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“Divine.”
“You want to go with us?” he asked, garnering a glare from the twins.
“I thought we agreed on no girls?” Paul asked.
“She’s not just some girl, and dude, she’s standing right here. Rude much?”
Paul grimaced and turned back to the bowie knife discussion.
“Sounds like fun, but maybe some other time.”
“Suit yourself. See you soon?”
“Sure.” I’ll let you and the PeePees get back to it,” I said loudly enough for them to overhear, and Derrick laughed again. The twins had always hated their high-school nickname, and I wouldn’t normally use it, but they had drawn first blood.
Becky and I spent the rest of the day goofing off in town, eating dinner at a little restaurant on the square called the Red Hen and talking about old times. Though I had already told her briefly about my spat with Jon, she didn’t bring it up, and neither did I. He was the last thing I wanted to talk about, though I wasn’t so lucky to not think about him. In fact, it was almost as if the more I tried not to think about him, the more I did.
The girls’ day out had been a welcome diversion, but it all went to hell the following day with a single phone call. Picking up my cell, I contemplated whether I wanted to answer. It was a crappy way to end a perfectly nice day. After a few more rings, I took a deep breath and answered.
“Yes, Shaun?”
“How are things? Getting your grandmother’s affairs sorted out?”
“Yes.”
“When are you coming back? You’ve been gone longer than you said, and I’m getting overrun here.”
“I don’t know.”
“Listen, I need you to come back and hold up your end of the clinic. I didn’t sign up to take care of your patients and mine. I was willing to do it so that you could tend to your grandmother’s affairs, but I think I’ve given you more than enough time for that. I’ve been quite understanding.”
“I told you that I would hire someone to help you there while I was gone, but you said no. I can still do that if you can’t manage it by yourself. I’ll be back when I can.”
“No. That’s not good enough. I need you back this week, or I’m going to be forced to see a lawyer.”
“For what?”
“To force you out of your half of the business.”
“You can’t do that. I own half of it!”
“Yes, but you also have obligations that you’re not able to meet from the other side of the country.”
I was silent for a moment, stewing over this. Shaun had done nothing but make my life miserable since we had opened the clinic. Once we were out of school and in the real world, he’d become jealous and bitter, insulting my capabilities and second-guessing some of my treatments. As a result, we split the clinic down the middle and operated as separate offices. Many customers chose to see me rather than him, and that had made things even worse. Catching him in the act with an employee had been the final straw, but we still tried to maintain the business together.
I bit my lip to contain my anger, but finally I spoke through gritted teeth. “I thought you’d be happy to have extra customers. Your patient load was pretty light when I left. Why are you making such a huge deal out of this?”
“A lot of patients have left since you have been gone. They want a more reliable vet.”
“That was supposed to be you, Shaun. I left them in your care.”
“Yeah, well, I thought you’d be back by now. I need to find a permanent replacement for you and I can’t do that with you owning half the clinic.”
“Sure you can. You just hire another vet and they take over my half. I’ll sign the paperwork to deed it over to anyone who wants to buy in.”
“No. I’m not dealing with any more partners. You need to either take your place or forfeit it.”
“Forfeit it? No. I’m not handing over the money I put into that place to you.”
“Then, you need to get back and deal with it like you agreed to do because it’s losing money by the handfuls and I can’t save it by myself. We’re both going to lose here, Rain.”
Losing money? How much? I wanted to ask, but decided it was best to go find out myself. With money at stake, I couldn’t depend on Shaun to tell me the truth about anything.
“Fine. I’ll be on the next flight back.”
10
Jon
It was still hard to believe how easy it had been for Rain to turn her back on me. I had chosen the wrong words, but she hadn’t even given me a chance to explain. The way we had left things hurt. It hurt more than I was willing to admit, but what could I do? I thought the three-hour drive to Savannah would clear my head, but all I’d done was think about her the whole way. There had been a brief reprieve while I talked with people at the home show and joined them for dinner and such in the off-hours. But every moment alone she filled my head and made my heart ache. I could hardly focus on anything, even now that I was back at home.
