Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Are you okay?” The grass was damp and cold beneath Noah’s bare feet.
So it wasn’t a prowler—it was just Cassie, who was wearing something that looked suspiciously like a wedding dress.
“Everything’s fine,” Cassie slurred, flinging her hands to her sides.
Noah jerked back and pulled at his shirt. “Then why did I just get splattered with blood?”
“Occupational hazard.” She put her hands in front of her and frowned at them. “Stupid broken glass.”
She was a mess. Definitely drunk, bleeding profusely, and if he wasn’t mistaken, there was a piece of hay wedged in her hair. What the hell had happened to her?
“Okay, you’re coming with me. Come on.” He waved her over.
“Why, so you can yell at me? Is there a headlamp ordinance I’m not aware of?”
“No, because you’re bleeding, Doctor.”
She came up to the fence and brandished a finger at him. “Not a people doctor.”
“I’m aware. Come on.” He reached over the fence, grabbed her by the waist, and threw her over his shoulder.
“Where are you taking me?” Her voice was muffled against his back.
“To get cleaned up. There’s dirt on your blood.”
“I was trying to fix the stupid fence. Lest I be chastised again by some lumbersnack for being a bad pet parent.” She poked him in the back.
Lumbersnack? He couldn’t keep up with the lingo these days.
“Taco dug a hole,” she explained.
“I figured. Why did you decide to fix it in the middle of the night? And with your bare hands?”
She scoffed. “It’s not the middle of the night. It’s fence-fixing time, bay-bee.”
Something fell to the grass with a thump.
“Ah, shit. My headlamp.”
“We’ll get it later.” He carried her up the steps of the deck and into the kitchen. There were probably half a dozen bloody handprints on his back. He would have to burn this shirt. Otherwise she might frame him for murder when she sobered up.
He set her on the kitchen counter next to the sink and flicked the light on. She winced.
“Let me see,” he ordered.
She frowned but held her hands out. It was hard to tell how bad the cut was with all the dirt on her hands.
He shook his head and grabbed a cloth from under the sink. He ran it under warm water and rubbed at her hands gently. She recoiled.
“Sorry,” he said. Her hands were small and soft in his. “You’re pretty careless with your hands for someone who needs them for surgery and shit.”
“Don’t blame me. Blame gravity. And this impossible fucking day,” she muttered darkly.
“What’s so bad about today?”
Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he was curious. He didn’t often witness a full-blown meltdown.
“Take your pick.” She pulled her hands away to tick items off as she spoke. “I’m an idiot who doesn’t know how to run my own clinic. Today would’ve been my tenth wedding anniversary.”
Ah. That explained the wedding dress.
“It’s also my bio mom’s birthday, and while Lyra and Andi kindly let me celebrate with them, all I could think about was the fact that I’ll never get to meet her.
Because she’s dead. And even when she wasn’t, she wanted nothing to do with me.
” She leaned forward. “Which makes her the third parent who wants nothing to do with me,” she said in a stage whisper.
Yikes. This was getting heavy, and he wasn’t equipped to handle a conversation like this delicately. The deepest he got was talking about different brands of beef jerky with the cashier at the grocery store.
He took her hands back and resumed cleaning. Maybe a change of topic would help.
“That sounds like a really hard day. How’s the clinic coming along?” he asked.
“It’s a lot,” she admitted. “I can’t even get the damn exam tables out of the boxes because they’re so heavy. I never thought I’d be doing something like this all on my own.”
“Was your ex a vet too?”
Shit. Straight back to one of the things she was stressed about. Why was he so bad at holding a conversation?
She scoffed. “No. He was a people doctor, and he never let anyone forget it. He’s head of cardiology at…Douchepump Memorial, or whatever the fuck it’s called,” she said, waving her non-injured hand in a general western direction.
“What happened with him?” The curiosity still burned.
Cassie flinched when he dabbed hydrogen peroxide on her open wound. “He was a soul-sucking vampire who was really good at hiding it. And not a sexy, sparkly one either. The kind who tricks you into quitting your dream job, then serves you divorce papers.”
Anger flamed in his belly. What a giant asshole.
“Your job at the zoo?”
She nodded. “He got an offer in LA and told me we had to move. He made all the money, so he made allll the decisions,” she said dramatically, throwing her hands to the side.
“I didn’t want to go, but I didn’t feel like I had a choice.
I really loved it there. It was a stupid amount of work for zero money, but it was the only place I had any peace.
Or friends. It was the one place he couldn’t touch. ”
She stared out the window. “But I was a dutiful wife and submitted my notice, thinking maybe this was the fresh start we needed. Maybe this would finally be enough for him. But I knew. I knew I’d never get to do zoo medicine again.”
She shook her head. “So I packed up our entire house and arranged everything—the movers, the new house, setting up all the utilities. And then the morning that the movers came, he told me he was moving, and that I could expect divorce papers.”
He almost gasped. “Why would he do that to you?”
Something wasn’t making sense. A piece of the story was missing.
She faltered. “There was something I couldn’t do for him, and when I was no longer useful to him, he intentionally ruined my life.”
He wanted to push further, but it was clearly a touchy subject.
“And that’s not even the whole story,” she said.
“We got a divorce. My parents were useful for once and hired me one of the best divorce attorneys in the country—I think because he had the audacity to do this to a Thompson,” she said dramatically.
“We won an even 50/50 split. Including the secret savings that dumb fuck tried to hide from me.”
So that was how she had paid cash for a whole house.
“No prenup?”
She shook her head. “He never thought I’d fight him if we separated.”
“What an idiot.”
“Right. So he was pissed about the judgment and festered in fuckin’ WeHo until about two months ago. I couldn’t get my job back at the zoo because they had already filled it, so that’s when I switched to general medicine. It was a great place. Until he purposely became a client there.”
Noah paused wrapping the elastic bandage around her hand. “Even though he moved to Los Angeles?”
This guy was sinister as hell.
She nodded. “He brought his new girlfriend, who is twenty years younger than him, and her Persian cat. Her name was on the appointment, so I didn’t know who it was until it was too late,” she said.
“And when they came in for what was supposed to be a routine wellness check, he demanded that the cat be declawed.”
“What the hell?”
“Exactly. He asked because he knew I would refuse. I’ll never forget the smile he had when I told him veterinarians don’t do that anymore because it’s extremely cruel.
So he went on a smear campaign, said I refused basic medical care to his cat because of our history.
I explained everything to the owner, but Bitch Baby whined so much on social media that they eventually let me go.
Just when I had started to rebuild my life, he destroyed it. Again.”
He went to reach for her but stopped. She probably didn’t want to be touched while recalling all of this.
“And that’s how I ended up here,” she continued. “I’m only licensed in two states, and I wanted to get as far away from him as possible. I went back to my maiden name and even started going by my middle name to make it harder for him to find me.”
“You haven’t spoken to him since?”
Cassie shook her head. “I will never speak to that pulsating hemorrhoid again. Though he did reach out to my sister the other day to say he had something to tell me, which is great. He’s probably getting married or won the damn lottery or something.”
They were both quiet for a moment. Her presence in town was making a lot more sense.
“Did you want to open your own clinic so no one could take it away from you?”
Cassie nodded. “But I forgot the part where I’m a whole-ass idiot,” she said, flailing her bandaged hand.
“And I don’t know the first thing about being a boss or the administrative stuff.
This is going to be another catastrophic failure, and this time, I’ll have people relying on me for their livelihoods. ”
She buried her non-injured hand in her hair and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry for dumping on you. I’m bringing the mood down. Everything’s fine, I’m fine. Just a weird day. You make any good wood lately? Maybe a nice…birdhouse?”
“Hey,” he said, catching her chin in his hand. “Look at me, Cassie.”
She slowly raised her gaze to look at him. Her eyes were impossibly green in the muted kitchen light.
There was so much more to her than he had initially thought.
“Don’t ever sell yourself short,” he said.
“You’re a great vet. Huck is thriving. The guys at the wildlife rehab center said your wing wrap was perfect and your intervention kept things from getting worse.
You care so aggressively about everything, and you give so much of yourself to help other people—whether they want it or not. ”
A ghost of a smile appeared on her lips. He tried not to stare.
“Your employees will be lucky to have you on their side. You scared the shit out of me the first day we met. You just took control of the situation. There is something so powerful and capable in your tiny body. No one will ever take your power again. You can handle some dumb administrative shit. It’ll suck, but it’ll end. ”
His hand slipped from her chin and skated down her arm.
“I know life has really kicked the shit out of you lately, but this isn’t the end for you.
Rebuilding is going to take time, but this is your home now.
You’re safe here. And in Aster Hollow, we take care of our own.
If there’s anything I can do to help, I will.
And I will definitely beat the brakes off anyone who threatens my neighbor. ”
She straightened up. “I thought you hated living next to me.”
“I’m warming up to the idea.”
He moved closer, drawn to her against his own will. He pressed his hips into her knees. The light glinted off gold strands in her red hair. She was staggeringly beautiful, even when drunk and covered in dirt.
It had been years since he’d kissed someone. Everything in his body was screaming for him to do it. He leaned a little closer, brought a hand up to her hair to see if it was as soft as it looked. She closed her eyes at the touch and tipped her mouth up toward his.
He was a second from ducking his head and cradling her in his arms when he caught a whiff of wine on her breath.
Shit. She was still drunk and very emotionally distraught. It wouldn’t be right.
He took a step back and sighed. Her eyes opened, and there was visible disappointment on her face. A blush crept into her cheeks. She averted her gaze.
“I’m going to get you some ice. For the hand,” he clarified.
She hopped down, wincing when her injured hand made contact with the counter edge. “It’s okay. I’ll get some from home. I’m really sorry for trauma-dumping all over you.”
Her cheeks were flaming.
“Don’t apologize. I’m sorry you had such a bad day.”
“Onward and upward, right?” she said.
“Right.”
“I’ll see you around,” she said with a hand on the back door.
“Cassie?”
She turned to face him, ruined wedding dress trailing on the floor. “Yes?”
“You won’t be able to get out that way. Unless you want me to lift you over the fence again.”
She squeezed her eyes shut for a second, like she was trying to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.
“Nope. Once was enough. Have a good night, Noah. Thanks for…” She waved her injured hand and started for the front door.
He followed her. “No problem. Thanks for the brownies.”
She turned to look over her shoulder at him. “You’re welcome,” she said with a smile, then closed the front door behind her.
He was left alone in the dark, feeling like he had just made a massive mistake.