I got back, Journey would be gone, as it should be. I was just doing a nice thing for an ex because I still cared about him and his family. Just like when I brought over leftovers for his dad sometimes or made sure he remembered to put out his recycling bins on time. I was just being nice.
Kona ran in front of me joyously, circling back every few seconds to make sure I was coming. I was thankful I had a career that allowed me to bring her to work with me. As I buckled her in the back seat, she licked at my face impatiently, wrestling a smile out of me. When I finally found her forever home, she was going to make an excellent companion for someone. But right now, she was my best girl.
Becca glared up at me from her sling, her moist dark eyes accusing, as if she could read my mind. “I barely know you,” I informed her. “I’m not going to add you to my best girl list.”
She chattered angrily.
*
The Happy Paws vet clinic was only a ten-minute drive away from my house.
Since we were pretty much the only game in town, other than a small boutique vet place an hour away, we prided ourselves on being a comprehensive practice. The building consisted of three exam rooms, a surgical suite, an X-ray and ultrasonic suite, and my small office.
The staff included a vet tech, Lolly, and a vet nurse, Charles. Bailey, our always efficient and scarily organized office manager, rounded out the team. Bailey was as nosy as she was efficient. She loved to mother hen me to death even though she was younger than me. She was also probably the closest thing I had to a best friend.
I walked into a flurry of activity. Most of the team were preparing and stacking cages, which let me know that we had a callout of some sort. Kona only added to the chaos, barking for reasons only known to her…. Well, her, and apparently also Bailey’s husky, Katya. She joined in the fuss as she greeted Kona with the song of her people, which involved a lot of howling. The two of them obviously had urgent dog/wolf business to get to, so I left them to it.
I handed off Rebecca to Bailey, announcing, “Your turn.”
“Rough night?” she asked, her blue eyes curious behind dark-framed glasses as she got the raccoon settled. Her pink scrubs had cats wearing sunglasses all over them. Her wild, curly hair was pulled back in a clip that did absolutely nothing to contain it, and Rebecca immediately reached for a curl with adorable little black hands.
“You have no idea.”
“Don’t worry. I know how to handle a diva.” She cooed down at the raccoon even as she freed her dark curls from those curious hands.
Rosy gave me a sheepish look as I jumped in to help prepare cages. Did I mention she was having a hard time with retirement? She was also in blue scrubs, her gray hair pulled back in its customary braid down her back. “I know what you’re going to say.”
“Then why do you keep making me say it?” I asked patiently.
“I was talking with Eric in the Sheriff’s Department and he mentioned there is a hoarding situation going on at the Cooper place.” She lifted a shoulder. “I figured you could use some help. Just for today.”
“Uh-huh.”
I loved working with her because she was easy to be around, and she was an amazing vet. But she’d been diagnosed with a heart problem five years prior, and the doctor told her to slow down. I worried about her. She was the only real mother I’d ever known.
My real mother died suddenly when I was six, and that was the last of stability as I knew it for a very long time. It wasn’t that my father didn’t love me; he’d been a fun-loving guy who was always quick with a joke and a smile. But he’d spent much of my life trying to find what he had with my mother, and five wives later, that was still very true.
Rosy and my father’s marriage had only lasted a few years before he fell in love with a coworker, the lovely Gabriella, who would become wife number five. Gabriella hated the never-ending Florida heat and wanted to move up North, and I just remember being so damned tired when my father told me we were moving. I’d sat Rosy and