Veterinarian's Vacation (River's End Ranch Book 2)

by Pamela M. Kelley

  They worked non-stop the rest of the day. Jess still looked a little pale and when five o’clock rolled around, she hadn’t said a thing about leaving, but he insisted that she go home, and rest up.

  Dr. Henery and Kathy left when Jess did, and Jake settled in at the desk and was going through some paperwork when he felt something soft brush against his feet. He looked down and a small gray kitten looked up at him and howled. He reached and scooped the little fur ball up and looked into its small face.

  “How did you get out?” He walked into the patient room, where they had large crates where they kept the animals that were waiting for procedures or who needed to spend the night. This little fellow they’d named Oliver. He was a six-week-old kitten. He was the last of his litter that was left. The others had all been adopted. Dr. Henery had explained that it had been an unusual case. The owner of the mother cat had brought her in and was in a panic.

  She didn’t know what was wrong with the cat, but she knew something wasn’t right. She was also at her wits end because she didn’t have any money to have her treated. Dr. Henery took on pro bono cases as needed and told her not to worry. But the cat was sick and didn’t survive the delivery. Her five babies did, but the owner was so distraught that she told them just to keep them. She was done owning pets. It was too much of a headache.

  Normally, they would bring the babies to the local shelter, but they were so young and too little to adopt, so they kept them and let patients visit them and soon enough, all were spoken for. Except Oliver. He was the last one left and Dr. Henery said they should probably bring him to the shelter the following week. There was usually a demand for kittens there.

  Jake petted the little cat gently and was rewarded by a remarkably loud purr from such a small animal. He held him to his chest and Oliver cuddled close and purred even louder. It felt cruel to put him back in his crate. He’d be there all alone, and he was still just a baby. Well, Boris was there, of course, sound asleep on top of a file cabinet, but it was still dark and quiet.

  “Maybe I’ll take you home with me tonight. Just for tonight,” he said.

  Oliver snuggled closer and Jake sighed. He had a feeling that he may have just adopted a cat.

  Chapter 13

  Before Jess knew it, the week had flown by and she was working her Saturday shift at the Kafe. She was opening as usual and it was just her and Bob until the other girls came in at seven, along with Kelsi, who had taken the rare Saturday off the week before. Kelsi’s role was the dining room manager. She usually helped the girls out and seated customers when it was busy, and took money at the register for their checks or takeout orders.

  Simon and Jaclyn were in their usual seats at the counter and were just finishing up their breakfasts when Kelsi arrived and stopped by to say hello.

  “We missed you last weekend,” Simon said.

  “Oh, that’s so sweet of you!” Kelsi said. “I was off having so much fun, though. We had gift certificates to the spa, a wedding gift from Dani. His and hers massages and lunch after. I felt like a queen.”

  “That sounds wonderful,” Jess said. She’d had a massage once, years ago. Her friend Maddie worked at the spa and kept telling her to come in, that she’d be happy to give her a massage in between her other clients, but Jess felt guilty taking her up on that offer. She wanted to book a massage with Maddie when she could afford to do so.

  “We had Maddie, and she was amazing.” Kelsi looked at Jess. “You really should go see her. She told us that she’s been telling you that for ages.”

  “She has. You’re right. I do need to go see her.”

  Jess usually finished up around two. Today was also her monthly shift at the food pantry, handing out food. She needed to be there by three and they were open for two hours. They were also open Monday and Wednesday afternoons so people had a few different options. There were enough volunteers that everyone usually worked one or two shifts a month. Jess would just need to run home and change first.

  She was surprised to see Jake walk in a little after one. He smiled when he saw her and sat at the counter, which was totally empty except for him. Saturdays were usually much busier for breakfast than for lunch. The dining room was still pretty full, though. The counter tended to be more of a breakfast draw.

  “Hey, Jake. Nice to see you.” Jess handed him a menu. “Root beer?” she asked.

  He nodded and she went to get a bottle out of the cooler. She’d barely seen Jake all week, except at the clinic. He’d stayed late most nights and hadn’t been by to see her. She guessed he’d been busy, though, and tired, no doubt.

  “Was it busy this morning?” She knew that the clinic was open Saturday mornings until noon.

  “Jammed. We could easily be open all day if we wanted to be.”

  “Do you want to be?” she asked as she set down his soda.

  “No. I really wanted to sleep in. I am looking forward to doing that tomorrow. It’s been a busy week.”

  “I can imagine. Do you know what you’d like? There are some specials, too. The turkey club with pesto has been popular.”

  “Sold. I’ll have that.”

  She put his order in and then went into the kitchen to finish her side work, the cleaning and stocking all the servers had to do so that they would be ready to go for the next shift. Jake’s food came up quickly and as soon as Bob rang the bell to let her know it was ready, she brought it right out to him.

  “I meant to ask you this on Thursday before we got busy, but I forgot—did someone adopt Oliver?”

  Jake had just taken a big bite of his sandwich and as soon as he could speak, he said, “You could say that.”

  “That’s great. He was such a cute little guy. I was almost tempted to take him home myself. But Maya and Rudolph would not have been happy about that.”

  Jake nodded in agreement as he reached for a French fry.

  “So, who adopted him? Was it the Murphys? They mentioned that they were thinking about getting a kitten.”

  “It wasn’t the Murphys.” He looked amused as he took another bite.

  “Who, then?” Jess was curious.

  “It might be me.”

  Jess laughed. “Seriously? You brought Oliver home? I think that’s great.”

  “I wasn’t planning on it. But he somehow got out of his crate. Someone must have not closed the latch tight enough. He came and found me and that was it. He’s made himself right at home in the cottage.”

  Jess noticed that her apron was vibrating and she pulled out her cell phone and checked the caller ID. She’d just missed the call. She excused herself and went into the kitchen to listen to the voice message. The number looked familiar but she couldn’t place who it was from. She listened to the message and then glanced at the clock. It was from Shelley, one of the volunteers. Her son had just been injured in a game at school and she needed to go meet him at the hospital. She wasn’t going to be able to make her shift.

  They always tried to have two volunteers on at the food pantry, to handle the clients that came in and also for safety reasons. Jess sighed. It was too late to find someone else to fill in. She’d have to do it by herself. Not ideal, but she could manage. She went back out to the counter where Jake was just about finished with his sandwich. He seemed to immediately pick up on her mood.

  “Is everything all right?” he asked as he took his last bite.

  “Oh, it’s fine. The other woman who was going to be volunteering at the food pantry with me this afternoon just called to let me know she couldn’t make it. It’s too late to get a replacement for her.

  “What time do you have to be there?” he asked.

  “It’s from three to five. I’ll head home to change and then go right over there.”

  “What do you have to do there?”

  “Sign the clients in and then go around the pantry with them and put together a food basket for their family.”

  “I could probably manage that.”

  “Really? Are you sure? It’s r
eally not hard at all.”

  He grinned. “I’m sure. Just knock on my door when you’re ready and we can head over.”

  “Thank you. You’re a life-saver.” Jake put some money down for his bill and tip and left.

  Thirty minutes later, Jess knocked on his door. He hollered for her to come in, and she stepped inside and smiled when saw Jake sprawled out on the sofa with the tiny kitten curled up in the crook of his neck.

  “Oliver is not going to be happy with me,” she said as she walked over to them.

  Jake sat up and handed her the kitten. “Say hello to him. I’ll be right back.”

  Jess held the tiny kitten against her chest and petted his head softly with one hand. Oliver purred and licked her other hand with his tiny, scratchy tongue.

  “You are ridiculously cute,” she told him.

  Jake came out of the bathroom and Jess reluctantly set Oliver down on the fleece blanket that was on the sofa. He fell over and then caught his balance, and curled into a ball and stared at the two of them.

  “See you later, little guy,” Jake said as they left.

  Jake drove and they got to the food pantry ten minutes before it was time to open. Jess showed him around and gave him a laminated copy of the guidelines they used to determine how much to give depending on the size of the family.

  “It’s always busiest when we first open. There’s an early rush and then it stays steady for about an hour and a half. The last half hour is usually pretty quiet and that gives us time to restock and organize a bit.

  At three, she unlocked the door and invited the first people in line in. She showed Jake the routine and had him follow them around the pantry as her client selected the items that she thought her family could use. It was mostly dry goods and canned vegetables and soups, pasta, cereal, peanut butter, tuna fish. Once those things were loaded into the box, they added milk, eggs and cheese and the last stop was the big freezer so they could pick out a few frozen meat items. After that, Jake took people around as well and they were steady almost until closing time.

  Jess ran upstairs and brought down a few cases of frozen meat to add to the main freezer while Jake walked around with an older woman who was talking about her grandchildren and how much they liked fruit juice. Jake carried her box to her car and once she was gone, the pantry was empty and it was almost time to close up.

  Just as Jess was about to turn off the lights, a disheveled woman came rushing in, holding a small baby that Jess guessed was maybe nine months or so.

  “I’m so sorry to get here at the last minute. It’s not too late I hope? Sylvia is teething and maybe fighting a cold or something on top of it. I had to calm her down before I could come over.

  “Of course,” Jess said. Jake grabbed a box and they went around with her, filling the box with whatever they had. She was grateful for everything. Her eyes welled up as Jake picked up the box to carry it out to her car. “I can’t thank you enough. This is the first time we’ve been here. I didn’t want to come, but—well, I had to. For her.”

  Jess’s heart ached for the woman. “That’s what we’re here for,” she said gently. “You can come every week, you know, for as long as you need to.”

  “Thank you.”

  Jake walked her out as Jess went around tidying up, and then shut off all the lights and locked the pantry door behind her as she left. She met Jake as he was coming up the front steps.

  He was quiet on the way home. When he pulled up in front of the cottage and killed the engine, he turned to her. “Thank you for letting me join you today. It’s important what you all do there.”

  Jess smiled. “I should be thanking you. It’s always better having two people there.”

  “I don’t know if you have any plans tonight, but if you feel like hanging out, I was just going to grill some burgers and kick back on the sofa, maybe watch a movie. It’s been a long week.”

  It was a Saturday night and Jess didn’t have any plans. She knew the cool thing to do would be to say she was busy, but what would be the point of that? “I’d love to. I have a bag of chips I could bring over. Oh, and some leftover brownies if you’re interested?”

  “I’d never say no to a brownie, or chips.”

  Chapter 14

  An hour later, Jess and Jake were sitting on his front porch eating the brownies that Jess had brought, while Oliver slept between them on the glider. Jake kept a close eye on the kitten, because he knew how quickly they went from sound asleep to fully charged and ready to run. He liked this. Relaxing outside after a good dinner, quietly enjoying the night. He glanced over at Jess, whose attention was on Oliver, now stirring and nibbling her hand as she softly stroked the top of his head.

  “We should probably head in soon. Looks like the monster has awoken.”

  Jess giggled, and scooped Oliver up. “You’re probably right.”

  They went inside and settled on the living room sofa, but Oliver wasn’t having it. He was like an energizer bunny that had been switched to full strength. They watched in amusement as the tiny cat ran in circles, chasing his tail. When he tired of that, he raced around the living room like a Tasmanian devil.

  “I’m getting tired just watching him,” Jess said with a chuckle.

  “Me, too. I knew he wouldn’t have been happy staying in the clinic. It was too dangerous to let him loose when everyone was there. Someone could easily step on him. And after hours, I’d hate to leave him alone with Boris. He needed to run around and poor Boris would have hated Oliver bothering him all night. That’s his prime sleeping time.”

  Jess smiled. “You just wanted him for yourself. It’s okay to admit that. I don’t blame you.”

  “Guilty as charged. He is a cute little guy though.” He picked up the TV remote and clicked it on.

  “So, what should we watch?” They scrolled through the movies available on demand and settled on an old classic, Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest. Jake had never seen it before, but Jess said it was one of her favorites.

  “It’s a mistaken identity thriller. Cary Grant plays an ad exec who is mistaken for someone else and is kidnapped by a group of international spies. I think you’ll like it.”

  They spent the next two hours watching the movie and Jake had to agree with Jess’s assessment. He’d been surprised by how entertaining and suspenseful the film was. He was on the edge of his seat the whole time. His phone rang as the credits were rolling and he smiled when he saw who it was. He hadn’t heard from her in over a week, which was unusual. They usually spoke more often than that.

  “I’ll just be a minute,” he told Jess as he stood and went to take the call in his bedroom so he wouldn’t bother her.

  ***

  Jess stretched as the movie credits finished. She was a little stiff from sitting so long. She yawned and then checked the time. She should probably head home as soon as Jake came back from his call. It was getting late. She felt a tug at the bottom of her jeans and laughed when she saw Oliver’s furry face. He was trying to crawl onto her leg so he could climb back up on to the sofa. She reached down and lifted him onto her lap. He stayed there for all of two seconds before jumping off and chasing his tail again then flopping onto the cushion next to her and meowing loudly to get her attention. She reached out to pet him as she heard Jake’s voice on the phone. He’d left his door open so she couldn’t help but overhear him a little, when he raised his voice.

  She wondered who he was talking to. It was kind of late for someone to be calling and she noticed that the tone of his voice had changed. There was a different quality to it, as if he really cared about whoever it was that he was talking to. She realized that she knew nothing about Jake’s social life before he moved back to Riston. Wade had said he was single, but how single? Maybe there was someone he’d been dating in Lewiston. Someone that he wanted to see again. The thought of it depressed her. She realized that she was doing exactly what she’d told herself not to do. She shouldn’t be thinking of Jake as anything other than a fri
end. He clearly wasn’t interested in more than that and she knew better. Letting him know how she felt would just result in more heartbreak and jeopardize her chances for a permanent job. Still, it was hard to just turn off her feelings.

  Jake came back into the room, still smiling, and sat next to her on the sofa.

  “Sorry about that. I hadn’t heard from Ellery in over a week. We usually talk more often and I just wanted to make sure she was okay.”

  “Your sister?” Had to be. She’d never heard of anyone else with that name.

  “The one and only. She’s only a year younger than me and we’ve always been close.”

  “And she is all right?”

  He grinned. “She’s great. She’s a professional photographer and was doing a photo shoot in Bora Bora. It’s a profile piece on some guy that quit his big corporate job to sail around the world.”

  “Wow. Bora Bora.” Jess pictured gorgeous blue lagoons with small huts on stilts, directly on the crystal clear waters.

  “She said it’s stunning there. She’s flying back tomorrow, though, and coming to visit this weekend.” He frowned. “Guess that means Sunday dinner with Claire. I’ve managed to avoid it so far.”

  Jess stood. “I should go, it’s getting late. I’m glad you liked the movie.”

  “I did. It was an excellent choice.” He scooped up Oliver, who was teetering on the edge of the sofa, and walked her to the door.

  “Thanks for coming over and keeping me company.”

  “Good night, Jake”

  Jess walked the short distance to her cottage and went straight to her bedroom to climb into her pajamas. It had been a long day, and she was exhausted. She fell into bed and couldn’t help thinking about Jake. She was a little worried that she was starting to enjoy his company a little too much. He was easy to be with. Something about it felt so right, but she knew that it wasn’t. She wondered if it might be better if she tried to distance herself and not spend so much time with him. She knew it was probably a good idea, yet the thought of it made her sad. Her eyes grew heavy as she drifted off to sleep, dreaming of sailing around the Caribbean with Jake by her side.