Chapter 41
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Cassie asked gently.
Noah’s truck jerked over a speed bump on their way out of short-term parking at BWI. Taco, who was draped over her lap like a doggie blanket, grumbled and buried his snoot in the crook of her elbow.
Something wasn’t right. Ever since Noah had picked her up, her stomach had been in knots.
At first, she’d attributed it to the meeting she had with her staff later in the day, but that wasn’t it.
There had been some kind of shift in Noah, and now there was a distance between them that hadn’t been there when she’d left.
The fun, cheeky, easygoing Noah who had taken her paddleboarding and ravaged her body under the moonlight was gone. This was original Noah—aloof, grumpy, hardened. What had happened while she was in Arizona?
Maybe he had met someone else and didn’t know how to tell her.
“I’m fine,” he said. “Just a lot on my mind. It’s good to see you back. How’s your sister doing?”
“Better now, thankfully. I was worried that she had postpartum depression, but getting a little bit of a routine seems to have helped. I’m going to keep an eye on her though.
I wish I could’ve stayed longer, but I’m happy to be back.
I’m so happy for her, and I’m in love with baby Pip, but it was still kind of…
hard. Am I a terrible person for admitting that? ”
“Of course not.” He lifted his hand like he was going to put it on her knee but dropped it back down. “It was really nice of you to be there for her.”
Something had definitely changed. Maybe something had happened at the sanctuary while she was gone?
“Thanks for picking me up. I could have taken an Uber if you were busy,” she said.
He raised an eyebrow. “This far? It would’ve cost you a fortune.”
“Well, either way, I appreciate it. Anything exciting happen while I was gone? Did Taco eat your dining room table?”
Noah rewarded her with a small smile. “No, he was good.”
Apparently that was the end of the conversation. Whatever was going on, he didn’t want to talk about it. Maybe she could check in with Lyra and Will and see if they knew what was up. Maybe even his mom. A sense of uneasiness hung in the air until he pulled into her driveway.
“I’ll be glad to not go on that bridge again anytime soon,” she muttered as Noah pulled her suitcase out of the bed of his truck.
He scoffed. “What, the Bay Bridge? It’s totally harmless.”
“What if there was an accident? You’d be completely trapped over a huge body of water, potentially for hours.”
“That hardly ever happens.”
She paused on the steps to her porch. “You mowed the grass. You didn’t have to do that.”
He shrugged. “It needed doing. It wasn’t a big deal.”
“Well. Thank you.” She stood at her front door, Taco’s leash in one hand. “I’ll see you later?”
“See you around,” he said with a wave.
Her heart sank when his car door slammed.
Shit.
Cassie glanced at the clock. It was five minutes past noon. Everyone but Lucia was sitting in front of her. Anger bubbled up, surprising her.
“Anyone heard from Lucia?” she asked.
Everyone shook their heads. She glanced outside one more time, then scanned the room until her gaze settled on Akshara.
It was time to take a crash course on being a boss.
“We’ll give it another five minutes, and then we’ll get started. Akshara, could you help me with something in the back?”
Akshara jumped out of her chair, her dark ponytail bobbing. She followed Cassie back to her office.
Cassie shut the door and sat down behind her desk. “You worked with Lucia before, right?”
Akshara nodded.
“I need your honest opinion of her.”
Akshara shrank down in her chair, looking extremely uncomfortable.
“Was she a good teammate, or did she make it harder for you to do your job?” Cassie pressed.
“She…called off a lot. Left early a lot,” Akshara said carefully. “Dr. Volchansky was very lenient with her. We had to fill in for her duties all the time.”
Damn it. She should’ve known. It only took one bad employee to breed resentment. There had been a tech just like Lucia in her last clinic, and Cassie had watched her drive good employees away.
“Okay.” Cassie cleared her throat and dialed Lucia’s number on her new office phone.
She answered on the second ring.
“Hi, boss. I’m so sorry I’m late. One of my tires fell off, and I’m waiting for AAA to come and fix it.”
There was a lot of clanking and hissing in the background.
“A tire, huh? That’s crazy that it just fell off on its own.”
Akshara shot her a pained look.
“I know. I’ll send you a picture.”
“I’m so glad you’re safe. But you’ll be in as soon as it’s fixed?” Cassie asked.
“I think so. They said it could be an hour till a tech gets out here to look at it,” Lucia said seriously.
“Iced venti brown sugar oat milk shaken espresso for Lucia,” someone in the background announced.
“Luckily,” Lucia said, “it fell off right next to a Starbucks.”
“How convenient. Well, Lucia, the thing is…” Cassie began, and her stomach twisted into a soft pretzel.
“The fact that you didn’t call before you were late does count as a strike—a no call/no show.
There’s a three-strike system in place for your probationary period, and a rolling three-month period after that. ”
“You’re giving me a strike? Before we’re even open?” Lucia’s tone had shifted in an instant.
Cassie flinched, and her heart thumped uncomfortably. What would Noah do if an employee behaved this way toward him?
Stand your ground.
“Yes. I’m sure it won’t be an issue in the future, but I just wanted to make sure you were aware of the expectations in the office.”
“That’s bullshit,” Lucia said. “This is ridiculous.”
Cassie’s nerves vanished, replaced instantly by indignation. “It’s funny you should say that. Swearing at the boss is, believe it or not, another strike.”
Lucia sputtered. “You’re giving me two strikes? In one day? I’m not dealing with this shit. I quit.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Lucia. Best of luck in your future endeavors,” Cassie said in her best customer service voice.
She slammed the phone down, making Akshara jump.
“I’m sorry,” Cassie said automatically to her. “I probably shouldn’t have done that in front of you. I’ve never been a boss before.”
“It’s fine,” Akshara assured her. “Dr. Volchansky used to have me type up letters for him like a 1920s secretary. Boundaries tend to be blurrier in private practice.”
Cassie buried her head in her hands. She had just put her foot down in her first fifteen minutes as a boss, and she had already been yelled at, lost an employee, and rendered the office understaffed.
She was terrible at this. Maybe she should’ve just let Lucia come in late.
Wasn’t an inconsistent warm body better than no one at all?
She wrote “post assistant job ASAP” on a sticky note and slapped it on her monitor.
“Okay,” she said, trying to collect herself, “let’s have this meeting.”
They returned to the reception area, and Akshara took her seat.
“Tara, Malik, Akshara. Thank you all for joining me today. Everybody have your employee handbook?”
They nodded.
“Great. I’m really excited to work with you all and get this practice open.” Even though she had just rendered them understaffed.
Malik raised his hand.
“Yes?” Cassie asked. She hadn’t anticipated questions already.
“Where’s Lucia?”
“Lucia has elected not to pursue employment here,” Cassie said carefully.
“Oh, thank god. I didn’t want to say anything, but she’s the worst. Her mom died like three different times when we worked with Dr. V,” Malik said.
Cassie bit her lip. “This does mean we’re currently down an assistant. I’ll get the job reposted today, but we’ll probably be short-staffed for a couple weeks at least. I’m sorry about that, guys.”
“Why are you apologizing? It’s not your fault,” Tara, the new receptionist, said.
That was debatable.
“How’s the appointment schedule for next week looking?” Cassie asked to change the subject.
“Great. We’re full except for emergency slots every in-office day, there’s a sterilization and a dental scheduled on Thursday, and I left Friday afternoon blocked off for large animal travel. Charts are prepped, and prior patients were migrated to the new medical record system.”
Tara was already bringing her overachieving Taco Bell energy to the office. As long as she didn’t quit, things could turn around.
“Excellent,” Cassie said. “There will be a lot of things to work out along the way, but I know we can provide amazing care to our patients and even have a little fun along the way. You might find that I do things a little differently than other places.”
They weren’t going to like this.
You can do this.
“There’s always a little bit of mess when it comes to job duties between techs and assistants, especially in a small office, so we’re going to work together to clarify responsibilities.
When you’re done with your duties for the day, I expect you to hop in and help your teammates so we can all get out of here on time.
We’re a team, so we need to act like it. ”
There. She had put her foot down, and the world hadn’t ended.
“Additionally, when we’re fully staffed and properly cross-trained, each tech and assistant will do a two-hour shift at the reception desk a week.”
Malik frowned, and Akshara’s brow furrowed, but they didn’t say anything.
“I deeply value your education and experience,” she said gently, “but trust me when I say I’ve seen this reduce resentment and increase compassion firsthand.
Reception is also expected to help out with cleaning and kennels when their duties are done for the day,” she said with a look at Tara, who nodded.
“And we’ll have a weekly staff meeting to evaluate how things are going and see if we need to make any tweaks. I promise I’m going to listen, and I’ll do everything I can to make this a great place to work.”
“What else?” she mused. “Right. I have a zero-tolerance policy for bullying. You have to be at least neutral to the animals’ owners, even if they’re not nice to you. The community is trusting us with their pets. We need to be worthy of that trust. Sound good?”
The staff nodded.
There was a knock at the door, and a delivery person for a local pizza place hefted some boxes over his shoulder.
“Perfect timing. Let’s eat and then talk about how we’re going to make this work.”
When she collected the pizzas, she glanced across the street at Noah’s shop. The windows were dark, and it was too early for him to be there.
She needed to focus on the clinic, but her mind continuously returned to the suddenly aloof Noah. Maybe she’d pay a visit to the sanctuary after work.
Hours later, Cassie rolled up to Willow Bend.
The staff meeting had gone well, and her remaining employees had opened up more in the informal setting of a pizza party.
While she had definitely ruffled some feathers with the way she planned to run the office, nobody else had quit, and they had all come with interesting ideas and distinct personalities.
It was going to be a lot of work. But it would be something of her own, something that Dave could never take away from her. As hard as it was to say goodbye to any hopes of a career in zoo medicine, that thirst would be quenched by Willow Bend. Aster Hollow was where she was meant to be.
Now she just needed to figure out what the hell was up with Noah.
She slammed the door of her car and walked into the gift shop. “Hey, Kurt,” she said. “I’m going to make my rounds. Is Gloria around?”
“I think she’s stationed at the aviary.”
“Great.”
Cassie visited each enclosure, inspecting the animals for signs of distress or pain. She came out with a couple minor things to follow up on, but nothing too pressing.
“There she is,” Gloria said when Cassie walked into view. “How are you doing, Dr. Thompson? Did you have a nice time in Arizona?”
Cassie smiled. Gloria had such a warmth to her. “It was really nice. A little stressful, but mostly nice.”
“Do you have a picture of the baby?”
Cassie showed her one Sammy had sent that morning, and Gloria cooed over baby Pip. “How were things around here while I was gone?”
“Oh, mostly good,” Gloria said, but she looked away when she said it. “Thor almost caught a seagull, and I think the lemurs were trying to stage a coup, but everyone survived.”
“What’s going on?”
Gloria paused and rubbed at her hip. “We got some bad news. We had a surprise inspection two days ago, and apparently there’s been a change with regulations on enclosures.
We need to completely redo most of the fencing.
It’ll be five-figure work for sure. It’s always one step forward and a jitterbug back. ”
“Oh, that’s awful.”
So that was what was stressing Noah out.
“Maybe there’s something that can be done? Another couple events, or maybe a fundraiser, or—”
Gloria laid a hand on her arm. “You’ve done enough, sweet pea. We’ll figure something out. You focus on your clinic.”
Cassie fell silent. She couldn’t fix everything for everyone—she’d spent her entire life trying. But once things were up and running and they had a new assistant, she’d help Gloria find a solution. This was not going to be the end for Willow Bend.