Page 28 of Hogging the Hunk
“I do most of the work for her at cost. Some of it’s free. She’s doing a good thing for those cats. They’re all rescues.”
Beckett scrutinized me. “You sure do a lot of pro bono work, don’t you?”
There was a heap of potential explanations I could attach to my answer. How I wasn’t proud of my past and the guilt for the horrible person I’d been. Instead of weighing Beckett down with my ghosts, I kept it simple. “Everyone’s lives could benefit from a few more good deeds. All I hope is that I’m able to use what I’ve been blessed with to make the world a better place.”
“You’d make beauty pageant contestants nervous with an answer like that.” Beckett reclined against the headrest, smiling. “I like that outlook.”
Marmalade was reunited with Mrs. Norris, who hugged both Beckett and me. Even with her frail body, I tensed when Mrs. Norris wrapped me in a grateful hug. The rest of the afternoon went by in a blur. Beckett was a happy tagalong, whose firsthand farm knowledge came in handy more than once. She held the lead rope of a mare with a sorely abscessed hoof and rounded up a batch of Anatolian Shepherd puppies so they could get their shots. In between appointments, she opened up, talking about anything and everything while I listened. Her account about Greg interested me most, though I kept the comments decrying his behavior to myself. It was irrelevant for Beckett to know how differently I imagined treating her, should we be dating.
Theoretically, of course.
By the time I pulled into Beckett’s family’s driveway, a misty drizzle had begun falling and Ellie had texted, asking if she should order pizza for dinner. I couldn’t keep Beckett to myself any longer.
I pulled up to the front door and put my truck in park. “I appreciate your help today. I wouldn’t have gotten to half of it without you. Ever consider switching to the veterinarian field?”
Beckett groaned. “Don’t say anything about more schooling. I’ll stick with children, thanks.” There was a brief pause where neither of us knew what to do or say. The air was pregnant with expectation, but for what? “I should thank you, too.”
“It was nothing.”
“It wasn’t nothing. It was a much-needed, intensive therapy session where I faced some hard truths and discovered the direction and trailhead of my new path.”
“And here I was, thinking I was getting free labor out of you in exchange for a ride home.”
“No.” Beckett slipped her hand into mine, squeezing softly. “Really, Milo. You’re a lifesaver.”
With her hand in mine, all the feelings I’d been trying to bury all day rose defiantly from their internment. It was a hard thing to accept that Beckett occupied more space than a mere friend, even though I couldn’t act on any of it. Another buzzing text from Ellie in my pocket was a timely reminder why.
“Don’t forget what you promised.”
Beckett’s pupils dilated. “I know. I need to take a good hard look at my life and see if Greg is truly good for me. I don’t need a man, right?”
That was exactly what I was hoping she’d say with one exception—the thought of her giving up men forever released an icy dread in my gut. If, in some future day when Ellie could cope with an enormous life change like me having a girlfriend, and I had worked enough to ensure I would never hurt another person I loved the way I so cavalierly did when I was younger, I hoped Beckett would be first in line to date.
I shook my head. “That’s not what I was talking about.”
“It’s not?” Beckett wrinkled her nose. She was adorable when she was confused. “What else did I promise?”
The hope that we’d ever work out was unrealistic, which made it slightly easier to let her go.
Grinning from ear to ear, I replaced all my budding feelings into the same dark chamber, hoping they would die before anything became of them. For her sake. For mine. For Ellie’s. “I believe you promised me a sticker for being a compliant patient. When should I expect payment?”
Chapter Eight
Beckett
“I know that smarts,” I hurried to put a Bandaid over the freckly leg of a five-year-old who’d come in to be vaccinated, “but that’s the last of them. You did amazing, Gillian.”
Her chin wobbled, and her big, brown eyes glazed over with a gush of tears. That part of immunizing kids always got me. The quiet tears. She meekly accepted the sticker and strawberry sucker I held out as a peace offering, hoping she’d forgive me for poking her.
Each and every sticker I handed out reminded me of Milo, and reflexively, I’d look out the window to his veterinarian clinic across the street. I still owed him his promised reward.
“Thank you, Dr. Kent,” Gillian’s mother said. “I appreciate you fitting us in today. My work schedule is so crazy, it’s been hard to find time for everything.”
“Happy to help.” I snapped off my blue examination gloves and tossed them in the trash. Walking them to the side door of the mobile medical RV I worked in, I opened the door for them. Gillian, forgetting her anxiety over the shots she’d received, hopped down the steps. When she landed, she opened her sucker and offered her mother the first lick. “We’re in this location every Tuesday and Thursday. If you need us any other time, give us a call and we’ll let you know where we’re stationed for the day.”
Gillian and her mom waved as I watched them go. They drove away in an old Toyota that was probably a decade past its prime, with rusty wheel wells and chipped paint. Their hardships were apparent, and my heart went out to them. Not everyone could hide their pain as easily as me. As far as most people knew, my life was idyllic. Milo was one of the few who I’d let dive past the surface and see into my depths.
My eyes followed their sputtering car until they passed Milo’s veterinarian practice, situated almost exactly across the street from where I’d parked my mobile medical unit. If I had better self-control, I would have gone inside and finished my paperwork instead of staring in Milo’s direction, wondering what he was up to. It was useless. My gaze was snagged on his veterinarian clinic as helplessly as a fly’s legs tangled in honey.