“I’d love to take one,” I started, trying not to wince when I saw the delight on her face. “But my parents just adopted a golden doodle from you,” I finished.
Her face fell, but she quickly put another smile on her face when she heard my parents had gotten a dog from them.
“I think I remember them. Jon and Rita?” She asked.
I nodded, and the woman kept talking. “They were so adorable when they were there. Your father was a grump, but your mother was so sweet to every animal. I’m trying to convince her to come volunteer.”
I laughed, easily imagining what she was saying. “Yeah, that’s my parents in a nutshell. And you might not have to try too hard to get her to come out.”
The woman gasped. “Oh, excuse me. I haven’t even introduced myself. I’m Betsy Malone. You’re Britain Campbell, the new vet, right?”
I grasped the hand she held out to me and shook it while smiling. “Yes, ma’am. I am.”
“We’re so pleased you’re home and that you’ll be helping at the clinic. I think Dr. Lee has been thinking about retiring…” Betsy said, stopping just short of nudging me, but instead wagged her eyebrows at me.
I got her implication and all I could do was smile tightly. Who was this woman and why did she think we should talk about this? But I didn’t want to be rude.
“He has owned it for a while,” I said, trying not to show either way how I felt about what she was implying.
“He has. I’m sure he’s ready to hand off to someone that’s young and full of life.”
My brows rose at her words. Did she think that person was me?
“Mom, stop,” an attractive man said as he walked up. I quickly scanned him, taking in the pressed blue uniform that marked him as a police officer. “I’m sorry,” he said, looking at me. “She doesn’t always remember that not everyone wants her well-meaning advice.”
He smiled and held a hand out for me. “Grant Malone. You’re Britain Campbell.”
I nodded and shook his hand. “Does everyone know who I am?”
He and his mother chuckled. “Yeah, we do.”
I sighed and shook my head.
“Don’t worry about it too much,” Grant said. “It’s pretty normal when we get someone new, or someone that’s returning after being away for a while. It’ll blow over.”
I blew out a breath. “I hope so. I don’t like the scrutiny.”
I looked around where we were standing and saw that most of the people in our vicinity were staring at us.
“That’ll get better, too, once they have someone else to look at or talk about,” Betsy said. “Just you wait.”
I smiled at the two of them and snuck a glance at my watch. “I need to get back to the mobile clinic. We’ll start seeing pets soon.”
“It was nice meeting you,” Betsy said, which Grant echoed.
“You as well.”
I gave them a small wave and started walking back through the crowd which was even thicker than it had been before. I tried not to be too pushy or step on people, but it was hard when they didn’t want to get out of the way.
I bumped into someone and said, “Sorry!” As I tried to steady myself.
“It’s no problem,” a deep voice said as his hand clutched my upper arm to keep me from falling.
I froze at the voice. It sounded so familiar. I looked up and met the surprised eyes of my college sweetheart, August Black.
He looked just as surprised to see me as I was him.
CHAPTER FIVE
BRITAIN
WE STOOD THERE, frozen, as we looked at each other. Of all the people I thought I’d see when I got back to town, August wasn’t one of them.
I blinked rapidly and tried to make sense of him being here, in Sunnyville.
I then realized he was still holding my upper arm and jerked my arm from him. He swayed and took a step back, his mouth opening and closing a few times as he looked me over.
I took advantage of our standing this close to each other to give him a quick scan as well.
Much like when he was in college, his hair was a little longer, the ends curling over the tops of his ears and brushing his collar. He was just as muscular as he’d been then, though, I could tell over ten years had passed because the young man I knew at twenty years old had aged into a very fine older man.
He had some fine lines around his eyes that belied the smiling he did, and I could see a little lightening of his hair. But other than that, he looked almost the same.
I forced myself into action after I realized I’d been staring at him for too long. I stepped around him and continued on my way to the mobile clinic, trying to come to terms with August being there.
The urge to look over my shoulder to where August was hit me, but I forced myself not to. I couldn’t deal with him being there and needed to box it up until later when I could pull it out and analyze the hell out of it.
I couldn’t understand why he was in Sunnyville, of all places. When we dated in college, he’d talked of possibly traveling with the Peace Corps and teaching with them or doing some teaching at a larger university.
Absolutely nothing had come up about coming to a small town to teach. At least, I assumed he was a teacher. Maybe he wasn’t. Maybe he was just passing through and seeing him today was simply a fluke.
A girl could dream, right?
I forced myself to take a calming breath as I opened the door to the clinic and stepped inside.
“Ah, I was thinking you’d forgotten about me,” Dr. Lee joked as I closed the door behind me. As I did so, I realized my hands were shaking and I shook them out.
“No, I didn’t. There’s just so many people!” I said, grabbing my doctor’s coat and slipping it on and slipping my stethoscope into one pocket. I hoped Dr. Lee hadn’t noticed my shaky hands and slipped them into my pockets until they were better.
“Are you ready for our first patient? Are you fine taking lead?” He wasn’t looking at me, so I figured I was in the clear on the hands.
“Yes, and yes,” I told him, swallowing thickly and trying not to think about my nerves now.
While Dr. Lee opened the door to let our first patient in, I checked to make sure I had a pen and everything else for a routine exam.
“Welcome, Mrs. Smith,” Dr. Lee greeted.
“Good morning,” she said.
I glanced up and smiled. Mrs. Smith had been my first grade teacher and had always been one of my favorites. Even now, I remembered her teaching me to read and the joy I felt in her class.
“Britain, it’s good to see you,” Mrs. Smith said as she placed her tiny Pomeranian on the metal counter.
“You, too,” I said, allowing myself to be pulled into her arms for a hug.
“I’m sure your parents are glad you’re back,” she said as I ran a hand over her dog’s head.
“Yes, ma’am, they are. What’s her name?” I asked, hoping I’d guessed right based on the red bow that was tied around the dog’s neck.
“This is Princess.”
I smiled as I rubbed her head. “Nice to meet you, Princess,” I said before starting the exam.
Mrs. Smith chattered away while I checked Princess’s teeth, paws, and skin before doing her vaccinations and drawing blood for routine bloodwork.
Once she was done, I hugged Mrs. Smith once more before the next person came in with their cat.
And I repeated the process. Then I did it again.
It was monotonous, and I was thankful for it. It meant I didn’t spend my time thinking about August, why he was in Sunnyville, and if I’d run into him again.
The only downside to being busy was everyone was asking me about being home and what it was like in the military.
I caught the sympathetic look from Dr. Lee when the tenth person in a row asked me what it was like deploying in the military.
I just grinned and bore it, however. It was important to me that I get off on the right foot with people in town since it had been so long since I�
�d been a resident here. I wasn’t a bad kid—in fact, I’d been a goody-two-shoes—but people might not remember that. Right now, they only remembered that I hadn’t come home after leaving for college.
When we got a lull in patients, we closed the clinic down and I followed Dr. Lee to the small circle of food trucks that were near us.
“What are you wanting?” He asked me as we walked around looking at the menus. “My treat.”
“Oh, no,” I said, shaking my head. “I couldn’t, Dr. Lee.”
He chuckled. “Don’t you think it’s time you started calling me Kenneth?”
I blanched, and he laughed again before saying, “Just give it a shot. And I’m buying you lunch. It’s your first official day and you deserve it after dealing with the inquisition.”
We argued back and forth for several moments, but I finally let him wear me down. “I’ll take a burger.”
“You still take it the same way?”
I looked at him, surprised. “You remember?”
“Steel trap,” he said, tapping his forehead. “Why don’t you claim us a table in the shade and I’ll be over in a few minutes.”
I nodded and walked over to the seating area, snagging one of the picnic tables that was mostly covered by a canopy of leaves. I sat down and sighed in relief. Even though I was wearing my cushy orthopedic shoes, that meant little in the long run. When you were standing for several hours on end, there was no way you wouldn’t get sore in some capacity.
I never realized just how sore I was until I could sit. That was when it hit me.
“One burger with the works,” Dr. Lee—sorry, Kenneth—said, setting a foil wrapped burger in front of me.
My mouth watered as the scent hit my nose and I was tearing into the wrapping as Kenneth sat down across from me. “I also got you some fries and a Dr. Pepper.”
“Thank you,” I said, just barely stopping myself from groaning as I bit into my burger.
Heaven. Plain and simple.
We ate in silence for several minutes, something I appreciated. I was so used to a working lunch where I had to scarf down whatever food I could while talking to a tech about afternoon appointments or skipping meals all together because of the load. It was a nice change of pace to not only sit down to eat, but to also do so in silence.
Once I finished my burger and balled the foil up, I pulled the boat that had fries in it to me and doused them in ketchup and salt.
“This morning went well,” Kenneth said, balling his own foil up.
I nodded. “I think so as well. Do y’all do things like this often?”
He nodded. “Yes, but not quite like this. We have the mobile clinic to take it to neighboring towns that don’t have an in-town vet clinic. They were driving here, but for some people, that’s hard to do because of various things. So, we raised the funds for a mobile clinic and we rely on donations to keep it going.”
“That’s pretty awesome,” I said, pride growing in my chest at the thought of Sunnyville banding together to do something like that.
“It is. And the people are appreciative, that’s for sure.”
I nodded. I could only imagine. “I’m excited to go out with you one day to do one of the site visits.”
Kenneth chuckled. “Oh, you’ll be going by yourself.”
I coughed, a piece of French fry getting caught in my throat. I gulped my Dr. Pepper. “What?”
“Our next date is in a few weeks. You’ll be going out by yourself with Abby, one tech, going with you. She’ll drive.”
I gaped at him. “What?” I repeated, not sure I heard him right.
“No need to ease you in. You were a vet in the Army. I’m sure you’ve dealt with much harder cases than if Fido swallowed something he shouldn’t have or if Fluffy need to have his teeth cleaned at the groomers.”
My mouth opened and closed a few times as I processed his words.
He wasn’t wrong. I had dealt with some tense situations being in the military. I’d amputated a few animal legs and had to dig shrapnel out of the side of more dogs than I could count.
But that differed from being a small town vet. These people didn’t know me.
“How are they going to feel about you not being there?”
He waved a hand in my direction. “I told them I’d have a new vet on staff last month. It’ll be fine.”
I pursed my lips. Fine? It would be fine?
I wasn’t sure I believed that, but I had a feeling I wouldn’t be changing his mind, anyway. I just had to deal and hope for the best.
“You ready to head back and finish up?” Kenneth asked.
I nodded and gathered all our trash before he could stop me. He just shook his head and followed behind me as I tossed everything into a trash can and started walking toward our clinic.
I caught sight of August again and it was like he knew because he looked up from the clipboard he was holding and met my gaze.
We only looked at each other for a few seconds, but it was enough to send a shiver down my spine. I forced my gaze away from him and looked ahead.
“Do you know Mr. Black?” Kenneth asked as we climbed the stairs to the clinic.
“I knew him a long time ago,” I said, being vague on purpose.
Kenneth made a noise behind me. “He’s the one that organized this entire event.”
“Oh?” I prompted, hoping I didn’t seem too interested in what he was saying.
“Yep. The National Honor Society at the high school does a large fundraiser every year. That’s how we got this; you know.” I didn’t know, but didn’t say that, and Kenneth continued. “This year, they wanted to clear out the shelter, and here we are.”
“And here we are,” I murmured, echoing what he was saying.
I pushed thoughts of August, fundraisers, and things from the past from my mind as our first afternoon patient was led in by his mom.
Animals. I could concentrate on animals. They never did me wrong or let me down.
CHAPTER SIX
AUGUST
BRITAIN MOTHER-FUCKING CAMPBELL.
Blast from the past.
I couldn’t even stop her as she walked away from me, I was so shocked at seeing her at the fundraiser I was running.
She looked the same.
Petite. Trim. Curves for days with long blonde hair and skin with just a hint of a tan. I remembered all too well what she looked like because she’d haunted me for years. The one that got away.
The one I should have fought harder for.
The one I should have married.
And now she was in Sunnyville.
“Fuck,” I muttered to myself as I watched her climb into the mobile vet clinic.
I hadn’t paid attention to where she’d gone this morning, too shocked to see her in front of me. But seeing her this afternoon, I couldn’t help but notice.
I glimpsed her earlier when we first opened up, but assumed my eyes were playing tricks on me. When I saw her this afternoon, though, I knew that they weren’t.
I’d seen her at the picnic table eating lunch with the vet, laughing with him. He was old enough to be her father and I remembered her telling me about how the vet here helped her decide to pursue becoming a veterinarian herself. Yet, I couldn’t help the stab of jealousy that went through me at seeing her so carefree with someone that wasn’t me.
What the fuck?
I hadn’t been surprised to see her follow him into the clinic. I had been surprised, however, when she didn’t immediately come out. I kept glancing at the door for ten minutes before I realized that she likely wasn’t coming out.
My mind flashed back to the unknown car I’d seen in the driveway of the couple across the street and wondered if it was her I’d seen that day.
In a weird twist of fate, I’d ended up buying the house across from her parents shortly after moving to Sunnyville. It had been awkward for me, at first, when I realized who lived there.
But they’d been nice and welcoming, not seeming to care
that I used to date their daughter.
Why hadn’t I realized that she was in town visiting them?
Oh, wait. I was too busy worrying about my brother and this damned fundraiser to worry about who may or may not be next door.
I was kicking myself now.
If I’d realized she was in town, I could have prepared myself a little more for seeing her. Instead, I felt like I’d been sucker punched.
“Mr. Black,” someone said, pulling my attention away from the clinic’s door.
“Yes?” I asked, looking at Lily, the president of the National Honor Society.
“Mrs. Malone says she needs to talk to you.”
I nodded and sighed. Lily wandered off, and I made my way over to the only Mrs. Malone that might need me: Betsy Malone, the matriarch of all Sunnyville it seemed.
“You need me?” I asked.
She smiled at me. “August! Yes, I need to run and grab something from my car, but my helpers are all taking a break. Can you watch this for a few minutes?”
I glanced around the area she was working, noting the many empty cages. We were already halfway through the day and most of the animals had been adopted, even that pot-bellied pig.
“Sure, not a problem.”
“I should be back shortly,” she said with a smile and a pat on my shoulder.
I set my clipboard down on the small table she had there and dropped into the metal folding chair.
Without something to occupy me, my mind turned back to Britain. It had been over a decade since I saw her last. And it hurt just as much thinking about how we parted now as it did when it happened.
I needed to get my mind off her, but I couldn’t help but think about the things we did together when we dated as I watched my students help around the fundraiser.
It was still packed, and I hoped it had been as successful as we’d hoped it would be. Based on the crowd and lack of animals, I’d say it was.
“Thank you, August,” Betsy said as she walked back up to me, a large bag in her hand.
“No problem. You need help with anything else?”
Vetted: An Everyday Heroes World Novel (The Everyday Heroes World) Page 3