"Any further discussion?"
There wasn't.
"All in favor of approving the application for veterinary practice at the Main Street location, signify by saying aye."
Three ayes around the table.
"All opposed?"
Two nays.
She looked over the reading glasses.
"Application approved. Welcome to Main Street, Dr. Matthews."
Audrey set her hand on my forearm under my coat and squeezed it once. I felt her exhale.
Easton was still beside me. I turned my head a quarter inch toward him. He was looking at me. He'd been looking at me, I understood, the whole time I'd been speaking. His eyes had something in them I hadn't seen before. I wasn't going to find a word for it tonight, and I didn't need to.
"Hey," I said, low.
"Hey."
The room rearranged itself, coats coming off chair backs, a few people heading for the coffee urn. Mrs. Halloran turned around and gave me the small nod a woman of her generation gives another woman she has decided is going to do all right.
Caldwell crossed the aisle.
He was smiling. It was the porch smile. The one that traveled all the way to the eyes only by being told to.
He stopped in front of me.
I stood up.
"Dr. Matthews."
"Dr. Caldwell."
He held out his hand.
I held out mine.
His grip closed on it. Not the grip of a man who'd just lost a vote. The grip of a man who had decided, somewhere between his seat and mine, that he was going to make sure I understoodsomething he was not going to say out loud. His hand was big, dry, and a little too warm. The room pulled back to the edges, and what stayed at the center was the pressure of his palm. He held mine harder than he needed to. A beat longer than he should have.
His other hand came over the top and rested on the back of mine. A welcoming gesture. The same gesture my mother-in-law made across a dinner table when she wanted me to know I'd hung the wreath wrong. Soft on the surface and contained underneath.
Beside me, Easton went still. I felt it the way you feel a porch light come on next to you in the dark. He stayed where he was and let the full weight of his attention rest on the place where Caldwell's hand was on mine. Caldwell, who had been a man in this town for thirty years and had read its rooms for just as long, felt it.
He held my hand for another half second.
Then he smiled at me and let go.
"Welcome to the neighborhood, Doctor."
"Thank you, Joe."
He turned and went down the aisle, stopping at the back of the room to talk to two of his men in their fleece vests.
I sat down.
