Ally waved to Kyle as he approached. “Nice to see you, hero.” She winked, and I wondered how much she suspected about him and his teammates who had rescued her Saturday night, the supposed personal security firm who ran around in tactical gear with military-style weapons.
Kyle put his arm around me again as we walked back to the truck. “What’s next, Dr. Vaughn?”
I leaned against him, the exhaustion of what my team and I had survived, as well as the grief over learning about Doc, finally catching up with me. “Let’s take Bella home.”
He stopped and looked down at me. “Your place or mine?”
“Either one works for me. If you're there, it's home. Tonight, maybe we should stay at the apartment and set up Rocky in the guest room.”
“As long as you tell him the house rule: always lock the bathroom door when you’re taking a shower.”
“Oh.” I shot him a sad face. “Is that what you’re going to do from now on, lock me out so I can’t see your big, hard?—”
“Hi, Mrs. Alvarez!” Kyle said loudly as the elderly woman whose chihuahua was one of my patients walked past me.
“Thanks,” I whispered to him as we exchanged waves with her.
Kyle resumed our conversation as we started walking again. “To answer your question, I’m not going to lock you out of anywhere. But speaking of Rocky, are you sure he’s a boy? I understand these things can be tricky.”
“First of all, girls can be named Rocky. And second, I checked under his tail.” I grinned up at Kyle, the man I loved, the hero I was going to keep. “And if you're a very good boy, later tonight, I'll check under yours."
40
SIX WEEKS LATER
Cami
“Ican’t believe how well this color works,” Gina said. “What’s it called, again?”
“Persimmon,” I answered. “We can’t believe it, either. But we tried three different colors, then cycled back to this one. And when the rug and furniture arrived, it just came together.”
Darla, who had held up her phone throughout the tour of Kyle’s finished house, too, now looked into the camera. “It’s really great in person. Maybe I can talk Kyle into hosting the clinic holiday party here, too.”
“Maybe.” I looked over her shoulder so I could see the faces of Ally, who was back and college, and Mike, who was visiting her. “I promise we’ll plan it around your break schedule.”
“I can’t wait!” Ally said, and I was so relieved to see her happy and enthusiastic again, after all we’d been through. “And I can’t wait to meet the two new vets.”
I wrapped one arm Gina’s and the other around Darla’s. “They’re fitting in great, and they’ll be here today.”
Everyone except Ally and Mike were joining our first annual office picnic party.
And it wasn’t just a party for the clinic staff. Gina had floated the idea of including Kyle’s “security company” colleagues, and Kyle and Darla had jumped right on board. With spouses and significant others, as well as Kyle’s part-time teammates, Samantha Bond and Pasco’s boss Jensen, we were hosting twenty guests. The past week had been a whirlwind of preparation as we’d put the finishing touches on the recently finished rooms, with some help from our friends.
We said goodbye to Ally and Mike, then Gina turned in a circle to take in the open space of the kitchen and dining room.
“I understand why this is Bella’s favorite space,” she said, pointing to the dog bed where the pup spent most of her indoor time when we were on the first floor. “But I want to know more about those extra bedrooms.”
“Um… They’re guest rooms. Places where visitors can sleep, like Kyle’s brother and his fiance, when they visit next weekend.”
“I’m familiar with the concept of guest rooms,” Gina said. “But how comfy are the stunt beds?”
“What’s a stunt bed?” I asked. From the look on Gina’s face, I regreeted my question immediately.
“It’s a bed where you try out all the sex stunts,” she said. “That way, in case you break the stunt bed, you still have your main bed for sleeping.”
“That’s…” I glanced at Darla, who was smiling and offering no help.
We were saved by the interruption of Kyle coming intothe house to pull more trays out of the fridge. His face lit up when he saw me. I never tired of seeing that reaction.
