She lowered her voice as if someone might eavesdrop.“I didn’t mean to overhear but Timothy was talking awful loud.He blew a lot of hot air out there threatening you.”She rolled her eyes.“If he bad mouths you at church, I’m not part of the Baptist Ladies for nothing.We will rip him a new one.I got your back, Dr.Hurst.All the ladies know this is the place if they want their pet treated right.”
“I appreciate that, Mrs.Tadlock, er, Bunny.Lexi does too.I?—”
“I also heard you have a chance to get Erika back here.We sure do miss her.She used to do so much for us at the barn.This little one adores her.”She leaned in and nuzzled the dog on the nose.“You’re going to make sure she stays, aren’t you, Dr.Hurst?”
“Erika and I are figuring out if she fits in here or not.”
“Oh, she fits.Jim was so excited to hear she was back in town.He’s got one horse that loved that girl and hasn’t taken to anyone since.I’ll ask Marty to text me when she’s here for sure so I can talk to her about the horse that’s still mooning over her.Sort of like you, right?”
What?
She grinned mischievously.“We both know there’s no one else quite like Erika.”
I cleared my throat of its sudden tightness.Time to get this visit back on track.“Do you see Lexi having a lot of blood in her stool, or that she is sicker than the last time?If so, we should do some blood work.”
She pulled the little dog into her and hugged her tight.“Maybe we should.Let’s just be sure she doesn’t have pancreatitis again and make sure she’s not dying.”
“You got it.”I gave her a smile.“I’m going to take her to the back to get blood.”And put a muzzle on her.“Can you hand her to me backward?”We made the exchange, and I headed for the door.“Lexi sure is well loved, but you probably need to tell Jim to watch it on sharing his roast beef.Perhaps, let’s cut out the mushroom support right now too?”
She leaned in and whispered to Lexi, “Behave yourself.He’s only worth biting if he’s mean to Erika.”
ChapterEleven
JOSH
“Hey, hon,so…”
My mom stood at the bottom of the high ladder where I perched on tiptoe to replace the single bulb in the garage that was out.This wasn’t the “emergency” I expected.
Her “so” had been filled with a hefty load ofI’ve got an opinion on your life.
Mom must’ve gotten her hair done today.The blonde cut wassuspiciouslystylish with bouncy, curly waves that looked like they belonged on a 20-year-old influencer, not a woman in her fifties trying to pretend she “just woke up like this.”Her left foot tapped, which meant she was going to find out from me exactly what she wanted to know or else I’d suffer endless bothering.
“What?”I replied like a dolt, knowing I’d fallen into her trap.
“The Good Lord knows you’ve gotten a few shocks this week.First losing Roland and Hope, bless their souls.Now, Erika is back in town.”She sat on a pile of salt bags and tilted her head.Dad had become obsessed with never being out of salt after an ice storm twenty years ago made the driveway impassable for four days.In addition, the concept of running out of mayonnaise again kept him in pseudo prepper mode.I didn’t doubt there was an entire cabinet filled with condiments out here in the garage.
She asked, “How are you holding up?”
“Fine, I guess.”I had finished the bulb change and didn’t want to climb down the ladder.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not really.”
“It doesn’t bother you that the girl who almost got you kicked out of high school and almost made you lose your chance to play ball in college is in town?”
I slowly climbed down.
Her foot tapping abruptly stopped.“It’s okay to admit you’re still a little hurt after all those things she did to you.Now, hon, if you’d tell me what you did to make her madder than a hornet back then, I might understand the whole thing better.I never did get how you could go from acting like she was your whole world to breaking up.”
“I never said she was my whole world.”Her words oddly rang reminiscent of what Mrs.Tadlock had said.I wondered if they’d been gossiping at church about me again.
“Darling, you never had to.You had it bad for her since middle school when she saved your butt on that science project you forgot to do.”My mom’s eyes narrowed in a way that reminded me she’d spent a lifetime studying my tells, like a champion card shark waiting to lay down the winning hand.
I’d liked Erika—maybe loved—since way before that project disaster.
“I see you know I’m right,” Mom said.“I once asked Roland if knew anything about the breakup.I mean, he was her father.”
