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He made the first move, climbing out of the ambo and walking around to her side. She followed his lead by at least getting out of the truck. She stood in the parking lot staring up at the building.
“We have a pretty cool new state-of-the-art X-ray machine,” Grant coaxed. “We got it last year thanks to a generous private donation, and we’re not past the point of showing it off.”
“An X-ray machine, huh?” Molly shifted her gaze from the building to him, looking amused. “What did you do before?”
“It was tricky.” He walked past her and opened one of the double glass doors, holding it to clear the way for her to walk inside. “We had a very ancient, very small one that was usable for about half of our guests. And even then, it only worked about half the time. To be fair, it did a better job of making us good friends with the repair man. Two months ago, I was a groomsman in his wedding to one of my rehab techs, so…” He gave a nonchalant shrug.
“That didn’t happen.”
Grant nodded at the door he was holding open for her. “Want to see a picture? I have one in my office.”
Hesitantly, she started toward the open door. “You said it worked on half of your guests. What did you do the other times?”
“We took them to the hospital, of course.”
She paused, as if caught off guard. “The hospital? Like, the people hospital?”
“That’s the one. They’re the only ones locally who had a machine big enough for some of our larger turtles.”
“So you just put them on a gurney and wheeled them through the waiting room with the other patients?” She laughed. It was a deep, happy, authentic sound that left a hint of joy lingering in the air. “I bet that got you some weird looks.”
Some of the lingering joy seeped in to his soul, making the world seem a little brighter. “You have no idea.”
“Man, would I have loved to see that.” Looking more encouraged, she marched past him into the building.
Grant followed her in. “This is our education center and gift shop. We offer tours of our facility several times a day and host a variety of educational opportunities, most geared toward kids, but you’re welcome to join any of them.”
She had only taken a few steps inside before she paused again. Her head swiveled as she took in the entire space. Grant scanned the room too, trying to look at it through her eyes. He was proud of this space. They’d worked hard on it, and it was, in his opinion, the perfect combination of interactive displays that provided education and shelves of sea-turtle-inspired merch that helped keep this place operational. Plus, if he did say so himself, there was a pretty impressive saltwater fish tank along the far wall he’d helped to install.
“Wow.” Molly strode over to the closest display, the one that introduced the five different sea turtle species found in Florida, and tapped on the touch-screen. A picture of one of his all-time favorite loggerheads filled the screen. “This place is way cooler than it looks from the outside.”
Grant chuckled, leading her down the center aisle toward the counter that ran along the far wall. “We get that a lot. Apparently, it has something to do with the entrance being understated.” He shrugged, as if the lack of any sort of signage in front of their already plain building was a problem he didn’t understand. “Maybe we should put a big picture of our new X-ray machine out there to impress people.”
Molly scoffed and followed along behind him. “Yeah, that’d probably do it.”
He let out a sigh, thinking through the most common criticism their little rehab facility got. “I guess I’ve never been inspired to spend money out there when the real magic happens in here.” Truth be told, when push came to shove, he’d spend ten thousand dollars to better the experience for every living thing that graced those doors long before he sank even a penny into making an already functional exterior prettier. Which was probably why they had a new state-of-the-art X-ray machine and not new signage out front.
“Understandable,” she said, which only boosted his already high opinion of her. Professional opinion, of course, as a fellow animal caretaker.
“This is Kya, our fearless gift shop manager.” He paused at the counter and made a deliberate effort to refocus on the rehab center instead of Dr. Molly Lawrence. After all, his job was to get his final exam, not become best buds with the new temporary vet.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Molly said to Kya. “This place is truly amazing.”
“Thank you,” Kya, an energetic lady with a blue-frosted Carol Danvers haircut and a perma-grin, beamed. “But you have to see the turtles. They’re the real stars of the show.”
“Exactly.” After all, that was the very reason she was here, wasn’t it? Grant jerked his thumb at the door behind them with the big Employees Only sign. “Speaking of which, you ready to meet Chompers?”
Once again, nervousness flared in her gut. “Ready” wasn’t quite the word she would’ve used, but it was probably time to get started before she talked herself out of it. “Lead the way.”
Molly stepped through to a space that caught her off guard. Not only was the front of the building a bit on the understated side, it didn’t look all that large. After walking through the expansive education center, she was expecting this area to be small. However, the hallway on this side of the door was the exact opposite. It was almost as if they’d stepped into Mary Poppins’ magic carpet bag.
“Through that door is the bathroom and kitchen, in case you need either, along with the offices.” He motioned to the single door on the left side of the long, wide hallway they were standing in. “Our tanks are out there.” He pointed toward the automatic sliding glass doors at the end of the hall before turning his attention to the double swinging doors on their right. “And our vet suite is over here. You ready?”
No, she wasn’t ready, but she followed him through the doors anyway, hoping her smile didn’t look too forced.
The vet suite was a large, open, brightly lit room that rivaled any procedure room she’d worked in. The major difference was the huge metal table in the middle and the giant sea turtle on top of it. A guy and a gal, both dressed in khaki shorts and matching green Turtle Rehab logoed shirts, stood on either side of him.
“This is Dr. Lawrence. She’s filling in for Dr. Lacey while she’s out,” Grant said as they approached the trio. “Apparently she had her baby last night. No one thought to mention that to me?”
