was here for the animals, nothing more.
Focus, August.
The clinic had closed hours ago. He yawned. He should just head to the rental, crawl into bed and check the place out tomorrow. But August wanted to get a look at the clinic, reorient himself to it. Even though the clinic probably looked the same as it had when he left.
Dr. Jeff was set in his ways. Stubborn, unchanging...
When August had mentioned painting the waiting area to something besides the sallow yellow his mother had thrown on the walls when she was still speaking to his father, his dad had said that there was no need to change anything. That his clients came to him because he was the best vet for fifty miles. At that time he’d also been the only vet, but August had known well enough to keep that thought to himself.
“Standing in the parking lot, looking at the front door isn’t going to get you a hot shower and a soft bed, August.” When chiding himself didn’t make his feet start moving, he pulled a hand across his face.
It was less than five hundred steps from the parking lot to the front of the clinic. It should not be this hard to cross the threshold.
Rolling his head, he stretched. Then August grabbed his beaten-up duffel bag from the truck cab and forced himself to step away from the truck.
Here goes nothing.
The door to the clinic swung open, and August reached for the light switch, prepared to step back into his past.
Except...
The front looked completely different. The waiting room was painted a light blue, there were pictures of animals doing silly poses and a wall listing valuable information for pet parents.
Pet parents...
August could not imagine his father using that phrase. The room was welcoming, inviting, almost soothing. And he was stunned by how much it sucked that it wasn’t the same. That his father had waited until he left to finally make some changes to the old place.
Without him.
Maybe the vet hospital on the edge of town was costing his father business? It had certainly looked impressive when he drove past it. August had worked in a few fancy locations. In his experience, the corporate vet sites cared more about the bottom line and getting the most money for each procedure than about their patients. But that didn’t stop a lot of people from taking their pets to the seemingly upscale locations.
The exam rooms here were clean and brightly colored with more happy pictures plastered on the wall. Either his father had hired a designer, or the man had had a distinct personality shift in the last fifteen years. Likely the former, since he’d shown no hint of any change in the short time he’d spent barking orders at August from his hospital bed.
Overall, there was no hint of the disorder his father had told him to expect. No indication that the other veterinarian was having issues. But looks could be deceiving.
His eyes wandered the walls again and stopped on the award shelf. That hadn’t changed. His stomach flipped as he saw the framed certificates and handful of plaques. A reminder that his father excelled at things...and August didn’t.
At least not in ways that put your name on fancy plaques and trophies. He swallowed the feelings building in him. He was not traveling that well-worn path tonight.
Flipping the keys in his fingers, August walked to the back door of the clinic and looked at the small house where his father had said he could stay. The front bushes were overgrown, and the flower gardens looked like they’d been haphazardly weeded. But it was a place to stay for the short time he was here.
His father had said that the house was stocked, and at least he knew August would be close by in case the clinic needed anything. He’d not asked after August’s desires, or if he wanted to stay at home, just handed him the key for the house and returned his worries to the clinic.
That shouldn’t have been surprising. And it shouldn’t have hurt. But that didn’t stop the ache in his chest as he looked over his shoulder at the clinic. If it magically evaporated, August wouldn’t mourn its disappearance.
Rhodes Animal Services was Dr. Jeff’s obsession. A truth his mother learned when she packed her bags and told him he had a choice, he could hire more vets to help him out and cut back on his hours or he could lose her.
He hadn’t even paused when he’d said he wasn’t hiring anyone to help at his clinic, and if she wanted to go, then she was free to leave.
To this day, August wasn’t sure if he’d been calling her bluff. They’d never divorced, and his mother loved his father to the day she died, but they never slept under the same roof again.
August swallowed as he tried to pull the vision of his mother’s face forward. It had faded over the years, but the memories of their trips together were still crisp. His mother had wanted adventure and she’d gotten tired of waiting for her husband to join her.
So she’d taken August with her. To Boston, England, South Africa, Alaska. Sometimes she’d throw a dart and just visit the city. It had been heaven.
Until an ice storm stole her away. And overnight he was left with the man who always saw him as an underachieving burden.
He let out a sigh and started up the steps to the house. This was why he’d never returned to Foxfield. He’d always feared it would bring back too many memories, and he hadn’t been wrong.
He’d stay a few days. A week at the most. He mentally circled the date in his mind. A target he could focus on.
He had a few connections with relief vets who might want to do a short rotation in Tennessee. And he’d gently bring up the game plan in case his father wasn’t able to return to full-time work.
Whoever the other vet was they were either a saint or another type A jerk who meshed well with his father to have stayed on for several years. The longest he’d seen another partner hang on was eight months.
But that was tomorrow’s problem. Tonight he wanted a hot shower, a soft bed and at least eight hours of uninterrupted worries behind shut eyelids.
The front foyer was inviting as he stepped inside. Another shock to add to the growing list. An empty shoe rack sat by the door and more of the blue paint he’d seen in the waiting room covered the walls. The living room was stocked with comfy looking but well-used furniture and more than a few knickknacks littered the mantel. The look was cute, almost like the cottages and apartments he saw listed for weekend rentals online.
He stepped into the kitchen and smiled. The little table and the flower wallpaper just felt like a home. A ridiculous feeling given that he was staying in his father’s rental house instead of his actual childhood home, but the feeling persisted.
The kettle on the stove let out a hiss, and August jumped. A kettle in an empty rental shouldn’t have hot water.
“What the hell are you doing in my house?”
August turned as the words hit his back, dropped his duffel bag and raised his arms as he stared at the beautiful brunette, with fire dancing in her eyes, who seemed more than willing to use the baseball bat held high over her head.
Dr. Kit Bedrick held the baseball bat above her head and prayed that despite being barely over five feet tall, she looked frightening to the far too handsome giant standing in front of her hot kettle. If she’d remembered to plug her cell in during her day at the clinic, she could have called for help. But no, she’d been too busy to pay attention to the draining battery. And Dr. Jeff had pulled the landline out of this rental a year before she signed the lease.
She’d considered running out the front door, but Bucky’s leash was in the kitchen. There was no way she was leaving her one-year-old pit bull cross in the house with a stranger. And she’d been too busy at the clinic to train him to stay by her side outside without a leash.
The first thing he tried to do when he got outside was chase a squirrel. And she was far too exhausted to run after him tonight.
Another mark to add to the ever-growing list of to-do items that never quite got done.
“I said—” she waved the bat, mostly to hide the fact that her arms were starting to shake “—what are you doing in my house!”
As if this episode couldn’t get more ridiculous, Bucky bounded to her side, finally awake from his nap. He waited a moment for Kit to pat his head, but when she didn’t lower the bat, he moseyed over to the intruder’s side.
Then the dog rolled over at his feet and smiled. She loved watching Bucky smile, it always warmed her heart, except he was at the feet of a stranger—granted one who looked as stunned to be found in her kitchen as she was at finding him.
“Some guard dog you are.” She glared at the intruder, hoping that the raised hands meant that he wasn’t intending harm to her or her dog.
“Kit—”
Her name coming from the hunk’s mouth almost made her lower the bat. Foxfield had grown sizably in the last two decades, but there were plenty of ways for the Adonis standing in her kitchen to know her name.
But that did not mean he should be in her kitchen!
“Answer the question! What are you doing here?” She heard the terror rising in her throat. The kettle continued to squeal, and her heart jumped. “Bucky, come here!”
The dog wagged his tail and looked at her but didn’t move from the intruder’s feet. Seriously! She needed to find more hours in the day to focus on his training. He was a perfect angel in the clinic, but at home, he reverted to a mischievous devil.
“My dad gave me the key, and I suppose he forgot to mention he had rented the place out to you. Oh, God, did he sell it to you and...?” Crimson climbed his neck as he looked at her.
“August?” Kit blinked as the words he said rattled around her brain. No. There was no way that the man standing in her kitchen was the rebel who’d left Foxfield, determined never to return. Though whom else would Dr. Jeff have given his key to? “August Rhodes?”
“Yep. I swear, I didn’t know the house was rented. My father...” He pulled his hand across his neck, then looked at the ceiling. “You’d think he’d have at least mentioned it.”
Except it didn’t surprise her that Dr. Jeff hadn’t mentioned it. If it didn’t revolve around the clinic, it barely registered on the man’s radar. Though even if he had tried to call, her phone was dead.
But the fact that the rebel son of the local vet had finally found his way home stole all the words from her brain. They’d graduated high school in the same year, though they’d not shared a friendship group. Kit had hung with the kids mostly labeled nerds and overachievers. August... Well August’s friends had been the exact opposite.
Had Dr. Jeff finally called him?
He’d never said it out loud, but Kit knew he missed his son. There was a picture of him in the desk draw, the edges of it worn.
“Any chance I can lower my arms and pet the handsome Bucky at my feet?” August’s lips tipped up and the deep dimples that had made more than a few of the girls in their high school go weak appeared. God, the man really had gotten better with age.
But that did not excuse him barging into her house.
Unintentionally, Kit.
She could get mad at Dr. Jeff. But what good would that do now? Besides, if she were honest, she wasn’t surprised that Dr. Jeff would give him the key to his rental rather than his home.
The man was a grump, but she knew it was loneliness speaking. A loneliness he did not seem interested in addressing. The few women who’d worked up the courage to ask him out were turned down quickly. He gave everything to his clinic. And despite lamenting the changes she’d made to it and complaining that none of it was necessary, he’d let her update things.
The more welcoming environment had not changed the acerbic vet’s nature, with anyone, but he listened when she offered suggestions. And he’d started talking about retiring. Finally.
If she could just hold on for another year or so, Kit was certain she could convince him to sell the place to her. Then she had a real shot at taking on the Love Pets Vet across town.
Love Pets Vet had been her dream, once. She and her husband, Leo, had cut the ribbon with giant scissors provided by the local Chamber of Commerce. It was their place, their dream.
But sometimes life forced your dreams to change.
Now she was determined to make Rhodes Animal Services the best in town. If she could just win the Foxfield Finest Award, she’d be able to say it was the top clinic.
It was a silly local award with multiple categories with everything from Best Bakery to Best Mechanic. Local shops put the sticker on their door and merchandise. And Rhodes Animal Services hadn’t won since she started working there. A fact that Dr. Jeff bemoaned when the awards were announced. Her mother’s boutique won it each year too...something the woman never let Kit forget.
Love Pets Vet always came out on top. A fact her ex-mother-in-law called to gloat about every year. Never mind that they sent out email reminders and offered free cookies in office if their clients voted with their mobile phones right at the counter. Maybe the game was rigged, but Kit knew if she worked hard enough, it could be hers.
And then, perhaps, her former in-laws would know they’d made a mistake forcing her out after Leo died. At the very least she’d earn the award her mother coveted. Finally a first place for the perpetually second-place Kit.
But she needed to stay on Dr. Jeff’s good side to do that.
She looked at August, her mouth watering as she looked from his chiseled jawline to the jeans hugging his body just right. He didn’t seem like much of a threat to her.
“Fine. But don’t move other than to pet Bucky.” She lowered the bat as August lowered his hands. Her arms shook as she leaned the bat against the wall. Maybe in the imaginary hours she was compiling on her to-do list she should add strength training?
“Who’s a good boy?” August’s baby voice echoed in the kitchen as he bent and rubbed Bucky’s belly.
Despite the trauma of finding him in her kitchen, her frustration at Dr. Jeff for causing the situation and the exhaustion pulling at her, Kit’s heart melted a little. Tough-looking men with hearts for animals were her weak spot. And with a tattoo sleeve on his left arm, scruffy beard and loose T-shirt, August looked like the exact opposite of a man who would make the baby noises as he rubbed her dog’s belly.
Bucky was a lost cause. He’d follow August anywhere now. But Kit wasn’t that easy to sway. Her heart had stopped racing when her husband passed almost ten years ago. Now her focus was the clinic and the dog currently showing a preference for an intruder over her. Though that didn’t mean she couldn’t admire the man’s beauty.
“Why did your father give you a key to my place?”
August shrugged as he continued to pet Bucky’s belly. “If I had an answer to that question, I wouldn’t have caused this scene. Want me to get the kettle off the stove before it runs dry?”
“Yes.” Kit sighed as she looked at August. Maybe it was a mistake, but he didn’t look like the rebel that had done the exact opposite of everything his father had demanded. The fight they’d had in the high school parking lot one morning because August had walked out of the house in torn jeans had been the talk of the school for days. Particularly when August had shown up with torn pants for the rest of the week.
He’d been the bane of many of the teachers’ existence. August might have skipped more classes than he attended in high school, but their twenty-year reunion was next year. She wasn’t the same person she’d been at eighteen, and she doubted August was either.
August lifted the kettle and pointed to the mug she’d set out. When she nodded, he poured water over the tea bag. “I am sorry, Kit. My dad said I could crash here in the spare room. Now that I think about it, him saying spare room should have sent warning signals dancing across my brain. But it’s taken me two days of driving to get here from Arizona.”
The spare room? She’d forgotten that clause in the rental agreement, one she wasn’t sure was completely legal, but since Dr. Jeff had never exercised the option, she’d assumed he wouldn’t. Which was her mistake.
She took the mug he offered and moved to the table. “There is a spare room that the lease says I have to let your father rent out, if necessary, but I figured he’d at least talk to me about it.”
An uncomfortable laugh escaped her lips as the words left her mouth, “But it’s not surprising he didn’t give me a warning.”
“I’m not staying long,” August said as he slid into the chair across from her. “If you don’t mind me staying tonight, I’ll find a motel or something tomorrow.”
“No, you can stay. The room is at the end of the upstairs hall and has its own bathroom. The sheets and everything are in the closet in there. It just caught me off guard.”
The last thing she wanted to do was upset Dr. Jeff. She’d worked for too many years to get on the man’s... Well, he didn’t necessarily have a good side, but he was cordial to her. Which was more than he managed with most of his staff.
They had an open account with the temp agency in town to supply a new receptionist when Dr. Jeff’s crabbiness inevitably ran theirs off. But the man was going to retire at some point, and the clinic was going to be hers.
Then the few changes she’d managed to accomplish could become major initiatives. That day was close too, she could feel it. If that meant she had to host his son for a few days...
Well, August wasn’t hard to look at.
She tilted her eyes to the tea mug in her hands, hating the heat creeping up her neck. It didn’t matter that he was attractive. If she’d seen him on a street corner, or anywhere other than standing uninvited in her kitchen, she might have ogled him for just a minute.
But none of that was relevant. She’d been alone forever. He was hot, and these were just random intrusive thoughts as her body dealt with the adrenaline draining from her.
She finally looked up and shrugged. “Seriously, August, it’s fine. I don’t mind if you stay. Like I said, I technically agreed to it in the lease.”
August raised an eyebrow and looked at his duffel bag. “Why don’t we play it by ear for a day or so. I’m really not staying long. Just going to check in on the other vet. I guess Dad doesn’t think they’re able to handle the patient load without him.”
That statement didn’t surprise her. Dr. Jeff had an inflated sense of self, and he pushed his staff harder than he should. But she’d grown up with a mother who’d demanded perfection too. And her in-laws had taken those demands to the extreme.
Only Leo had loved her for her. Only he had cared about her dreams and the joy they brought rather than the money or prestige they could gather. But he’d been gone for almost ten years. Nine years longer than they’d been married.
Unfortunately August’s father’s assessment wasn’t completely incorrect either. His patient load was less than hers these days but covering both sets of patients wasn’t possible long-term.
And the car accident had crushed Dr. Jeff’s left leg. Even if he fully recovered, it would be months before he could return to the patient load he’d managed before his accident. Assuming he even wanted to.
And she was struggling to manage her own load, even if she had no plans to admit it. She could do this. She just had to work a little harder. Be a little better tomorrow than she’d been today.
But why would he ask August to check on her?
The man had spent two years at the local community college, then disappeared. To the best of her knowledge, he hadn’t returned home since then. Dr. Jeff never talked about him. A vet clinic, even a well-run one, could look chaotic. If he didn’t have any experience in the field, he could mistake a normal day for an out-of-control nightmare.
“I’m managing fine, but I appreciate your father’s concern.” She laid her hand on Bucky’s head. Hoping petting her sweet boy would calm the feelings of inadequacies pulsing around her.
She was fine. Fine. She was.
If she repeated the words to herself, could she make them true? It was the mantra she’d used through high school, college and veterinarian school. The trick had worked then, at least mostly. It had worked less often since Leo’s death.
But she wasn’t going to let her worries overwhelm her. Not tonight, and not in front of August Rhodes.
If he was surprised to realize that she was the vet, August didn’t show it. Instead he looked from the dog at her feet to the mug of tea and then to her face. The look he gave her sent heat down her spine. How long had it been since someone looked at her with concern?
She wasn’t going to spend time delving into the answer to that sad question.
“Are you okay?” He crossed his arms and leaned back in the chair. “Because even with another clinic in town, I can’t imagine Rhodes Animal Services is an easy task for one vet. The place has grown by leaps and bounds since the last time I was here. I swear I barely recognize the city.”
“New is relative, if you haven’t been in town. Love Pets has been there over a decade.” Her hand brushed her neck where the wedding band she’d worn for less than a year hung. Eleven years... The clinic had been there eleven years. Swallowing the emotions clogging her throat, she added, “There is even a new high school across town—it’s only four years old.”
“Changing subjects?” He raised an eyebrow and leaned closer to her.
Her cheeks heated as she took a sip of tea.
Why is his presence unnerving me?
“Not really. But it’s easier to talk about the size of the town than to talk about the odds that your father will look into hiring a temporary replacement. So, I’m all the clinic’s got.” She raised her chin, daring him to contradict her.
He rubbed his face as he looked at her. “I suspect he will rebel against that thought, at least until he has a good idea of whether or not he can come back at all.”
“And if he doesn’t come back—”
“I suspect he’ll shut it down, sell the land and move. I can’t imagine him being willing to sell it to anyone else. The place is his life. Not sure if he’s capable of letting someone else step in,” August stated, then he cringed as he looked at her.
Her face must have looked as low as that thought made her feel. “He’s talked about letting me buy it.” That was mostly true. He’d listened when she’d talked about the option, though he hadn’t responded to her query about becoming a partial owner through a partnership.
“My dad really said he’d let you buy it?” His eyes held hers and he cocked his head. It was a motion similar to his dad’s, but with more caring in his face. “Kit?”
“He didn’t immediately say no.” She blew across her tea, even though it didn’t need cooling.
August made a noncommittal noise, then sighed as he looked at her with what she feared was pity. “The clinic across town looks like it can take care of the patient load. It certainly looks big enough to handle more than his office.”
“Big does not equal qualified.” Kit felt her brows furrow at the idea that Rhodes Animal Services would close without Dr. Jeff. She was more than capable of taking it over. Of hiring another vet to help her with the load. Of making sure the town knew that when it came to animals, Dr. Kit Bedrick was the best choice.
This was her home, her brothers and nephews were here. And she couldn’t leave Leo. His spirit was gone, but leaving the town where she’d laid him to rest was a step she wasn’t willing to take. Kit was staying in Foxfield. Which meant she needed Dr. Jeff to sell to her...eventually.
August gave her a look that Kit didn’t understand. “I bet they’d hire you. It looks to be more state of the art. My father’s clinic—”
“Serves the animals just fine. And we have a full surgical suite, multiple specialists on call, an in-house lab and a mobile X-ray machine.” She crossed her arms as she moved to stand. There were things she wanted to add, like oncology consults and a part-time radiology tech, when she finally bought the clinic. But even without those things, Rhodes Animal Services was still very capable. “The last thing I need is the prodigal son returning to Foxfield determined to cash in on his father’s injury.”
That was unfair, she knew it. But if August encouraged his father to sell to someone else, what would she do?
“I don’t want a thing from my father.”
“If that were true, then you wouldn’t be here.” August’s eyes flashed as the words flew from her lips, but she didn’t pull them back. Maybe he didn’t want to admit he wanted something from his father, but actions spoke louder than any words.
But then who was she to judge? Her mother lived less than four miles from here, and she saw her on holidays and whenever she felt the need to drop by and lecture Kit on some failure—real or imagined.
Both her brothers were at the top of their career fields, Stephen the chief financial officer of a startup technology company. He had two of the cutest little boys and a lovely wife. And David was the founder of an engineering firm that built artificial intelligence machines.
Even as a successful vet, she was the black sheep of her family. She didn’t own her own clinic and rented a house. All the things her mother expected her to have achieved by her mid-thirties were still just out of reach. Heck, she’d even come in last in height. In a family of six-foot giants, she could barely claim five-one.
“How many patients did you see today?” August’s question hovered between them as she tried to figure out the shift in his tone. And tried to force the feeling of failure that always seemed to hover at her heels away.
“What?” She hadn’t meant to let that question out, but life didn’t have a rewind button. Rather than wait for him to ask the same thing again or to figure out that her mind wasn’t focused on their conversation, Kit answered, “Almost forty...or maybe a few more. I haven’t been able to reschedule all of your father’s clients.”
“Forty?” August shook his head as he patted Bucky.
Weren’t dogs supposed to be loyal?
She snapped her fingers, trying to get the dog to return to her side, but his ears appeared to be turned off.
Spoiled brat.
“That isn’t sustainable, Kit.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I can help for a few days and put out some feelers for relief vets to see if anyone wants to take a short rotation in Foxfield.”
“You’re a vet?” It was the wrong question. She knew it as soon as the words hit August’s ears.
He shifted in his seat, the confident persona slipping for just a minute. “Yep. Guess Dad forgot to mention that when he brought me up.”
Dr. Jeff never brought August up. But she wasn’t sure hearing that would be helpful in the moment. So instead she pivoted the conversation again. “Do you have any specializations?”
“I have worked all over the place with all sorts of species, but no official specializations outside of dogs, felines and horses. Though in Idaho I helped birth more than a few cows. And of course saw all sorts of lizards and snakes when I lived in Florida.” The tips of his lips tilted up.
That was nice. Most vets loved all animals, but reptiles were few vet’s favorites. Occasionally one wandered into their clinic but not often. If any needed to be seen while August was in town, she’d happily let him.
“I’ve worked as a relief vet since I graduated veterinary school. I am certified in a few different states that have reciprocal licensing agreements with Tennessee.”
The idea of having a helping hand, at least for a few days, was such a relief she hadn’t even considered his license. She needed more rest than she wanted to admit. But there wasn’t time. Since it opened, Love Pets Vet had taken nearly an eighth of the patient load from Dr. Jeff, and this was the first year that they were on track to have a net gain of clients. There wasn’t time for resting.
“I appreciate you staying a few days, August. And I’ll be at the clinic early. Feel free to stop by if you want to settle in.”
“Tomorrow morning? It’s Saturday. Is the clinic open for a half day?”
“Nope! It’s open all day on Saturday. Nine to five. But I work seven days a week. Sundays I don’t usually see patients, but paperwork and such...” Kit smiled. She was proud that she managed to keep such a schedule. The clinic and the animals she saw were her life. Though the look passing across August’s face did not seem like he thought her schedule was something to be proud of.
Her chest squeezed but she ignored the feeling. It happened anytime she felt like she was disappointing someone. But it didn’t matter if August Rhodes was disappointed in her.
He was a temporary vet, the prodigal son of her boss and already plotting his escape from Foxfield. They’d wanted different things in high school, and it was clear that while so much had changed, that hadn’t.
Scooting back in his chair, he stood and grabbed his duffel bag. “I see why my father and you have managed to work together for more than a few months. I’ll see my father’s patients tomorrow. But Sundays are rest days. You can’t help your clients if you’re burned out.”
She barely managed to hold her tongue as she sipped her sleepy-time tea. She wasn’t going to argue the merits of her schedule, and she was certain he wouldn’t agree.
“I’m going to grab a shower and crash. Been a long day.”
“Spare room is at the top of the stairs, last room on the right. The bathroom for that room is attached to it.”
August nodded, then took his leave.
She raised the now-cool tea to her lips. The certainty that August’s comment regarding the length of the professional relationship she’d maintained with his father was not a compliment rattled around her brain. Her chest clenched again. It shouldn’t bother her that the hunky intruder didn’t approve. But the tinge of uncertainty pulsing at the back of her brain sent a bead of worry down her spine.
No. What August Rhodes thought of her did not matter! She stood and looked at the small blackboard by the cabinet. Be the best was written in pink chalk.
She knew what she wanted in life. What August Rhodes thought was not important.
Period.
