Better With You

by Ellen Joy

  Frank shook his head. “Guess not. Your mother is ready to let them know how she feels about the whole marriage.”

  “Great.” Elizabeth let out a dragged-out sigh.

  Frank folded his arms. “If you ask me, that pregnancy wasn’t any accident.”

  It was no secret how her uncles and mother felt about Justine. They hadn’t liked her ever since she showed up at their house in high school with her older brother, Jack. But accidental pregnancy or not, the fact remained that Justine was now a Williams.

  “Speaking of whom.” Frank gestured his head toward the window as he got up to go back up front. Matt walked up from the docks toward the shop.

  Elizabeth watched her older brother walk into the bakery and greet their uncle, who went back to the front counter. He grabbed a mug of coffee then walked toward the table. The look on his face reminded her of when he was a kid and had his feelings hurt. Protectiveness flooded through her as she thought of Justine.

  As he sat down, he asked, “How was your night?”

  “Okay,” she said, carefully watching his mannerisms. Was he upset? She couldn’t tell. “How are you?”

  He ignored her question and asked, “So, when did you get home?”

  Elizabeth detected a certain tone in his question. “What do you mean?”

  He leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “What time did you get home?”

  “Late.” She wondered what he was getting at.

  “Like what time?”

  “Gee, Dad, I didn’t realize I missed curfew.” Her tone was sharp.

  Matt shifted in his seat and leaned against the table, holding the coffee mug in his hand. “Are you cheating on Dan?”

  “Excuse me?” Was Matt seriously asking her that?

  “It’s just...” he stopped himself. “You weren’t at your place when I stopped by.”

  This threw her off. Matt didn’t usually stop by her place. “You stopped by?”

  “Late last night.” He then let out a long sigh. “And you weren’t there.”

  Elizabeth wanted to throw her napkin in his face, but stopped because of what her uncle had told her. “I can’t believe you’d think I’d cheat on Dan. What makes you think that?”

  “You’ve been dodging questions from Frank and Mom, plus you rushed out of Finn’s last night like it was on fire after getting a phone call.” He continued to ramble on as she rolled her eyes. He was clearly making this into something that it wasn’t. He may be her older brother, but she could do whatever she darn well pleased without having to explain herself. He was projecting his anger at his own situation, onto her.

  “I’m an adult, Matthew.” She didn’t need to defend herself. Matt was being absurd. She wished her sister didn’t live so far away. Lauren would help defend her against him. “I had an emergency at the vet.”

  “Your car wasn’t there, either.”

  Her eyes opened wide in shock. “You went to the vet, too? What are you, the curfew police?”

  “I was concerned,” he said, as though that was enough to invade her privacy.

  “I’m not a little girl anymore.” Elizabeth was bothered by her brother’s nosiness. “I can do whatever I want. I’m sorry I didn’t say goodbye to you and Justine. Why don’t we talk about you and Justine?”

  “You didn’t say goodbye to Dan, either.”

  She was about to defend herself, but stopped to think back. “I didn’t?”

  Matt shook his head. “You just left. He seemed pretty upset about it.”

  “Oh.” She remembered picking up her stuff to answer the phone, knowing she’d probably have to leave. She didn’t say good-bye? “You stopped by because Dan was upset?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “I wanted to talk.”

  That’s when his face changed. He was hurt. “Are you okay?”

  He adjusted his worn Red Sox cap and changed his position in his seat, clearly uncomfortable. “Justine and I got into a huge fight after we left the tavern and I needed a place to go. Please don’t tell Mom, or them.” Matt gestured his head toward their uncles.

  “They already know.” Her annoyance disappeared instantly as her brother sat there showing his vulnerability.

  “They do!” His eyes bugged out of his head. “How?”

  Just as she was about to ask him about Justine, her attention was caught by a pair of eyes looking back at her through the window. At first it startled her, but she smiled as soon as she recognized Lucy, who stood by Mr. Cahill’s side, pointing and waving at her. She waved back to the little girl and when she glanced up at Mr. Cahill, he looked away and ushered his daughter into the shop.

  Matt swung around in his seat to look at the man and his daughter who now stood in line. “Do you know him?”

  Elizabeth hid behind the cup of her espresso, ignoring the cold exchange. “I put his dog down last night.”

  “Oh.” She could tell Matt was putting two and two together. “Look, I’m sorry. Just don’t string Dan along, please.”

  Elizabeth rolled her eyes, back to being annoyed with her brother. “I’m not stringing Dan along.”

  Matt made a face.

  “I’m sorry about you and Justine’s fight.” Elizabeth made her own face. “Are you two going to be okay?”

  “It is what it is.” He shook his head. “But Dan’s a really nice guy.”

  “I had to work,” she began.

  “Mmm hmm.”

  She could hear the sarcasm in his mumble. “And I have to find a new location for the clinic. We’re running out of space.”

  “Okay.”

  “I’m not stringing him along.”

  “He’s in love with you.” Matt’s tone was serious, and Elizabeth knew he was right. She liked Dan, she really did. But was she in love with him? How could she really know for sure, anyways?

  She forgot another excuse as Lucy interrupted from across the room, shouting, “Hi, Dr. Elizabeth!”

  The little girl pulled her father’s hand and dragged him to Elizabeth’s table. She walked up to Matt, gave him a look over, then asked Elizabeth, “Is this your husband?”

  Matt looked at Elizabeth, tilting his head, waiting for her to answer.

  “He’s my older brother,” she said to the young girl. “His name is Matt.”

  Elizabeth wondered if the little girl knew about her dog, until Lucy faced Matt and said, “My dog died last night.”

  Matt looked uneasy at the comment, but with her happy tone and matter of fact style, he gave her a small frown and said, “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  She leaned toward Matt and waved for him to come closer to her. Covering her mouth with her hand, she whispered into his ear, all the while looking at Elizabeth.

  Curious, Elizabeth leaned closer to her brother across the table, trying to hear what the little girl had to say, but couldn’t make out any of it. Matt’s right eyebrow rose higher the longer he listened. Then in a serious, matter of fact tone, he said to her, “She could be a fairy godmother, you really don’t know. They blend in.”

  Lucy, equally serious, nodded while looking at Elizabeth, “Mmm hmm.”

  Elizabeth laughed and looked up to Mr. Cahill, who stood above them, frowning at the scene.

  “Well, Lucy, we should probably head home.” Mr. Cahill grabbed his daughter’s hand and tugged her toward the door. The little girl waved as her father pulled her away.

  Suddenly, Elizabeth became hypersensitive to Mr. Cahill’s behavior toward her. He’d been nothing but rude with every interaction she had with him. He still hadn’t apologized for being a complete jerk last night. Not to mention, his usual detestable behavior.

  Matt leaned across the table and asked, “Did you shoot his dog?”

  “No,” Elizabeth scoffed, shaking the murderous thoughts out of her head.

  “He didn’t seem to like you very much,” Matt smirked as if he knew that would bother her.

  “I don’t care.” Elizabeth tried to pretend it wasn’t t
he truth. If anyone shouldn’t like someone, it was her not liking him. He was the one who kept his poor, sick dog alive when clearly it should’ve been put out of its misery weeks ago. He was the one jumping down her throat and jumping to conclusions. He was the one who should feel uncomfortable around her.

  “It’s driving you crazy,” Matt said, smiling.

  “He’s completely crazy,” Elizabeth snapped back.

  Her brother laughed, while leaning back in his chair. “Well, well, someone’s got Elizabeth Williams’s feathers all ruffled up.”

  “YOU KNOW, SHE’S VERY pretty,” Lucy said from the back seat of the truck. It still felt like yesterday she had just learned to buckle herself in and now she sounded like his mother.

  “That’s enough, Lu.” He wanted to shut this down before she got any more ideas. No, his little cupid was worse than his mother.

  He turned down Main Street and headed back to the farm, turning up the music to distract Lucy from any more talk of the doctor who had become her new personal heroine. Lucy now wanted to become a veterinarian because of the pretty doctor who gave her a chocolate chip cookie in the middle of the night. She also wanted to be a horse trainer and a crystal collector and an astronaut. Next week, she’d want to be a trapeze artist, although there might be something there with the veterinarian thing. He supposed Dr. Elizabeth Williams was as fine a woman as any to admire.

  He’d never admit it to Lucy, but he thought the doctor was extraordinary. Even beyond her natural beauty. For the first time since Michelle, he felt something around her. Maybe it was because of her gentle nature with Max, or the feisty temper she couldn’t hide, but she made him feel something that he never wanted to feel again, something dangerous.

  His mind wandered the whole drive home, and when he pulled down his now familiar road, he looked in the rearview mirror at Lucy, reading a book. He’d love to give Lucy a mother, but he couldn’t risk falling in love, or worse—having Lucy be abandoned again.

  Not that there was even a possibility with the doctor. She barely tolerated him.

  His truck rambled up the driveway over the potholes that the previous owner swore were caused by frost heaves, but was clearly due to the fact that it hadn’t been repaired in years. When he came to a stop, Lucy jumped out of the truck and ran inside the house, leaving him behind. He looked out at his new life and wondered for the umpteenth time if he had made the right decision.

  Then, just as fast as she went in, Lucy ran out in a pair of rubber boots and off towards the chicken incubator set up in the coop. “Beatrice! Eunice! Anita! Florence! Agnus!”

  He shook his head at the names she picked for the five new chicks that hatched that spring. They weren’t even sure of the sex. He grabbed the bag of pastries and his coffee before jumping out of the truck.

  He still couldn’t believe this was his life. His law class from Harvard would have a field day with this. Adam Cahill, grandson of the Honorable Judge John Cahill, flaked out, never to be heard from again.

  His phone vibrated in his pocket and he set his coffee on the hood of his truck as he fished it out. “Cahill.”

  “Mr. Cahill?” a woman’s voice said.

  “Yes.” Adam’s heart dropped. He recognized the number. The horse rescue. “Hi Maggie, how are you?”

  “Good, thanks,” she said. “Well, Mr. Cahill, it looks like we have a horse that’s in need of fostering. Lucy’s already called me about it.”

  “I bet she did.” Adam looked through the barn doors. Lucy sat on the ground with the baby chicks in her lap. “Is this the pregnant horse being sent to Quebec?”

  He hoped it wasn’t the pregnant horse.

  “Yes, she’s was the one being sent to slaughter, but being pregnant, they’d like to get rid of her as quickly as possible. I know you’ve been hesitant, but I’d really like to put her somewhere with a good vet and Dr. Johnson’s office is one of the best around.”

  He had been hesitant. Rescuing a horse wasn’t his idea. It was Lucy’s. He wanted to buy a horse, one that Lucy could ride, one that was well trained. A rescue would be a ton of work. He may have lived in the city, but he had grown up around horses at his grandparent’s place, so he knew how much a horse required.

  Ironically, now, it was his family’s connections and generous donations to Maggie’s rescue that launched Lucy’s idea in the first place. He watched as Lucy kissed the head of a yellow fluff ball in the loose hay on the ground. He didn’t need a psychology degree to understand Lucy’s desire to rescue abandoned animals stemmed from her own abandonment issues.

  “When does this horse need to be placed?” He was helpless. He had resigned himself to the fact that at this point in the game, Lucy called the shots. “You sure my barn is up to code?”

  “It’s fine,” she said. “I even talked to your vet and he is willing to take the mare on as a client as soon as possible. How does tomorrow sound?”

  “You talked to my vet?” he wondered if she had talked to Dr. Williams or the older vet.

  “Yes, Dr. Johnson said he’d be happy to help as much as possible.” Maggie had him.

  “Ah...” He looked around, thinking of all the things that would need to be done before a horse came to the house. “I don’t have any supplies, or food or hay, or even a water bucket yet. I wasn’t expecting it to come tomorrow.”

  “I’ll supply her tack, food and a few buckets. She’s pregnant, so she’s not moving very fast,” the woman said matter-of-factly. “Really the only thing you need right away is to set up an appointment with vet.”

  ELIZABETH SAT IN HER office going over the schedule for the next week with Dr. Johnson.

  “The university students will be observing Tuesday and Thursday,” he said, looking at the computer through his readers.

  She checked the rest of the week and noticed Adam Cahill’s name written in. “Oh, did I forget to tell you Mr. Cahill’s dog had passed?”

  Dr. Johnson tapped his finger on the scroll. “He’s getting a horse from Maggie.”

  “He’s fostering a horse?” This was not good news.

  “I told him we’d gladly take on the mare.”

  Her stomach dropped. “Is this the pregnant mare they took from the slaughter?”

  Please don’t be the pregnant mare.

  “Yes!” Dr. Johnson pointed his pen at her. “Isn’t that great!”

  Elizabeth would rather stick her hand inside a heifer’s rectum before returning to the man’s farm, but instead she plastered a wide smile on her face and said, “Yes, it is!”

  “Doc?” Margie poked her head in the doorway. “You have a call on line four.”

  “Thank you, Margie,” Dr. Johnson walked to his phone as Elizabeth stared at the appointment. “Adam!”

  She looked down at the computer screen in her lap, Adam Cahill’s name glaring back at her. She really didn’t want to deal with that man again. She closed the laptop and got up. Dr. Johnson waved at her.

  “I’ll have her take the call.” He covered the mouth piece with his hand. “He’s on line four.”

  “Who?” she asked, even though she knew.

  “Mr. Cahill.”

  Elizabeth’s stomach dropped. She slowly got up and headed back to her office with Margie on her tail, standing there waiting for Elizabeth to take the call, her eyebrows high and her smile mischievous.

  “He’s on line four,” she whispered then winked at Elizabeth.

  “I know.” She waited before grabbing the receiver, but Margie continued to move her eyebrows up and down with her head poked through the doorway.

  “If you don’t mind...” Elizabeth gestured her hand toward the door.

  “Oh, yes, I’ll give you two privacy.” She winked again and shut the door.

  “It’s not like that!” Elizabeth shouted after her.

  She stared at the blinking red light before finally pressing it. She felt light-headed. Her heart raced inside her chest. She wasn’t sure if it was because she was still so angry at their la
st interaction, or if Margie was getting in her head.

  “Good afternoon, Dr. Williams here.” She emphasized the word doctor, but only slightly. She wasn’t going to let this jerk get under her skin.

  “I rescued a horse.”

  “I heard.” His voice sounded as though this was not good news. But he was also still sticking around the farm. Her farm. “How can I help you?”

  “Dr. Johnson actually recommended I talk to you. He said that you travel out to the farms?”

  She blew out a breath. She’d never ruin the clinic’s reputation by lying to the man, but she didn’t want to deal with him anymore. “Yes, we do, but I also know a clinic in Gorham that specializes in pregnant horses.”

  “They’re almost an hour away.”

  He had done his research apparently. She grabbed a pen from her desk and began tapping it against the surface. “I think it is better if you found someone who specializes in—”

  He cut her off. “I’ll pay you extra for your time.” His voice sounded softer, but no less irritating. “She’s a rescue, and she’s coming tomorrow.”

  How could she say no? But how could she work with a man like him? She wouldn’t want to drag another animal through hell. Plus, if this horse was a rescue, without knowing the conditions she came from, there was no way of knowing the health of the foal until she delivered. If the foal had any struggles, or God forbid if anything went wrong, she didn’t have the facilities to help her.

  However...owning a pregnant horse, having to take care of her, and when the time came, maybe having to help with the birth, would definitely show this city boy it was not the life for him. Then she would kindly offer to take the farm off his hands. She could even take the horse.

  “I'll come by the farm tomorrow, in the afternoon.”

  Four

  Adam felt his anxiety level elevate when the horse trailer drove up the driveway with Maggie, in the driver’s seat. He now owned a farm with animals. He watched through the kitchen window as she parked the truck and then met her outside.