Falling Again for the Animal Whisperer

by Becky Wicks

  In a flash she was back on the riverbank, watching Cole go under. Then back in the cabin, seeing all the photos of them he’d kept for some reason. Maybe he hadn’t been over her when he’d said he was. And if not, why had he called things off?

  It was too confusing, but she could have lost him in that river and the notion still killed her. It was all too much to think about.

  Aileen took her stethoscope and shooed her towards the door. ‘Go.’

  ‘Go where?’ Jodie almost stumbled in her non-slip shoes.

  ‘Go back to him again. Or at least clear your schedule and talk to Emmie first. She can handle the truth. You owe it to yourself to be happy, Jodie, and I’ve never seen you like this before. Everything’s under control here.’

  As she said it, a dog barked and a cat yowled loudly in the kennels, making Aileen jump and curse, and Jodie burst out laughing for the first time in days.

  ‘Normal is boring, by the way!’ Aileen called after her down the corridor.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  ‘WILL YOU BE OK, staying with your dad?’

  Emmie looked up over her bowl of soup. ‘Why? How long will you be gone?’

  ‘I don’t know yet,’ she replied honestly. ‘I’ve booked time off from West Bow for the next week, so...’

  ‘This is about you and Cole, isn’t it?’ Emmie asked. ‘There’s something going on with you two. I’m not blind, Mum. Why don’t you want to tell me?’

  Jodie’s heart sped up. She’d been anticipating this, and had wanted to sit down with Ethan, but when she’d filled him in, Ethan had suggested it might be best just coming from her. She took the butter out of the fridge and then sat next to Emmie.

  ‘Truth time,’ Emmie said, dropping her spoon.

  Jodie picked up a bread roll and started buttering it absently, feeling the heat prickle right up her arms. ‘Uncle Casper left me and Cole equal shares in Everleigh in his will. The meeting we had to stay for, that was so we could talk about it and all the legal implications.’

  Emmie just blinked at her for a moment. ‘You own half of the estate?’

  ‘Yes.’

  She scraped her chair back on the kitchen floor. ‘Isn’t that worth...like millions? Can I tell people we’re rich now?’

  Jodie rolled her eyes. ‘I didn’t raise you to talk like that. But it’s worth a lot, yes.’ She shot her daughter a sideways smile. ‘A lot.’

  Her daughter’s eyes grew as round as saucers. ‘Mum! What the—’

  ‘Listen.’ Jodie discarded the knife, putting a hand out over Emmie’s. ‘The will states I have to go back there over the course of a year as often as I can before I can sell my half. I have to work things out with Cole, help him find someone else who can—’

  ‘Why would you sell?’ Emmie was looking at her like she’d gone insane. Jodie sat back in her chair as Emmie gazed at her imploringly. ‘Mum, seriously, why you would sell your half of Everleigh? I thought you loved it there. It’s amazing. I mean, I know I didn’t want to go there at first, but that was before...’

  ‘Before you met Toby?’ Jodie raised an eyebrow. Emmie scrunched up her nose.

  ‘What? No, Toby’s cool, but the horses... Mum, the animals, the veterinary practice, all the stuff Evie showed me how to cook. I didn’t watch TV the whole time I was there.’

  ‘I noticed.’

  ‘Can I come back with you?’

  ‘No, not this time, you have school.’ Jodie pushed her own plate aside, preparing herself. ‘Emmie, there’s something else.’

  ‘Is this the part where you tell me something’s going on with Cole?’ Emmie grinned impishly. ‘I knew it!’

  Jodie felt her face flush. She’d deflected the questions up till now but she knew Emmie deserved the truth. ‘Cole and I were together for a few years. We just...fell in love as kids, then it suddenly got serious when we were older.’

  ‘OK.’ Emmie put her chin in her palms, listening intently.

  ‘But he broke things off when we were nineteen, before I moved to Edinburgh, and that’s when I met your dad. There wasn’t much of a gap between those relationships.’

  Emmie’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Are you trying to tell me Cole Crawford is my real dad?’

  Jodie laughed. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. Emmie, listen, all you need to know is I love you, and so does your dad. And I loved Cole for a long time before that. He just wasn’t too hot at communicating with humans when we were together.’ He still isn’t, she thought, but she didn’t say it. ‘He’s always been better with animals.’

  ‘You mean you love him,’ Emmie corrected her. ‘I don’t know what went wrong with you two, and I thank him for breaking up with you because it meant I was born. I am totally awesome...’

  ‘Yes, you are.’

  ‘But you still love each other. I’ve seen the way you look at each other when you both think the other isn’t looking. And Toby said you spent the night with him before we left.’

  Stunned, Jodie shifted in her chair, looking for signs of disgust or disdain in her daughter’s blue eyes, but there were none.

  Emmie was growing up so fast, she realised helplessly. She was losing the softness to her cheeks but getting tougher. She admired her daughter for the millionth time, even as embarrassment flared through her. ‘I don’t know what to say.’

  Emmie smirked, rocking back on two chair legs. ‘It’s OK, Mum, we’ve had the sex talk at school.’

  Jodie shook her head, biting back a smile. ‘You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, do you know that?

  ‘Mum.’ Emmie’s eyes filled with love suddenly, a love so pure it shocked Jodie.

  ‘We’re not together now,’ she explained quickly, wondering when her daughter had got quite so mature. ‘I just wanted to let you know the situation with the inheritance, and everything that comes with it. There might be times when you have to stay with your dad and Saskia a bit longer.’

  Emmie frowned. Now she looked disturbed, but thankfully not at the concept of staying with her dad more. ‘You’re not with Cole now? After you...? But you guys were so angsty.’

  Angsty? ‘Emmie, it’s complicated.’

  ‘Adults are always so complicated.’

  ‘Well, you’re going to be one soon enough.’ She smiled.

  Emmie rolled her eyes. ‘So when are you leaving again?’

  ‘Tomorrow,’ Jodie said, opening her arms. ‘Can I get a hug?’

  ‘Can I get a promise that you’ll keep your share of Everleigh, so I can tell my friends my mum has an estate in Dorset with horses?’

  ‘Not just yet.’ Jodie’s insides twisted, remembering how she’d left things with Cole. To her surprise and relief, Emmie hugged her anyway.

  * * *

  Jodie had hoped she would be able to get through some of West Bow’s paperwork on the train journey to Dorset, but her mind was a whirlwind as she stared out the window. She felt a pang of sadness over leaving Emmie. They’d been getting on surprisingly better since coming back from Everleigh the first time, but she couldn’t pull her out of school. And as much as Ethan supported her, he adored spending time with Emmie. She didn’t want to deny him that.

  She’d told Cole that what had happened had been a mistake. He’d said the same thing. Rejection had seen her building her defences back up again, and he had done that too, perhaps. Neither of them had been particularly nice to the other when they’d said that awkward goodbye.

  She knew it was for the best if they focused on the rescue centre from now on, and the plans for the estate going forward.

  Yet here she was, watching the three hundred and forty miles speed past in varying shades of green, feeling nauseous at the thought of seeing him again. She was heading back to the man she’d sworn just weeks ago that she had no feelings for whatsoever. But it wasn’t exactly indifference causing her butterflies.
r />   She pondered Aileen’s final perspective on the inheritance clause:

  ‘Maybe that’s why Casper left you both the property? Maybe he knew it wasn’t too late to fix things between you and Cole?’

  Jodie looked up at the drizzly sky. If that was it, he wouldn’t be getting his wish. Emmie might love Everleigh more than Jodie had ever expected her to but it didn’t change the fact that Cole was still a locked-up tower of secrets that infuriated her.

  There was no way she could keep her share of Everleigh and work with him beyond the allocated time unless he started to communicate with her in the same open, trusting, honest way he seemed to communicate with his horses.

  * * *

  Twilight was settling on the paddocks by the time her cab rumbled down the gravel pathway. The lights were on in Cole’s cabin and she could make out two cars outside. The Land Rover and a sedan she didn’t recognise.

  ‘Ms Everleigh?’

  Toby’s voice took her by surprise as she stepped out from the cab and paid the driver. He was hurrying towards her from the kennels with a puppy under his arm. She didn’t recognise it from the litter they’d rescued, but he had probably found homes for Lucy-Fur and co., thanks to his and Emmie’s social media efforts.

  ‘Where’s Emmie?’ he asked her. His eyes were wide and hopeful behind his glasses.

  ‘Sorry, Toby, it’s just me this time.’

  His mouth twisted in disappointment. ‘She told me it would just be you. I was hoping she was planning to surprise me. This is one of the new puppies!’

  ‘Cute,’ she said, pulling her bag from the back seat.

  ‘I guess you’re looking for Cole. He has a client, but I can take you over there.’

  ‘Oh, no, let’s not disturb him,’ she said as the cab crunched back up the driveway.

  ‘He won’t care. I have to feed Ziggy anyway. I always feed him when Cole has clients.’

  Toby was persistent. He even carried her bag to the cabin porch. She followed him inside and the familiar scent of Cole, cleaning products and coffee filled her nose and made her empty stomach shift uneasily.

  ‘Cole!’ Toby called out as Ziggy made a beeline straight for her from the sheepskin rug by the fire, and started sniffing her ankles.

  She heard Cole’s voice behind the door to his consultation room, the extension he’d built onto the cabin where he saw his clients and their animals.

  ‘One second, please, I’ll be right back.’

  The door was flung open and his deep voice pierced the air. ‘Toby, hey, there’s a new bag of kibble by the bench, thank you, buddy. Can you walk Ziggy too?’ He stopped in surprise when he saw her. ‘Jodie.’

  She raised a hand awkwardly as Toby dropped her belongings on the floor by Cole’s old weathered leather boots and went about fetching the giant sack of dog food. Ziggy padded after him expectantly.

  ‘I left you a message to say which train I was getting. But I know you’re busy. I can wait,’ she said.

  He’d shaved his beard off, she noted. He looked younger, like he had when he’d been nineteen, only there was muscle on him now, and biceps stretching out the fabric of a smart blue shirt. He looked good. Tired, but good.

  She knew she didn’t look great herself after a day of sitting on trains, but then again so what? He’d seen her look far worse. And she shouldn’t even care what she looked like, it wasn’t like she’d come back to romance him. She was here because Casper had given her no choice, and because she wouldn’t have heard the end of it from Aileen if she didn’t at least attempt to talk to him about some of the more personal stuff still left unaddressed.

  ‘You’re still going to sell,’ he stated, stepping towards her.

  She frowned. Trust him to get straight to business now that she’d hurt his pride. ‘I don’t see why anything should have changed,’ she told him, adjusting her handbag on her shoulder. ‘Evie’s fixed me a room in the house while I get to know the property a little better. I can shadow others here if you don’t want me with you.’

  He ran a hand across his chin then dashed it through his hair like he was trying to figure out what to do with her now she was standing here. He hadn’t responded to the message she’d sent on the way here, but she could see his phone now, abandoned on the arm of the couch.

  She heard the kibble hitting the metal bowl in the kitchen, right before Toby slid past them, flashed them a cheeky, knowing grin and slipped back out the door with Ziggy.

  They were alone.

  Her breathing constricted as Cole stepped closer, his brown eyes boring into hers. Without warning, he closed the space between them, brought a big warm, gentle palm to her cheek then ran a thumb across her lower lip.

  ‘I definitely don’t want you with me after what happened before,’ he stated. His gravelly voice was almost a growl.

  A maddening half-smile quirked his mouth before he lowered his lips to hers and pressed a kiss down possessively, like a stamp.

  Jodie sank into him instantly, heating up at the thrill of his hands following the curves of her body and the hard spines of his prized books against her back. She couldn’t recall how she came to be backed against the bookshelf. The passion overwhelmed her like it always did. She almost forgot where she was as she brought her arms around his muscled shoulders and her legs around his middle, losing herself in their kiss. She was losing her mind.

  What was she doing? ‘Cole!’

  Quickly she broke free, scrambling breathlessly to pull her skirt back into place. She stepped back from him, hands to his chest as a barrier. ‘I thought we said—’

  ‘You’re right, we did,’ he interjected. He looked amused now, scanning her eyes. ‘Old habits die hard. I guess you woke something up the last time you were here...so to speak. It won’t happen again.’

  She wanted to slap him but she’d kissed him too, hungrily, the way she’d been thinking about doing during the whole train ride, in spite of trying not to. ‘Well, please make sure it doesn’t,’ she said, flustered, ‘I’m serious, you know that’s not why I’m here. Don’t try that again.’

  ‘As you wish.’

  Cole stepped away like nothing had happened, leaving her colder. ‘Meet me in the main house. I’ll bring Miss Edgerton over to the surgery,’ he said.

  She blinked at him, bringing a hand up to her messy hair and smoothing down her skirt again. What was happening? ‘Who?’

  Without answering, he made for the consultation room and disappeared inside again, leaving her reeling. It was only then that she remembered he still had a client waiting.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  ONE LOOK AT the bulldog bitch’s quivering frame and bulging abdomen, and Cole knew the C-section couldn’t wait. Blue was in the early stages of labour already and not happy about it at all.

  ‘You got here just in time,’ he told Jodie in the surgery, handing her a fresh white coat. It was dark outside now and he was on emergency call tonight, much to his chagrin. Or maybe it was a good thing, he mused. It would stop him making his way to Jodie knowing any more intimacy was off limits. ‘Dacey finished her shift an hour ago, but this will take more than one pair of hands...’

  ‘Usually one for each puppy, I know.’

  ‘We’ll do what we can. I hope you don’t mind.’

  ‘Straight in at the deep end, huh?’ She smiled.

  Jodie buttoned up the coat he handed her and he lowered his voice, glancing behind her at the woman who’d brought Blue in. ‘About what happened back there, I really am sorry,’ he said. ‘I know we said that spending the night together was a mistake. I respect that you’re here for Everleigh, I hope you know that.’

  He was telling her the truth, but the sight of her in the cabin again had just rebooted his desires. He’d been thinking about her ever since she’d left, but he hadn’t once pestered her for details about her return. He’d known he h
ad to wait for her to come to him and she was bound to still have her guard up.

  Jodie let out a sigh and he swore he saw desire in her eyes, along with frustration. ‘I kissed you back. Let’s just get to work, shall we?’

  ‘Blue’s owner didn’t know most French bulldogs can only give birth by C-section,’ Cole told Jodie, barely murmuring. ‘She brought Blue in to me because the labour was going on too long, and she thought there might be something else wrong with her. The dog was trying to bite her before I stepped in, too.’

  He watched Jodie fix her hair up in a quick bun. ‘I’ve met plenty of people who don’t know enough about the pets they choose to keep,’ she said quietly.

  He was glad she’d shown up when she had. He could handle things like this himself, he always had, but Jodie’s presence and opinions were invaluable. She looked damn sexy too, all dishevelled after her train ride. Not that he should be thinking things like that. This was business now. Strictly business.

  ‘So why can’t she do this on her own?’ the dog owner asked the second Cole and Jodie reached the operating table.

  ‘Their hips are too small for them to do it naturally, Miss Edgerton,’ Jodie said, pulling on a pair of latex gloves from the box he passed to her. The dog jerked her head suddenly, as if it was aiming for a bite at Jodie. It caught the end of the glove but no flesh, thankfully. Jodie pulled her hand away fast. ‘Whoa, little one, we won’t hurt you.’

  Cole could tell the animal was fearful and wary, but judging by the animal’s behaviour in this woman’s presence it had more to do with the owners, unfortunately, than the pending C-section. Not that he was going to say that now.

  He took a step back, one hand on the table, the other stroking the dog’s velvety ears. Jodie’s expression softened when the dog calmed in his hands and laid her head on his palm.

  ‘I haven’t seen her trust a stranger like that in a while. So it’s true what they say about you.’ The other woman was looking at Cole in mild suspicion.