Page 40 of Down in Flames

“How does that make you feel?” he asked carefully.

She shrugged, staring down at her lap so West couldn’t see her expression, but he thought he caught a twitch of her lips. It looked like a smile.

“I guess it’s okay.” She said it like a queen bestowing a favor. “It sounded weird at first. I’ve never seen Daddy kiss anyone. Not even Mom. I mean, I guess he did. But I was too little to remember. I just remember stupid things, like riding in front of her on a horse or watching her make cookies.”

“But you remember how much she loved you?”

She nodded.

“Then I think you remember the important things,” West said gently.

Her smile was easier now, and she grinned, revealing a gap between her two front teeth. “Daddy said that’s the important part. She loved me, and he loves me, and you love me. So, I’m an extra lucky girl.”

“I guess you are,” he said, so relieved that he felt lightheaded.

“Now we can be like a real family.” But there was doubt in her voice.

“You’ll always be my family,” West assured her, tugging at her scraggly braid. “Even if I didn’t love your daddy so much, you’d still be my family. I ain’t going anywhere. Never again, kid.”

There must have been a weight on her little shoulders, though he hadn’t noticed it when she’d climbed into the cab of his pickup. But now he watched it drop away. As he led the way into the clinic, she was walking on air at his side. Dancing, more like. Performing little pirouettes on the sidewalk, shuffling her booted feet and wriggling like a puppy. She chattered away at high speed now, discussing her plans for her new snake friend and asking when Patches would be visiting again.

“Are you going to live with us?” she asked suddenly as he filled out a clipboard at the front desk.

West’s pen skittered over the paper.

“I, uh—” he stammered around a thick tongue.

“Because you should,” she continued, ignorant of the cold sweat across his forehead. “You already spend all your time with us anyway. Or…you did. Before you went away. You can have the bedroom next to mine! It’s so much better than that stinky apartment where you live now.”

The receptionist snorted in gentle amusement. West gave her a hard look, but she only adjusted her tortoiseshell glasses and smiled. It was impossible to intimidate a girl who’d looked up his shorts on the ropes course in gym class, but he gave it his best effort.

“Is the doc ready for us, Theresa?” he asked pointedly.

“Not as such,” she said, taking the clipboard from him and marking it with her initials. She got busy on the computer, tapping away and squinting like she had to check a crowded schedule to be sure where to put them. “Nate is on vacation.”

“He went to the horse show with Tucker?” he guessed, grinning crookedly when he thought of how tickled Tucker must have been to bring him along. His friend had been holding out a long time for the love of his life, and he’d been making up for lost time by devoting himself wholeheartedly every step of the way.

“Yes, and he left his assistant in charge.”

“The doofus,” a light tenor announced from behind them.

West glanced over his shoulder and crooked a brow.

A petite man leaned against the door of an exam room, looking glittery and out of place in the sterile environment. His fluff of blond hair was artistically styled, and he wore black jeans and a silver button-up made of some silvery material beneath his lab coat.

“Hey, Briar,” he greeted, smiling to put the other man at ease. “You excited to help us out with Sir Hiss?”

West didn’t have a lot of physical presence, not like Michael or Tucker or his brothers, but he felt like a bruiser next to Nate's assistant. Briar Phillips always looked tense, like he was ready to skedaddle with one foot out the door, and even though he’d been settled in Sweetwater for months now, he still seemed surprised when people greeted him in a friendly manner.

Briar glanced at the tote clasped in Abby's arms, and his nose wrinkled. "Delighted," he said wryly. "Let me just finish up with my current patient. Theresa, can you please take Cujo to the kennel?"

"Sure, just let me get these two settled in an exam room."

"I managed to get a muzzle on him, but I'd like to move him before he comes out of sedation."

"I understand, but I really, really think I should move West to a room first," Theresa spoke with slow emphasis, making big eyes at Briar from behind her specs.

"Now, please, Theresa." Briar spoke calmly, but for the first time, West noticed how he kept one hand tucked in the pocket of his coat. The sleeve was shredded and speckled with blood.

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