by Annie O'Neil
Oh, my. She didn’t know how, but she’d forgotten how completely and totally gorgeous he was when he wasn’t wearing clothes. In fact, he was even more scrumptious if that was at all possible. The golden remains of the day lit him to perfection. Damp hair tumbling in soft waves on his forehead. Little droplets of water shifting their way slowly across his musculature. And then, to her horror, she licked her lips.
She must’ve looked like the cat who’d got the cream.
He gave her a funny look, then gestured for her to look up from his six-pack to his eyes.
She put on a cranky managerial face and barked, ‘Where’ve you been?’
Why are you speaking like a possessive girlfriend?
‘Out for a run. Everything okay?’ He looked over her shoulder towards her flat, presumably to check for Mav.
His question snapped her back to the reason why she’d knocked.
‘We’ve got an emergency gastro surgery I need help with.’
Everything about him snapped from relaxed to action man. ‘Absolutely. Let me get some clothes on.’
She was about to say No, don’t because it was exactly the kind of thing she would’ve said back in the day, but that would’ve been flirting and maybe sexist and completely because she wanted to keep staring at his utterly luscious torso. It was broad and tanned and screaming to be traced by the tips of her fingers. To her horror, she actually physically ached to be one of the drops of water casually working its way down his pecs all the way to his six-pack. A light strip of blond hair naughtily beckoned to her...wending its way from just below his belly button to the edges of his loosely wrapped towel. The sun flared inside each of the glistening droplets of water dappled along his shoulders, his chest, his mouth. Droplets of water she would envy until the end of time because of that stupid, stupid vow she’d made him take that they would only be friends.
No. Not stupid. Practical.
And she’d done extremely well in compartmentalising everything to get work done, address the fact her son now knew his father and that, more to the point, she absolutely, positively did not and would not ever fall for Lucas Williams ever again.
The pickle was...now that it was mid-August and Lucas only had a few weeks left...it suddenly didn’t seem enough. He filled a hole in her life she’d not wanted to admit needed filling. Drew was brilliant and her bestie, but Lucas? Lucas knew what she was going to say before she said it. Could tell which puppy she loved most without her having to say. Knew when she needed a hug and some quiet time after putting down a family’s cherished pet. Predicted when she could do with a completely silly three-legged race with her son along the beach with the promise of ice-cream cones at the end. She hated to admit it, but the last three weeks of ‘friendship’ had been fun.
Oh, who was she kidding? It had been more than that.
It had been a glimpse into the family they might have been if life had been different. The more she’d hashed over the talk she’d had with Lucas, the more she could see why he’d made the decisions he had. Did she agree with them? No. He’d left her with a broken heart and a son to raise on her own, but if her parents’ pub had been put in peril and there was no chance she could’ve done the clinic with Lucas...
How did you choose?
You didn’t.
You went with your gut and on that occasion? Family had won. She got it. Her family had been her bedrock throughout her life. Even more so when she’d found herself alone, pregnant, and with nothing more than a dream of opening a veterinary clinic.
Her parents had been pretty awesome this summer, too. Taking Lucas’s arrival in their stride. Never mind the fact her mum had been gently prodding at her for years to tell him. But she didn’t rub it in. Say, See? Look how happy your son is with his father. They simply made Lucas welcome at the occasional ‘family’ meal down at the pub and never raised a questioning eyebrow when, on the very rare occasion Ellie loosened her mama bear reins, Lucas came to pick up Mav instead of her. Her parents were, in short, the completely reliable, loving, amazing people they’d always been and, perhaps like her, were waiting to see if Lucas really was here to make amends.
‘Ells? Is this surgery happening now?’
‘Yes,’ she said, distractedly flicking her fingers at his torso. ‘Go put some clothes on and I’ll see you in the clinic.’
‘What’s it for?’
‘Chocolate Lab who ate an entire bucket of lead fishing weights.’
Lucas let out a low whistle. ‘Hell’s teeth. Shown any signs of poisoning?’
‘Nope. Just clanking.’
His eyes widened. ‘Clanking?’
‘He ate that many.’ She mimed being a Lab with a low hanging stomach that clanked.
Lucas rolled his eyes in disbelief. ‘What sort of Dolphin Cove family would let their dog eat a bucket of lead fishing weights?’
Ellie smiled. She’d never admit it, but she loved how he’d taken to speaking about Dolphin Cove as if he were a local. He knew as well as she did that even if he lived here fifty years, they’d still think of him as a Londoner.
‘They aren’t local.’ Ellie gestured towards the main road. ‘It’s a family visiting from London. They were playing down on the beach, building a sandcastle or something with their little ones, and lost track of the dog who they found wolfing down the last one. There were bits of crab in there, apparently.’
‘Ah. Lab, you say?’
‘Yup.’
‘Chocolate?’
‘Mmm-hmm.’
‘They’re the hungriest, by my estimation.’
‘Pretty much.’
Lucas looked over her shoulder. ‘Where’s Mav? What’s our plan for him?’
Ellie’s heart unexpectedly bashed against her chest. Lucas’s question had come so organically it felt as if they were a proper family. Sometimes she brought a sleep monitor down with her. Other times she called Drew. Today timing was on their side. ‘He’s at my parents’ tonight. It’s board games night at the pub, remember? He usually stays over, so...lucky for the Lab owners you and I have a completely free twelve hours ahead of us. It’s you and me, baby.’
She made a face.
You and me, baby? What the hell was that? She readjusted her features to make it look as if she’d said nothing more interesting than I’ll prepare the surgical tray.
When she met Lucas’s blue eyes, something passed through them she couldn’t quite put a finger on. A tangle of emotions. Relief that Maverick was being looked after? Something...naughty? Or maybe he was just looking forward to a good juicy surgery. That had to be it. He wouldn’t be thinking sexy thoughts at a time like this. With a dog’s life in peril.
‘See you down there in two minutes,’ Lucas said, turning around, door still open, and with a dramatic flourish...he whipped off his towel.
The cheeky bastard.
She stared at his bum and couldn’t help but smile. Toned, saucy—if that was any way to describe sexy bum cheeks—and just begging to be squeezed.
He turned back to make sure she was looking.
Oh, she was looking all right.
With a wink and a grin, he was gone.
It was going to be a long night.
* * *
‘Could I have those surgical scissors again, please?’
Lucas was a picture of concentration.
Ellie handed him the specialist scissors. ‘Gastronomic incision not big enough?’
‘Not...just...yet...’ Lucas’s brow crinkled. ‘Boom. Now it is. I’ll just pop a suture in at either end to bring it closer to the abdominal incision...’
His voice tapered off as he meticulously went through the steps of preparing the chocolate Lab for surgery.
‘Antibiotics all right?’ Ellie was in full surgical mode now. The poor dog had literally clanked on his weighted walk into the clinic and the longe
r that lead was inside him, the more likely a case of internal lead poisoning could threaten his life.
‘Twenty milligrams for every sixty minutes.’ Lucas glanced at the operating theatre’s digital clock. ‘We’ve been at it for twenty minutes. Another forty and we’ll give him a second injection, unless we’ve got it wrapped up by then.’
‘Right. Let’s get going.’
Ellie and Lucas went about the surgery as if no time at all had passed since they’d last been in a surgery together. Surprisingly, this was the first they’d done together since he’d arrived. She suggested he take the lead—not because she wasn’t up to it. Adrenaline always kicked her skill levels to the fore whenever an emergency case landed at the clinic. It was more...she really liked watching him work. He had an incredibly exacting but relaxed way of preparing an animal for surgery. Not clinical like some of the locums she’d worked with. It was almost like watching a conductor at work. He always made sure the dog knew he was there, keeping him safe with soft strokes and the odd little massage on his head as he drifted off to sleep when the anaesthetic kicked in.
They worked together in studied silence for a while, only breaking the atmosphere with a request for a pair of clamps or laparotomy sponges to keep the intestinal loop isolated from the rest of the abdominal cavity.
‘Strewth,’ said Lucas as he pulled out another lead weight. ‘Looks like there are four more to go. There must be almost a kilo’s worth of them. Poor pooch.’
‘I know, right?’ Ellie took the weight and put it in a bag marked for post-operative disposal. ‘Lord Fluffingstein may never eat crabs again.’
‘I doubt that.’ Lucas sniggered. ‘A Lab’s a Lab no matter what they’ve been through.’ He asked Ellie to secure a clamp to help elevate the stomach. As she worked, he laughed. ‘I’ve come across some cracking dog names before, but his takes the cake. Lord Fluffingstein. What do you think they call him when he’s running around at the park?’
‘Your Lordship?’ Ellie ventured.
Lucas gave a snort, his twinkling eyes and jiggling eyebrows the only things visible above his surgical mask. He put on a fancy voice and intoned, ‘Your Lordship would like to offer his utmost gratitude to Her Ladyship Ellie van Stonington for having the very best of clinics to hand at his time of need.’
Mercifully, Lucas couldn’t see the flush of red creeping up her neck. Thank goodness for surgical gowns!
‘Would Her Ladyship be so kind as to give the saline bag a bit of squeeze, please?’ He looked across the operating table, hands poised to retrieve the next weight, and winked.
Gah!
How was it a gastrointestinal surgery on a greedy chocolate Labrador had turned into a flirtation zone?
No veterinarian brain surgeons necessary to answer that one.
The Lucas Williams Effect had permeated her very finely crafted no-flirtation shield. Naked bums did that to a girl. His anyway.
The long night was turning into a dangerous one. For her erogenous zones anyway. She cleared her thoughts and put on her grown-up voice to veer him off course. ‘It could’ve been a fatal night for him. I know the Penzance clinic has had at least two dogs die this summer from lead poisoning.’
‘Sounds like there’s a need for some signs to be posted down at the harbour or a bit more diligence by the fishermen.’
‘I think the dog owners should be the responsible parties, really. It’s not like you’d let your children wander off and stick their heads into a bucket of mystery food.’
‘Good point.’ Lucas said. ‘Although... I seem to remember seeing a picture of Maverick with a face full of spaghetti Bolognese sauce down at the pub.’
Ellie barked a laugh. ‘My mum’s spaghetti Bolognese is worth a face-dive. And I was obviously there to observe the occasion, as every good parent is.’ She eased another laparotomy sponge into place then looked up to catch the tail end of Lucas’s wince.
‘Sorry. That wasn’t meant to be a jibe.’
‘No offence taken.’ He didn’t sound angry. Wistful maybe. Definitely more pensive than he’d just been.
She couldn’t even imagine having missed so much of Maverick’s life. It had taken all her strength to stop herself from nipping over to the school in her breaks when he’d first started last year. This year would most likely be no different. Even on his nights at her parents’ she demanded a full retelling of the evening. Lucas had missed five entire years of his son’s life.
For the first time she felt a huge rush of empathy for all the years he’d lost because she’d decided her son would be better off without him. Oh, crumbs. Had her decision-making been as messed up as Lucas’s had been? Had she kept Maverick out of his life out of spite? Hurt, definitely. She had to admit to that. She’d told herself over and over that someone who broke such huge promises wouldn’t be reliable. She glanced across at him, his attention back on the extraction of yet another lead weight. She’d wanted him to trust her in his darkest moment and then she’d gone and done the exact same thing to him. She’d shut him out. Shut him out when she’d needed him most.
Oh, Lucas. I’m so sorry.
As tangled up as her emotions were about having Lucas here, she knew one thing for certain. They would have to make this work for Maverick’s sake. He already adored Lucas and it was easy to see Lucas felt exactly the same way. Not that she blamed him. Her kid was one in a billion.
She adopted a chirpier tone. ‘My parents are on the village council. I’ll see if they can mention it. Even if the signs are posted in the summer when all of the tourists are here.’
‘Nice one. Oh, and can you remind me to send Lord Fluffingstein home with a list of things to watch out for just in case some of the lead did get into his system? And about peritonitis.’
‘I already did it. The lead part.’
‘They didn’t stick around?’ His eyebrows rose in surprise.
‘I told them I’d ring when we were done. Their children looked knackered and teary. Their holiday cottage is only a five-minute walk away, so I thought a few text updates would be better than them fretting it out in Reception.
Lucas eased another weight out of the dog’s intestinal tract and considered it for a moment. ‘What’s this?’
Ellie leant in, a hint of Lucas’s citrusy shower gel hitting her along with another mental image of his cheeky derrière sashaying out of the lounge and into his bedroom.
‘Someone’s initials most likely,’ she squeaked.
‘The fisherman’s?’
‘Probably. If they’re hand cast like these ones obviously were, they sometimes stamp their IDs into the mould. Must be an old-timer.’
‘Smart.’
‘Not if you don’t want someone taking your crab it isn’t. Cornish common sense. The traps will be marked, the buoys, everything. My dad told me the medieval fisherman would use little symbols if they were illiterate. It’s a shame really because in theory it should be done on the honour system. Everyone knowing where everyone’s patch is and steering clear. Respect and consideration and honesty. That’s all the world needs to work properly, isn’t it?’
‘Is that a variation on love making the world go round?’
Her eyes shot to his. ‘I suppose. But love is respect and honesty. In an ideal world,’ she tacked on, not wanting this to sound like a lecture.
‘A village that fishes together stays together?’ he suggested.
‘Yes! Exactly.’
Crinkles fanned out at Lucas’s blue eyes as he handed her yet another weight. He was smiling. A ridiculously large flock of butterflies took flight in her tummy. Mercy. The Lucas Williams Effect. Right here in her OR. She forced herself to become more officious.
‘Still an idealist, then, I see,’ he said.
‘Still a dreamer,’ she parried.
‘Exactly what I always loved about you,’ he said. ‘Aiming high and refu
sing to settle for second best.’
* * *
What he’d loved about her?
The minute the words came out of Lucas’s mouth he knew he’d stepped onto emotional quicksand.
Ellie’s eyes flared brightly and then grew distant.
If kicking himself had been an option, he’d be covering himself in bruises.
How the hell had he let that nugget of truth slip out?
Because it was the truth. He loved her. Plain and simple. Seeing her again had had exactly the same lightning-strike effect it had had the first time he’d seen her. He loved her and he didn’t want to hold the feelings captive any more. But he had to. His feelings on marriage...they were complicated. So much more tangled than being here in Dolphin Cove, with Ellie, with Maverick...
It felt like living again. Living his own life away from the camera, away from his family’s intense reliance on him to get them out of a very deep hole. Breathing felt more real. He’d quite happily never go back to London again if she would have him here, but another part of him was worried it was all just a bubble. A bubble that would burst just as it had all those years ago when he’d proposed and thought absolutely nothing could break through the intense joy he’d felt.
Despite the dark thoughts, he smiled beneath his surgical mask. The look on Ellie’s face when he’d whipped off his towel. The attraction they’d once had was there all right. She still fancied him. He definitely fancied her. Could she love him again? Love and trust him the way she once had? Could he trust her? She had, after all, kept his son a secret. If he hadn’t come down here, would he have ever known he had a son?
They worked in silence for a bit, teasing away the foreign bodies, ensuring the beloved pet was as well cared for as if he were one of their own. It had been their shared motto back in the day. ‘Treat them as you’d treat your own.’
He silently cursed himself. He’d treated Ellie incredibly poorly. Turned his back on her precisely when he should’ve held his arms out wide open and said, I need you. Somewhere deep inside him he knew she still had feelings for him. He saw it in her eyes. Not all the time, but...it was there. A core-deep need to earn that trust back gripped him. He wanted his son in his life—no question. But he also wanted Ellie in it. How that relationship took form? He didn’t know. But he knew shared trust would be of paramount importance. If it took him the rest of his life to earn back her trust, so be it.
