Something so Grand Page 12

  I’d seen a veterinary office off the highway out near the airport. I hoped it was still open. The vet hospital was too far away for her to keep bleeding like she was. When I pulled into the parking lot, I breathed a sigh of relief to see the open sign still lit up.

  Seth transferred the dog to me, and we headed inside. The woman behind the desk noticed the blood on the towel and motioned me back to an exam room.

  “Who do we have here?”

  “I’m not sure,” I told her. “We found her near my backyard. I was hoping she’d have a chip because she doesn’t have a collar.”

  “We’ll check for that in a minute.” She introduced herself and let me know that the vet was just finishing up with his last patient for the night. She had a soothing nature and kept one hand on the dog at all times.

  The vet joined us as if she’d summoned him telepathically. I recognized him immediately. Vivian’s brother. He introduced himself and assessed the dog. “Bad bites here. Lots of tearing, probably internal bleeding, and she looks like she hasn’t eaten in a while. Where did you find her?”

  “By my place.” I gave him my new address.

  “I don’t recognize her, do you, Shell?” he asked his vet tech.

  “Nope. There’s no chip either.” She’d run a wand over the dog while Zach checked her out.

  Zach looked at me then at Seth. He probably wanted to send Seth to the waiting room but knew a teenager wouldn’t budge. “She could belong to someone, but I see almost all dogs in the area. Unless she belongs to an irresponsible tourist, she’s a stray or was dumped here. We can contact the shelter, but I already know what they’ll say if she does have internal bleeding.”

  He didn’t need to say it, and I’m glad he didn’t in front of Seth. I felt Seth turn to me. I don’t think he knew the vet was saying the shelter wouldn’t authorize the medical bills, but he was looking to me to do something.

  “I brought her in. She’s my responsibility.”

  The vet bounced his blue eyes between me and Seth. They weren’t nearly as pretty as Vivian’s, nor as greenish, but I could see a resemblance. “I respect that, but we’re talking a couple thousand here. Let me contact the shelter. I won’t tell them about the internal bleeding.”

  I was gathering my thoughts when the door to the clinic opened again and in walked Cassie and her boys. “Daddy!” they called out in excitement. As soon as they saw the dog on the table, they went quiet.

  “Emergency,” Zach said to his wife.

  Her eyes stayed on the dog as she put on a smile for the kids and said hello. She moved into position to block the doorway to the exam room.

  “Did your doggie get an owie?” the smallest boy asked.

  “We just found her,” Seth responded, sad desperation clogging his voice. He wanted to help, just like I did, and neither of us wanted to suffer another death at a medical facility.

  “Don’t worry, Daddy’s the best doggie doctor there is,” the older boy told him, reaching to squeeze his arm.

  “Need a hand?” Cassie asked him.

  “You could call the shelter, see if they’ll authorize payment.”

  “No,” I said before I could think myself out of this. “We found her. She’s my responsibility.” I couldn’t disappoint Seth by letting the vet put the dog down if the shelter wouldn’t take in a medical case, and I couldn’t turn my back on a dog that had allowed me to move her and trusted me to take care of her. I’d always wanted a pet. With my schedule, I assumed it would be a cat, but now that I owned a business and had a nice place to live, a dog would work just fine.

  “Nat, this is a grave injury,” Cassie told me calmly. She was trying to give me an out, like any good vet would.

  “I know, and it probably doesn’t make sense.”

  She nodded, then looked at her husband. “Natalie is the contractor Vivian’s been working with lately. We can work out a trade.”

  He looked at me, his eyes widening for a moment before dropping back to the dog. “We need a laundry and food supply room constructed. We’ll put in for building supplies if you donate your labor?”

  I couldn’t believe they’d offer that, but I wasn’t about to refuse. “Sure. Thank you.”

  “You’ll be helping us as much as we’re helping your dog.”

  “I’ll call Vivian and see if she can come grab the kids so I can give you a hand,” Cassie told Zach.

  “I don’t mind looking after them here,” I offered. “Seth isn’t going to want to leave until we find out about the dog anyway.”

  She smiled and nodded, turning to talk to her kids. “Boys, change of plans. You stay out here with Seth and Ms. Natalie while we help their dog. We’ll get pizza later, okay?”

  “Yeah, okay.” They didn’t even sound disappointed that we’d ruined pizza night.

  Cassie and Zach slipped into the exam room as her boys went to a supply cabinet behind the desk and pulled out a deck of cards. They must have been stranded here a few times in the past. They settled around the coffee table in the lobby to play cards. I decided to order the pizza they’d been promised because I wasn’t sure how long before Seth started gnawing on his forearm. The least I could do was entertain and feed their kids while the vets were working past office hours to save a dog I didn’t even have two hours ago.

  Vivian stepped through the clinic door a while later. “I went up to the house and you guys weren’t having pizza night. What’s going on?”

  “Her dog got bit,” Teddy told her.

  “I didn’t know you had a dog, Natalie.” Her eyes showed concern at the news but also interest in finding out something more about me. Since the night we’d run into my parents, she’d been treating me as her friend, not just a friendly work associate. I now realized that dinner on the night of her accident could have gone either way for our relationship. I was almost glad it hadn’t happened, or I might have made a move too early. Or worse yet, chickened out and convinced myself we’d never be anything more than friends.

  “I didn’t before I found this one.”

  She smiled and shook her head. “You are almost too good to be true.”

  That left me a little speechless. I would have thought of something clever to say if the pizza guy didn’t interrupt us. I laid the pizzas out on the table. The boys were very polite in waiting for me to hand them slices. Seth grabbed the nearest slice and started eating. I knew he must have been hungry, but it had been an eventful couple of hours. Vivian sat next to me and took the slice I offered her. I figured I should get her a slice or she’d start stealing parts of mine. As fun as that would be, I was pretty hungry myself.

  After finishing their dinner, the boys were back to playing cards while Vivian and I talked softly about my new acquisition. She’d had dogs for most of her life, so she had a long list of tips. She seemed almost as excited as I did about having a dog.

  Cassie surfaced from the exam room. She had a smile on her face. After hugging her rushing kids and saying hello to her sister-in-law, she told me that her husband was just finishing up. They’d stopped the bleeding, sewn her up, and set a splint on her right front leg. I wouldn’t be taking her home anytime soon, but she seemed to be on the road to recovery.

  I would have enough time to put up flyers and knock on neighbors’ doors to see if she belonged to someone. If I didn’t get any calls, I’d be shopping for dog supplies because I couldn’t stop my white hat complex.

  “I’m glad she found you.” Vivian broke into my thoughts.

  I looked over with a smile. That was a sweet thing to say. I could say the same thing about me and her, but I kept my mouth shut. That might take it too far too fast. I didn’t want to blow a possible chance with her by rushing it.

  20 Vivian

  My brother and I were on assignment. Cassie had given him an ultimatum: replace the old, impossible to clean sofa in their office lobby or she would drag it outside and burn it. I was rooting for the sofa bonfire because the thing was hideous, but she’d probably get th
rown in jail for an unauthorized outdoor fire, and Zach couldn’t handle the kids on his own. With that motivation in mind, Zach showed up on my doorstep this morning and dragged me out shopping with him. Since I’d just completed Lena’s project, I had the whole day for shopping. Zach wouldn’t be up for that, but I wouldn’t rush the decision just to please him.

  “Vivi!” Preston, co-owner of the store, exclaimed as I pushed Zach through the door. He rushed over to hug me, smelling of spices and cigars. His thin mustache tickled my cheek as he kissed me. We’d been friends since he and his partner opened the store in town. They imported furniture from any place they’d visited and made it so that I didn’t need to travel as much anymore. “Hi, Zach,” he greeted my brother with a combo handshake-hug. Preston saw my brother almost as much as he did me with his two elderly felines.

  “Hey, Pres,” Zach said, relaxing now that he knew he wouldn’t have to do much on this shopping trip.

  “How’d those chairs work out for your client?” Preston asked of the sleek recliners I’d picked up for Lena’s guest suite.

  “Perfectly. Her grandparents loved them.” Cherished them, actually. Owen and Tamiko had been thrilled with their new digs, the space planning, execution, and furnishings. They’d invited me over after they’d come back to town so they could rave about their new home. Knowing that my design would suit them was reward enough, but hearing that they loved it made me very happy. I’d already been flying high at the news that Glory loved her surprise closet, bathroom, and proposal. I counted the project as my best ever for many reasons, namely my friends’ engagement and the acquisition of a stellar contractor.

  “What treasures are you looking for today?” Preston asked, bringing my mind back from thoughts of my friends’ happiness and my own good fortune.

  “New sofa for Zach’s waiting room.”

  “Wonderful.” He began leading me through his store, zeroing in on two sofas toward the back. “We picked up this one a few months ago with your waiting room in mind, Zach.”

  “Come on,” Zach said in a disbelieving manner.

  “That sofa died a few years ago. We were going to start dropping hints every time we brought in Micki and Nicki.”

  I drew my fingers over the leather. Durable and dark, two essentials for a space that had dogs and cats leaning or sitting on it often. Preston and I measured it while Zach tested the comfort. When he noticed me nodding my head at Preston, he sprang off the couch and headed straight for the register. It made us laugh. Easiest sale Preston ever made.

  The bell over the door rang and in walked Lori, the nurse mostly responsible for getting me released from the hospital so quickly. I started smiling even before she greeted us. I’d spoken to her on the phone once since the accident, but this was the first time I’d seen her.

  “How are you doing, Viv?” Her hand reached up to brush back my hair and trace the small scar on my forehead.

  “Haven’t had a headache in weeks.”

  “Good to hear. Did Cass pamper you?” We chuckled at Cassie’s tendencies to mother people. “That friend of yours looked like she might be worried enough to fuss over you, too.”

  My brows pinched. “Which friend?”

  “The one that came in the ambulance with you. I didn’t catch her name, but she sure looked worried. I even gave her the chance to lie about being a family member so she could go back with you, but she wouldn’t go for it.”

  “There was someone in the ambulance with me?”

  “That’s right, you were still out. Yeah. I assumed she was a good friend of yours.”

  Curious. Neither Zach nor Cass mentioned anyone waiting for me, but then again, they were both so stricken when they showed up in the hospital room. That I remembered. Someone had been in the ambulance with me? I hadn’t given much thought to how I’d gotten to the hospital. I assumed someone had driven past the wreck and called it in. I hadn’t known someone had stopped, waited, and ridden back with me in the ambulance.

  “What did she look like?”

  “About your height, short dark hair, nice clothes.”

  The image didn’t bring anyone to mind. I was trying to remember if the client I’d met with could be my height. She definitely had nice clothes and shorter blond hair.

  “How dark was her hair?”

  “It was pretty wet from the snow that night. It might be lighter when dry.”

  Must have been my client, but she didn’t mention anything when I went back out to run through the job specifics again. Then again, she seemed a little ditzy. Even so, she must have thought me rude not thanking her for helping me.

  “Cute face, nice lady, and she was really concerned for you. I thought maybe you’d been out on a date or something.”

  Nice and concerned? That didn’t sound like my client, but really, who else could it have been? It certainly wasn’t a date. I haven’t been on a date since my last set up, and that hadn’t made it to the entrées.

  “You didn’t see anyone, did you, Zach?”

  “I was lucky I saw the door,” he said, his eyes clouding as he thought of that night. “We got Lori’s call and raced in, almost forgot about the boys before we left. Thankfully Samantha didn’t mind coming right over.”

  I thought about how I would have reacted if the call had been about Cassie or Zach or one of the boys. Yeah, I probably wouldn’t have seen the road let alone someone in the waiting room. Too bad, really, because obviously someone cared enough to be worried and give up part of her night to ride in an ambulance with me. I’d have to remember to ask my client the next time I saw her.

  *

  A pile of blankets and coats sat on my console table when I lurched through my front door for a quick lunch and change of attire after meeting with a potential client. Some of the items in the pile didn’t look familiar, but I guessed my brother had dropped off the stuff from my old car. He’d picked through the wreck before the insurance company towed the thing off. It had been sitting in his house for more than a month now. Zach wasn’t exactly great with follow up on non-crucial things. Spare blankets for the car wasn’t what we’d consider crucial.

  I ignored the pile for the growl in my stomach. Leftover lasagna would help fortify me for the painting I planned to do this afternoon. The ditzy client kept changing her mind about things, pushing Natalie and Miguel’s progress off. If Samantha and I could get the painting done upstairs, they’d be closer to our original timeline for the project.

  After lunch, I grabbed my car keys and headed out. The pile of blankets pulled me up short. Normally I’d deal with it after work, but there were some things that didn’t look familiar. My curiosity won out.

  The top blanket was lightly coated in powder, which I’d learned was the what the gas inside the airbags became after they deflated. I’d have to toss it into the wash before placing it back into service in my new car. Under my blanket was another that didn’t belong to me. I tried to remember if it might be one of Cassie’s. She often tossed blankets into my car whenever we took the kids somewhere. This one was blue fleece, dusted with the same powder but in different areas than mine. The work books I keep in my car didn’t have the powder, nor did my gym bag. They must have remained in the cargo area. My blanket hadn’t, which was odd. In order for the powder to get on mine and this other one, it would have had to be up front at some point that night. Did the paramedics place these items on me to warm me up? Lori had made a point of telling me how close I’d gotten to hypothermia that night.

  It wasn’t until I identified the last item that things seemed to click into place. A work jacket, thick, woven cotton with fleece lining. Old, beaten, worked until it was frayed. I pulled it up and shook it loose. Along with the powder, it had dark reddish brown stains on the collar. If I’d come across it on a jobsite, I would have assumed a paint spill. Finding it here and the position of the staining told me it was probably blood from being placed right up against my face.

  Someone had been in the car. Someone had found my bla
nket to wrap around me then added her own blanket and jacket. Someone who ended up riding in the ambulance with me.

  Even though she’s never once mentioned it in all this time since the accident.

  I’d have my own glass slipper hunt on my hands if I hadn’t seen this jacket every day for weeks at Lena’s. To think I’d even complimented her on her new work jacket with her logo. I’d stupidly thought she’d ditched the old jacket for a uniform slash marketing piece. But really, she’d been without her work jacket when it was still cold outside.

  That incredibly sweet, wonderfully caring, frustratingly tight-lipped woman.

  “Did you know,” I started when I walked through the front door of our latest project site and spotted my real-life white knight. “Someone helped me after my accident? I just found that out the other day when I ran into a nurse friend of mine. Rode in the ambulance with me and everything.”

  Natalie looked up from the drywall seam she was sanding. Nothing in her expression gave away that she’d been the one to help me. She looked interested, like she always did whenever I spoke. As if whatever I had to say was the most important thing she could hear. That was one of many admirable traits.

  “Someone stopped on the road, braved the snow to get into my car, arranged the blanket I had in my car and added more of her own so I wouldn’t freeze to death, then called the ambulance and came with me to make sure I made it to the hospital okay.”

  Natalie’s brow lifted. “Sounds like a bit of luck.”

  “Sounds like someone saved my life.”

  “Is that what the doctor said?” she asked, looking concerned. “You made it seem like it wasn’t that big a deal when I saw you the next day.”

  “I was still a little fuzzy.”

  Her eyes darted away then slowly came back. “You got your memory back?”

  I shook my head. Time had stopped for me just after lunchtime. I did not remember leaving the site nor heading to the client nor the drive that resulted in my accident. “This I’ve pieced together from various evidence and testimony.”