Chapter Eight
Tender Heart
As usual, Normie Jewel was at my door five minutes before the vaccination clinic was due to begin. His pitch-black cocker spaniel, Odie, chased his tail in a circle, and Normie struggled to hold tightly to his leash.
An electric zing slid over my skin as Odie clipped me with his back end.
‘What can I do for you this morning, Normie?’
He gave me that impish look like you tell me. ‘Need you to give Odie the once-over. He’s been scratching everywhere.’
This was Normie’s way of getting out of making an appointment or, you know, actually paying.
He’d show up at the door only minutes before a clinic, claim I was working anyway, and beg that I take a few minutes to check out Odie.
I’d let it go on for a while until Jessamine, my receptionist, told me that if I kept it up, every old timer with an aging dog would show up expecting treatment for free.
Bree, my vet tech, stepped out of an exam room with her arms full of puppy pads and boxes of sterile gloves.
When she caught sight of Normie, she gave me a withering look, shook her head, her long dark-brown ponytail swinging like a pendulum behind her.
She and Jessa were definitely in agreement about the situation.
I should have turned Normie away. Ordered him to make an appointment for another day, but poor Odie kept scratching his right ear.
‘Bring him into Exam Room Two.’
When we walked past Bree, she quietly griped about my tender heart.
It was true. I hated to see an animal in pain.
The thought sent me back to my argument with Mo yesterday.
I could explain it over and over until all the air was gone from my lungs, and still no one in Harvest Moon would get it through their thick skulls that what I had was not magic.
It was exactly what Bree was mumbling about.
A tender heart. A certain intuition and connection to animals.
A quick eye for spotting and sensing symptoms. It was part skill, but also years of education and training.
Normie settled Odie on the steel table, and I spent the next twenty minutes cleaning out a month’s worth of infected, crusty yellowish-brown gunk from the dog’s ears.
Bree paced outside the exam room. Flora bounced happily beside her like it was some sort of game. More than once, Bree gave Normie less than kind looks as the waiting area filled up for the clinic. When I was done, I set Odie down and let Normie clip on his leash.
‘I have your info in the system, Normie. You’ll be getting a bill for today.’
He started to sputter on about the special clinic, how we were open anyways, until Jessa appeared and escorted him to the front desk.
For the next five hours, Bree assisted me as I gave shots for everything from kennel cough to parvo, distemper and feline calicivirus.
We chatted with both locals and people who came from as far away as Silverton.
Because most of the animals were young, there wasn’t much of a chance for that zap of dizziness to crawl up my spine.
When our final puppy, a French bulldog, aptly named Pierre, was carried off by his owner, I collapsed into the small gray loveseat next to the front desk.
Jessa rushed past me and locked the door.
Flora melted onto her favorite fluffy dog bed in the corner of the waiting area.
Being an emotional support dog was rough work too.
‘What was our count today?’ I said through an exhausted yawn.
‘Thirty-nine dogs and twenty-three cats,’ Bree answered, taking the seat beside me.
‘And before you ask, we are up ten animals from last month. That email to shelters across the counties, advertising the clinic, is working,’ she said, way too pleased with herself, considering the email was her suggestion.
‘Nice work. What about the other thing?’ I prompted, knowing she and Jessa would never tell me if I didn’t ask. They both gave me what looked like an orchestrated shrug.
‘Ladies,’ I pushed.
‘Fine,’ Bree grumbled. ‘That couple from Silverton, and the older woman from Longmont, might have been whispering about looking for pentagrams and spell books on the shelves in the waiting area.’
I groaned and dropped my head in my hands.
‘Everyone else was nice and normal,’ Jessa offered way too brightly.
‘See, not everyone thinks you’re going to hex them. Although maybe you should consider that option with Normie.’ Bree gave me a grin that fell somewhere between amused and serious.
Jessa tucked a loose blond hair behind her ear and glanced at Bree. If I didn’t know them so well, I would have missed the slight hint of tension.
‘And what else? May as well spill it all.’
‘I noticed some supplies were moved around, and that blanket you like to use after anesthesia was on the floor in Exam Room One,’ Bree said.
‘I was going to tell you about that.’
Bree set her chin, waiting for an explanation.
I glanced at the reception desk, remembering my body pressed against it. Bryce’s mouth hot against my neck. A zip of heat raced through me. Crap. I hoped that didn’t happen every time I looked at the damn desk.
Bree cleared her throat. Crossed her arms over her chest. She got all kinds of squirrely when I brought in emergency cases on my own without any kind of backup.
Thanks to town gossip, she and Jessa knew about my special touch with animals.
How people often reacted to me, which made them overly protective.
‘On the Elderberry Ridge trail two days ago I met a guy.’
A pleased smile bloomed across Jessa’s lips.
‘No, not like that.’
Well, okay, he was hot. Clear blue eyes that reminded me of the lake in the peak of summer. Toned arms that were more than a little distracting. He was a good kisser, too. Had an instinctual way of putting his hands in all the right places. Too bad he was also a damn liar.
‘His dog was off leash.’
Bree cursed under her breath. More than a few times, we’d had to stitch up dogs who’d gotten an angry slash from a bear, because they were roaming the woods without supervision.
‘The dog sat on my feet, and I knew something was wrong. The owner came barreling out of the woods a little while later, and I told him to keep an eye on his dog, that he could be ill, which, of course, he took as all kinds of weird.’
‘That doesn’t explain the emergency,’ Bree pressed.
‘The dog grew sicker. The man, Bryce, he found out I was at Clo’s and brought the dog to me there. I checked him over. He was in bad shape, so I told the owner to follow me here.’
Jessa shifted in her chair, her eyes clouding with worry. ‘How did he know about Clo’s? Better yet, how did he know you’d be there?’
‘Fucking Mo,’ Bree spat out.
I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t thrilled with Mo’s need to push the magical lore around town.
‘What was wrong with the dog?’ Jessa asked.
‘Marijuana poisoning.’
‘He let his dog ingest that shit? What an idiot,’ Bree said.
‘It wasn’t his fault. The dog must have found it somewhere on the trail. You know how the high school kids love to hike up to the ridge at night and get high.’
Jessa’s lower lip quivered. ‘Is the dog okay?’
This was why I’d hired her the second she came in to interview two years ago.
She was barely out of high school then, but she was organized, good with the owners and had an even gentler heart than me, which was evident by the four dogs and three rescue cats that lived with her in the small house she shared on the outskirts of town with her boyfriend, Stewey.
‘Indy got activated charcoal and a lot of IV fluids. I watched him for several hours into the night. He was doing better yesterday morning, and I released him to Bryce.’
Bree arched a dark-brown brow. ‘I’ve worked for you for nearly three years, Dani. You’ve never let an owner stay here during an emergency. You always say it’s a firm and fast rule that owners distract their animals. That they need to be apart to rest.’
It was my rote reply anytime an owner begged to stay. But there was something in the way Bryce’s voice trembled, how he looked like he was losing his best friend, that made me let him hang around and help. It was a decision I was still regretting.
‘Indy,’ Jessa blurted out. ‘I like that name.’
‘He’s a good dog. Bryce told me yesterday afternoon that he’s recovering nicely.’
‘Wait, you saw this Bryce guy twice in one day?’ Jessa asked.
‘Yeah, he came into Drip! Drip! Hooray! when I was there with Aster and Lia.’
‘It didn’t take him long to find the best coffee spot in town.’ A hint of respect crept into Bree’s voice.
‘It’s my fault I didn’t pick up the blankets. Didn’t mean to worry you, Bree.’
‘Just glad it wasn’t some kind of break-in,’ she said.
‘In Harvest Moon? Hardly.’ I jumped up from the chair, stretching out my arms and legs. If I was quick, I could get in a hike before sunset.
‘You sure you don’t need anything else?’ Bree asked, giving a quick glance at Jessa and then at the door.
‘Is there something going on tonight I should know about?’
Jessa tucked her chin, and Bree shifted on her heels. ‘Uh, we had plans to see a concert in Vail.’
‘Why didn’t you say anything? Get out of here. I can clean up what’s left.’
‘Are you sure?’ Jessa asked softly.
‘It’ll take at least an hour to get there. Go. I’ve got this.’
Jessa dashed behind the desk and grabbed a mound of papers and envelopes. ‘Here’s the mail, and a few lab reports that came in late yesterday.’
I grabbed the stack from her and cocked my head to the door. ‘Out, both of you. Have fun and get some rest before Monday. Poco is on the books to be neutered.’
‘About time,’ Bree muttered.
Poco was a local stray who’d been adopted by Mrs Chevan a year ago.
She was a sweet older woman who had no idea that Poco had gotten at least five dogs in town pregnant over the last eighteen months.
It wasn’t until Ernest Potter showed up at her door, red in the face and holding an armful of puppies from his standard poodle, that she realized it was time for Poco’s wild, and promiscuous, days to end.
‘Have a good night,’ they said, grabbing their backpacks and purses and heading out the door.
I threw the deadbolt and headed back to my office. I sank into the chair behind my desk and gave a cursory glance at the lab reports that held nothing concerning. A low ding sounded on my laptop, alerting me to a new email.
The sender’s name sent a chill down my back.
I hadn’t seen or heard from Belladonna in two years.
My finger hovered over the line to open it.
What did she have to say after all this time?
My guess: a request for money. It was usually the only reason she popped her head out of the dark hole she’d been hiding in.
The alarm buzzed on my phone, reminding me of the time. Not wanting to think about Belladonna for another minute, I shut down the computer and rushed toward the stairs at the back of the clinic.
Flora panted happily beside me as we climbed the stairs to my apartment.
When I bought the building, I had my contractor gut the entire floor, and build out two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a nice galley kitchen with a breakfast bar, and a seating area that could accommodate a tiny bistro table, a large couch and a coffee table.
‘You ready to stretch those legs, girl?’ She gave a sweet bark and followed me into my room.
My outfit from last night was still strewn across the floor, and it forced me to think about Bryce.
I gathered up the clothes and hated how the scent of him on the material filled all my senses.
No matter how good he looked, or smelled, he was off limits.
As I dumped the clothes into the laundry basket, I pushed away Aster’s prediction about him. Years ago I’d accepted that I’d spend my life alone, and Bryce showing up, no matter what color Ast saw in him, or what he could do with that spectacular mouth, was not going to change that.