Never Expected You

by Jody Holford

  He shook his head, like he was a little disappointed she’d ask. “I get to work, which I miss like crazy. I get to help a woman who doesn’t seem to think she should ever accept such a thing, and I’m pretty sure you just agreed to let me move into your house, so I think I still owe you.”

  “I want the list of references, you know.” It was the smart thing to do.

  He nodded seriously and that loosened the heavy tightness in her chest. “Smart. I like smart. I’ll have them for you by the end of the day. You got a price for rent?”

  “Well, I need a new water heater, the fence on the west side of the barn needs repair, and we’re running low on some stock at the clinic, so I was thinking about twenty grand?”

  Megan covered her hand with her mouth, holding in her laugh.

  Zach didn’t. His laugh rumbled from his chest and Stella’s body lit up with desire. “Maybe we could negotiate a bit.”

  What was it about a man’s laugh? Particularly a sexy, charming, too-comfortable-in-his-own-skin man who had been nothing but kind to her. “I think you got the all clear for shopping tomorrow.”

  Megan clapped her hands together, looking so hopefully, Stella couldn’t believe she’d considered saying no when there was a chance not to. “You sure?”

  Stella nodded. “Yeah. A couple of hours in the morning should be fine. I’ll just have to make sure the clients scheduled are okay with that.”

  Right on cue, the next client walked through the door, her pot-bellied pig leading the way.

  “Hi, Tawny,” Stella greeted. “Hey Pork Chop.”

  “Hey Doc.”

  “Aw, I love pigs!” Megan hurried over to the pig, then came back and gave Stella a hard hug. “I’m so excited and we’re so talking about this the entire ride there.”

  Stella laughed. “Don’t make me change my mind.”

  “Okay, I’m leaving.” Megan held her hands up as if surrendering.

  “Let me walk you out,” Zach said.

  Megan’s eyes danced. “Please do.”

  Stella shook her head. Her friend was a hopeless romantic. “Megan,” she said in a warning tone.

  “What? I just want to get to know your roommate a bit.”

  “Want us to wait out here, Doc?” Tawny, who wasn’t much older than Stella and owned three of the gas stations in town, asked.

  Zach rested a hand on Stella’s shoulder. “I’ll wait to bring some stuff over until tomorrow night?”

  She nodded. Because what else could she do? Dexter joined them in the reception area and Stella realized she hadn’t even answered Tawny.

  “Tawny, this is Dexter, my newest intern. He’ll get you settled in an exam room.”

  People were used to seeing different faces in the clinic. Before her, her father had always had students—both from the universities and ones like Zach—who helped and trained. They’d be fine with Zach helping. She saw Megan was still trying not to break out in a happy dance and realized that the only one who didn’t think she should accept help was her. Well now you have. Let’s just hope it doesn’t backfire like so many of your other ideas do.

  Chapter Six

  When Zach showed up the next morning, he expected Stella to tell him she’d changed her mind. He could imagine her wrestling between the need to not let her friend down and to let someone step in and help her and wasn’t sure which choice would come out on top. As he parked, grabbed the coffees he’d picked up, and headed into the clinic, he was surprised by how busy it was at only eight in the morning. She hadn’t been kidding when she said it was usually nonstop.

  Three people were waiting with pets—a cat in a carrier, a bird in a carrier, and a German Shepherd whose attention locked on Zach the second he came through the door. A woman he hadn’t seen before was behind the counter. She smiled at him and pointed to the headset, signaling one minute with her finger. Zach set the coffee tray down on the counter and smiled at the people in the waiting room. There wasn’t even an attempt to hide their curiosity. The thing about Brockton Point, was its size was deceptive. There was no way to know everyone, yet people knew when an outsider was in their presence. You’re not an outsider. That wasn’t entirely true, but it would feel that way for a while yet. Being part of Stella’s world would pull him into a fold he’d always felt removed from. Zach waved to the elderly woman with the cat carrier.

  “You look a bit familiar. Are you the boy helping our Stella out?” she asked.

  The shepherd whined, and his gray-bearded owner rubbed him, shushing him with a gentleness that didn’t match his gruff exterior. Looks can be deceiving. God, he knew that so well. When he was younger, and his father had drunk away money for clothes or shoes, Zach had been painted with pity or derision. People saw what they wanted to see, and he’d worked hard to reinvent himself, starting with the outside.

  Now that the woman had said something, Zach realized she looked familiar, too. “I’m Zach Mason. I’ve been away a while, but I’m home now.”

  The woman’s eyes brightened even as the cat hissed, getting the shepherd’s attention. “Sheila’s boy. She said you were coming home. Glad to see you did safe and sound. You courting our Stella, or just helping her out today?”

  Zach nearly choked. Could anyone court Stella without losing a body part? He chuckled. “Just helping out. She’s a friend.” What? It could be true one day.

  “Can I help you?” The woman behind the counter asked, pressing a couple buttons on the computer.

  He turned and looked over the counter. “Hi there. We haven’t met. I’m Doctor Zachary Mason.”

  The woman stood, adjusting her silver-framed glasses. She held out a hand and he heard the woman behind him whisper, loudly, “He’s a handsome one.”

  One of the two other people, he wasn’t sure which since both were male and so was the voice, responded, “Leave him be, Margie.”

  The receptionist bit her lip, clearly fighting a laugh. She shook his hand. “Jaz. I work on Saturday mornings since it’s Doctor Lane’s busiest day. She said you were coming in.”

  So she did have some help. Good to know. Stella came out of one of the exam rooms at that moment, her attention focused on the man holding a tiny piece of fluff that Zach was pretty sure was an adorable kitten.

  “She’s going to be thrilled, Danny. Just make sure you don’t leave the ring on his collar too long.”

  The man, a tall blond who was probably ten years younger than Zach, beamed at Stella. “You don’t think it’s super cheesy?”

  The woman with the cat—Margie—spoke up. “Ring? You proposing to Carrie, Daniel?”

  Stella’s gaze landed on Zach and a jolt of awareness flashed through his body, tightening his chest. Her shoulders went tense, her lips tight.

  “Don’t go spillin’ secrets, Margie,” the bearded man said.

  “I’m proposing this morning,” Danny admitted, his skin going a deep shade of red. Zach laughed, mentally wishing the guy luck. Hopefully he’d get through the proposal without looking like a tomato. Own it, man. You love her, own it. Advice he planned on taking one day, when he found the right one.

  Stella cleared her throat. “Okay, who’s next?”

  Danny shuffled to the counter with the kitten, who yawned in his hands. Zach moved out of the way as Margie claimed she was next. Zach gestured to the coffees when he caught Stella’s wary eye again.

  “You can take them into the back room. I’ll be there shortly,” she said. No hello, so glad you’re here. Nerves, he suspected. Letting someone in and letting someone help at the same time. He didn’t know her, but he could read people, and Stella wasn’t a person who did either of those things lightly. Which meant she must really need the rent money. He wondered what it would take to get her to lean on him. Then he wondered why he wanted her to.

  From across the waiting room, he heard the woman speak before Stella closed the exam room door. “That’s Sheila Mason’s boy there. Sure has changed. He’d look good next to you.”

  Zach ch
uckled as he walked down the hallway, imagining Stella’s response to that.

  While he waited, he looked around, a few memories creeping in of hanging out here with Stella’s dad when he had nowhere else to be. Doc Lane had been a champion of underdogs, and as Zach stood there, staring at the wall of aging thank-you cards, his gut cramped at the reminder that someone who’d been so kind to him was gone. Zach didn’t let himself dwell on loss. If he did, he’d drown in the endless swirl of hurt that came along with remembering the people who’d mattered to him who were no longer alive. Starting with Travis.

  He shook his head, cleared his thoughts, and poked around more. The back room she’d sent him to was a perfect square with three doors off of it. One led out to the back porch, another to a bathroom, and a third to a supply room. Along the free wall, there was a counter, cupboards, and an apartment-sized fridge. A rickety table sat under a window, next to the door that led outside. If she had a staff, or ever took a rest, this was the break room.

  Wandering back down the hallway he’d come through, he saw the surgery room and prep areas. Everything was clean and well kept, but he could see, just from looking through the window between them, that her equipment was dated.

  Zach returned to the break room and stepped out onto the back porch. The air was crisp—the way September mornings should be on the coast—but he knew the sun was expected to scorch them again today. He breathed in, inhaling nothing but nature and peace. Hearing Chocolate Chip whinny in the distance, he started to step off the porch, but Stella spoke behind him.

  “Sorry about that,” she said.

  He turned back to her as she was retying her gorgeous hair into a messy bun at the back of her head.

  “You always this busy on Saturdays?”

  She nodded, joining him on the porch. “Lately, it’s any day that ends in ‘y.’ What are you doing out here?”

  He glanced at her, staring at her profile as she looked out at her land. A little crease denting her forehead told him she was thinking too hard again.

  “I think I have a crush on your horse, if I’m being honest.”

  The crease disappeared, and she turned to him, giving him a smile that kicked him right in the gut. Fuck. He’d have to remember, if he was able to make her face shine like that, that he wanted to be her business partner and nothing more. Zach figured Stella was the type to frown on mixing business and pleasure, and since he planned on sticking around, he could only have one. Not that she’s offering either. Best to remind himself of that.

  “That’s cute. She’s a good horse.”

  “She eating better?”

  The crease reappeared. “No. I’m thinking of having someone else take a look at her. There’s a vet a couple hours away in Mulberry.”

  It was his turn to frown. “There’s a vet standing right next to you.”

  “I wasn’t trying to offend you. It’s just you have nothing more than my own equipment to look at her. I’d welcome your professional opinion, but”—she gestured to the clinic behind her—“you’d have the same resources I do.”

  He nodded, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Good point. Noticed you don’t have an ultrasound machine.” It was one thing that would make checking C.C.’s stomach a lot easier.

  Stella gave him a half grin. “I don’t have a million dollars, either, but I’d like both.”

  It was good she could laugh about it, but Zach wanted to know more. “I’m good with problem solving. You’re running a busy ship here.”

  Letting out a huff of air and checking her watch, he barely heard her when she mumbled, “Feels like a sinking ship.” Then she looked up, like she realized she’d said it out loud. “Never mind. I have to go meet Megan. Are you sure about this?”

  He stepped closer, and she tipped her chin up. The desire to lean down and press his mouth to hers hit him without warning, so he stepped back, and she arched her brow.

  “I’m positive.”

  “We have to review the roommate rules tonight.”

  He laughed. “Okay, Sheldon Cooper.”

  Stella’s lips turned up in such an unguarded way, satisfaction filled him. He got the sense that not a lot of people could take credit for making her smile.

  “What time is your last patient?” he asked, following her when she went back into the break room.

  “Five, but I’ll be back before then.”

  He heard the panic in her voice, like a mom away from her child for the first time. He needed to show her that she could trust him, rely on him. He’d missed working with animals. Hell, he missed being busy in general. Idle time wasn’t his thing on a good day and now, being back in his hometown with memories attached to every corner, he did not need space for his thoughts to consume him.

  “How about I make dinner tonight? To thank you for giving me a place, literally, to rest my head. When you get home, I’ll head out, grab my stuff, and stop at the store. I can be back here by seven.”

  She turned slowly, and he couldn’t read the expression on her face. “Okay. That sounds good. I’ll see you in a few hours. I saw you met Jaz. Dexter isn’t in today. I left my cell number behind the desk, but Jaz has it, too. There are back-to-back appointments booked, but you’ll likely get some walk-ins as well. And a lot of questions about your intentions toward me personally and professionally. Try to ignore those.”

  He laughed. She was really going to let him do this. Zach rubbed his hands together, itching to get started. “I’m ready. Go; shop. Have fun. I hope she doesn’t make you get one of those bright pink dresses. You’d look good in pink, but it needs to be soft.”

  He let his eyes move over her, and when they came back to her face, her mouth opened just a little. Blinking rapidly, like she’d lost herself in thought, she answered, “Megan loves me too much to choose bright pink. If she doesn’t, it might be a deal breaker.”

  She gave him reminders, updates, anecdotes on patients, and altogether too much information as they moved through the clinic to the front.

  Stella smiled at the waiting patients. “As I told you guys on the phone last night, Doctor Mason is going to help me out for a few hours today so I can go dress shopping with Megan.”

  “Oh, there’s a wedding that should have happened years ago. They have a son,” said Margie.

  The bearded guy rolled his eyes. “Charlie’s mom moved away, Margie. Megan was his nanny. You sure you should be driving, woman?”

  Margie bristled. “What? Because I forget a few things? I’m fine.”

  Zach and Stella watched the back and forth and when he caught her eye, she just shrugged as if to say, Small towns, what are you going to do?

  Zach waved, feeling as awkward as he did when he was a kid having to stand up in the front of the class. He wanted—needed—these people to accept him. He had a feeling that if they did, it’d be easier for Stella to do the same. Maybe he could talk her into letting him help her out part time like this until she was ready to admit she could benefit from him signing on.

  Eager to start and to prove himself, he walked behind the counter to talk with Jaz.

  “Who’s first?”

  She gave him a kind smile and stood up. “Mr. Darcaz, you can bring Blip this way.”

  Blip turned out to be a hamster and as Stella gave him a worried look from across the room, Zach led the way into an exam room and took a deep breath. He was back in his element. Everything else could fade away.

  …

  Zach slapped a folder down on the countertop with more force than he’d meant to. Jaz looked up with a smile. The one he gave her in returned probably looked a little pained. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. He was actually sweating.

  “Sorry it’s so warm in here. Stella doesn’t want to use the air conditioning in the front of the house. She saves it for the hotel,” Jaz said.

  Zach looked at her, his forehead scrunched. “Hotel?”

  “It’s what she calls the room with the overnight animals. A/C is expensive, so she
cuts costs where she can,” Jaz said, her tone a bit defensive on behalf of her employer.

  He liked the loyalty. Stella damn well deserved it. She deserved a fucking medal.

  “It’s animal comfort that matters,” Zach said, accepting the next set of files from her. There was no one in the waiting room at the moment, but he didn’t trust it to stay like that. In just over an hour, he’d seen nine people and their pets. These people counted on Stella for everything from trimming nails to surgery for their animals. There had to be a way of streamlining the process without taking away the at-home feel. When he’d worked at Pet Central, there’d been several departments, including grooming and training, which meant, as a vet, he’d only seen animals who needed medical assistance.

  The little bell over the door jingled with another arrival, and he looked up to see his mom walking in, carrying a cup so large her hand barely fit around it.

  “Brought you some cold caffeine,” she said to Zach. “Hey, Jaz. How are you?”

  “Really good, Mrs. Mason. You have a very nice son,” Jaz said, shooting Zach a smile. She was probably Dexter’s age but looked younger with her dark hair in two braids.

  Zach accepted the cola from his mom and took a long sip. Never too early. “You didn’t have to do this, but thank you.”

  She beamed at him, making him laugh. “Just wanted to stop by and say hi. I’m glad you got Stella to agree to some help. It’s about time, wouldn’t you say, Jaz?”

  Jaz turned in her chair and nodded. “Stella does keep herself busy. I’m glad she’s getting to go out with Megan. The wedding is so soon.”

  “Weddings are wonderful,” his mom said wistfully. She stared at Zach and he fought the urge to shuffle his feet.

  “I don’t know why you’re looking at me like that, but stop,” Zach said, taking another drink before setting the cup behind the high countertop, out of the way.

  “Like what? Like a mother who just realized that now that you’re home, it’s more likely you’ll meet a nice girl from here and give me grandbabies?”

  A few moments ago, he’d been grateful for the breather, but now he wondered when the next patient was due.