Number Neighbors - Emma Hart Page 0,30
She died two weeks after I qualified.”
“I’m sorry. I bet she was happy to see you qualify though.”
“She really was. I really do love animals, so it’s not like it was a hard decision to follow this path.”
I propped my head up on my hand. “What’s your favorite animal?”
“That I see in the clinic?”
“No, the ones we’re waiting on the aliens to drop off.”
He chuckled. “I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever thought about it like that. I do know that I hate ducks.”
That was so random I burst out laughing. “Ducks?”
“When I was a kid, there was a duck on my grandparents’ farm. I don’t know why but the bloody bird hated me and chased me every time it saw me. It’s a bit of a deep-rooted hatred, but I squirm like a bitch every time one gets brought into the clinic.”
“People brings ducks in there?”
“Where else are they going to take them? Urgent care?”
I showed him my middle finger. “I thought there was a special vet who went to farms.”
“Usually only for horses around here. There aren’t enough vets in town to split off like that, so it’s whoever is around at the time. I helped one of the farms just outside town save one of his lambs last year.”
“Oh, my God. I love lambs. They’re so cute and fluffy with their little wobbly legs.”
“Not so cute when they’re coming out the back end of a sheep.”
“And I am so glad I’m done eating.”
He laughed as I sat up and put the lid down on all the boxes before I stacked them. “It’s rewarding,” he said. “I like it that way.”
“But hard too, right?”
“Of course. I never like taking the babies back to be done, especially the girls. Spaying them is horrible, and I’m always arguing with my vet techs about how much fur they shave off before the operation.”
“I was talking about the—you know.” I stuck my tongue out of the side of my head and tilted my head.
“If that’s your impression of a dead animal, it’s absolutely terrible.”
“I didn’t want to say it!”
He laughed hard. “You’re crazy, do you know that?”
I held my hands out. “You’ve met my grandmother and my cousin. It’s not exactly a surprise, is it?”
“Your cousin? Oh—Imogen. Huh. I’ve never made that connection before.”
“Why would you have? I didn’t think you even knew I existed until a couple of weeks ago.”
His eyebrows shot up. “How the hell could I not have known you existed? We see each other at least every other day.”
“I know, but I assumed you had a supermodel girlfriend stashed away somewhere. Maybe the basement.”
“I did, but she was too tall for me so I had to let her escape.” He winked and leaned forward. “Besides, I knew you were here. I watered your plant last summer when you went away. Even though it didn’t need watering.”
I frowned. “What do you mean it didn’t need watering? Of course it did. It would have died.”
“Hannah, that’s a plastic plant.”
My gaze followed where he was pointing to—to the big, suspiciously green plant in the corner of my living room. “That’s not a plastic plant.”
“Has it ever grown?”
“I don’t know. I don’t pay attention to those things.”
Isaac stood and reached for my hand. He pulled me to my feet and across the room, then put my fingers against one of the leaves.
“See? Plastic.”
I blinked. Holy shit. It was plastic. I’d been watering a plastic plant for two years.
“Oh, my God,” I whispered. “I am such an idiot.”
He leaned into me, laughing quietly. “I watered it for three days until I realized. Then I only watered it on the last day so you wouldn’t think I was abandoning your plant.”
“And you never thought to tell me I’d asked you to water a plastic plant?” I stepped back. “Thanks!”
“I thought you had another plant somewhere you meant!”
“Did you look for it?”
“No.”
“Then why are we having this conversation? Oh, my God.” I dropped back onto the sofa and buried my head in my hands. “This is embarrassing.”
“It’s just a plastic plant, Hannah. I did the same thing.”
“Yeah, but you figured it out! I wasn’t even close to doing that! I’d be watering that fucking thing for the next fifty years without realizing.”
Laughing, Isaac sat down next to me on the sofa, closer than he had before. A shiver ran down my spine at the exact moment his knuckles brushed my knee when he reached for his wine glass. He hesitated for the tiniest second