Chapter 30
THIRTY
ASHER
Blue’s face fell, and he was already apologizing as he yanked his phone from his pocket.
“I’m so sorry. It’s my boss. Rex only calls me off hours if it’s a real emergency.”
“Take the call, Blue,” Jax told him, and instead of grabbing Blue’s hand, he took mine, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
Blue answered the phone in a hushed voice. “Rex? What’s going on?”
As Blue listened, his face got paler, and his expression got tighter around the mouth, then all at once he got this sad look on his face that just about broke my heart.
I was nearly desperate to know what was going on, but I made myself act like an adult and wait until he was off the call before bombarding him with questions.
“What’s going on? Is everything okay? Do you have to leave?”
Blue took a breath and nodded sadly. “Rex has been called by animal control. The police have responded to a situation at a home. I don’t know exactly what went on, but they have a lot of animals.
And they’re not in the best shape.” He looked up from his phone.
“I’m going to get a cab over to the clinic and help Rex prepare for the influx of animals.
You two should stay here and continue as we’d planned. ”
We couldn’t have our first date without Blue. We had plans. Maybe if it were down the road, somewhere in the future, I wouldn’t mind if plans had to change and one of us had to step away for whatever reason, but not the first date. It was both of them or neither of them.
“No,” I said, sounding a lot less hysterical than I felt. Go me. I looked at Blue and plucked the phone out of his hands. Setting it aside, I grabbed both his hands in mine. “We’re not having our first date without you.”
“I can’t stay. Rex—all those animals—they need me.”
I glanced over at Jax, who I think must have read my mind, because when I raised my eyebrow, he seemed to understand what I was silently trying to convey.
“We can do this another time, Blue. At least let us drive you to the clinic. Ash and I will find some other way to occupy our time.”
I could have asked what he meant, but I wanted to trust that we were on the same page, so I stayed quiet instead. Andy chose that moment to return and Jax took control of the situation.
“We’ve had an emergency come up, and we won’t be able to stay.” Jax pulled some money out of his wallet and handed it to Andy. “That’s for our drinks and the trouble.”
“Is there anything I can do?” Andy asked, looking at us for signs of distress.
“No, but thank you,” Jax replied. “You have a good evening.”
Blue was already on his feet, and we followed him through the restaurant out to the car. He climbed into the front seat without argument, and the minute the car was in motion, he was apologizing again.
“I’m sorry I ruined our date.”
I hated how upset he sounded. “You didn’t ruin anything. I think it says a lot about the kind of person you are that you will drop everything for something you care about.”
I was sitting behind Jax, who was driving, so I could see Blue. He looked genuinely upset he had to bail on our date, but I understood. And so did Jax. Some things were more important than dinner dates. Like tiny, defenseless animals.
“Did Rex say how many animals to expect?” Jax asked, like he was reading my mind.
“He doesn’t know for sure because they don’t know for sure.
The property they’re at is a rescue someone was running on their own.
” Blue let out a sigh that sounded like it came from the depth of despair.
“People mean well, but they bite off more than they can chew. Or sometimes they start small, but people who don’t want to drop their animals off at a real shelter will take advantage.
And before they know what’s happening, they’re the hot new place to dump unwanted animals. ”
I didn’t bring up my plan on purpose because I didn’t want Blue to have time to argue about it or try and talk me out of it. And I had a good feeling that Jax would be on board, but just in case he wasn’t, I didn’t want him to feel pressured into doing anything that he didn’t want to do.
But it turned out that I didn’t have to worry about that because we pulled into the clinic where Blue worked, and Jax killed the engine. Blue, distracted and oblivious, didn’t notice what we were doing until we got out of the car.
“I don’t know how long I’ll be,” Blue started to say, then he seemed to clock the fact that Jax and I were out of the car. “What are you doing?”
“We’re going to help you,” I said. Sliding up next to him, I put my hand on his shoulder.
“No, you should go and…”
Jax cut him off. “Go and eat food and talk about how we should have stayed to help you? Dream on, Blue. There will be other dinners. Your job is important to you, and you’re important to us.”
He blinked at us and moisture gathered in his eyes, but he quickly blinked it away.
“I don’t know how much we’re qualified to do, but we’ll help where we can.”
Blue took a deep breath and when he exhaled, he looked a few pounds lighter. “Okay. Come on in. I’ll get you guys masks and gloves, and we’ll touch base with Rex about what needs to be done.”
As far as first dates went, this turned out to be one of the more memorable ones. We were there barely long enough to get a quick tour and a rundown of what to expect when the first load of animals showed up.
The first two vans pulled in, stacked to the roof with animals in crates. Jax and I helped unload the carriers. After the smaller crates were taken from the top layers and carried inside, the larger crates were put on carts and wheeled into the building.
The smell was wildly unbearable and not something I cared to dwell on.
The masks didn’t help much, but it was better than nothing.
Once the animals were inside, the vans left to go back to the scene.
The vet staff—Rex, Blue, and a small handful of people whose names I quickly forgot—worked like a well-oiled machine.
It took a bit, but once we got into a rhythm, Jax and I would bring a new patient in and hand them off to one team of vet staff, who did an initial exam while they waited for Rex to come have a look.
We’d head over to one of the other teams and take whatever animal we could to the kennels in the other room.
Sometimes we were allowed to give them food and water.
The animals who required more care than Jax or I could deal with were handled by Blue and the staff. Some needed IV fluids. Most of them would need more thorough exams later, but the volume of animals that had come in made me queasy.
At one point during a lull, we’d washed our hands and then Jax had disappeared, only to return a minute later with an armful of bottled water.
“Found these in the staff room. Take one for yourself; I’ll pass the rest out.”
Jax was so good at taking care of people, and it was that thought which had me smiling when he returned a minute later with just one bottle of water left for himself.
“What?”
“You’re just perfect. That’s all.”
“I’m perfectly covered in filth.”
I scanned him from head to toe, and yeah, we were both covered in pet fur and other things that we wouldn’t think too hard about.
“I bet you’re glad you didn’t wear basketball shorts today,” I quipped, noting the grime on his jeans.
“These jeans will never be the same, though.”
“I’m going to burn this shirt when we’re done.
” I sympathized as Blue rounded the corner.
His eyes lit up when he saw us and despite the fact that we were all covered in animal hair and other…
stuff, he walked right up to where Jax and I stood, shoulder to shoulder.
Blue waltzed in and claimed the space between us.
But instead of being a wedge and forcing us apart to make room for him, Blue brought us closer together.
Jax raked his hand through Blue’s hair. “You okay, babe?”
“Yes.” Blue let out a sigh and curled his arm around my waist, tugging me closer. “No. But I like that you’re here. I can’t believe you stayed.”
“This is a far better first date story to tell.”
Blue laughed, but it was a weak laugh tinged with sadness. I knew he loved his job, but I also knew how hard on him it was sometimes. Times like tonight, when humanity’s uglier side was on display. These animals had deserved better than they got.
“You say that now, but there’s more animals on the way.
” Blue sounded weary, and I started to wonder if he was going to be able to make it through the rest of this.
But then he took a deep breath, and I watched him rally.
He took another deep breath, one that didn’t sigh out of him.
His shoulders rolled back, and he straightened up.
“It’s just one more van. We can’t handle more than that.
There’s no room here, so they’re taking some of the others to a different clinic across town.
We understand if you want to go home, it’s been a long night, and we’re not done yet. ”
“We don’t mind,” Jax answered for us both. “We’re not going anywhere, not until this is dealt with and you can come too.”
Sometimes, when Jax and Blue looked at each other, I’d get this pang in my chest that felt a bit like envy.
Today, I felt that, but there was also this rush of warmth there.
A feeling of safety and comfort washed over me.
I knew that these were two people I could count on for anything.
They hadn’t given up on me, even though I wouldn’t have blamed them if they had.
That warm feeling wrapped itself around me, and I knew then that this wouldn’t just be the story of our first date.
It would be the story I told when people asked how I knew I loved them.
I mean, it had to be love. I was covered in animal hair and smelled like death, and yet Blue looked at me the same way he’d looked at Jax.
Affection pooled in his eyes like it was an infinite thing.
I wanted to tell them how I felt, but I wondered if they’d believe me.
Just a short time ago, I’d been convinced that I loved Lukas.
Was I the boy who cried love? I didn’t think so. This felt real in ways that my feelings for Lukas never had.
“You okay?” Jax asked. Slipping a hand into my back pocket, he gave my ass a gentle squeeze.
Before I could answer, one of Blue’s co-workers popped out of a hallway. “They’re here,” she said then she vanished just as quickly, back the way she came.
“Duty calls.” Blue squared his shoulders, and Jax and I followed him outside to the van that was waiting.
There would be time later to tell them how I felt.
Right now, there were things that were more important than my feelings.
Like the crate with the kittens at the back of the van.
Dirty, scared, and loud. Their little cries pierced my heart, and I made a beeline for their crate.
The momma cat was in with them and in my expert opinion, from having spent the past few hours looking at dirty animals, she looked to be in better condition than a lot of the others.
I still made sure she and her kittens were the first ones Rex saw from this batch of animals.
“Are they going to be okay?” I asked Rex as I held two of the three kittens. They’d tried exploring and I’d scooped them up, and instead of fighting to get away, they promptly fell asleep. “What about momma cat?”
“Momma cat is a bit thin, but she’s okay.
She and the babies need a flea bath and their ears cleaned, but given the circumstance, they’re pretty healthy, if a bit skinny.
” Rex gently tucked momma cat back into the carrier with her other babies.
“You can get them tucked away in a kennel with some soft food and some water, and we can take care of the rest later.”
I reluctantly put the sleepy kittens back in with their siblings and found them an empty kennel to cuddle up in. I was slipping some food and water into the kennel when Jax came up and crouched down next to me.
“They’re cute.”
“Yeah.” I reached out and pet the little black one.
“You want one, don’t you?”
“Am I that transparent? I mean, look at them. Who wouldn’t want one?”
“People with a sense of smell.” Jax laughed when I shoved him for his remark, even though it was true.
“All they need is a little love.”
Jax put his arm around me and dropped a kiss to my cheek. “They’ll get it.” he said, as if he knew for sure that things would turn out okay for the little kittens. I chose to believe him.