Chapter 13
13
SUMMER
“Is she going to be all right?” Helena Smith asked, wringing her hands nervously.
“I believe so.” I finished palpating her spaniel’s abdomen and glanced at the clock on the wall. The Saturday morning clinic was almost over. Helena and Rose were my last clients. “I need to run a test, but I’m pretty sure that Rose is going to be a mother.”
Helena’s face creased into a brilliant smile. “Really?”
“Mmhmm. I’ll let you know in just a few minutes.”
Sure enough, with a quick test, I was able to confirm that Helena and Rose were soon to welcome a litter of puppies into their home.
Helena gathered Rose in her arms and smothered her furry belly with kisses. The placid dog just accepted this display of love and gazed back at her owner with soulful brown eyes.
“I’m so excited,” Helena exclaimed. “When will the puppies come?”
“About six weeks would be my guess,” I replied. “But don’t rely on that too heavily. You’ll want to be ready within a month, just in case.”
“I will.” She petted Rose’s fluffy ears. “I wonder who the father is. We intended to breed her, but we haven’t arranged anything yet, so I have no idea who the culprit could be.”
I laughed. “Maybe you’ll be able to work it out when the puppies are born.”
She grinned. “I’ll certainly try. I’m not upset, of course. Just curious.”
I peeled off my gloves and tossed them in the bin. “Fair enough. But all you can do for now is take Rose home and make sure you keep her fed and comfortable until the puppies arrive.”
“She’s going to be smothered with affection. The kids will be thrilled.”
“I’m sure they will be.” I’d have been ecstatic if our dog had puppies while we were growing up. Mum and Dad were never interested in caring for newborns though, so they’d always been careful to spay or neuter our animals as soon as they were brought into the house.
“Thanks, Summer. I’ll see you next time.” She waved and carried Rose out of the examination room.
I shook my head and laughed to myself. Someone had been getting up to no good at the dog park.
I cleaned the examination table and finished entering my consultation notes into the computer. I’d just shut it down when Beverley, our receptionist, stuck her head around the door.
“You have a visitor,” she said, her lips curled in an odd little smile.
I groaned. “Did someone come in last minute?”
“Not for a consult.” Her smile stretched. “It’s Asher.”
“Ah.”
I bit my lip, debating what to do. He’d been rude enough to me last night that I didn’t want to see him, but he’d also seemed vulnerable when he’d left, and I couldn’t push him away if he needed me.
“Send him in,” I said.
She winked and bustled out. I rolled my eyes. Both Beverley and Cal, the other veterinarian, were aware of my unrequited feelings for Asher. They’d caught me poring over his social media on my work computer one day and I’d been forced to confess. Cal was polite enough not to mention it, but Beverley had no such qualms.
Asher entered, his hair damp and his cheeks flushed, bringing with him the spicy scent of whatever masculine soap or shampoo he must have used in the shower. At first glance, he looked healthy and gorgeous as ever, but as my gaze lingered, I noticed the redness around his eyes and the scratches up his arms.
“What happened?” I asked, gesturing at the scratches.
He rubbed at them self-consciously. “Came off my bike.”
“Ouch.” I crossed my arms and leaned against the examination table. “Why are you here?”
I couldn’t afford to be distracted by the desire to kiss his boo-boos, or by the fact I wanted to burrow my face in his chest and breathe him in.
He grimaced and moved his weight from one foot to the other, wincing slightly. “I came to apologize for last night,” he said, the flush on his cheeks darkening. “My behavior toward you was way out of line and it won’t happen again.”
“Hmm.” I appreciated the apology, obviously, but I wasn’t satisfied with how this left things between us. “Why did it happen?”
He looked down at his feet. “I don’t know. I was feeling irrationally angry yesterday, and it burst out of me in the worst possible way.”
My heart twinged for him. He’d been having a difficult time lately. His job wasn’t easy, especially when they lost people. He wasn’t superman, no matter how much he might like to think otherwise.
“I can understand why you’d be upset after the week you’ve had,” I conceded, wondering whether to push. I decided to go for it. “I think there’s more to it than that though.”
“Oh, yeah?” He raised his eyebrows. “Like what?”
I hesitated, a faint alarm jangling in the back of my mind, warning me that I might not like what would happen if I pushed too far.
“I think you’re attracted to me but don’t want to admit it,” I told him. Screw my internal warning system. We’d been tiptoeing around this for long enough.
He gaped, completely taken aback. “What?”
I shrugged one shoulder. “Am I wrong?”
“Fuck. Summer.” He yanked his hand through his hair and turned away from me for a moment. His back expanded as he drew in a deep breath, and then he faced me again. “You can’t just say shit like that. Yeah, I think you’re pretty, but you’re my best friend’s sister. Practically my extended family. Anything else between us would be too strange.”
I put my hand on my hip. “Grace was basically part of the family before she and Nate got together, and no one thinks it’s strange.”
A muscle in his jaw ticked. “That’s different.”
“How?” I didn’t understand his logic.
“It just is.” He huffed, and fisted his hands at his sides, as if he needed to do something with them but wasn’t sure what. “Besides, I’m wrong for you in so many other ways.”
“How so?”
He ignored my question. “Look, I came to apologize, and I did. From now on, you can flirt with, dance with, and date whomever you want, and I’ll butt out. It’s none of my business.”
I straightened and stepped toward him. “Maybe I don’t want you to butt out. Maybe I want my love life to be your business.”
“It can’t be,” he rasped. “It won’t happen.”
My heart sank. For a moment, I’d thought maybe he would finally admit there was something between us, but it seemed I’d been mistaken.
“Can you really look me in the eye and tell me you don’t feel anything for me?” I asked, willing him to be honest with both of us for a change.
He met my eyes. “I care about you as a person, but I have no feelings for you beyond that. I can’t.”
My chest felt like it was splitting in two. I nodded mutely and waved him out of the examination room. To my relief, he went. If he’d stayed for a second longer, I might have cried at him.
I didn’t think he’d be able to do it. I’d thought for sure that he’d have to own up to his feelings for once.
I’d been wrong.
Again.