Page 18 of Last Minute Fiancé

I walked to the door as she went off to do all of the things she did during the day to keep the place running. Colt and I needed to hire another admin, as well as take on another vet soon. We were both overrun and no matter what we did we could never catch up. We did have a friend we thought could handle working with us and, when he could, he covered for us so we could have this thing called time off. I hardly knew what that meant, however.

I was grateful for my team and for my partner. Colt was great at the business side of things, and made sure that we kept things running smoothly, but wasn’t great at the whole people thing. Thankfully he was wonderful with animals, hence why he was here, but working with people? Let’s just say I was glad for our vet techs.

And if I continued thinking about work, the fact that rent was due on the building soon, that we had countless insurance claims to work on, and we were overworked and overcapacity, I wouldn’t worry about the fact that I was going to be a father.

I froze at the door, hand on the doorknob, and swallowed hard.

A father.

That didn’t even seem real.

I never thought I would be.

Not after losing Ashleigh. Ashleigh and I had been together all through high school and into college. We had been engaged to be engaged for most of the time we were together. Promise rings and all. It wasn’t until her sophomore year in college that we even slept together, something that my brothers teased me about.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t wanted to sleep with Ashleigh, it was that she wanted to wait until we were married. So we waited. And waited.

And I had gotten very good about masturbating—it was the only thing that kept me going.

The thought of being with anyone else when I was with Ashleigh never even crossed my mind. She was my everything. Of course, I finished college far too young and had been in vet school for four years right after. So my timeline of events might’ve been different than most college boys.

And then Ashleigh died from a brain aneurysm only a few months later. We hadn’t had the future we planned or thought we deserved. Instead, I lost the woman that I loved, the woman that I thought I would have forever with. We were going to get married, have children, and have the perfect life that we always craved.

We were going to be Portlanders, with our funky little house and overpriced property taxes. We were going to eat crunchy granola and have a Subaru—it was everything we ever wanted. We climbed mountains together, skied down Mount Hood, laughed and joked around. We had done the Oregon Coast drive countless times, always stopping off at Depoe Bay for the saltwater taffy. We loved Oregon and loved each other.

And then she died, and I was adrift.

I hadn’t realized until much later that Ashleigh had been my anchor, because I hadn’t had one myself.

When my parents divorced the second time, I realized that parents getting married, getting a divorce, then getting married again wasn’t something that happened to everyone.

My parents loved and hated each other, and they decided to pull a parent trap. My dad took August, Heath, and I, and my mom took Greer.

We had lost out on years of being with our sister and getting to know her. And when we became adults, and we found a way to finally get out from underneath the shadow of our childhoods and how we were raised, it hadn’t been in Portland. No, it had been in Denver.

I had lost my anchor, my future, and Portland wasn’t good for me anymore. I had nothing left there. I moved with my brothers to be near our sister, and it was the best choice for us.

I had been friends with Colt since vet school, and since he had moved back to Denver to be with his family, we started up a practice together. He was six years older than me, and had a lot more life experience, but I didn’t mind. He was the grumpy asshole who got things done, when I was the one who felt like I was just starting to live, or maybe floundering a bit.

It didn’t seem real. None of it did.

It was just supposed to be one night, one amazing night, one night we weren’t going to talk about.

And now here we were, with the complications and consequences of our own actions.

And we would deal.

“Dr. Cassidy?” My tech looked at me and I waved her off.

“Sorry. I’m going in. Knock knock,” I said as I walked inside, and Jones and his owner smiled at me. Seeing a German shepherd smile with all those teeth made me happy.

“Oh, Dr. Cassidy. I’m so glad that you’re here. Jones doesn’t whine as often for you.” She leaned forward and knocked on the desk next to her. “Knock on wood.”

“I totally understand. Hello, Jones, how are we doing today?”

Jones tilted his head and gave me a quizzical look before letting out a soft bark. Not the deep guttural tone I knew he could do that could rattle windows. But just a little quick hello.

I smiled wide and went to do my examination.

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