CHAPTER TWO
“You really dodged a bullet earlier,” Alys said with a chuckle when Lee walked into the staff room.
“Why do you say that?” he asked as he opened the fridge to pull out his lunch.
“You got to deal with the daughter and not the mother who owns that cat.”
“Queen Charlotte?” He couldn’t help the grin that came to his face. “I can’t wait to tell Charli that I had a snobby cat as a patient today, and it had her name.”
That made Alys laugh. “She’ll probably like that.”
Lee grabbed a bottle of water, then joined Alys at the table. She had a large bowl of salad in front of her and took a bite of it as Lee opened his lunch bag.
“What did Charli make you today?”
Lee wasn’t surprised to see a container of the previous night’s meal. “Rice and meatballs, and some cookies for dessert.”
“You are so spoiled.”
Lee couldn’t disagree. It was just one of the many bonuses to having moved into his sisters’ large home.
Having been used to an apartment of his own for several years, he hadn’t been sure he’d be able to handle living with a bunch of people.
Apparently, it wasn’t a problem because it had been over two months since he’d arrived back in Serenity, and he was still living there. He hadn’t even seriously looked for a place of his own yet. Though that would probably change in the next month, once he moved past the probationary period he was currently in at the clinic.
“So tell me about the mother,” Lee said as he went to the microwave to heat up his lunch.
“When she first got the cat, she was in here constantly. If the cat coughed up a fur ball, Mrs. Cannon brought her in for a checkup. If the cat meowed and it didn’t sound right, she brought her in to make sure she didn’t have a sore throat. And that’s just two examples. It was endless.”
“Looks like maybe the daughter is following in her footsteps.” He had seen her concern as they’d spoken, her blue gaze filled with worry.
“Oh, she was much better. The reason for bringing the cat in might have seemed a bit weird, but at least she listened to what you said. She didn’t argue with you and threaten to report you for malpractice to the—and I quote—the people in charge of veterinarians.”
“The mother sounds… lovely,” Lee said, joining Alys at the table. “Maybe I did dodge a bullet.”
“Oh, you definitely did.”
“Can’t be easy to have a mom like that,” Lee mused. “I bet a lot of her worry was how her mom would react if something happened to the cat while she was watching her.”
“That’s probably true. I have to say that I’m glad my mom isn’t like that.”
“Yeah. Neither is mine.”
His mom could be a bit over-protective of her kids, but she wasn’t unreasonable. And she certainly had never acted that way over a pet.
It had been apparent that the young woman was embarrassed by the whole thing. He had to remember that things that might be obvious to him weren’t so clear to people not used to being around pets. Everything had indicated that the young woman wasn’t a pet owner.
“Cheryl said she asked if the clinic was hiring.”
Lee glanced at Alys. “Really?”
Considering why she’d come to the clinic, he wasn’t sure she’d be a good fit. Not that the receptionist position required a vast knowledge of veterinary medicine, but it helped if the person actually liked animals. Lee wasn’t sure that was the case with Queen Charlotte’s sitter.
“What did Cheryl tell her?”
“Well, if the woman had asked a couple of weeks ago, she might have gotten a different answer. But Cheryl has already hired her replacement, and she’s going to start training her next week, I think.”
“How many weeks does she have left?”
“She still has eight weeks, but Cheryl wants everything settled well before then. That way, if she goes into labor early, she doesn’t leave the clinic in a lurch.”
It didn’t surprise Lee that Cheryl felt that way. Since she was the daughter of Dr. Carl, the owner of the clinic, it made sense that she was going to make sure that her departure from the clinic would go smoothly.
As if hearing her name, Cheryl came through the doorway into the room. She moved slowly that day, but still had a smile on her face as she joined them at the table with her lunch.
“Oof.” She let out a sigh as she sat back in her chair. “I can’t believe I still have two more months left.”
Between bites of her salad, Alys asked, “What were your other pregnancies like?”
Cheryl rubbed a hand over her stomach as she took a drink from the large water bottle that she carried with her everywhere. “Easier than this one, but I have a feeling that’s because I was eight years younger. I don’t think age makes pregnancy any easier on the body.”
“Did you stay home with your other kids?” Alys asked.
“Yep, and even though this pregnancy was a surprise, I’ll be staying home with this baby, too.”
“That’s why you have been so focused on your replacement,” Alys commented.
Cheryl nodded as she unwrapped her sandwich. “Yep, and thankfully, that’s been resolved.”
Hearing Cheryl talk about her soon-to-be-born baby, Lee’s thoughts went to the newest member of the Halverson clan. About a month before he’d returned to Serenity, quite out of the blue, Charli and Blake had adopted a baby girl. That had followed their crazy fast wedding at the beginning of the year.
Baby Shiloh was the cutest little thing, with big light brown eyes and wisps of dark hair. She had two older sisters who absolutely doted on her. In fact, everyone doted on the little baby.
Being around the next generation of the family was one of the positives of being back in Serenity. He was sure his mom hoped that he’d be more open to a relationship after being around his married siblings, but that wasn’t likely to happen just yet.
Not that he was opposed to a relationship, per se. In fact, he hoped to get married and have a family one day. However, his last long-term relationship had left him feeling wounded and needing time to learn about his past before he would be open to another relationship.
For the time being, he was back in Serenity. How long that would be depended on how these first three months went. He was on trial at the clinic, and while he didn’t plan to do anything that would jeopardize his position, Lee knew nothing was guaranteed.
After he finished his lunch, he headed to the other side of the building. Sounds of laughter greeted him as he stepped through the connecting door.
“Hi, Lee,” an older woman said as he approached the large, curved desk that faced the front doors. There were two other people with the woman. A middle-aged man and a teenage girl.
After greeting the man, Lee said, “I thought I’d come take a look at that new litter of kittens.”
“They are so cute!” Rachel exclaimed, giving him a big smile. She was a home-schooled teen who volunteered at the animal shelter several times a week. In fact, it was a rare day he didn’t see her there helping with the animals.
“Did you ask your mom if you could take one?” Carmen asked, the playful twinkle in her faded blue eyes saying she already knew the answer.
“I sure did, but she said not a chance.” The teen’s heavy exhalation made Lee think of his youngest sister Skylar, who, even though college was done for the year, was still not home for the summer.
“Don’t you need a cat, Lee?” Cap asked with a grin. His sparse snow-white hair capped a thin and friendly face.
“I think Charli would have something to say about that. I was lucky everyone agreed to Elsa moving in with me.” His nieces—Charli’s daughters—Layla and Amelia had been helpful in convincing the rest of the household that Lee’s Cocker Spaniel was essential to their future happiness.
It had also been a help that Elsa was well-trained. In the year and a half that he’d had her, she’d had very few accidents, and none at all in the last six months.
“A dog and a baby are probably all the household can handle at the moment.”
“That’s understandable,” Carmen said. “We didn’t get our first dog until our youngest was two years old, and that little puppy added a ton of excitement to the house.”
“Well, since I can’t have a kitten at home, I’ll just hang out with them here,” Rachel said.
The teen went with Lee to the small room where they’d placed the litter of kittens that had been brought in a couple of days earlier. They were so young, and since the mother hadn’t come with them, they had to be fed by hand.
As he picked up a little white kitten, Lee was reminded of the cat he’d seen that morning. The difference was that the kitten welcomed his affection. He hoped that the woman who had brought the pet in, had taken his words to heart and didn’t worry too much about the cat not purring.
“Do you think we’ll find people to adopt these?” Rachel asked as she prepared a small bottle to feed one of the kittens.
“I don’t know,” Lee told her, choosing to be honest with the teen. “But hopefully we can find people who want them. As long as we don’t get another litter, their chances will be better.”
“We need to set up a social media account for this place and include pictures of the animals we have for adoption. Other shelters do that.”
“I’ve seen that,” Lee said. “You’d probably have to convince Dr. Carl of the benefit.”
Rachel sighed as she fed one of the kittens, snuggling it close. “He’ll probably say no.”
Lee thought maybe she was right. Coming from an animal hospital in a big city, there had been a stark contrast in how things were run in Serenity. Not that the animals received sub-standard care at the Serenity clinic. In fact, he’d say that it was on par, or in some cases, actually better.
It was just that Dr. Carl liked things done the way he wanted them done, and some of those things were not the most up to date. Like using social media to help advertise the shelter and its animals.
Cheryl might have been the one person who could have convinced him, but Lee doubted she’d make the effort when her attention was focused on her pregnancy and training someone for her job. Maybe once his position was more secure, he’d push harder for things like social media for the shelter.
For the rest of the afternoon, Lee split his time between the clinic and the shelter. Dr. Carl was out of the office at a nearby ranch, which meant Lee was responsible for any patients brought in.
But eventually, the clinic’s hours of operation wound down, and the guy who took care of the shelter and clinic during after-hours came on duty. He cleaned the premises and monitored the shelter occupants and any animals who were staying overnight in the clinic.
Lee shared on-call duties with Carl, though so far, he hadn’t been called in.
“See you tomorrow,” Lee said to Cheryl as he headed to the back of the clinic.
“Yep. Have a good evening.”
The July sun shone brightly, with the sunset still a few hours away. He walked to the parking lot next to the building and climbed into his car.
Before he started the engine, he pulled out his phone to check his email. A couple of weeks earlier, he’d submitted a DNA kit, and now he was waiting for the results to see if he had a biological family somewhere.
He hadn’t cared too much about his birth family during his growing-up years. His life with the Halversons had been great, and he’d never felt like he was lacking anything by not knowing about his life before joining their family. It had probably helped that he wasn’t the only adopted one in the family.
However, his last girlfriend—the most serious one he’d had to date—had felt strongly that he needed to know about his past before she’d even consider a marriage proposal. If not for her sake, then for any children they might have.
Her insistence had started him thinking about his biological heritage, but he hadn’t been ready to jump on researching it right away. Unfortunately, that indecision had led to their breakup. In the end, her desire for those answers about his past had obviously been stronger than her love for him.
In the time since they’d broken up, Lee had come to consider that perhaps she’d been right about his unknown past. So recently, he’d begun the journey to find those answers, just in case a woman he wanted to date in the future felt the same way as his ex.
Since the Halversons seemed open about most things, Lee had figured they were the best place to start. Only… they’d been surprisingly vague in their responses to him.
They’d said that they didn’t have any details to share with him about his early life. Those first three years before he’d come to live with them.
Lee wasn’t completely clueless. He knew that if everything had been great in his life, he wouldn’t have needed to be adopted. Jay and Janessa, two of his other adopted siblings, had ended up with the Halversons when both their parents had died.
He figured that it was pretty rare that adoptions—especially of non-infant children—resulted from a positive situation. So he already knew that something bad had likely happened before he ended up with the Halversons. He just didn’t know what. Yet.
In addition to submitting his DNA, he’d been in contact with a private detective, so he felt like it was just a matter of time before he had some answers.
Seeing no email from the DNA site, Lee dropped his phone into the cup holder, then started up the car and headed home. When he stepped into the house a little while later, Layla, Amelia, and Elsa greeted him energetically.
“Heya, Uncle Lee,” Layla said as she skipped up to him for a hug.
Getting to know his nieces and nephews had been a real joy. Amelia was still a bit reserved around him, but she was warming up. It had taken a while for Peyton to get used to him, but he greeted Lee as enthusiastically as Layla did these days.
“What did you guys do today?” Lee asked as he lowered himself to one knee to greet Elsa, scratching behind her silky ears as she braced her paws on his leg to lick his chin.
“We went to the park,” Amelia volunteered.
Lee smiled at her. “Did you have fun?”
“Yep. We went swimming and had a picnic. Peyton came with us, and some other kids, too.”
“And I’m exhausted,” Charli said as she came from the kitchen with the baby in her arms.
“Let me just go get changed, and I’ll give you a hand,” Lee said as he straightened, which sent Elsa in Amelia’s direction for more loving.
“Thanks.” Charli gave him a weary smile. “She won’t let me put her down, and I need to finish getting supper ready.”
“I’ll be back in a couple of minutes,” Lee promised her.
After taking the steps two at a time, he went into his room and changed out of his work clothes into a pair of cargo shorts and a T-shirt. Though he’d washed his hands at work, he did it again in his attached bathroom, then went back downstairs to the kitchen.
Charli was doing a slow dance around the kitchen with Shiloh, but the other kids and Elsa were nowhere to be seen.
“Here.” Lee held out his hands, and Charli relinquished the baby to him without hesitation. “Where are the girls?”
“They went downstairs.” Charli turned to stir something in the crock-pot. “I told them they could watch a little TV before supper.”
Lee adjusted Shiloh in his arms so her back was against his chest, then he did a slow bounce and sway with her. She chewed on her fist as she watched her mom work on dinner.
“I had a cat today that had your name,” he told her.
Charli raised her brows at him. “What?”
“Yep. Her name was Queen Charlotte.”
That brought a grin to his sister’s tired face. “Was she pretty?”
“She’s a beautiful cat. White and light brown with long fur and blue eyes. But boy, did she have attitude.”
“Sounds like me.”
Lee chuckled.
“So, what was wrong with her?” Charli asked.
“Nothing. Her owner’s away and had left the cat with her daughter. For whatever reason, Queen Charlotte decided that she wasn’t going to purr. The daughter was concerned something might be wrong with her since she’d purred fine before her mom left but not after.”
“So you had to tell the daughter that nothing was wrong with the cat? That it just hates her?”
“Well, I didn’t say it quite like that,” Lee said with a laugh. “But yeah, I had to tell her it was likely that the cat was a one-person pet.”
“Poor woman. It couldn’t be fun to hear that.”
“Yeah. Especially since, according to the other women at the clinic, Queen Charlotte’s owner is intense. She’s overprotective and has brought the cat in numerous times for very normal cat things. Such as hacking up a hairball.”
“What was her daughter like?” Charli asked as she opened the cupboard and began to remove plates.
Lee thought back to his interaction with the cute young woman, recalling the worry in her blue gaze as she’d stood next to the cat, her arms hugging herself.
“Not at all like what they said her mom’s been like when she’s brought the cat in. She was worried, and maybe a little ticked at the cat once she realized nothing was wrong.”
“I think I’d be ticked too,” Charli said.
They chatted a bit more before the other adults in the household showed up. Will walked in with Janessa, and a few minutes later, Blake arrived and came into the kitchen, his gaze immediately seeking out his wife.
He greeted her with a kiss and a lingering hug, then turned to Lee and came to greet Shiloh. “I’m going to take a shower, then I’ll be back to take her.”
Things got noisy as everyone pitched in to help get supper on the table. Once he was done showering, Blake took Shiloh from Lee and nuzzled her close.
Lee hadn’t known Blake at all when everything had gone down with him and Charli years earlier. However, he’d gotten to know him over the past couple of months, and he’d come to appreciate the man. He was a stable support for Charli and had seemed to take to the role of father to three girls with very little effort.
If his focus hadn’t been on discovering his past, he might have more actively sought out a serious girlfriend after observing his sisters with their husbands and kids. Regardless, he was happy for them and enjoyed being a part of their world. It made not having that for himself a little easier, along with giving him the patience to wait until the time was right for him.
As they settled around the table, Lee was reminded of one of the reasons he’d returned to Serenity. Family.
Another was to fulfill the childhood dream he’d had of working in the veterinary clinic in Serenity. He’d volunteered there as a teen, much like Rachel was doing in the shelter, and he’d told himself that one day, he’d be back there working alongside Dr. Carl.
It was basically in God’s hands now, whether he was back to stay for good or just temporarily. Lee was doing his best at the job, so if Dr. Carl chose not to keep him, it was because God was guiding him to end Lee’s probation.