Chapter 3 #2
Wilder shifted uncomfortably. “Um, so we were hoping we could figure out some sort of payment plan?”
“Yeah,” Chase muttered darkly, “except we can only afford a dollar a week for the next six hundred weeks.”
And despite my earlier cynicism, I had the feeling that Chase would absolutely turn up at my surgery every week for the next six hundred weeks with a dollar bill. I got the impression he’d probably spit on it first, but still.
“Listen,” I said, “if you’re really willing to pay, we can work something out. And Uncle Jim has a hardship fund that will cover a couple hundred.”
Chase perked up the slightest bit. “So that would only leave…”
We were interrupted by the washer beeping, letting me know the load of towels I’d put in to clean earlier was done, and I let out a sigh. If I didn’t move them to the dryer now, I knew I’d forget. “I’ll be back in a minute.” I couldn’t help looking at Cash. “Don’t go anywhere.”
I ducked into the back room where the washer and dryer were and transferred the towels over. Then I put the next load on to wash and hurried back to the consulting room.
Cash looked up from where he was still petting the dog and gave me a curious look.
“Laundry,” I said. “There’s always laundry. When I decided to become a vet, nobody told me how many towels I’d have to wash.”
His mouth twitched into an almost-smile before his expression grew thoughtful. Then his eyes widened and he rose to his feet and whispered something in Chase’s ear, all the while shooting me hopeful glances.
Chase gave him a dubious look. “You sure?”
Cash nodded more vigorously than the dog had when he’d sprayed blood all over the exam room last night.
“Cash says maybe he could work it off. Like, doing laundry and mopping the rooms and shit,” Chase said. “That could work, right?” He jutted his chin out in a way that suggested this had better be the best idea I’d ever heard.
The thing was, it actually wasn’t a terrible idea.
Kayla and I spent at least a couple of hours every day cleaning and mopping and doing laundry, and it never got any less tedious.
There had been a high schooler who came in for a couple of hours every day when I’d first started three weeks ago, but she’d left after a client had yelled at her, and I hadn’t had the energy to replace her.
If we had Cash coming in to take care of that stuff, it would make my life, and Kayla’s, so much easier—and right now I needed all the help I could get.
I remembered the scrubs Cash had been wearing last night. “Do you work in healthcare?”
He shrugged and Chase answered for him. “He works over at Sunny Fields in Brodnax as a janitor.”
“Do you think you’d be able to come in for say, an hour every morning?” I asked.
This time it was Cash who spoke, so softly I almost missed it. “Yeah.” His gaze was fixed on the dog who had curled up at his feet.
“And you’ll, what? Take that off the bill?” Wilder asked. He wanted to confirm I wasn’t going to rip his friend off on account of being one of those heartless, money-hungry vets, I guessed.
“I’ll take fifteen dollars off the bill for every hour,” I confirmed. “Honestly, I could really use the help.”
Cash leaned over and whispered in Chase’s ear. Chase rolled his eyes. “He says thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” I said and unhooked a leash from the back of the door and handed it to him. “You wanna start by taking this guy out for a leak?”
And the pure joy on Cash’s face when he clipped that leash onto the dog? It was enough to chase away any regrets I might have had about agreeing to look after the stray.
By midnight, all those regrets were back.
I tried to sleep, but the dog’s pitiful whines echoed through the old house.
In the end I caved, punching my pillow and going downstairs.
I let him out of the cage and he followed me up into the bedroom.
Then he curled up on the rug for all of five minutes before coming to sit beside the bed, staring at me and panting like a hairy little stalker until I caved—again—and lifted him up.
He weighed far less than he should have.
He tried to nuzzle my face but ended up headbutting me with his cone before settling on the end of the bed.
It was another hour before I finally fell asleep to the sound of him scratching at the cone every two minutes.
When my alarm went off at six, I opened my eyes to find the dog staring at me from where he was curled up on the pillow next to mine. His mouth was curved up in a doggie grin and he looked pretty fucking pleased with himself. And to be fair, I couldn’t blame him.
I told myself that tonight he was staying downstairs, but I already knew it was a lie.
I’d just showered and gotten dressed when there was a knock at the door. Jesus. It was barely even seven. I scooped my long hair up and twisted it into a loose bun as I padded down the stairs, fighting a yawn, and the dog trotted happily alongside me—probably because he’d gotten plenty of sleep.
And now I was going to have to walk a guy I barely knew and who didn’t talk through the cleaning routine, and I hadn’t had coffee yet.
I wondered what I’d been thinking, asking Cash to come in early instead of at the end of the day, and debated asking if he’d be willing to switch.
But then I opened the door to find him standing there holding a cup tray.
The scent of coffee rose through the air, improving the day by about a million percent.
Cash held the tray out to me wordlessly, nodding at the cup on the left.
I took my cup. It was from Gobble de Goose. I narrowed my eyes at the logo and then at Cash. “Did your brother make this?”
He nodded.
“So, what are the chances there’s strychnine in it?”
Cash ducked his head to hide his smile, then held his hand out and waggled it. Fifty-fifty.
“What do I owe you?” I asked, trying not to notice his falling-apart shoes.
Cash shook his head.
“Well, thanks,” I said. “Come on through. The dog probably needs to pee, if you want to take him out. Then I’ll show you where everything is.”
Because of the way Uncle Jim’s place was set up, there wasn’t as much delineation as I would have liked between the work areas and the living areas.
The bedrooms were upstairs, of course, and so was the living room, which was a repurposed third bedroom.
But the kitchen was still downstairs, and it was a shared space, meaning that one shelf of the refrigerator was reserved for Kayla’s lunch bag and soy milk, and there was a similar shelf in the pantry cabinet that was stocked with coffee pods, cookies, and granola bars from the petty cash.
I drank the coffee as I stood over the toaster waiting for it to pop up and watched Cash and the dog through the window.
I gave Cash the tour when he got back inside with the dog, gesturing with my piece of peanut butter toast. The treatment room, the consult room, the surgery suite, the lab and the x-ray room. I saved the laundry room for last.
“Cleaning supplies are in this cabinet. The big washer is for the stuff from the clinic. Don’t use the small one, please.
That’s for my clothes. Everything from the clinic is washed at a higher temperature than a regular wash, and we use a disinfectant detergent.
” I pointed at the plastic bins. “Like the labels say, soiled items go in the red bin and clean goes in the green. The program on the washer is preset, so you just have to press the Start button. Make sure you use gloves when you’re handling soiled items, then dispose of them in the trash here. ”
Cash nodded.
I opened the cabinet. “You sweep first, then mop with disinfectant. We don’t have anyone in isolation at the moment, but if we do, you don’t use these mops.
These are for everywhere else in the clinic.
It’s all pretty basic stuff, but we have to be aware of cross-contamination.
But you probably know that already from Sunny Fields. ”
He nodded again.
“If you’ve got any questions, just…” I trailed off, suddenly aware that telling the guy who didn’t talk to “just ask” would be pretty fucking awkward. About as awkward as this very awkward silence, actually.
Cash ducked his head and stared at his shoes. Then he whispered, “I can ask.”
“Okay,” I said, relieved and embarrassed at the same time. “Great. I’ll let you get started.”
He nodded and pulled a pair of earbuds from his pocket and popped them in.
Then he pulled last night’s towels from the dryer and started folding them.
His movements were surprisingly quick and efficient as he transformed the towels into neat squares.
After watching for a minute to make sure he put them in the right storage bin—if there was one thing I’d learned as a vet, it was that no matter how simple the instructions, people still got it wrong—I left him to it.
I went back upstairs and finished getting ready for the day, pulling my hair into a more professional-looking version of my earlier bun.
I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror for a second, taking in the dark circles under my eyes.
Working in Goose Run was supposed to be a break, a chance to step away from the stress of a big practice and recharge my batteries, but so far it hadn’t worked out that way.
The stress had simply packed its bags and followed me to my new address.
I took a deep breath, smoothed down the tendrils of hair around my ears, and headed downstairs.
Kayla met me at the foot of the stairs. “Why is one of the guys from last night cleaning the consult room? You planning on replacing me?”
“That’s Cash,” I said. “We have an arrangement. He’s gonna help out in the mornings, getting the clinic ready and doing laundry, that kind of thing. And I would never replace you. You keep the place running.” I wasn’t kidding, not even a little bit.
“Damn right I do,” she said with a nod. We walked out to the reception area and passed the exam room where Cash was mopping in firm, even strokes, his back to us. “So what’s the deal with our friend then?”
“Turns out the dog’s not even his, but he still wants to pay the bill. So long story short, we worked out a deal where he cleans for an hour every morning. Also, he doesn’t talk. Don’t take it personally.” I didn’t mention that I was housing the dog for now, hoping Kayla would miss that part.
I should have known better. “And why is the dog still here if it’s a stray? You’re dropping it at the shelter later, right?”
I hesitated, but Kayla had been working for my uncle a long time, so I figured she’d understand. “There isn’t a no-kill shelter, and it would have broken Cash’s heart, okay?” I said. “So he and his friends are going to find the dog a new home. But the dog’s not staying.”
“Uh-huh,” Kayla said, smirking.
“I’m serious,” I said.
“Uh-huh,” she said again.
I wanted to argue with her, but then the phone started ringing. We didn’t open for another half hour or so, but that didn’t stop people calling. Kayla rolled her eyes but took the call rather than letting it go to the answering machine.
I wandered out to the back of the clinic to see how Cash was doing and found him outside emptying the mop bucket.
“Cash?” I said. He ignored me, and I remembered that he had his earbuds in. I tapped him on the shoulder and he whirled around, eyes wide with terror, and pulled his hands up to shield his face.
Shit.
“Sorry!” I said, raising my hands in the air and taking a step back.
Cash slowly lowered his hands, and his shoulders curled in like a pill bug as his cheeks flushed pink. He stared at the ground.
“That’s on me,” I said. “I didn’t mean to sneak up on you. I just wanted to check in and see if you had any questions.”
Cash shook his head, his gaze darting between me and the back door.
It took me a minute, but then I got it and stepped to one side, leaving the path free, and some of the tension left his frame.
It reminded me of the dogs we saw sometimes that cowered in the corner and whined if they heard a door slam, and I wanted to reach out and reassure him.
But it felt like maybe he’d prefer it if I pretended nothing had happened, so I said, “I’m glad you’re the one mopping. Last time I did it, I slipped and fell on my ass. Kayla laughed at me for five solid minutes.”
His lips twitched, and he huffed out a quiet laugh. It was like watching a spring inside him uncoil as the tense hold he had on the mop handle loosened. He ducked past me, still grinning, and disappeared inside.
When it was time for him to leave, I checked on the exam rooms to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. They were pristine. “Wow,” I said, genuinely impressed, and immediately felt bad for assuming he wouldn’t do a good job. “This looks great, Cash.”
His mouth curved up into a pleased smile and when he spoke, it was so quiet I almost missed it. “Thanks.”
“Same time tomorrow?”
He nodded and walked out the door with a smile still on his face, and I found myself smiling too. Maybe this was going to work out after all.