Falling Under the Stars (Abbey Falls #1)

Chapter One Ashley

Chapter One

Ashley

Mirrors don’t lie, but some mornings they’re just too brutally honest.

“You look like hell this morning,” Tiffany says in greeting as I walk through the door of her teahouse.

“Wow, love you too, but could you be a good friend and lie to me, just this once?” I bite back as I slump onto the stool in front of her.

I mean, she’s not wrong. I caught sight of my face in the rearview mirror this morning and I look as exhausted as I feel. But I didn’t need reminding, again.

But that’s what friends are for, to be blunt, even when you don’t ask for it.

“Surprisingly, a lack of sleep will do this to a person,” I say, waving my hand in front of my face.

“Please tell me that the sleep deprivation is due to some big hunky man with a huge dick that took you to pound town all night long.”

“Tiff, seriously, you can’t say things like that in here. What if someone heard you?” Looking around the teahouse, there is only a couple of older women sitting at a table in the back.

“Why? Old Gertrude is as deaf as a post and so wrapped up in that book she’s reading.

And I can see that Mary doesn’t have her hearing aids in.

” She chuckles to herself as she pulls my teacup down from the top shelf behind the counter.

The one where she keeps the special cups.

She has individual ones for all her friends and no one else gets to use them.

Going about her ritual, Tiffany makes me a special tea mix from her jars that are lined up along the back wall. I’ve given up asking what I’m drinking each time.

All I know is that whatever she makes me always tastes good, and I feel better after drinking it.

“What if I wanted a coffee this morning?” My elbows are now on the counter with my head resting in my hands. Not because it’s comfortable, it’s purely to keep me awake.

“Pfftt. Since when do you know what you need more than I do? Now, you didn’t answer my question about visiting pound town.” She starts to fill the teapot with hot water and raises her eyebrows.

“Yeah, right. The only huge appendage I’ve seen in the last few years is on Old Man Cochran’s prize bull that he proudly wants to show all the girls in the pasture at Hindmarsh Farm on a regular occasion.”

I stifle another yawn. Last night’s callouts kept me from getting more than two hours’ sleep at a time.

First, twin calves stuck in a cow that was calving for the first time, and just as I thought I could finally put my head down and pass out, Mrs. Bradley called because her pet pig had been attacked and needed to be looked at right away.

Then there was a poor stray dog that was hit by a car out on Manor Road and needed surgery to fix some internal injuries.

She doesn’t look like she has eaten for a while and is in desperate need of a good wash, a new home, and a whole lot of love to nurse back to full health. But I’ll worry about that later.

Seriously, why can’t these things happen during the day? Or at least only one emergency a night would be manageable.

“Oh wow, Old Man Cochran is out shaking his schlong around in the pastures?” Her giggle tells me she knows the answer, but I can’t help but bite back with a reply.

“No, the bull!” I roll my eyes at her.

“Thank goodness. Nobody needs to see that.” She winks at me as she does her usual ritual with the teapot.

Two circles to the right, three circles to the left, and one last circle to the right again.

The scent wafts from the cup as she pours my tea and tells me this one has jasmine in it.

“I thought we agreed to give up on the jasmine?” I ask, knowing that I get no say in what tea she makes me.

“You wish. Jasmine is known for attracting romance, and you, my friend, need it. As someone who spends more time with males of the furry variety, you need all the help you can get.” Tiff walks around the counter and plonks herself down on the stool next to me.

“Umm, I’m a vet, remember? That’s kind of my job,” I say, lifting the tea to my lips and taking the first sip.

“Yes, your job, not your life.” Tiff looks at me like she’s peering into my soul, trying to remind me that I’m not just a vet, but a woman who’s lonely at times too.

“Ashley, you know I love you, but it’s time to stop hiding behind work as the excuse for why you haven’t been on a date in over three years, not since dickwad Jeremy left town for that bimbo he met online.”

“Mmmm, this tea is so good. What muffin do you have that can substitute for breakfast?” I smile innocently at her as I take another sip. I mean, I’m not lying. This tea tastes just perfect this morning.

“Yeah, yeah, change the subject.” She stands and kisses me on the top of the head as she returns behind the counter and places her famous carrot-walnut muffin on a plate in front of me.

“It’s not healthy to only eat a muffin for breakfast.” Walking back around the counter to me, Tiff sits back on her stool next to me and looks at me like she’s getting ready to lecture me about looking after myself.

“I disagree; this has a vegetable in it,” I reply as I sink my teeth into it for the first bite, and it doesn’t disappoint as per usual.

“Seriously,” she scolds, throwing her hands in the air.

“Don’t you have other customers to lecture?” I lean my head in the direction of the two ladies, who are oblivious to our conversation.

“You wish. Now please tell me you have placed that advertisement for another vet to work in the clinic and take a bit of the load off you. You can’t keep this kind of workload up.

Not only did Jeremy break your heart, but he fucked you over by leaving you as the only vet in town.

I mean, he was never as good a vet as you, but at least he let you get some nights off so you could sleep.

When you bought the clinic here after college, it was never meant to be run solo. ”

And this is why I love Tiffany. She truly cares about me, and I wouldn’t have gotten through the last three years without her.

“Yes, Mom, I did it two days ago, but there hasn’t been any interest yet. I mean, being a small-town vet is not for everyone.”

For me, it’s all I ever wanted when I qualified.

Move to the country with Jeremy, leaving the confines of a soulless large city to live in a small town where people actually care about their neighbors and talk to you as you walk down the street. Not like San Francisco where I grew up.

Then establish ourselves, pay off our college debt, and then buy some land to live happily ever after on.

Four out of those five dreams came true.

And I’m starting to think that the happily ever after is meant to be me with all my stray animals. They’re more faithful and complain less than a man anyway.

So maybe it’s a win-win situation after all.

Conversation between us turns to this morning’s town gossip, because if there is anyone who’s going to be all over it, it’s Tiffany.

I mean, she gets all the early risers in for their coffee or tea and a pastry or muffin while they share morning reports of what’s happening around town.

I have to say, despite wanting to live in a small town, I was never so happy to get my ten acres of paradise and privacy away from the local busybodies and their gossip two years ago after I picked myself up from the state Jeremy left me in.

It’s not perfect and still needs a lot of work, but it’s mine and it’s home.

A place I plan to be for the rest of my life, living the dream.

Customers have come and gone while I’ve been sitting here drinking my tea, with Tiffany topping it up a couple of times.

I love my pale pink teacup that’s covered in a floral pattern.

She says it’s her way of giving me a bunch of flowers every day so I know I’m loved.

This cup was a new one she gifted me the first morning I made it out of bed and into the teahouse after Jeremy left me.

It’s not huge, petite like me, she said, and also, because I like my tea black and hot.

If the cup is too big, it goes cold too quickly.

Just as I’m about to push off the stool to visit the bathroom, because tea always makes me want to pee, Tiffany’s gasp stops me in my tracks.

“Holy shit,” she whispers, which freaks me out because Tiffany never whispers.

“What, what’s wrong?” I look at her staring into my teacup.

“He’s coming.”

“Who’s coming? What are you talking about?” I’m so confused.

“Your man.” Her eyes sparkle as she lifts them from looking into the teacup.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, not more of your woo-woo visions again.” I sigh, guessing at what I’m about to hear.

“Oh shush, it’s not my vision, it’s yours. These are your tea leaves, and they don’t lie. In all the years I’ve known you, nothing has appeared in the leaves, until today. Oh, Ashley, this is so freaking exciting. Look, oh lordy, he’s going to be everything you dreamed of in a man.”

“No thanks. I had one of them and he turned out to be a douchebag, and that’s being polite.” My left leg is now bouncing on the stool because my need to pee is getting more urgent.

“Forget about Jeremy. He was just the preshow entertainment for the main event. This one is tall, broad shoulders, big hands.” Which brings out a giggle from her. “You know what they say about big hands—oh, and he knows how to use them too. Boots, water, and trees.”

I dare not ask, but it just slips out. “What the hell does that mean?”

“I don’t know. I’m just telling you what I’m seeing. A dog, big dog. Oh, and a cute dimple on him, the man that is, not the dog. Just one dimple, but it’s hidden.”

I’m cracking up at the load of crap that Tiff is rambling on with and cross my legs. I can’t wait any longer.

“I’ve got to pee. I shouldn’t have laughed.” As I jump off the stool, my elbow catches the cup and knocks it out of Tiff’s hands, and the last little bit of tea spills onto the counter.

“Sorry,” I yell behind me as I run toward the toilet that is out back of the teahouse.

“Nooooo!” I can hear her screaming at me. “I’ve lost it.”

Oh, she’s lost it alright.