Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Cassie settled cross-legged on the fluffy duvet and opened the photo album.
She scrutinized every photo of the woman she never knew.
Glints of gold in the fiery hair of a toddler twirling in a dress.
Heart-shaped sunglasses slipping down her nose as she read a book in a hammock.
Here, she was a smirking preteen in front of a cow with a blue ribbon.
Then suddenly, she was an adult. There was little record of a teenaged Elizabeth.
There were other pictures too—Elizabeth holding a newborn in a hospital, dancing in the kitchen with an apron covered in flour, a dark-haired toddler that must have been Andi doing her mother’s makeup.
A tear leaked from Cassie’s eye and splashed onto the back of her hand.
A whole life she never knew about. A mother who could have raised her.
What would her life have looked like if Elizabeth had kept her?
Would she have grown up here in Aster Hollow with Lyra and Andi?
Would they have made brownies and danced under the stars instead of sitting quietly at a long table while her dad read the paper and her mom guzzled martinis?
She took a deep breath and closed the photo album. It didn’t do any good to dwell on what could have been. As much as she wished she’d known her birth mother, that opportunity was gone.
But maybe she could get to know her half sisters—if Andromeda ever came around, anyway.
Suddenly, there was a frantic knock at the door.
“Dr. Thompson?”
Cassie shot off the bed. She glanced at the clock on the wall. It was after 11 p.m. Her brain immediately jumped into catastrophe mode. Was the Inn on fire? Did she have all her documents? Where was her field bag?
With her heart in her throat, she popped the door open. Innkeeper Fran stood outside with a harried-looking woman.
She looked at Cassie with fear in her eyes. “Please, my horse is having a difficult birth. Can you help?”
Okay, no fire. Good.
“Of course. Let me get my bag.” Good thing that Bloody Mary had worn off hours ago. Will had made them extra strong.
“Thank you so much. We do have a foaling bucket with the basics.” She was talking fast, clearly anxious. “My husband is with Millie now. Her water broke, and she strained for fifteen minutes, but there’s only one leg out. I think the other’s stuck.”
Cassie glanced through her bag and bit her lip. She didn’t have all the tools or staff for a C-section. Hopefully a manual manipulation would be enough.
In minutes, Cassie had hopped in the car with a total stranger.
“I’m Tina, by the way.”
“Cassie.” She reached over to shake Tina’s offered hand.
“I’m sorry for bothering you so late,” Tina said.
“The town veterinarian retired six months ago and moved to Florida, and the nearest vet is thirty miles away. The horses are due for vaccines in two weeks, and we’ll have to schlep them two by two over to Salisbury.
We’re shit out of luck with large animals right now. ”
“I’m sorry to hear that. It can be really tough for rural communities.”
“Have you worked with a lot of horses?”
“Some,” she admitted. “I specialized in exotics and worked for a zoo, but it was only a part-time position, so I did a lot of moonlighting at an emergency clinic. Then I moved into general medicine, and my last practice worked with a lot of local ranches and some of the racehorses at Del Mar.”
She was talking too much.
Tina nodded, and the corner of her mouth twitched like she was trying not to smile. “I did hear a rumor around town that you shot a tiger while wearing a pair of Gucci heels.”
“I took the shoes off first—they weren’t Gucci.” They were Louboutins, but that would make her sound pretentious. “And it was just a blow dart,” Cassie added with a smile.
“Never a dull day for an exotics vet, I guess.”
“Oh, sure. You haven’t lived until you’ve been on a stepladder, elbow-deep in a giraffe.”
Tina laughed and turned down a long gravel lane. “No giraffes at the Maples’ Ranch, unfortunately. We recently started to train racehorses and run riding camps in the summer though.”
“That must keep you busy.”
The car pulled to a stop outside a long stable.
Cassie grabbed her bag and hopped out. She probably should’ve been nervous, but for some reason, she wasn’t. This was her calling, her purpose when all other things were falling apart. She could be the person these animals needed.
“She’s just through here.”
Tina held open the door, and Cassie walked inside. Oh, it was wonderful to be surrounded by animal smells again. She barely had time to register the earthy hit of hay before Tina led her to a stall.
A beautiful chestnut Thoroughbred lay on a bed of hay, chuffing and straining.
“This is the vet,” Tina said to a man who was kneeling next to the horse.
“Thank you for coming,” he said.
“Oh, Mama. You poor thing.” Cassie rolled up her sleeves, applied some hand sanitizer, and slipped on an OB glove.
She knelt in the hay and laid a gentle hand on the mare’s side. She must have been exhausted, but she was stable, at least.
Tina and her husband had already wrapped the tail, so they definitely weren’t novices.
“I’m Cassie. I’m just going to check on your baby, okay?” she called softly to the mare.
She scooted around to the back and inspected the horse. A muzzle and one hoof were protruding. Its nasal passages were clear, which was good. She slipped a hand inside and felt around.
“The foal has an incomplete elbow extension,” she said to Tina. “I’m going to see if we can gently dislodge it. This might piss her off a little, so I’m going to administer a gentle sedative.”
After a quick betadine application and sedative for the horse, she heaved the foal as gently as she could back into the pelvic canal.
“No wonder she’s having trouble. This guy’s massive. You’re going to be okay, sweetheart,” she said encouragingly. She reached deeper, grasping the folded foreleg and gently straightening it. So far, so good.
“Okay, Mama. Now I need your help. You’ve got this.”
A contraction hit, and the foal slid forward. The horse panted and strained. There was another contraction, and both hooves appeared. There was the nose again.
“Do we need to pull?” Tina asked.
“Not yet. Let’s see how she does.” Pulling increased the risk of rib fracture to the foal. Hopefully Millie still had the strength to push.
“There you go, darling. A little more.”
The horse panted and strained, and slowly, the foal descended.
“The shoulder’s the worst part,” Cassie said.
“Tell me about it. I have four boys, all over six feet and two hundred pounds. My core is basically a glob of silly string.”
Cassie inhaled sharply, then swiftly recovered. “I hate to imagine what your grocery bill must have been like.”
“It was a good thing we had relatives who grew their own food, let me tell you,” Tina said darkly.
“Oh, there’s the shoulder.” Cassie pointed, and Tina looked relieved. “Nearly there.”
Plop. Out slid a beautiful foal. Within minutes, she was taking her first wobbly steps and nuzzling her mother. The danger had passed.
Cassie examined Millie and the foal, but all seemed to be well. No obvious broken ribs, and mama and baby were stable.
“I can’t thank you enough, Doctor,” Tina said as she led Cassie back outside. “What do we owe you? I’ll get my checkbook.”
Cassie waved a hand. “There’s no charge. I was happy to help. She did great. Just keep an eye out for the placenta, and give me a call if there are any more issues. I’ll be in town until midmorning.”
“You’re leaving? That’s too bad. We could really use someone with your skill set around here. I’ve never seen Millie so calm with a stranger, let alone one who was reaching around inside her.”
Cassie smiled as she slid into the truck. “I’m sure another veterinarian will move to town soon. And I won’t be too far, likely just up in Baltimore.”
“Likely? As in, you don’t have a job lined up yet?” Tina said with interest.
“Not yet,” Cassie admitted. “I’m kind of…starting over.”
Tina climbed into the driver’s seat and turned to her. “How can I convince you to stay?”
Cassie’s hand froze on the seat belt. She half expected Tina to lock the doors.
“You’re licensed in Maryland?” Tina asked.
“Yes. I’m from Baltimore, and it’s where I went to vet school.”
Tina looked her up and down. “You don’t need to be in Baltimore.
At this stage in your life, you need peace and community.
I’m selling a cute little house with a beautiful garden on the outskirts of town.
Very quiet dead-end street. I’ll give you ten percent off the listing price if you stay and agree to take us on as clients.
We know everyone in the equestrian industry from here to Delaware.
Very lucrative, very steady work. Our last town vet lives in Palm Beach now. ”
“That’s a super generous offer,” Cassie said. “But I would be crazy to buy a house sight unseen and move here permanently with no prior research.”
Tina started the car, but she shot her another look.
“I’m just saying. The old vet office is still available, smack in the middle of downtown.
The house is a ten-minute walk away. You would have more clients than you’d know what to do with.
I know the former vet techs too. Most of them went to work at the Harris Teeter in Easton when the office shut down.
They’d come back. This is a really wonderful community. There could be a life for you here.”
She could almost see it—summers on the bay, crab feasts with Lyra, a little place to call her own in this town that was steeped in her biological roots. Even a practice that no one could take from her. It was a beautiful idea…but it didn’t make any sense.
“I truly appreciate the offer,” Cassie said carefully.
“But I’ve had a really shitty two years, and I think I need to be surrounded by familiarity until I find a path forward.
And as much as I love working with horses and companion animals, zoo medicine is my specialty.
I’m waiting to hear back from some East Coast zoos. ”
Tina nodded and fired up the truck. “I understand, and I’m sorry for your troubles. But something tells me we’ll be seeing each other again. Let’s get you back to the Inn.”