by Annie O'Neil
‘Yes. Yes, it was.’
She waved in a couple who were peering into the pub, asking after coffees. ‘Grab a table and I’ll bring the menus over in a second.’ Then to Lucas, ‘I don’t want you telling me anything you haven’t told my Ellie yet, but know this—you broke that girl’s heart clean through. Don’t let her convince you otherwise. The boy of hers, my grandson, is the most precious thing in the world to her. I’m not a woman who issues threats because there’s enough hate in the world, but if you hurt one single hair on either my baby girl or my grandson’s head...’
‘I know, Mrs Stone. I wish I could explain everything, but...’
I wanted to keep Ellie safe. Out of my family’s black hole of debt.
Wyn tutted. ‘Actions speak louder than words, sonny boy. Actions.’
She was right. Actions did. He’d pushed Ellie aside exactly when the marriage vows he’d never taken had told him he should’ve pulled her close. Because of that he’d missed the first five years of his son’s life.
Like it or not, it was time to re-examine his view on life. He kissed Wyn’s cheek and followed it with a solemn smile. ‘Guess I’d better start making up for lost time.’
Wyn returned his sober smile. ‘I’d guess you’d better.’ She tapped her watch face. ‘Time’s a tickin’.’
* * *
Through the small crowd of pet owners arriving for their early appointments, Lucas saw the familiar red gold hair up at Reception and then, as if she sensed him approaching, Ellie lifted her green eyes to meet his.
A zap of connection instantly lit up his nervous system. It felt like being alive again. Properly, completely alive for the first time in...years really. As if part of his heart had died the day he’d told her he had to walk away. Not that he was being all Boo-hoo, poor me about this. He’d made the decision and he’d stuck to it. His family was back on track, he’d paid forward the benefits of the show to the veterinary college and now it was time to make amends to the one woman who lit him up from the inside out.
He’d hurt her. He had to own that.
Did the fact she’d kept Maverick a secret burn? No doubt about it. He’d lain awake half the night wishing Ellie had told him. Used the anger she felt for him to present herself on set with what had no doubt been a gorgeous big old pregnant belly and said, This is yours, pal. Own it.
Bah. He wouldn’t have wanted to raise his son in that household during those first three years and he hardly could’ve left his parents. It had been one of those times when life had slung everything at a man just to see what he was made of. Stronger stuff than he’d thought, but...damn...had he been strong enough to have also raised a child amidst all that chaos?
Clipboard in hand, glasses perched on her nose, Ellie gave him a quick smile that didn’t exactly exude warmth, but she wasn’t telling him to leg it back to London either. Part of the deal, he supposed, when she’d promised her son eight weeks with the father he’d never known.
‘So!’ He strode up to the counter intent on putting his best foot forward. ‘What’s on the roster today?’
‘Hi, Lucas.’ Tegan was beaming at him, half-sprawled across the high reception counter as she threw him a long-limbed wave. Ellie ignored her.
‘Morning,’ he said to Tegan, then to Ellie, ‘Want to run me through the day’s list?’
‘What? Like one of your producers?’ She put on a fancy London voice. ‘Well, Mr Uber-Vet...today we have a variety of delights for you to ease yourself in here at Dolphin Cove Clinic.’ She held her clipboard at arm’s length and ran her finger dramatically down it. ‘Let’s see. Your first patient is Rufus.’ She looked up at him with a bright smile. ‘His anal glands need cleaning.’
Ha! That was normally a job for the vet nurses. And usually pretty stinky. Fair enough. She was testing him. He gave her a ‘bring it on’ smile. Another zap of connection flashed between them. A reminder of the fun they’d had when they’d interned together. Daring each other to do more and more difficult diagnoses whilst mastering the basics. They had brought out the best in each other. Maybe one day they could do it again.
‘Ells! Anal glands?’ Tegan was looking at her in horror. ‘That’s no way to treat our guest. Get Mum to do it.’
‘Mum?’ Lucas asked.
‘My mum’s the senior vet nurse here,’ Tegan explained officiously, as if she and not Ellie was in charge of the clinic. ‘She does all that kind of stuff. Plus laser treatment, dressing changes. She’s amazeballs. Ellie! Give him something pukka. The man doesn’t want boring.’
Ellie gave her a bright smile. ‘Nope. He’s an employee. We’re all created equal here.’
‘Okay...’ Tegan rolled her eyes melodramatically. ‘Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.’ Before Ellie could protest, Tegan smiled and waved at a harried-looking woman being pulled into the clinic by an enthusiastic Rottweiler. ‘I’ll just check Mrs Collins in, shall I?’
Ellie handed Lucas the clipboard that held a list of the day’s patients and their complaints. He gave it a quick scan.
There were a surprising number of anal glands to be seen to today.
He tried to hide his smirk with a serious look but failed.
‘Sounds good.’ Snigger.
‘You think blocked anal glands are funny?’ Ellie asked.
‘Not in the slightest.’
Their eyes clashed and held. What was really going on here? Was this Ellie’s way of fighting an attraction that obviously hadn’t died or was she trying to bore him into leaving?.
He put himself int her shoes. Realistically? This must be an epic nightmare. Well. Too bad. He had a son to think about now. He held her gaze with a look he hoped said, I’m staying, darlin’. Anal glands or no anal glands.
Tegan finished with the woman she was checking in then looked between the pair of them. ‘What was that? Did you two just share a look?’
Ellie gave her a scarcely veiled side eye. ‘No. I don’t even know what that means. A look. Pfft.’
Tegan’s face lit up with a naughty smile. ‘I just remembered. Lucas...you and Ellie used to date at uni, didn’t you?’
That was one way to put it. He was just about to leave it to Ellie to put her spin on things when Maverick ran in, boogie board under his arm and a beagle running behind him.
‘Mum! I’m off to surf school.’ He stopped when he clocked Lucas. ‘Hi, Dad!’
‘Dad?’ Tegan’s jaw almost dropped to the counter.
Ellie gave her a tight little smile. ‘Yes, well...’
‘Ooh.’ Tegan was relishing this. Big time. ‘You are a dark horse, Ellie. A very dark horse indeed.’
‘Maybe I’d better start seeing patients.’ Lucas said, easing himself away from the reception desk, ruffling his hand through Lucas’s hair as he did so.
Maverick beamed up at him then said, ‘Don’t forget. You said you’d come with me to the whelping unit before lunch.’
Lucas gave him a nod and a salute. ‘Wild horses wouldn’t keep me away.’
‘Actually,’ Ellie began, ‘there are some wild ponies out on the moor about twenty miles away. Someone rang in this morning to say she thought one had a bad cut on its forehead. Catching them could be tricky. Might take hours.’
‘Oh?’ Lucas quirked an eyebrow. He’d not had to round up an animal in ages. Years really. Could be interesting. More interesting than anal glands, anyway.
‘Ellie!’ cried Tegan, who clearly didn’t want Lucas to leave Reception let alone the clinic.
‘Mum!’ cried Maverick, who had obviously been banking on puppy time.
She threw up her hands.
‘Fine! We’ll do the ponies together once we’ve finished with morning surgery, but you...’ she pointed at Lucas ‘...had better get cracking. We’ll leave after you’ve spent time with Mav and the puppies.’
Lucas gave
his jaw a scrub and nodded. Actions spoke louder than words and he wasn’t above eating a bit of humble pie. He rubbed his hands together and grinned. ‘Right. Point me to an exam room and I’ll get started. Rufus? Is Rufus Collins here?’
The woman with the Rottweiler lurched forward as the dog bounded towards Lucas. ‘Oh, my days,’ cried the woman. ‘It’s the Uber-Vet! Rufus, look! You’re going to have a celebrity see to your stinky bot-bot.’
With a huff of irritation, Ellie called her first patient and headed towards her exam room with a pair of chihuahuas in tow.
With a slight bow Lucas led the way into his exam room across the corridor. It was going to be a long day but a fun one.
* * *
‘Ring me any time if you’re worried, all right?’ Ellie put her patient, a tiny budgie with a cyst under its wing, back into its cage. She ushered the owner out with a gentle suggestion to ease back on the ‘free-range flying’ sessions in the conservatory. Flying into crystal-clear windows had caused the ruptured air sac and, whilst it would heal, more incidents wouldn’t be in the bird’s favour. With a smile and wave, she went back into the exam room, aware of the low murmurs and laughter coming from the exam room Lucas was using.
Irritation crackled through her. Everyone seemed to be having a gay old time across the hall, whereas on her side grumpiness had definitely been the order of the day.
She gave her shoulders a bit of a jiggle. This was happening whether she liked it or not. There was no turning back time or changing the facts. Her son knew his father and his father wanted to stay.
For the next eight weeks, she briskly reminded herself as another gale of laughter erupted from his exam room.
She resisted the urge to press her ear to the door to try and figure out what they were talking about. The pet? His show? Her?
Bleurgh. What did it matter? They were all under the spell of the gorgeously perfect Uber-Vet.
Funny how no one remembered the lanky, goofier-looking version of Lucas who had come down to Dolphin Cove a handful of times over the course of their training. The nerdy animal geek who had yet to grow into his six-foot-two frame, figure out a haircut that worked for him and... Hee-hee. She started to giggle. The glasses! How could she forget the glasses he used to wear? Thick, tortoiseshell frames he’d thought had made him look studious and French.
She leaned against the wall, the memory of him pretending to speak in French whilst waving his glasses around in an erudite fashion tipping her smile ever upwards.
The door opened and Lucas was there, tall and gorgeous. No glasses. Those bright blue eyes of his hit hers with a heat so direct she could almost feel it. ‘You all right?’
‘Mmm...’ she said, a bit too aware of the warm vibrations the sound produced.
Oh, Lucas, she thought. Why have you come back? What do you really want?
It terrified her to think the answer might be her. Equally scary was the possibility it wasn’t.
Mrs Cartwright and Tabatha appeared from behind his exam-room door.
Ellie’s smile dropped away.
‘Mrs Cartwright? Lucas saw Tabatha yesterday and she was fine. Has something happened?’
Mrs Cartwright threw her a guilty look then leant a little more heavily on the arm Lucas has proffered her. ‘It’s ever so nice having a proper gentleman in the surgery, dear, isn’t it?’
Humph!
She didn’t think Henry or Drew would be very pleased with that pronouncement. It did suggest Tabatha was still in fine fettle but... Mrs Cartwright was looking a bit frailer. Ellie worried that her only human contact was with the vets here at the clinic, so...if she wanted to add Lucas to her list, fair enough. She’d have to brace herself for heartbreak in, oh, about seven weeks and four days. Not that she was making big fat Xs on her mental calendar or anything.
‘Why don’t we get you a packet of those special treats for Tabatha I was telling you about?’ Lucas said as he slowly escorted her down the corridor. ‘They’ll definitely help with her digestion.’
Smoothie, Ellie thought, primly marching herself back to her exam room to finish up her notes. Her phone began to buzz on the countertop. Drew.
Interesting. She’d been the one ringing him over the past few weeks. Not that she blamed him for withdrawing from the world for a bit. The poor guy had been hit by several emotional hammer blows over the past couple of years, not to mention the physical ones. First his fiancée died in a tragic accident and now he’d bashed his leg into smithereens after a catastrophic brake failure in his car. Maybe this call was a sign he’d begun to turn the corner. Or it could just be that he was happy to be in his own house again. Several months of hospital food didn’t sound that fabulous.
‘Hey, there, friend,’ she said, lodging the phone against her shoulder whilst typing in the final instructions for Biddy the Budgie’s dressing. ‘How’s the leg?’
‘A little birdie tells me Henry has left for the dazzling lure of Hollywood.’
Ellie heaved out a sigh. So much for casual chitchat. ‘Yup. Well. London-wood. I should’ve rung, but things have been a bit crazy.’
‘Crazy in what way?’ Drew asked in a way that made it very clear that the birdie had also told him Lucas was there.
‘Lucas came in to replace him.’
‘Huh,’ said Drew in his characteristically dry way.
‘Exactly.’
‘And has he—?’
‘Yes. He’s met Maverick. He figured it out. And we told him. About Maverick, I mean.’
‘Strewth, woman. You don’t mess around.’
‘Well, it’s pretty difficult to disguise the fact that they’re related. And, yes, I did try to hide Maverick, but Torky told him the Uber-Vet was in Reception and—’
‘Mav came running,’ Drew finished for her.
‘Yup.’
‘Need a shoulder to cry on? I’ve got some double chocolate salted caramel ice cream.’
‘I’d love both of those things,’ Ellie said, ‘but sadly I have a clinic to run, a son to raise and...’ She sniggered.
‘What?’
‘I told Lucas the ponies out on the moor were wild.’
‘What?’ He guffawed. ‘You’re naughty. They’d do everything friendly apart from brush your hair for you.’
‘I know, I just...’ She tugged her hair out of its ponytail. ‘I just wanted...’ What did she want?
‘Him to feel as much of an idiot as you did?’
‘Don’t mince your words or anything, Drew,’ she said, and then wailed, ‘It’s just not fair! It’d be easier if I wanted revenge or thought he was revolting or—
‘Wait. You still have the hots for him?’
‘No!’ she shouted. Too fast. Too hotly. Oh, hell. She still had the hots for him. Not very useful in the whole build a cage around her heart plan.
‘Let’s back up a minute here.’ Drew took a couple of loud, yoga-style breaths. ‘Now. Let’s start over. What is it you want while Lucas is here for the remainder of my purgatory?’
‘You could start doing more of your exercises.’
‘Uh-uh,’ Drew tutted. ‘We’re talking about your problems, not mine.’
Ellie harrumphed. ‘Well...revenge is out because it’s not like I’m going to propose to him and then take it back.’ Or that he would even accept. She couldn’t read him as well as she used to be able to. Maybe he genuinely was here to help out at the clinic and that was it. Except...now that he knew he had a son, everything was different.
‘I don’t know,’ she sighed. ‘It’s complicated. If there hadn’t been a Lucas there wouldn’t be a Maverick and as we know...’
Drew joined in with her, ‘Maverick is the best little boy in the West.’ And he was. She wouldn’t trade one ounce of the heartache she’d endured if it meant losing her son, but...this whole father appearing out of the blue thing would
be a lot easier to deal with if she felt nothing when she looked at Lucas.
Drew broke into her silent reflection. ‘What do the clients think of having the Uber-Vet at their beck and call?’
Ellie had to laugh. ‘They love it. Mrs Cartwright’s been in.’
‘Surprise, surprise.’
‘Twice in two days,’ she clarified.
‘Ah.’ There was a note of concern in Drew’s voice. ‘Are we to worry about Tabatha?’
‘No. I think we need to put the kettle on a bit more frequently for Mrs Cartwright, though.’
‘Smart. And how’s Esmerelda’s litter coming along?
‘Brilliant. They’re all genius puppies.’
Drew laughed. ‘Of course they are. I’d expect nothing less.’
‘Want one?’
‘No.’
‘Sure?’
‘Yes.’
‘How’s physio going?’
‘Can we change the topic, please, Ells?’
There was a sharp note to Drew’s voice Ellie didn’t like. ‘I’m going to pop one of Mum’s lasagnes by tonight.’ Even though he was home, she doubted he was hobbling round the house enough to cook.
‘I’m fine.’
‘You love her lasagne.’
‘And you have enough on your plate without fussing about me. Go see the patients. I can hear them howling in the background.’
He couldn’t, but he did have a point. The clinic had a gazillion bookings. ‘Right you are, my friend. I’ll leave you to it, but call me if you need anything, all right? Otherwise I’ll sic Mav on you.’
‘Ooh. My worst nightmare!’
Ellie signed off with a smile. Cool Uncle Drew was a lifesaver when it came to Mav. More than that, he was family, minus the DNA. He’d been the one to get her boy on a surfboard at the ripe old age of three. The one who’d been with her when he’d taken his first steps. Got his first tooth. Announced he was going to be a vet, just like them...and the Uber-Vet. The look they’d shared over Maverick’s head when he’d come out with that one...it had been a doozy.
