Page 5 of Lee

Once Essie left her alone in the kitchen, Rori finished the last of her bagel and coffee. She took the plate and mug to the sink and rinsed them before adding them to the dishwasher. Essie did a lot for her already, and Rori didn’t want her to think she took her for granted.

The day had definitely been interesting.

And now that her attention wasn’t on Essie, Rori found her thoughts returning to her embarrassing encounter with the handsome vet earlier. Maybe it was a good thing they didn’t have a position available for her because she wasn’t sure she could work with him every day without reliving their awkward—and thankfully brief—meeting.

And reliving embarrassing moments was one of her superpowers. She absolutely did not want to activate it for this particular situation.

CHAPTER TWO

“You really dodged a bullet earlier,” Alys said with a chuckle when Lee walked into the staff room.

“Why do you say that?” he asked as he opened the fridge to pull out his lunch.

“You got to deal with the daughter and not the mother who owns that cat.”

“Queen Charlotte?” He couldn’t help the grin that came to his face. “I can’t wait to tell Charli that I had a snobby cat as a patient today, and it had her name.”

That made Alys laugh. “She’ll probably like that.”

Lee grabbed a bottle of water, then joined Alys at the table. She had a large bowl of salad in front of her and took a bite of it as Lee opened his lunch bag.

“What did Charli make you today?”

Lee wasn’t surprised to see a container of the previous night’s meal. “Rice and meatballs, and some cookies for dessert.”

“You are so spoiled.”

Lee couldn’t disagree. It was just one of the many bonuses to having moved into his sisters’ large home.

Having been used to an apartment of his own for several years, he hadn’t been sure he’d be able to handle living with a bunch of people.

Apparently, it wasn’t a problem because it had been over two months since he’d arrived back in Serenity, and he was still living there. He hadn’t even seriously looked for a place of his own yet. Though that would probably change in the next month, once he moved past the probationary period he was currently in at the clinic.

“So tell me about the mother,” Lee said as he went to the microwave to heat up his lunch.

“When she first got the cat, she was in here constantly. If the cat coughed up a fur ball, Mrs. Cannon brought her in for a checkup. If the cat meowed and it didn’t sound right, she brought her in to make sure she didn’t have a sore throat. And that’s just two examples. It was endless.”

“Looks like maybe the daughter is following in her footsteps.” He had seen her concern as they’d spoken, her blue gaze filled with worry.

“Oh, she was much better. The reason for bringing the cat in might have seemed a bit weird, but at least she listened to what you said. She didn’t argue with you and threaten to report you for malpractice to the—and I quote—the people in charge of veterinarians.”

“The mother sounds… lovely,” Lee said, joining Alys at the table. “Maybe I did dodge a bullet.”

“Oh, you definitely did.”

“Can’t be easy to have a mom like that,” Lee mused. “I bet a lot of her worry was how her mom would react if something happened to the cat while she was watching her.”

“That’s probably true. I have to say that I’m glad my mom isn’t like that.”

“Yeah. Neither is mine.”

His mom could be a bit over-protective of her kids, but she wasn’t unreasonable. And she certainly had never acted that way over a pet.

It had been apparent that the young woman was embarrassed by the whole thing. He had to remember that things that might be obvious to him weren’t so clear to people not used to being around pets. Everything had indicated that the young woman wasn’t a pet owner.

“Cheryl said she asked if the clinic was hiring.”

Lee glanced at Alys. “Really?”

---