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Okay, well, there was a stepstool, and that would have to do. She dragged the plastic stool over and stepped up about eight inches. The case was still above her head, which was a bit precarious, but she’d manage.
Then, just as Kelsey lifted the case from the shelf, the door swung sharply open, slammed into the stool—and her. She bobbled the heavy case, tried to keep hold of it while she also tried to reclaim her balance, succeeded at the former and failed utterly at the latter, and ended up landing in the arms of Kevin Snyder, the other vet working this afternoon. It all happened in about two seconds, but it seemed slow-motion to her.
“Oh! I’m sorry!” Kevin said and set her back on her feet. “I didn’t know you were in here.”
“My fault,” she said. “I shouldn’t have closed the door when I came in. Don’t know why I did.”
His hand still held her arm, and he moved his thumb in a way that seemed too much like a caress, so, as politely as she could, she removed her arm from his hold.
Kevin was the other ‘new’ vet at the clinic. Newer than her, in fact. She’d been here a couple years; Kevin, about six months. They got along really well, bonding over being about twenty years younger than any of the three other vets here, and also invariably getting the worst schedules, like closing the day before a big holiday.
He was a good-looking guy—he was even this year’s Mr. April for a beefcake calendar a local shelter put out every year, with hot guys in the foster community holding cute animals that were up for adoption. Cute, smart, nice. Probably, if she’d known Kevin pre-Greg, she would have wanted to go out with him.
But she’d met him after Greg, who’d also seemed cute/smart/nice at first, so she wasn’t remotely interested. And now she had Dex—Seth—and that was perfect. Besides, Kevin had never asked her out or expressed any interest in her whatsoever, so that little thumb-stroke was probably nothing more than friendship.
“You okay?” he asked, worry still crimping his brow.
“Yeah, totally fine. Checking a neonate litter of kittens, and one isn’t thriving, so I’m going to get her some nutrition while she’s here. Somebody left the empty box on the shelf, so I had to get one from the top.”
“Uh … that was me, sorry. I was in a rush when I took the last can. I actually came in here to open a new case.” He grinned. So thanks for the help?”
“Haha.” She set the case on the shelf and wedged a can from it. “Okay, I leave you to finish your job.”
As she stepped through the threshold, Kevin called after her, “Hey, Kelsey?”
“Yeah?”
“You want to … I don’t know … go get dinner or something after we close up?”
She’d only just now had the thought that he only liked her as a friend, which was great, but now? Poop. “Um, thanks, but I can’t. I’ve got Mr. Darcy with me today.” Also, she had a boyfriend, but she felt insecure about saying it. What if Kevin was asking only to go out with a friend?
With that weird little caress in her mind, and an alarm bell his tone had struck still ringing, she went ahead and added, “And I’ve got a boyfriend.”
“Oh. Cool. Okay.”
The words weren’t wrong, but a strange look crossed his face. He mastered it quickly and was just Kevin again in seconds, but that look had had an edge.
Kelsey’s belly did a flip.Please don’t be another ‘nice’ guy who becomes Brozilla when he doesn’t get what he wants. Please, please, please.
He turned from her and got to work restocking the formula. Kelsey had patients, so she focused on that.
~oOo~
Her appointment with Dolly and the Christmas kittens was her last of the day. After Janice took everybody home, with instructions to send weight and intake updates in every day, Kelsey called Mr. D to heel, and they went to her tiny, windowless office. She sat at her tiny desk and finished her files and reports. Mr. D lay in his work donut and got busy deconstructing a cow’s ear.
As she started in on her last one, her phone alerted a text. She glanced over and smiled to see it was Dex. Seth. He’d told her not to call him Seth, so she’d stopped herself before it became a habit. Then he’d told her he wanted her to call him Seth.
The man was a puzzle, for sure. One of those round, solid-color things like the one that had nearly resulted in a holiday mass murder-suicide at the Helm house a few years back, when it had been Mom’s Secret Santa gift and she’d tried to make it a family event.
Kelsey had liked it, actually. Right up to the point Hannah and Duncan were ready to kill each other and Dad got shouty.
Seth’s text was clear enough:Can you come over tonight?
As much as she loved that he was finally, finally all in on this relationship idea, she was really feeling bad about leaving Mr. D alone so much, or shipping him off to her parents’, where Rowdy wore him ragged.
I don’t want to leave Mr. D again.
Can you come to me?
