Old Dog New Tricks

by Roxanne St Claire

  I must have already been pregnant when I left Bitter Bark.

  Daniel bent over as the blow hit him again. He let out a long, sorrowful moan.

  “Dad!” Molly flew into the room, reaching for him with one hand and Rusty with the other. “What happened?”

  “Possible seizure. He vomited. Collapsed.”

  She moved closer to Rusty, easing Daniel aside as she started the same exam. “How long did it last?” She lifted his lips and pressed on his gums, then angled his face, slipping a penlight from her jacket pocket to shine the beam into Rusty’s big brown eyes.

  “It lasted…” A lifetime. He’d missed Nick’s entire lifetime. “I’m not sure. A few minutes. He’s calming down now, but…”

  “But you’re not.” Molly looked up at her father with concern in her eyes as she used both hands to gently palpate Rusty’s belly.

  “It scared me,” he said softly.

  Molly frowned as if the very idea of him being scared sounded wrong to her, saying nothing as she popped her stethoscope in her ears and placed the bell on Rusty’s heart. “Nothing to be scared about,” she said after a moment.

  There was everything to be scared about. His family, his life…his world just got drop-kicked onto its side.

  “Could he have been exposed to a toxin?”

  He forced his brain to function like a vet. Toxin? “Not that I noticed. He was under my table at Ricardo’s.”

  She looked a little relieved. “Maybe he ate an olive, Dad. They make him puke. Or maybe Ricardo’s night help left some pest control under the table and he ate a pellet? Is that possible?”

  “Anything’s possible.” Including the fact that I have seven children.

  Molly pulled a thermometer from her other pocket, turning to Daniel as they waited for the digital beep. “You’re honestly in worse shape than he is.”

  “Yeah.” He tore his gaze from Rusty’s face to look at his daughter, the truth bubbling up inside him. He needed help. He needed someone to talk to. He needed time and clarity and…Annie.

  Oh dear God, he needed Annie.

  “No fever,” she said, snapping the device back into her pocket. “Cordell is the vet tech on duty, and Elise will send him in here any second. He’ll carry Rusty to the back, and we’ll start blood work and scans.”

  “No, I’ll do all that,” he said, staring at her, but not really seeing his grown, competent daughter. Instead, he saw Annie’s hazel eyes and auburn hair. Laughing. Caring. Knowing exactly what to do in this horrible, impossible situation.

  You have another son, Daniel? Why, you sly dog. When can we meet him?

  Oh, now he could hear her. Loud and clear.

  “Dad?”

  He literally shook the voice out of his head. “I’ll take Rusty back,” he said, turning to the table, but Molly grabbed his arm.

  “No, you won’t,” she insisted. “You’re too upset. Your dog is the patient, and you are not the doctor in this situation.”

  He blinked, clearing his vision. “I don’t know what I should do,” he muttered, the honesty too close to the surface.

  She scowled at him. “You’re going to leave this room and wait like any other dog parent we have in this place. You can’t work on Rusty, because you’re too emotionally involved.”

  “I’ll let you do the blood work, Molly, and take him into the back for a full work-up, but I’m not leaving him. Not for one minute.”

  She lifted her chin and narrowed her eyes in defiance and, in that one move, looked more like her mother than ever. “Who did you come with?”

  “Alone.”

  Her brows tugged to form a tiny crease. “Wait. You changed your schedule today so you could spend the day with Katie Santorini. Where is she?”

  He lifted a shoulder, not trusting himself to even talk about her in that moment.

  “In the waiting room?” she suggested.

  “She left.” At her incredulous look, he added, “We drove separately to town so she could head back to Chestnut Creek after lunch.”

  “Oh, so she wasn’t with you when Rusty got sick?”

  “Yes, she was, but…” She detonated my life with an unfathomable announcement. “She left,” he repeated.

  “Dad, really? She left after Rusty…” She huffed out a disgusted breath. “Then she’s not the lady for you.”

  No kidding.

  Afraid he’d give away too much and not ready to share this bombshell with anyone, he turned to Rusty, who rested on his cheek, lightly panting, eyes at half-mast. “We’ll get through this, old boy.” He leaned over and pressed a kiss on his soft red head. “We’ve been through worse and survived. Right?” He stroked his neck and fought another punch of emotion. “So much worse.”

  Molly put her hand on Daniel’s shoulder and gently eased him away from Rusty. “I’m calling rank now. You’re not on duty, which means I’m currently the best working vet in this county, or so you’ve said a million times. Let me handle this.”

  He said nothing, then accepted defeat when the victor stared him in the face. “I’m scared,” he admitted softly.

  Her eyes shuttered, and she nodded. “He’s old, but he’s never been sick a day in his life,” she said. “He hasn’t shown a single symptom of epilepsy, heart issues, or cancer. Nothing ever more serious than a little arthritis and a tendency to overeat.”

  Just then, someone tapped on the door and opened it, revealing a tall, beefy vet tech with the body of a linebacker and the heart of an angel.

  “I hear Rusty’s sick,” Cordell said, stepping inside.

  At the sight of him, Rusty lifted his head a little, giving Daniel the first glimmer of hope he’d felt in a few minutes.

  “Happier now that you’re here.” Daniel stepped aside to give Cordell access. “I think he can walk, though.”

  “No need.” Cordell scooped him up with far more ease than Daniel had. “Come on, my boy. Let’s start your tests.” He gave a questioning look to Molly.

  “The works, Cordell. Full blood panel, CT scan, ultrasound on the torso, check for viral, bacterial, or parasites. I’ll be right back there as soon as I escort my father out of this office.”

  “It’s cool, Dr. K,” the big man said as Molly opened the door for him. “We got your boy. You relax.”

  Daniel smiled at him. “Thanks, Cordell.”

  After he walked away, Molly kept the door open and stepped into the hall. “Out, Dad. I’m going straight to the back to take care of Rusty.”

  He just stood there, staring at her, feeling the adrenaline dump that left him numb. “I don’t know what—”

  “Oh.” Molly looked toward the receptionist’s desk and smiled. “Looks like you have a friend.” She gestured for him to step out and follow her gaze.

  There was Katie in the waiting room, perched on a chair, her face still streaked from tears.

  “And it looks like Rusty’s illness upset her as much as it did you.” Molly gave him a light nudge in that direction. “Maybe she’s not the wrong lady for you after all, Dad.”

  But Daniel stayed rooted where he was, a whirlwind of emotions roiling through him at such a speed he couldn’t stop and grab a single one. Anger. Frustration. Disappointment. Disbelief. There was even a thread of hope, but that came and went before he could seize it.

  Mostly, he wanted to be as far away from Katie Santorini as possible.

  “Dad.” Molly’s whisper was as probing as her gaze. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “Nothing. I…don’t want to go through this with her.”

  “Through ‘this’?” she fired back, her color rising. “Do you mean Rusty being sick?”

  “Worse.”

  She inched closer. “It’s not worse.”

  Oh yes, it was.

  “He probably has a little gastroenteritis, but you’re acting like it’s the end of the world.”

  Daniel closed his eyes, not wanting to speak the truth and certainly not wanting to look at the woman in the waiting room who�
��d brought it to him.

  But Molly misunderstood all that, squeezing his arm. “Whatever he has, why would you—why should you—go through it alone? Even if it’s the worst possible outcome, why would you endure that alone?”

  The worst possible outcome? A one hundred percent positive DNA test. Would that be the worst possible outcome?

  “Look, I think Rusty is fine,” Molly continued. “But the next few days might be tough on him and you. Sitting right out there is a lovely woman who is obviously as worried about your dog as you are.” She leaned in. “I know she’s not Mom, but she’s a good woman, a mother in her own right.”

  A mother of…his son.

  “You have a shared, long history, and she’s right there, waiting for you.”

  Molly’s words finally penetrated, sliding through his haze of emotions to reach somewhere deep in his soul.

  They did have a shared history and, quite possibly, a shared child. No, he shouldn’t go through this difficult journey alone.

  “It’s what Mom would want,” Molly said softly, adding a little pressure to her touch. “I know it is.”

  He finally looked at her, and all the anger evaporated like a fog lifting over Waterford on an October morning, leaving everything as clear as Molly’s green-brown eyes. She was right. She was absolutely right. Maybe for the wrong reasons and about the wrong cause, but the news that he might have another child wasn’t something he could or should go through alone.

  “You’re so smart,” he said softly, sighing hard enough that his shoulders fell.

  “Learned everything I know from you.”

  “From Annie,” he corrected, but Molly shook her head.

  “You don’t give yourself enough credit, Dad. You raised me, too.”

  “Someone did a good job.”

  She beamed at him, inching up on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his cheek and whisper, “She can be your friend.”

  “She can be…” The mother of my son.

  “Just start with friend.” She gave him a firm nudge toward the door. “And see where that takes you, Dad.”

  He knew where it would take him. To Nick. Not anywhere else. But if that man was his son, he wasn’t going to lose the next forty-two years. And the only way to get there was through Katie Santorini.

  Chapter Ten

  Katie looked up to see Daniel and his daughter on the other side of the arched doorway, straightening as she made eye contact with him.

  Would he send her away? Demand more proof? Or be the man she knew he was and figure out how to handle this in the best possible way?

  She waited for a moment, still but for her thumping heart, and held his gaze as he walked to her.

  “How is he?” she asked before he said anything.

  “He’s being tested.”

  She stood slowly, silent, studying his expression, aching to know what Daniel was made of.

  “I think we all are,” he added under his breath.

  Exhaling with the softest sigh of relief, she nodded.

  “Do you want to go be with him?” she asked. “I’ll wait. However long it takes, I can wait right here.”

  “I thought you left.”

  She angled her head. “Seriously?”

  His smile, the first since they’d left the restaurant, was wry, but real. “That’s kind of what Molly said when I told her you’d left.”

  “Because even after only meeting me once, she knows better than that.”

  “But I told you to leave.” He closed his eyes as if a slap of shame had hit him. “I’m—”

  She stopped the apology before it came, lifting her hand. “I understand the heat of the moment and the shock of…” She glanced around, and so did he, both aware that the receptionist was not three feet away and two clients with cat carriers sat flipping through magazines.

  “Come on, Katie.” He took her hand and led her to the door. “Let’s find somewhere else to wait.”

  She closed her fingers around his much larger hand and squeezed. “Okay.”

  On the street, he didn’t let go of her hand, which made her heart feel like it might melt into a pool on the sidewalk. Instead, he clung to her, staying close, walking in silence. After a few minutes, he paused and looked to his left at the darkened window of Bitter Bark Bar.

  But she knew the locals still called it Bushrod’s. And she remembered it well as the location of their last date in college.

  “This feels appropriate,” he said. “And let’s be honest, we both could use a drink.”

  She managed a soft laugh. “No argument here.”

  Inside, it was dimly lit and nearly empty at three in the afternoon. A few tables along the right side had late lunchers finishing up, and a heavy-set man behind the bar was the only sign of an employee. He looked up from the cash register and gave a smile to Daniel.

  “Yo, Dr. K. Lunch is over, but I can get you guys something cold.”

  “Just a drink, Billy.” Daniel gestured to a secluded table near the window, guiding her there and pulling out her chair. “What would you like, Katie?”

  “Whatever you’re having.”

  “Jameson’s. Straight up.”

  “Sounds perfect.”

  He helped her scoot her chair in and then put a hand on her shoulder, standing behind her. “I’ll be right back.” His voice was still tight, not warm like it usually was, but at least they were talking. They’d come a million miles since the horrible moments in the square. She clung to that thought until he returned, setting two glasses of golden liquor on the table and taking the chair opposite her.

  “I texted Molly and told her we were here,” he said. “They’ll call the minute I can go get Rusty. Until then…” He lifted the drink to her, but she stared back at him as she waited to know what he was thinking. “Here’s to surprises,” he finally said.

  She huffed out a breath and took a deep drink, letting the welcome burn hit her throat.

  “No one was more surprised than I was,” she said as she set the glass down. “Except maybe Cassie.”

  He frowned. “I’m trying to remember what you said out there. She did tests? The bloodline DNA things?” Suddenly, his eyes widened. “Do they all know? Does Nick?”

  She shook her head vehemently. “And neither do we,” she added. “Not for certain. You’ll have to take a test.”

  “A paternity test?”

  “I don’t think that’s necessary, nor would it be very easy with Nick on another continent. I thought…” She swallowed and looked up from her drink. “You could just take one of the Bloodline.com tests and send it in for analysis. It takes about six weeks, but it’ll come back with your full ancestry and distant relatives and…close relatives. If Nick is on that list, then we know.”

  He searched her face, a hundred questions in his expression. But he didn’t ask any, only took another drink of his whiskey.

  “I found out about ten days ago when Cassie brought me the results. The minute I saw them, I…knew. You’re the only other man I’ve ever been with, and—”

  “We used protection,” he said softly. “I distinctly remember that it was…” He lifted his brows. “Not my most graceful moment in the bedroom.”

  She had to laugh, warmed by the tiny bit of humor, and maybe the drink. “But we did use it. Both times.”

  “I didn’t think you could use a condom wrong, but we were young and inexperienced, so maybe…” He lifted a shoulder. “What does it matter now? It happened.” Then he scowled again. “Is it possible he’s not yours or mine? That he was switched at birth and your son is somewhere else?”

  “No,” she said, putting a hand over his to calm the sheer terror in his voice. “He’s definitely related to my other kids. But not as closely as they are to each other.”

  He sighed with relief.

  “I swear to you, Daniel, the thought that Nick was not Nico’s son never—not once in forty-two years—occurred to me. Unlike us, Nico and I didn’t use protection. We knew both our families
were against our union and believed that if I got pregnant, they couldn’t stop us from getting married. So, of course, when I realized I was pregnant two months after leaving Bitter Bark, I never dreamed he wasn’t Nico’s son.”

  He took one more drink, nearly draining the glass. “Can I see his picture now?” he asked, his voice a little thick with emotion.

  “Of course.” She reached for her bag, taking out her phone to click through the photos and get to the ones she’d taken last Thanksgiving.

  She found the one of Nick on her sofa, his arms spread over the back, a rare smile—those few days, at least—on his face. She stared at it, not quite ready to hand it to Daniel. Would he see himself in that image? She didn’t. Even knowing what she knew, she didn’t see the resemblance. Not in his face. Other, deeper, less obvious ways, but not in his face.

  “Here he is,” she finally said. “Nico Matteo Santorini Jr.”

  “Oh. I didn’t realize he’s a junior.”

  “Yeah. Ironic, huh?”

  He didn’t seem too amused as he took her phone, turned it, and angled for the best view. Then he stared at it for what had to have been a full minute. He pinched the screen and spread the image with two fingers, no doubt zeroing in on every facial feature, looking for that…connection.

  She examined Daniel’s face as carefully as he examined Nick’s. Watched to see if his jaw tightened or his eyes tapered or his blood drained from his face. But none of those things happened. After a while, he put the phone down, pressed a fist into his palm, and leaned on his knuckles, staring at the table.

  “Daniel?” she said softly. “Do you see any resemblance?”

  “To Liam. Maybe Garrett, too, around the mouth.”

  “Yes, I could see that, having met them. But not super strong.”

  “Definitely something familiar about him.” He closed his eyes for a moment. “I can’t believe it.”

  “Sometimes I don’t believe it, either,” she said, making him look at her again. “But I think it’s more that I don’t want to believe it. Still, we need final proof before we tell anyone. I need you to take that test, Daniel. With Nick in their database, it will immediately show if you’re related.”