Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
ERIKA
Brrr. I pushed off the covers and rushed to the bathroom. The chill of the tile floor had me dancing to keep my toes happy. A glance down found Tracker, staring up. “You’ve got a fur coat. It doesn’t bother you. Do you think the heater went out?”
I flicked the light switch once, twice, and then back-and-forth again. Nothing.
No power?
My phone still had charge. Using the flashlight app, I searched for the breaker box. A flip of a few breakers did nothing. Power was out.
Once I figured out who provided power, I called.
The woman with a thick Indian accent informed me, “Your account is three months overdue for payment. The power has been terminated.”
“Three months? My father just died. This is his house. I can’t believe he didn’t pay his bill for three months.” What else hadn’t he paid?
“Yes, that is correct.”
“How much will it cost to get the power turned back on?”
“The amount owed plus late fees puts you at $1700.15.”
I sank down on the floor. What?
Tracker parked himself next to me. As an empathetic dog, he picked up whenever I suffered high stress. After a throat clear I asked, “Can you put it on a credit card?”
“Yes ma’am. Do we need to change the name on the account since your father passed? I am sorry to hear about that.”
“Yes.” We got it sorted with a promise to have it restored within 48 hours. Between renting the trailer and the travel back and forth, I was in deeper debt than I wanted without a clear paycheck in sight.
I touched Vinny who was still on the far side of the bed. “No power this morning, bud. We’ll pick something up at the coffeehouse in town for breakfast.”
“We go through spells without power.” He sat up and blinked around. “I’ll stick my head under the faucet and wash my hair. That’s usually what I do when we only have cold water.”
How bad off financially had Dad been? Out loud I said, “I hope they get it back on today.”
Later, when we walked into the coffeehouse Vinny beelined for the display of sugary items. I expected this to be the busiest time of the day, but we were the only ones there.
Of course, Milly stood ready at the register. Her name tag read, “Manager.”
She shot me a saccharine smile. “What’re you drinking today?”
“I’ll take a large coffee. Black. Vinny will have a small hot chocolate.” I looked over at him, and he pointed eagerly at the display case. “And the cookie.”
“Breakfast of champions, huh?” He tone dripped with judgment.
Her opinion wasn’t on my give-a-shit list today. I would have to evaluate funds soon. We couldn’t keep spending like this. Then, again, it was only money. I should have a little bit of money after selling the condo I’d been paying on for about four years.
Milly handed Vinny his cookie and whispered to me, “Just a heads up, he wasn’t happy to hear you were back.”
“Who wasn’t happy?”
“Josh. He told me last night,” she said it in a superior tone like this had been pillow talk for them.
“His happiness isn’t my problem. I make decisions based on what’s best for Vinny and I. Josh and I have a business to sort out. If he has a personal problem with me, I have no doubt he’ll tell me.”
“I heard you were getting close to Drew?” Her tone was neutral, but I sensed she wanted me to assure her I had my eyes on anyone but Josh.
“He’s a handful, that’s for sure.”
She spoke low to me, “Best you stick with Drew. He’s more your type.”
“As compared to who? Josh?” I tried to be empathetic, to imagine myself in her shoes. If it was me, I wouldn’t be whining about it to someone I perceived as competition.
“Josh could never be with someone like you.” She looked me over like something smelled bad.
“You bring nothing to the table but debt and a kid in tow. You dress like you shop at the bargain bin. And your makeup? Please. He needs a polished, God-fearing woman who can actually elevate him and help grow his reputation, not drag him down.”
“I never saw him as a man looking for a trad-wife.” I signaled Vinny to grab his stuff and return to the car.
He skirted ahead of me out of the door. Her words stung, mostly because they weren’t entirely wrong.
I did buy my clothes from clearance racks, and makeup had never been my thing.
But the God part? She got that twisted. I did fear God. A lot, actually.
Milly rounded the counter and threw out her hand to block my exit. “He might need you to work for him temporarily, but he’s trying to figure out how to replace you.”
“He told you that, did he?”
“You’re an annoyance to him. Bad for business.”
“I’ll bring up how bad for business and annoying I am at our meeting this morning.”
“You do that,” she snapped.
“Good gravy,” I muttered. I skirted around the hand she’d thrust out to stop me and paused. “Just a bit of advice. If I was as worried about another woman stealing my man as much as you seem to be, I’d make damn sure he was so satisfied in our bedroom that he wouldn’t care to look elsewhere.”
“Wha—?” Milly’s neck snapped back as if I’d hit her.
“Thanks for the heads up on how he feels about me.” I didn’t look back as I exited.
A text came in from my realtor. She informed me I was likely to be under water with how much I owed versus how much she thought she could get for the condo. I quickly texted back asking if we could at least target me not owing money after the sale.
Vinny finished the cookie by the time I dropped him at school. He hugged Tracker before getting out of the car. I noticed the dog looked sad to see him leave.
Vinny called out, “It’s three o’clock today. No after school stuff.”
“Got it.” I waved. To Tracker I said, “Traitor.”
As I headed into the clinic with Tracker on my heels, a tiny woman with long black hair carried in a pug. The dog made the telltale noise of heaving and proceeded to puke all over his mom.
“Oh, my God, Fisher. Just hold on,” his mom wailed.
“I’m Dr. Chomping. What’s going on with Fisher?”
The lady smeared the tears on her cheeks. “He fell down at home. Just fell over. He won’t get back up.”
“Why don’t you give him to me? You can go wash up in the ladies’ room and I’ll meet you in an exam room.”
“Thanks.” She dumped the dog in my arms and ran for the bathroom.
“Has Fisher done this before?” I called out to Marty.
“No. This is a first. He’s up to date on vaccines and prevention. Last visit was an ear infection three months ago.”
My mind switched off emotion and moved into emergency medicine mode. Gums white meant either bleeding internally or another cause of anemia, or possibly pain. To the little dog that cast me a miserable look I said, “I got you, Fisher.”
In the back, there was no sign of Josh. A lady in scrubs wore a headband to hold back a lot of frizzy brown hair. She milled near the treatment table, scrolling on her phone.
“Help me get a catheter in Fisher,” I ordered. “I’m Erika Chomping, Dr. Chomping’s daughter.”
“I’m Becky,” introduced the vet tech. “Dr. Hurst said you’d be in today. Bonnie will be in later and go out with Dr. Hurst on calls.”
“Fisher collapsed. I need an IV catheter in him.” I grabbed a stethoscope off the peg where it hung. A few attempts to listen and I tapped the diaphragm of the stethoscope on the counter. “This thing doesn’t work.”
“Nah. It’s more for show,” Becky said. She took the one off her neck and handed it to me. “This should work.”
Fisher started heaving again. I put him on the grate over the sink so the vomit could more easily be cleaned.
Becky stepped back with a scowl. “Does he have parvo?”
I hid my disappointment at her armchair diagnosis, which was way off base. She might have just started in the field a few weeks ago for all I knew. “No. He’s fully vaccinated. Parvo is impossible. Can you place a catheter if I hold off?”
She shook her head. Her wide-eyed horror might’ve been appropriate if I asked her to hold him down while I chopped off his tail, which I’d never do, rather than put a benign catheter into his leg.
“Keep him steady for a minute.” I searched through drawers until I found the right supplies. I clipped Fisher’s leg hair, prepped the skin with scrub, then placed and taped the catheter. “Can you start IV fluids?”
“No. I’m not trained for that. I just help with rooms.”
I hooked up the fluids and attached the bag to the only pump I could find. “I need to do blood work on him. We can do that in house right?”
Becky nodded.
Fisher let me pull blood from his back leg without help.
“Wow,” Becky said. “I’ve never seen anyone do that. Usually, it takes two or three of us to pull blood from a dog.”
“He’s a good dog who feels awful. Run this.” I handed her the tubes. “I need a CBC and chemistry. Do the big chemistry, not a cheapy mini panel. I need it now.” Insecurity glazed Becky’s face. “Can you run blood?”
“I think so.”
“Becky, I need an I-can-do-it from you. This is important. I’m not going to think less of you if you need to ask for help.”
“I’ll get Marty to help me.”
“Excellent. Thank you. Do you have blood transfusion capability here?” Not that I thought he’d need one, but depending on what was going on, we needed to be ready.
“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask Dr. Hurst. He’s waiting for you over in room three.”
“Not the office?” I asked.
“I think Dr. Hurst thought it too cramped in the office or something.”
Probably or something, given the last time we’d been in there. “Bring me the results when they’re done, please.” I marched over to exam room three.
Josh and I in a small room again might not be the greatest plan, but we did have to figure out how to work together without fighting or...
Nope. There would be no or between us.
Josh balanced a laptop computer on his lap. He stopped typing to look up. The left side of his face was splotched with blue stain.
I pressed my lips tight to fight the smile dying to break free. “What happened to your face?”
He took off his glasses and shoved them in the white lab coat he wore over a green scrub top and khaki pants. “You’re late.”