CHAPTER SIX
Lee balanced the large flat box on his arm as he closed the door of his car. The morning was gray, but so far, there hadn’t been any rain.
Pulling the door of the clinic open, Lee stepped into the back hallway and went directly to the staff room. He set the box on the counter, then moved to the coffee machine to fill his mug.
When he heard the back door open, followed by soft footsteps, Lee knew it was Rori even before glancing over to see her walk through the doorway. It was on the tip of his tongue to tease her with fancy meeting you here, but he bit back the words.
The desire to flirt with Rori had taken Lee by surprise. In his mind, pursuing a relationship had been off the table until he got the answers he needed. And he still thought that was probably for the best.
However, Rori was tempting him to change his mind…
Whether he wanted to be or not, he was drawn to Rori. She seemed like a sweet person who cared for those around her. At the clinic, she was always quick to offer her help, and she was eager to learn about all aspects of the clinic’s operation.
She wasn’t like women he’d dated in the past. They’d all been career driven to varying degrees. Headstrong women, who went after what they wanted. In all but one of his relationships, they’d also been the one to pursue him. And he’d been fine with that.
So why he was drawn to a woman who appeared to be completely different from his previous girlfriends was a question he didn’t know the answer to. Maybe the slower pace of his life in Serenity had him re-evaluating what he wanted in the woman he hoped to share his life with.
For sure, the women he’d dated in the past wouldn’t have been well-suited to life in Serenity. Anytime he’d told his girlfriends about his life growing up there, they’d joked about small towns and Christmas movies, while making it clear they never saw themselves wanting to make a life anywhere but in a big city.
And at one time, he might have agreed with them.
But circumstances changed, and so did hearts. He’d felt he was where God wanted him when he’d been in Chicago, but then doors had begun to close, starting with being laid off from his job, followed by the ending of his relationship.
So he’d come home, uncertain where else to go. Uncertain if this was where God wanted him. Uncertain of what lay ahead for him.
And now there was Rori…
“Good morning, Lee,” she said as she opened the fridge. “How was your weekend?”
“It was good. How about yours?”
“Mine was good as well. A friend invited me to a southern gospel and hymn sing at her church.”
Lee leaned a hip against the counter, mug in his hand as he focused his attention on Rori. “You were there last night?”
“Yeah.” She gave him a quick smile. “I saw you there.”
“Why didn’t you say hi?”
Rori’s eyes widened for a moment, but then her brow furrowed. “Oh. Uh… Well, since I had come with Essie and her husband, I just stuck close to them.”
“Did you enjoy the evening?” Lee asked as he lifted his mug to take a sip.
Her smile grew. “I did. The music was lovely.”
“How do you know Essie and Al?”
“They work for the man my mom married.”
“They’re both great people.”
Lee wondered if Rori’s mom was aware that Rori was hanging out with one of her employees. From what Cheryl and Alys had said, the woman was probably a bit of a snob.
“Yes. I’ve really appreciated their friendship. They’ve answered all of my questions about Serenity.”
“Did you have a favorite song last night?” Lee asked, reluctant to have their conversation end just yet.
Without even a moment’s hesitation, she said, “The one about the sparrow.”
Lee wondered what it was about the song that had resonated with her. But before he had a chance to ask her, Alys walked into the room, and Rori turned to greet her with a smile.
“What is this?” Alys asked, gesturing to the cake box on the counter.
“Mom sent me home with the rest of the cake from the monthly family birthday dinner yesterday.”
Alys turned to him with a grin. “Was it your birthday?”
“No. We have so many birthdays in the family that we just have one birthday dinner each month. Last night was for the July birthdays, and we had extra cake, so my mom said I should bring it in for all of us to share.”
“That was sweet of her,” Alys said as she bent over to peer through the plastic window on the top. “Did someone in the family make it?”
“No. The best bakers in the family currently aren’t in Serenity.”
“Who’s that?”
“Zane and Skylar.”
“Well, I can’t wait to have some,” Alys said. “If this is from the bakery here in town, it’s going to be fabulous.”
After chatting for a couple of minutes, Lee excused himself and headed for the small office he’d been assigned when he’d first started working at the clinic. He hadn’t brought in any personal items yet. It felt presumptuous to do that when he didn’t know for sure if they planned to keep him.
It did seem likely, but he refused to make any assumptions.
As he reached to turn his monitor on, Lee found himself humming His Eye is on the Sparrow, the words playing in his mind. For His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.
It was a song he’d sung plenty of times over the years. And when they’d been young, their mom had helped them memorize Matthew 6:25–27, which the song had been based on. She’d wanted them to know that God cared for them. That He cared about their needs. That nothing was too insignificant to bring to Him. For God cared.
Lee wondered if that message was what had drawn Rori to the song.
Though he didn’t know anything about her family or friend relationships, she always had a smile for anyone who spoke to her. Cheryl had said that she’d been easy to train because she followed instructions well and hadn’t hesitated to ask questions if she didn’t understand something.
From the moment he’d met her, Rori had lingered in his mind. At first, he’d thought it was just because of their meeting over a non-purring cat. But now, he knew it was more.
He wanted to get to know her better. To learn the things about her life that had made her who she was. To not have the opportunity to do that felt like a loss that he couldn’t really comprehend.
“You know,” Alys drawled on Wednesday as she tapped her finger against her lip. “The something that might make these pictures better is to have a cute vet holding the animals.”
Since Wednesdays were usually their slowest day, Alys and Rachel had decided that it would be a great day to take pictures of the shelter animals. At their request, Rori had brought her camera bag in and was now working with them to photograph the dogs that were available for adoption.
“You better be talking about Dr. Carl,” Lee told her as he leaned against the doorjamb with his arms crossed.
“He might be a good candidate,” Alys agreed. “If only he’d smile on command.”
Lee chuckled. Carl didn’t smile a lot. Not that the man was grumpy. He just had a more taciturn personality. His reserved nature didn’t stop their patients from trusting him, however, because he was excellent at his job.
“So I propose you do it,” Alys continued.
“And I propose I don’t.” Sparring with Alys was reminiscent of how he talked with his sisters sometimes.
“I think we should take a vote,” Rachel said.
Lee gave a huff of laughter as he shook his head. “As if I’d win that vote.”
“Fine.” With an exaggerated pout, Alys turned back to where Rachel was trying to get a dog to sit on the small rug that they’d set up on the floor of one of the intake rooms. “But you can’t blame us if this venture isn’t a success.”
Lee glanced over to see Rori looking agape at them. It seemed she was still getting used to the more casual atmosphere in the clinic.
“Are you ready, Rori?” Rachel asked from where she crouched next to the dog.
“Uh… yes. Yep.” She turned to face Rachel and the dog, lifting her camera. “Ready whenever you are.”
Rori knelt with the camera to her eye, waiting as Rachel counted down from three to one before moving her hands from the dog. He heard the quick snap of the shutter several times before the dog moved.
“Did you get any good shots?” Alys asked as she went to peer over Rori’s shoulder.
After attaching the leash to the dog’s collar, Rachel joined them, and the three stood with their heads close together, bent over the camera.
“Oh, I really like that one,” Rachel said. “His ears are pricked forward, so he looks more friendly.”
“Did you want to see, Lee?” Alys asked.
Lee straightened from the doorway and walked to where they stood. Rori held out the camera, but rather than take it, he stepped close to her and looked down at the screen. She tapped something on it, making the picture zoom in so he could see the dog’s head.
“That is cute,” Lee agreed.
“I hope all of them are as cute,” Rachel said. “So hopefully we can find them good owners.”
Lee knew he didn’t have to hang around to help—they seemed to have it all well in hand—but he still did anyway. Though he refused to actually pose with the animals, he did hold a couple of the kittens after Rori assured him she would only get his hands in the frame.
“That kitten sure is rambunctious,” Rori said with a soft laugh as she watched the little cat tumble over as it chased its tail.
As soon as Lee scooped it up, it started to gnaw on his finger and purr.
“Well, its purr-thing isn’t broken,” she remarked.
“Do you want to hold…” Lee turned the cat over. “Her?”
“I don’t think so,” Rori said with a shake of her head.
“Why not?”
“I’d hate to have another cat decide it didn’t like me.”
Lee tried to reassure her with a smile. “I think you’ll be fine.”
Apparently it didn’t work because a small frown furrowed her brow. Still, she bent and set her camera on the bag sitting on the floor at her feet. “Okay. But if this cat stops purring, I’m going to leave all cats alone from this day forward.”
“The kitten might stop purring,” Lee warned her. “But once she’s comfortable with you, she’ll start again.”
“You are pretty confident about that.”
“He’s right,” Rachel chimed in. “The kittens will purr for you. Especially that one. She’s mischievous but affectionate.”
“Sounds like me,” Alys remarked.
As they all laughed at that, Lee stepped closer to Rori. She held out her hands, then looked up. Her light blue eyes, framed by darkened lashes, gazed at him. In them, he read wariness.
Was she really worried about the kitten not purring for her?
Moving slowly, Lee bent and placed the kitten in her hands. He stayed close, rubbing his hands over the kitten, his fingers brushing against Rori’s.
When he removed his hands, Rori cradled the kitten closer to her chest, tipping her head down. The kitten’s purr intensified as Rori stroked her hand over it, smiling when a soft paw batted at her chin.
“Ahhh, she loves you,” Rachel said. “I think you should adopt her.”
Rori looked up at her, the smile gone from her face. “Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m in a good place to adopt yet.”
“Well, lucky for you,” Lee said. “When you are ready to adopt, there’ll be several cats available for you to choose from.”
Rori tipped her head to look at him again. “What do you mean?”
“There are far too many people who aren’t responsible with their pets, so there are always litters of cats being brought in.”
Rori nuzzled the kitten again. “Oh. That’s sad.”
“But in the meantime, you can come over here and cuddle with the kittens whenever you want,” Rachel said.
When a bell chimed, they all looked toward the door to the clinic.
Lee headed for the connecting door. “I’ll see who it is.”
“I thought Cheryl said she had someone replacing her,” the woman standing near the reception desk said when she spotted Lee.
“Hello, Mrs. Robinson,” Lee said, greeting one of their more high maintenance pet owners with a smile. “We do have a new receptionist. We were all just working on something on the shelter side. What can I do for you?”
“Cheryl said my order of cat food for Milly had come in.”
“Okay. Let me just get Rori. Cheryl probably told her where it is.” He stepped back into the shelter just as Rori headed in his direction with her camera bag. “Someone is here looking for cat food that Cheryl ordered.”
“Milly?” At his nod, she increased her pace, then went through the doorway when Lee pulled the door open for her.
“Mrs. Robinson, this is our new receptionist, Rori.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Rori said as she held out her hand.
The woman shook it, then said, “Do you have the food for Milly?”
“Yes. I’ll just go grab it for you.”
Wanting to be on hand for Rori’s first time dealing with her, Lee stayed at the reception desk rather than returning to the shelter or going to the back of the clinic.
“Hello, Mrs. Robinson,” Alys sang out as she came into the reception area. “How’s Molly?”
There was a quick indignant inhalation from Mrs. Robinson, then she said, “Her name is Milly.”
The woman’s tone hadn’t been warm before, but now it was positively glacial.
“Oh. I’m so sorry. Of course it’s Milly.”
Lee lifted a brow at Alys. The woman was into the clinic often enough that Alys should have had no problem remembering her pet’s name.
“Here we go,” Rori said as she came back from the storage room holding a bag.
While most people bought their animals’ food at the local store, there were a few—like Mrs. Robinson—who insisted that the clinic order in the best pet food available. Lee didn’t understand it himself.
There were definitely some brands he wouldn’t buy for Elsa, but he still found food in the local store that he deemed good enough for her.
Alys disappeared into the back while Rori rang up the sale. Once she’d paid, Mrs. Robinson left the clinic.
“Are you happy with the photos?” Lee asked as Rori slid her camera bag under the desk.
“I think so. It’s more important that Rachel is happy with them.”
“How will you get the pictures to her?”
“She’s going to send me a link to give me access to a file in the cloud to upload them. That way, she’ll have access to them when she wants to post them.”
“If we get more animals in, are you planning to take pictures of them right away?”
“I think Rachel is planning to focus on the dogs or cats that have already been here for a certain amount of time.”
They didn’t keep animals indefinitely. As long as they had the room, they would keep them. But once the shelter neared max capacity, they sent the animals that had been there the longest to no-kill shelters. So it made sense that Rachel would want to feature those first.
“Thanks for helping with this project,” Lee said, drawing out the conversation when he should really be letting Rori get back to work.
“I really enjoyed doing it,” Rori said with a small smile. “And it has expanded my photography experience.”
“What do you usually take pictures of?”
“My photography has always just been a hobby, so I’ve stuck with nature.”
“Maybe you could start doing pet photography,” Lee suggested.
Rori shrugged. “I’ll see how it goes taking pictures for the shelter.”
Lee couldn’t help but want to encourage her more, but he held his tongue. He got the feeling that she didn’t rush into things. Except, she’d clearly made the decision to uproot her life and move to Serenity without taking a whole lot of time to think about it.
The front door of the clinic set off the chime again, and Lee turned to see Charli and the girls.
“Hi, Uncle Lee,” Layla said with a smile. “We thought we’d come visit you.”
Lee looked at Charli, who had Shiloh’s car seat on her arm. “Needed to get out of the house?”
Charli sighed, then nodded. “I thought maybe the girls could pet the animals in the shelter for a bit.”
“Sure. Rachel’s here, so she’ll hang out with them.” Lee waved for the girls to head into the shelter.
“Hey there,” Charli said, directing her smile at Rori. “I’m Charli. Lee’s favorite sister.”
“One of them, anyway,” Lee tacked on. “Charli, this is Rori. She’s taken over for Cheryl.”
“Nice to meet you,” Rori said as she stood behind the desk, her hands clasped together.
“How are you enjoying working here?” Charli asked. “Has Lee driven you nuts yet?”
Rori glanced at Lee. “Uh… Nope. Everyone has been really nice to work with.”
Shiloh let out a squawk, so Lee took the seat from Charli and set it on the reception desk. “Can I take her out?”
“Sure,” Charli said.
“Let me just go wash up real quick.”
Lee left the two women and walked to the closest sink, where he washed his hands a couple of times before drying them off. When he returned to the reception area, Charli was telling Rori about her job at the school.
“I really enjoy teaching third grade, so I’m glad they’ve given me that grade again this upcoming school year.”
“Do they move you around a lot?” Rori asked as Lee unbuckled the baby.
“Not now. But when I first started out, I was assigned to fill holes.”
Lee scooped Shiloh out of the car seat and held her close to his chest. She waved a little fist, and Lee bent his head closer to her so she could bop him on the cheek.
As he stared down into her wide brown eyes, Lee wondered if Charli knew her adopted daughter’s medical history.
Did she know details about Shiloh’s parents that Shiloh might want to know some day? Would she give her that information? Would Shiloh actually want to know about the people who brought her into the world?
Lee hoped that whatever decision she made, she’d be at peace with it. Unlike how unsettled he felt. But that was because he wanted more information, and no one was giving it to him.
That lack left him with so many questions and a feeling that he was a stranger to himself. A stranger in his own body.
It wasn’t that he planned to abandon the Halversons. That wasn’t it at all. They would always be his family, but he needed to know where he came from. He needed to be able to tell any woman he got serious with that he knew his medical history and there were no concerns to be shared.
Looking up, he found both Charli and Rori watching him. Rori’s expression was unreadable, but his sister’s was soft and indulgent.
“You’ll make a great father someday,” she said.
“If that’s what God has planned for my future. And if not, I’ll just enjoy my nieces and nephews.”
“Seems we’re getting another one every year or so.”
“Up next, Janessa or Kayleigh.”
“Maybe.” Charli looked skeptical. “I actually think it might be Aria.”
“Really? So soon?”
“She loves being a mom, and I think she’d like to have her kids fairly close together.”
“And you and Blake?”
Charli laughed. “For now, we’re quite happy with our three.”
“Do you have brothers and sisters, Rori?” Charli asked, turning her attention away from Lee.
“Yes. I have six siblings.”
“Really? That’s cool.”
“I guess,” Rori said with a shrug. “However, I’m not really close to them since they’re my half siblings. Four are my mom’s and two are my dad’s.”
“Wow. Where do you fall in the order?”
Rori paused, then said, “It’s kind of confusing. My parents were never married to each other, so of my mom’s kids, I’m the middle. She had two kids before she had me, then she got married again and had two more. My dad also got married and had two more after me.”
“And you’ve just moved to Serenity?” Charli asked.
“Yes. I came to cat-sit for my mom and fell in love with the area. I wouldn’t have been able to make the move if not for this job, though. So I’m very grateful that Cheryl gave me a chance at the clinic here.”
“Well, it sounds like it was a good thing for her, too.”
Rori glanced at Lee before looking back at Charli. “I hope it’s turned out okay. She’s cutting back on her hours, so I guess she trusts me to do the job.”
“She does,” Lee assured her.
The information Charli had drawn out of Rori made Lee more curious about the woman. It sounded like her family life was complicated, and he wondered how she’d dealt with it.
Lee waited for Charli to extend an invitation to one of the family gatherings they had, but surprisingly, she didn’t. Since he’d been living at Charli’s, they’d had regular get-togethers on Friday nights, and often on Sunday afternoons, if the weather was nice, they went to the park for a picnic and volleyball.
He was actually kind of disappointed that Charli didn’t issue the invitation. Something told him that Rori hadn’t made a lot of friends in Serenity yet.
Unfortunately, he didn’t think the invitation should come from him. Much better if it came from one of the ladies in the family. Alys seemed to like Rori and was closer to her in age than Charli, so perhaps she’d include her in some of her social events.
“Well, I’m going to go check on the girls,” Charli said. “It was nice to meet you, Rori.”
“It was nice to meet you too.” Rori waited until Charli had gone through the door to the shelter, then sank down on her seat. She glanced up at Lee. “Your sister seems sweet.”
“She is,” Lee agreed.
“And you live with her?”
“Years ago, she and Janessa, one of our other sisters, bought a house together. I think it must have been a bed-and-breakfast at one point because it’s big and has a lot of bedrooms. Charli invited me to live there with them until I found a place of my own. So far, I’m in no rush to move since it’s been great staying with all of them.”
“How many people live there?” Rori asked.
“At the moment, it’s Charli, her husband, Blake, and their three kids, as well as my other sister, Janessa, and her husband, Will. So eight of us in total.”
Rori’s eyes widened. “That’s a lot of people in one house.”
“I grew up with twelve of us in the home, so I’m used to it.”
For a moment, his thoughts turned to his biological family, and he wondered if he had brothers and sisters.
“I may have a lot of siblings, but I’ve never lived with all of them at the same time.”
Lee wanted to ask her for more information about her life, but during their workday probably wasn’t the best place to do that.
When the clinic phone rang, he said, “I’m going to see how Charli and the girls are doing.”
Rori gave him a nod, then turned her attention to the phone. Lee watched her for a moment, then headed for the shelter, torn between hoping his sister wouldn’t try to match him and Rori, and hoping she would.