Chapter 22
Nate
SANTA, CAN’T YOU HEAR ME
I pick up a plate at the end of the long makeshift buffet table that has been set up in the kitchen.
There are people literally everywhere, and Denise and Zack could not be happier.
The whole family is like this. It’s like the more the merrier but on steroids.
“Hey,” I hear from behind me and look over to see Gavin. “What’s going on?”
I grab the serving spoon and scoop some eggs onto my plate. “Not much,” I reply. “What about you?”
“Exhausted,” he admits as I walk to the next tray of breakfast sausage.
“Jet lag.” I try to be polite with him.
He smirks and then grins. “Something like that,” he says, looking around. “Let’s just say, I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“Good to know.” I move to the pancakes and grab a couple. “Take care,” I say, grabbing two slices of bacon and then taking off before he says anything more to me.
I look around at all the full tables and see Elizabeth sitting with a bunch of her girl cousins, and I smile when I hear her laugh.
Smiling because she’s getting to spend time with her family.
Making a mental note to ask her if she misses them when she’s not here.
I make my way over to the table where Jack is sitting with Matthew, Max, and Zack, pulling out a chair and sitting down.
“I’m starving,” I declare, making the staple Stone breakfast taco, where you put the scrambled eggs, sausage, and bacon in the pancake, and then dip it in the syrup.
“I’m taking it that Elizabeth didn’t cook you breakfast.” Jack snickers while he takes his own bite of food.
“I don’t know about you,” Matthew offers, “I would not eat anything from someone who wanted me dead.”
“She doesn’t want me dead.” I look at the guys, who just give me a confused look.
“She’s wanted you dead for the past, I don’t know, ten years.”
“No, she hasn’t,” Zack adds. “The two of them used to fight just like Jack and Joshua.” He defends me. “She would get under his skin at times, and he would get under hers, but she never really wanted to kill him.”
“Pretty sure when he used to eat her food that was in the fridge, she wanted to kill him.” Jack laughs. “Once he took the last ice cream sandwich that she tried to hide, and she took all of his shoes and threw them in the pool after she poured honey in them.”
I shake my head, remembering the memory. “Yes, and she also put it in my skates, and I didn’t check before I put my feet into them.”
“I remember that,” Jack says. “The floor in the locker room was sticky for a fucking month.”
“Don’t remind me,” Zack states. “We also had an infestation of ants after that.”
I can’t help but look over at her. The two of us have so many stories over the years, some good, some bad, some so great it fills your soul so full like it’s about to explode.
Then the worst was after our night together.
The only other time I had felt that type of pain and sadness was when I lost my parents and then my grandparents.
The phone rings from my back pocket, and when I pull it out, I see it’s the office calling. “Hello.”
“Hey, Nate,” Chloe, my vet tech, says, “I know you aren’t on call and are on vacation but—”
“What’s up?” I ask her.
“Priscilla got food poisoning last night and Bruno,” she mentions the vet who is taking over for me and the dog one of my first clients has, “has come in with a blockage in his—”
“What did he eat?” I ask her.
“A pair of panties,” she replies, trying not to laugh.
“I’ll be there in a bit,” I tell her and disconnect. “I have to go in. My replacement got food poisoning.” I finish my taco and push away from the table. “I have to go and tell Elizabeth.”
“I can take her back to your house,” Jack offers, “or she can come home with us.”
“I’ll just tell her,” I say, grabbing my plate and taking it to the kitchen, putting it in the sink before I turn and walk toward Elizabeth, who is still sitting with her cousins.
I walk to her and her eyes fly up to meet mine. “Hey,” I greet, nodding to all of them. “I just got a call and I have to go into work. One of my dogs got into some personal items and has eaten a pair of underwear,” I tell her. “Jack said he can take you back to my house or you can wait here.”
“Or,” she suggests, “why don’t I come with you?”
“To my work?” I ask her, shocked that she would come with me instead of staying with her family.
“Yeah.” She gets up and looks at the girls. “I’m a doctor. I’m pretty sure it’s almost the same thing in the operating room.”
I shake my head as she moves quickly to say goodbye to her parents and then meets me by the door. “You don’t have to come with me.”
“Are you kidding?” she replies, putting on her boots. “This is a much-needed escape. They were talking about doing some sort of wedding prep, and I’m not about that life.”
“What wedding prep?” I ask her as I put my own boots on.
“Something about welcome bags and party favors.” She grabs her jacket. “All I know is I’m not making anyone a welcome bag when I was kicked out of my own house.”
“You know, technically, it’s not your room anymore,” I remind her as I shrug my jacket on and she just glares at me.
“Wow, someone is choosing violence before he has to perform surgery. I would hate to, I don’t know, break a finger or something.”
“Noted,” I deadpan, opening the door for her and waiting for her to walk out. “See? Chivalry.”
She rolls her eyes at me as she follows me to the truck. “Do you want me to open the door for you?” I ask her as she reaches for the handle.
“A gentleman would have just done it and not asked,” she throws over her shoulder, getting in the truck.
I get into the truck and start it as she rubs her hands together. “You cold?”
“It’s not as cold as it was yesterday,” she replies and I look out to see little snowflakes falling as I take off toward my clinic.
Seeing the sign for Paws & Claws, I pull into the parking lot and head to the back where I park.
Two other cars are in the parking lot, one Chloe’s and the other Benny’s, who is the receptionist and vet tech intern.
I get out of the truck and meet Elizabeth at the back, the snow coming down a little bit heavier now.
“Wow, so this is where the magic happens?” She looks around, seeing the brown one-story building with green roof.
“You should know, the magic happens in my bedroom,” I tease, and when she snorts, I wink at her.
She pushes my shoulder, and I grab her hand, walking to the brown door, pulling it open, and stepping inside.
In the small space there are four pairs of boots, along with five pairs of inside shoes.
I shrug off my jacket and hang it on an available hook, while I kick off my boots and slip into my work Crocs.
Elizabeth stomps her shoes and then rubs them on the carpet.
“Are there slippers I could wear?” I point to my second set of Crocs as she kicks her boot off and then slides into them.
Her feet look like they are being swallowed by them.
I open the white door and step into what I call, command central.
There are two long stainless steel tables in the middle of the room and a long counter desk in front of the tables.
All around the room are counter spaces to work on and drawers under them where we store all medications and supplies we keep locked up.
“Hey,” I greet, and Chloe looks up at me, a big smile filling her face.
“Hey yourself,” she says and the smile on her face fades as she sees Elizabeth behind me. “Um.” She tries to cover up the fade and then gives me the same smile.
“Chloe,” I say to her, “this is Elizabeth. Joshua’s sister.”
“Oh,” she replies and she quickly now changes the smile back to the one she gave me when I walked in. “Hi.” She walks over to Elizabeth and extends her hand. “It’s so nice to finally meet you.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” Elizabeth holds out her hand and smiles at her.
“So,” Chloe asks, “how is the wedding prep coming along?”
“It’s almost over,” I answer, walking over to where we keep the charts. “What do we have?” I pick up Bruno’s chart.
“Mr. Milioti said he started acting funny this morning and then started throwing up, so he brought him in. X-ray shows there is something.” Chloe comes to stand next to me. “He’s blocked right there.” She points to the scan. “Because of where it’s sitting, we can’t give him any meds.”
“I’m going to have to go in and remove them,” I state and then look to Elizabeth. “It should take me about an hour.”
“I’m good,” she assures, looking around and then going over to the six crates we have piled up with two cats in them. “Hi,” she coos to the cats and sticks her hand in. One of them swats at her. “I like you the best,” she tells the cat. “Zero fucks to give, I get it.”
I walk to my office. “Want to see my office?” I ask her and she follows me in and then shuts the door.
Only when it’s closed do I push her against the door and do what I’ve been wanting to do for the last hour.
I hold her chin in my hand and my lips touch hers.
Her mouth opens and her tongue slides out to meet mine.
Her hands grip my sides, pulling me closer to her.
The hand at her chin now slides into her hair as I turn my head to the side and the kiss deepens.
“Is this why you want me to see your office?” She smiles up at me after I let go of the kiss.
“No,” I deny and then kick off my Crocs and then peel off my pants.
“I’m not having sex with you in your office with your staff members right outside this door.” She folds her arms over her chest. “Especially since Chloe is for sure in love with you.”
I stop midway to taking off my sweater. “She’s my technician,” I say softly.
“So, people don’t fall in love with people they work with?” she asks me and my eyebrows go up.
“Did you ever fall in love with someone you work or worked with?” I don’t even know why that statement bothers me, but it does.
“No”—she shakes her head—“because I know not to shit where I eat.”
I peel the sweater over my head and toss it to the side. Her eyes get heavy with lust as she gives me an up-and-down look. “You are going to have to wait,” I tell her as I put a clean pair of scrubs on, “until later.”
“I think I can contain myself.” She holds up two hands. “Do I have to change to come in the room with you?”
“You really want to come in the room with me?”
“Well, yeah.” She crosses her arms at the hem of her own sweater and pulls it up and over her head, leaving her with black leggings and a black lace bra. I lick my lips. “You’re going to have to wait”—she points at me, peeling her leggings over her hips and down her legs—“until later.”
“Fine,” I huff, my cock half-mast as she reaches on the shelf for a pair of scrubs. My hand comes out to roam over her ass. “But after”—I slap it softly—“it’s all mine.”
She gets changed into the scrubs and has to roll the top of the pants twice and then use an elastic band to bunch them at the side.
We walk out of the office and Chloe sees the both of us in scrubs and just turns her head the other way.
Shit, I think to myself, Elizabeth might be right about this one.
I have never once given her any notion that it would be more between us.
I make a mental note to stay strictly even more professional with her.
“Is Bruno ready?” I ask her and she nods her head.
Two hours later, we are both dressed again and walking out of the vet clinic.
Bruno was just waking up and the nighttime tech is going to be on duty all night long, making sure he’s okay.
The minute I open the door, I see that not only is it still snowing, but there has been an accumulation of the snow.
“Shit,” I swear. “This might be a storm.” The wind picks up as the snow blows into my face.
“Get in the truck,” I tell her, opening my door and starting it before taking the snow brush out of my back seat.
My fingers feel like they are frozen by the time I get back into the truck.
“My father just called, said they are expecting six inches of snow over the next twenty-four hours.”
“Oh fuck.” I look at her.
“Macy’s having a minor meltdown, and my uncle Matthew is on the phone trying to make sure we get a couple of chartered planes on standby.”
“Shit, we should hit up the grocery story now that we’re out. It might be a day before the roads are clear.”
I pull out and it takes me thirty-five minutes to drive the fifteen minutes to the grocery store. The two of us fill the basket with all sorts of things. We get home and the steps are covered in snow. “Go open the door,” I tell her as we get out and I reach into the back to grab the bags.
“I don’t know the code,” she tosses over her shoulder.
I close my eyes, knowing I’m going to have to give it to her. “It’s one, two, two, three, eighteen.” The minute I say the numbers, she looks over at me.
“What?” I pretend I don’t know what is going on.
“That,” she says, standing on the second step, “that’s the night we—”
I nod my head, not sure I want to have this conversation in the middle of the steps.
“We should get in there,” I tell her, avoiding looking at her as I pass her on the steps. “Whiskey has been in all day.”