Chapter Six
Isla
Today is decidedly less busy than yesterday, but still enjoyable.
I spend most of the morning in the Hotel, helping out with the animals who’ve had operations.
I also help with things like sterilizing the equipment, washing the bedding, and cleaning out the cages, tasks that are more tedious but still need doing.
Besides, it takes my mind off things. Rob rang again last night, after Max had gone to bed, and tried to talk me into going back home. I refused, though, and when he started to get aggressive and threatened legal action, I hung up on him again.
I can’t keep burying my head in the sand, though. My first instinct was to flee, and I’m glad I did that, but I need to work out what I’m going to do on a permanent basis.
“You should talk to Nix,” Beth says when we chat during morning tea.
Cullen and Max are apparently over at the Petting Zoo, helping Fitz the groundskeeper mend a fence.
I feel a tad guilty leaving Cullen to look after my son, but they both seem happy with the arrangement, and I don’t get the feeling that Cullen is the sort of guy who does something he doesn’t want to do just to please people.
“Nix?” I ask.
“She was Nicola Dixon, hence the nickname, but she’s married to Leon King now—he’s the head of HR and Finance here, and she’s his PA.
They work with the Women’s Refuge because of the connection between domestic violence and animal abuse, and she has lots of resources and contacts. She might know where you should start.”
“I’ll do that. Thank you.” We’re leaning on the fence of the break room garden, looking out at the paddock, and beyond it the Pacific, sparkling in the morning sunshine.
I pick a piece of fruit from the apricot and cream cheese muffin that the women in the break room made this morning, and eat it.
“It’s hard, asking for help, and admitting that your relationship has ended this way. ”
“Yeah, I get that.” She hesitates. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“Now that you look back, do you think there were signs that Rob was going to be abusive? I mean, did it come out of the blue, or was he always controlling?”
I have a bite of the muffin, thinking about it. “He’s always been controlling. I didn’t recognize it as that for a long time, but now I can see it for what it was. I would never have thought I’d end up in a relationship like that. I always thought I was independent and strong.”
“You are,” she insists.
“I don’t know how it happened, but over the years he became so manipulative.
Like, he hated me seeing my friends alone.
He always hid it behind this veneer of ‘I love you so much, I can’t bear to be apart from you,’ but the truth is that he was jealous of them.
If I did go out with them, when I got back he’d be moody and sulk, and because I hated it so much, I stopped going out without him. ”
She nods and sips her coffee thoughtfully. Something about her manner makes me wonder if there was an ulterior reason for her question. “Beth… are you and Jude okay?”
She doesn’t deny it, so I know there’s something wrong. “I don’t know,” she says slowly. “Things were great at the beginning, but we argue a lot now. Like you said, I often do things to try to ward off his moods. I don’t like that.”
“It’s such an easy trap to fall into. We just want peace, so we try to avoid confrontation.”
“Yeah. We had an argument late last night, and…” She breaks off and smiles as one of the other nurses comes up to chat, and we don’t get another chance to discuss it before it’s time to head back to work.
But I feel for her. It’s really tough when you know you’re being manipulated, and you know you’re enabling their bad behavior, but it’s just too hard to fight.
Back in the clinic, I help Hal out with a surgery, and then he asks me to take a miniature poodle he rescued down to the Forever Home. “They’re expecting him,” he says. “He’s all recovered and ready to find his new home.”
So I carry the dog along the corridor, not missing the way my pulse picks up at the thought that I might see Cullen again.
Sure enough, he’s in the barn, and this time Max isn’t with him.
Cullen is in the open space in the middle, trying to teach a Cavalier King Charles spaniel to sit.
I lean against the door, stroking the poodle to keep him quiet while I watch him take a piece of chicken out of his pocket, hold up his hand, and say firmly, “Sit!”
The spaniel stares at him, then wanders off to sniff the table leg, and he sighs.
“Is she proving rebellious?” I ask as I go in.
He looks over with a wry smile. “Just a bit. I have no luck with women.”
“Oh, I can’t believe that. You already have me eating out of your hand.”
That makes him laugh. “This is Hal’s poodle?”
“Yeah, all mended and ready to be loved.”
He takes the dog from me, gives him a stroke, then carries him over to one of the smaller crates and bends to place him in carefully.
“He’ll be picked up in days. Smaller dogs never take long to rehome.
” He straightens, then meets my gaze as he hitches up his shorts.
His eyes sparkle, but he doesn’t say anything.
“Busy morning?” I ask, trying not to think about his tight ass.
“Not too bad. Ruby’s got the kids making Christmas decorations in the Fox’s Den and Max wanted to help. Then I think they’re going to make Christmas cookies this afternoon.”
“Oh, that’s him sorted for the rest of the day then.”
He grins. Then he says, “What are you doing for lunch?”
“Nothing much.”
“Archer and I are meeting the real estate agent at the farmhouse at one. You don’t fancy coming, I guess?” His tone is casual, but his eyes hold hope.
“I’d love to,” I reply.
“All right. Meet us in the Quad at 12:45.”
“Will do.” I smile and head along the corridor, feeling a glow inside that he asked me. I’m pretty sure he likes me.
My smile fades slowly, though. I can’t afford to get involved with someone when I haven’t sorted out my old relationship, especially with a man who looks unlikely to be around for very long. It wouldn’t be fair to Max, or myself. I need stability right now.
Or do I? I feel an unusual flare of impulsive rebellion. I dated two guys before I met Rob, both of them for over a year each. Maybe a hot fling would be just the thing I need.
I know myself, though; I have to be careful to keep my heart well out of this or I’m going to get hurt. But that doesn’t mean I can’t have a little fun. There’s no harm in enjoying a man’s company and being good friends. Not everything has to lead to sex.
I purse my lips as I go into the Hotel. Some hot, no-strings sex with a gorgeous guy who has a nice ass sounds rather appealing.
I couldn’t.
Could I?
“Isla!” Summer, the vet, beams at me. “Can you help me with this Burmese cat? She needs her bandage changed, and she’s fighting me a bit.”
“Of course.” A bit embarrassed to be caught thinking about sex, I put Cullen Reeve to the back of my mind and go over to help her wrestle with the cat.
We eventually change its bandage, and then it’s only another fifteen minutes before I ask Stefan if I can go to lunch. I wander out and spot Cullen and Archer coming out of the building into the Quad.
I’ve brought my sunhat today as the sun is super bright, and I pull it on and add my sunglasses as I walk over. Both the guys are wearing baseball caps to ward off the hot New Zealand sun.
“Hey,” Archer says. “All ready?”
“Yep! You sure you don’t mind me coming?”
“Of course not,” he says, “the more the merrier. I’m hoping you can convince this madman that the last we need is some farmhouse that’s falling apart and needs two years of work done to it.”
“I don’t think it would need that much work,” I reply as we set off along the drive. “Maybe a little bit of repair, but it’s surprising how much a lick of paint brightens up a place.”
“See,” Cullen says to him, “you’re being overly obstructive.”
“I’m not obstructive, just realistic.”
I chuckle as the two of them continue to bicker.
It’s clear that they work together well.
I wonder whether Archer is hoping that Cullen will stay on and help him out with the new center if they get it up and running?
It won’t happen this year, that’s for sure, and Cullen told me he was leaving before Christmas.
Well, there are only four days until Christmas Day, so Archer doesn’t have long to convince him.
We chat while we head down the hill and discover the real estate agent has taken the padlock off the gate, left it open, and parked her car in front of the farmhouse. We go through the gate and walk up the drive toward it.
“It’s a nice sized piece of land,” Cullen says. “You could fence off part of it so the dogs could have a safe place to run around in.”
“True. And I do like the view.” Archer gestures past the farmhouse. We’re about halfway up the hill, and Sunrise Bay is spread out beneath us, with the Pacific Ocean providing a beautiful backdrop.
“Hello!” A woman in her forties in jeans and a gray tee with the name of the real estate agency embroidered on it comes out of the farmhouse.
“I’m Megan,” she says with a smile, and she shakes hands with us all as Archer introduces us.
“Come on in. I’ve opened all the doors to get a bit of a breeze blowing through and freshen the place up. ”
Her words make me worried that maybe the place is suffering from damp or something, but as soon as we walk in I can tell that’s not the case. It’s just a little dusty because it hasn’t been lived in for a while.