Falling Again for the Animal Whisperer

by Becky Wicks

  ‘And what do they say about me?’ he asked, signalling Jodie to administer the anaesthetic.

  ‘They say you’re a pet psychic.’

  Cole felt his mouth twitch. People called him all kinds of things when ‘vet’ seemed too pedestrian for what they witnessed him do. He’d been called a counsellor, a therapist, a psychic, a healer, an animal whisperer and countless other things based on vague pseudoscientific theories. He didn’t care for any title really; but it seemed to make people happy to give him one.

  ‘What do you consider yourself, then?’ Jodie asked him.

  He thought about it, looking at her like the answer might be in the shape of her mouth in the surgical lights, the flecks of amber in the blues of her irises. ‘I’m just a man. I don’t do anything we can’t all do if we choose to listen.’

  Jodie smiled behind her hand as the woman frowned in contemplation. Cole wondered if Jodie had told anyone what had happened with Blaze on the riverbank. He’d been making great progress with the horse but he hadn’t expected that. Ziggy had surprised him too, leaping into the water after him.

  Neither had surprised him as much as Jodie, however. Surrendering herself to him with such longing and passion, no wonder he hadn’t stopped thinking about getting her back here. He had to smash her guard down more often, but he knew there were things he’d have to tell her about the past for that to happen. And those things from the past might end up turning her against him even more in the future.

  ‘Sometimes it’s better to get them spayed so they don’t have to go through this,’ Jodie was saying now, turning the woman’s attention back to Blue as they laid the dog on her side. ‘I’m surprised she’s pregnant at all. A lot of Frenchies need artificial insemination.’

  ‘My boyfriend brought the stud over,’ the woman explained. ‘He said we could make good money from the puppies. He lost his job at Christmas.’

  Cole knew exactly what Jodie would say before she even said it. Sure enough, she crossed her arms and looked disparagingly at Miss Edgerton across the table.

  ‘Putting a dog through this just to make some quick cash...’

  ‘I know, it’s not fair. I didn’t know it would be so hard on her. We do love her.’

  She produced a photo from her purse. They scanned it together quickly side by side. In it, the woman had her arm around a guy in his mid-thirties wearing bright blue trainers. The dog had her tongue lolling out between them.

  ‘It’s OK,’ Cole said quickly. ‘We’re here now, and we’re going to help her. It might be best if you waited outside, Miss Edgerton.’

  Jodie gave him a look as if to apologise for speaking out of turn, but he wasn’t about to make her think she should be sorry. She could say what she liked, she was entitled to speak her mind. People who loved animals weren’t always the best owners.

  * * *

  ‘I can tell you something else about Blue,’ he said some time later.

  ‘What’s that?’ Jodie was inserting the last of the stitches to the Frenchie’s belly. He watched her eyes with their blue laser focus.

  He didn’t usually say things like this to Dacey or Vin as he didn’t want to compromise their own judgements or skills in training. But Jodie’s bluntness with the owner was proof that she still trusted his instincts. ‘I think the dog’s been mirroring what’s been going on at home.’

  Jodie narrowed her eyesover her mask, intrigued. ‘You think she’s aggressive because someone else around her is aggressive.’

  ‘Unfortunately yes. I’ve seen it a lot. I saw it in my own pets as a kid.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Jodie looked confused and he cursed himself. But he’d started now. ‘Well, you saw my dad drunk that time,’ he said carefully. ‘But that wasn’t the first time. Animals pick up on unsettling behaviour. Sometimes even the chickens would act up if he went out there in the coop with too many beers in him. I had to learn pretty fast how to calm them down.’

  He realised as he said it that his dad had driven him to discovering his special talents with the animals. In some strange way he was indebted to him for that as much as he was to Casper for nurturing them.

  To his surprise, Jodie put a hand on his arm and squeezed it. ‘I had a feeling something else was going on at Thistles,’ she said, with more compassion than he probably deserved. ‘You never told me your father was an alcoholic. Is that why you never took me back to your house?’

  He held her gaze as the shame roared through him again. It had been worse than his father being drunk most of the time, but of course he’d never got the chance to tell her that in person. It was all in the letter.

  ‘Of course, I forgot, we don’t talk about you, do we,’ she said coolly, obviously disappointed by his silence. ‘But I trust you to do the right thing for Blue. Do you want to talk to her owner together?’

  He nodded, appreciating her all over again, not just her body, which he could rediscover every day for hours, but her inestimable capacity for her faith in him, in spite of the tension bubbling up between them again. He didn’t want sympathy over his father, he never had, not from anyone. He simply saw it as his duty to help prevent another human or animal from having to endure what he had.

  He knew she deserved some answers, though. Maybe he should just give her the letter. Either way, they needed to talk. He was just as perceptive around Jodie as ever. There were things she wasn’t telling him too. About Ethan.

  When Blue was in recovery, Cole told the woman they would prefer to keep the dogs at Everleigh, where they’d be registered and licensed before being up for adoption.

  ‘Will we still get to sell them?’ She looked hopefully between them.

  ‘We can’t stop you claiming money for them, Miss Edgerton, as a hobby breeder,’ Jodie said tactfully. ‘But they’ll get the proper treatment here while they’re waiting for their new homes, and so will Blue while she’s nursing.’

  ‘Toby will find them homes in no time,’ he added from across the room. He’d just checked his phone for new emergencies. None. For now. ‘He’s my self-appointed social media assistant. He and Jodie’s daughter here have been finding good homes for all our animals through a social media account.’

  The woman looked appeased, but Jodie was quiet as they cleaned up together afterwards.

  ‘Did you know Toby and Emmie have been in touch pretty much every day since we left?’ she asked him.

  ‘I had some idea about that, yes.’ He watched her shake out her hair and unbutton her surgical coat, looking pensive for a moment. He admired how protective she was over Emmie. ‘It’s not a romance, though. They’re much too young for that.’ He slid up to the polished counter beside her. ‘We’d know if it was.’

  ‘I guess we would,’ she replied tentatively, shooting him a sidelong glance.

  He kept his hands to himself, though they itched to touch her again. He almost said their lovemaking a few weeks ago had been the best they’d ever had, and he knew she hadn’t forgotten their encounter in the cabin earlier either. Desire was written all over her face even now. But he wouldn’t make a move; he’d promised he wouldn’t.

  He put his hands to the bench on either side of her. ‘I missed you,’ he admitted. ‘The last three weeks...the last twelve years. You weren’t happy, were you, getting married? You looked like you were in the photos, but you didn’t love Ethan.’

  ‘Cole...’ She met his eyes. ‘Why do you care so much about Ethan?’

  ‘I guess I care that there were things we both could have done differently back then,’ he said.

  She looked affronted suddenly. ‘We? I don’t regret having Emmie.’

  He bit his cheeks for a second. ‘That’s not what I meant.’

  ‘I’m tired of trying to read between the lines with you, Cole.’ She tossed her coat into the laundry basket. ‘It’s been a long day. Can we pick this up tomorrow? We need to discuss
things when we’re in a better frame of mind—like who you’d like to approach as a potential partner for this place when I sell.’

  He raised an eyebrow but didn’t move from the counter. He wouldn’t make a move, and he wouldn’t react to provocation like this either. He had no intention of doing anything that might make her turn around and leave again. While she was here, he had to remind Jodie why this could be her home again, and Emmie’s too.

  ‘I’ll see you in the morning, then,’ he said. ‘Bright and early. I’ll make the coffee.’ An idea was already forming in his head.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  BLAZE’S WOUNDS HAD almost healed completely. The cuts and scrapes she’d seen before were nearly back to normal, giving the horse a new majestic prowess. ‘He looks like a different animal,’ Jodie said, sending out her silent gratitude for what Blaze had done to save Cole.

  ‘He’s coming around slowly.’ Cole ran his hand over Blaze’s forehead and muzzle. ‘Russell can get closer now, without any trouble.’

  ‘Not as close as you, I bet. How’s his leg?’

  ‘He’s fine,’ Cole said. ‘He’s strong. I wouldn’t have hired him otherwise. Blaze won’t be the only temperamental creature we have in here if the rescue plans work out.’

  Cole hadn’t mentioned the rescue centre in a while, but the thought of bringing it to life made her feel fuzzy and content, like a daydream she was nurturing, until she remembered everything she would have to uproot and change if she were to become a permanent fixture here.

  Selling still seemed like a viable option, for many reasons, but Emmie kept messaging her, asking if she’d decided to keep it yet. Ethan had also asked again. She had a feeling he was getting more concerned than he was letting on, hearing Emmie rave about the place. She’d told him she was planning to sell, just as she’d told Cole. But every time she said it now it didn’t seem to feel right. Especially on beautiful mornings like this.

  The stable was warm and made her nose tickle with dry grass and anticipation. It was barely sunrise. They were loaded with coffee and a bag of pastries and she still didn’t really know why they were going to Portland Bill. Cole had just said he had something to show her.

  ‘You’re not going to ride him, are you?’ she asked suddenly. Cole was holding the reins up to Blaze, like he was measuring them to his face.

  ‘He’s not quite ready for that yet,’ he told her. The bulk of him was reassuring beside her; he knew what he was doing, and she knew he’d never put her in danger. It didn’t stop her worrying about him, though.

  He might have broken her heart once but it pained her to know he’d had to deal with a drunken father as a kid, before he’d met her. Maybe even after that too... She frowned to herself. Come to think of it, she and Cole had only got together after his father had been locked away. And as soon as he’d got out, Cole had broken up with her. Something about it didn’t add up.

  ‘Evie told me she saw Emmie with Blaze, before you left the first time. Emmie could get close to him,’ he said now, bringing her back to the moment. He was patting Blaze’s long, sleek neck with a firm hand. ‘Sounds like progress.’

  Jodie watched the dust fly from Blaze’s coat, remembering what she’d seen. ‘He put his nose in her hand,’ she confirmed, studying Cole’s profile as he did the same, letting Blaze nuzzle his hand.

  Cole looked impressed. ‘He won’t let anyone else do that yet, except me.’

  Blaze wasn’t wary of Cole at all any more, but as for her, she couldn’t be sure. They had a couple of hours on horseback ahead to reach Portland Bill. Even though Blaze had displayed a couple of heart-warming changes in character since his chaotic, hostile arrival, Jodie didn’t much care for the idea of taking such a temperamental stallion out on a long ride.

  She watched as Cole seemed to pause time and space while he stood at the stall’s gate, neither touching nor talking to Blaze.

  After a moment Blaze lowered his head in what she took as submission and started munching on hay in front of her.

  ‘I guess he’s still a little self-conscious,’ Cole said, turning to her with a smile. ‘Maybe he considered himself a perfect specimen before the fire. Now not so much.’

  She shook her head. ‘He’s still beautiful,’ she said, without taking her eyes from Cole.

  * * *

  Jodie watched Cole during the whole ride towards Portland Bill, as the wind whipped their hair under the moody sky. She was back on Aphrodite. Cole was riding Jasper ahead of her like he owned the entire coast. It was clear that he belonged here.

  Emmie would love being out on this ride right now, she thought, missing her already.

  The rolling fields were like verdant green blankets, knitting into one as they galloped along the flower-strewn coast. When they finally dismounted, the rocky, windswept area around the lighthouse brought memories in with the waves. She was racking her brains now, trying to remember anything else Cole might have said about his dad. She drew a blank every time—he’d hardly ever mentioned him at all.

  After his dad had got locked up, she’d thought maybe Cole had known what he had been doing all along. When she’d asked him that outright, he’d told her she was crazy and he’d seemed so affronted that she’d never mentioned his father again. He seemed to want it that way and she’d been so in love, so under Cole’s spell she’d forgotten he’d had a father in jail at all.

  Why was all this bugging her now?

  At Portland Bill, Jodie tilted her head and tried to breathe in the sky as Cole walked the horses to a private paddock and tied the ropes around a giant post. It was covered in moss. The paddock hadn’t been here before, she thought, taking in the fenced-off property around it. Apart from that it looked exactly the same. Casper had brought them here lots of times.

  She trailed her gaze up to the red and white striped tower. They’d taken the one hundred and fifty-three steps up to the top countless times as kids to look down in awe at the Jurassic Coast from the lantern room.

  ‘Are you ready?’ Cole came up behind her and looped his arms around her waist. For just a second she was thrust back in time, to when he’d done that every single day. The steadiness of him against her back in the wind took her breath away, then flooded her with fresh intrigue as he pulled a key from his pocket and dangled it in front of her.

  On the tiny but shiny, expensive-looking motorboat, Cole steered them over the waves expertly. The wind tussled with her hair and the engine powered them over every wave bump, and Jodie appreciated Cole in silence, not least when he pulled her against his shoulder to shelter her from the wind. She didn’t want to like the way that physically he made her feel so safe and protected, but she did.

  ‘Remember when you told me which dinosaurs used to live around here?’ she said into his shoulder, flashing back to them looking out together from the top of the lighthouse. ‘I always pictured you taming a T-Rex, living amongst them all quite happily.’

  Amusement played on his lips. ‘I would have given it a go.’

  He slowed the boat till they were bobbing gently on the blue. She took the seat opposite him and studied his muscles in the sunlight as he poured them thick hot coffees from a red flask. He was wearing a cream fisherman’s knit sweater with the sleeves rolled up and clean jeans with the same brown boots. He might have even polished them, and Jodie found herself admiring the boat they were in. It was gleaming too, like whoever owned it saw it as their pride and joy. ‘How long have you had access to that paddock and this boat?’ she asked.

  Cole sat back with his drink, stretching his long legs out between hers. ‘I bought the boat about five years ago.’

  Jodie raised her eyebrows. ‘You own it?’

  He slapped its side, like it was a stallion he’d broken in. ‘Every last inch of fibreglass. I bought the land too, where I built the boathouse and the paddock. The plan is to put a guesthouse up eventually. I’ll give peop
le access to the boat and fishing rods, and we’ll do rides along the coast... It’s only a rough plan. But I have time. I’m not going anywhere.’

  His eyes seemed to burn that last statement into her brain as he put the flask down at his side. ‘Stop trying to make me not want to go anywhere either,’ she muttered, so quietly she wasn’t sure if he caught it.

  He smirked, holding her gaze. ‘Why would I do that?’

  ‘You only want me to keep my half of Everleigh so some stranger won’t come in and change things,’ she challenged him.

  He shoved his sunglasses up to his hair. She sensed the smugness fading, and a silent urge to prove something take its place before he reached across the gap for her hands. ‘Come on, Jodie, you know that’s not the only reason. Who are we kidding here? I was trying to do the right thing by you and Emmie, making this all less awkward. If you want to keep this strictly business we will, but I don’t think you really want to.’

  The wind caught his hair. The lighthouse loomed behind him. Before she knew it he was on his knees in front of her, making the boat rock. ‘We have the chance to make something of this place together, like we always said we would.’

  ‘I can’t bring Emmie into this,’ she told him as her heart skidded.

  ‘Into what?’

  ‘This!’ She dropped his hands and indicated the salty air between them. ‘I know you’re still dealing with some stuff from the past, Cole, and you don’t have to tell me what it is, but if you don’t, it’s always going to be there, between us. Was it something to do with your dad?’

  Cole looked lost for a second. He sat back on the seat, drew his sunglasses down over his eyes and turned to the lighthouse, closing himself off again the way he always did. She wrapped her arms around herself, waiting.

  He’d done so much without her. He’d made a name for himself and bought his own piece of Dorset. She had almost forgotten what it was like to feel this fire burn through her entire body and soul. She’d felt snatches of it over the years, enough to squish the silent longing for something more perhaps, but Cole was something else. Even his secrets kept her hooked. But it wasn’t enough. She had to put Emmie first, above her urge to fall into him regardless of the issues that had kept them apart.