Page 36 of The Leaving Road

I chose to ignore Sloan and stepped closer to Matt to bridge the distance that was created when he released me from our hug. “Why don’t you text me sometime? Get my number from Jace.”

He smiled at me. “Will do, Magnolia.” He made a gesture of tipping a hat, even though he wasn’t wearing one, and I giggled.

Side-eyeing Sloan, whose face had turned as red as a tomato, you could tell he was debating whether he would live if he gave me another hug, and thought better of it, which was only slightly disappointing. I guess I couldn’t blame him with growly the bear standing firmly behind me and openly glaring.

“Sloan, pleasure as always,” he said in a clearly mocking tone and took his leave. I couldn’t help but admire his backside and let out a sigh.

“What the hell, Magnolia?” Sloan grounded out.

I was at my wits’ end. “What the hell,what?”

“What was that?”

“You mean, me agreeing to go on adate with a guy I’m attracted to.”

“No.” He seethed.

“No?No? Get bent, Sloan.”

I stalked off toward the clinic. I had more important things to do than insert myself into some sort of pissing match between males.

I heard Sloan’s boots on the gravel behind me, and I swiveled to face him, having enough of his presence for the day.

“Listen, I’m not sure what that was, and quite frankly, I don’t want to know. You’re trying to repair our relationship by bulldozing, and I get it. I do. If I were in your position, I might do the same. But if you knew meat all,you would know that isn’t going to work for me. You’re bothering me. I need time and space to think. I need to figure outon my ownif I want to be friends with you again.”

“Friends?” Sloan scoffed.

“Friends,” I reiterated and kept going. “And don’t interrupt me, that’s rude.Friends, Sloan, that’s all I’m willing to offer you right now. And why would there be an option of anything different? We never were anything else. You madedamnsure of that; hell, half the time I question if we were even friends.”

Sloan winced. “You can’t mean that.”

“I don’t know what I mean, Sloan! You barrel into my life, claiming to be a different person while still acting as selfish as ever. Just give me some space, sometime.Please.”

Sloan held his hands up in surrender. “Okay, Magnolia, I get it. I see I’ve been going about this the wrong way. Give me a shout if you ever need me.” He took one step forward, and I couldn’t help but take a step back to keep the distance we had created. He frowned and held out a card to me. “My cell’s on the bottom. Don’t hesitate to reach out.”

He turned and walked away, leaving me with his card in my hand, and I was surprised at how much my heart ached at seeing him walk away from me.

Not that I wasn’t expecting it…

Chapter 24

Magnolia

Walking into the clinic, I did my best to school my features. I knew coming in angry ashellwould be a terrible impression. Not to mention, I firmly believed that animals could sense our emotions. I refused to bring my anger into this situation and create more potential issues for these survivors.

Walking in, I saw Dr. Lewis at the front speaking with what looked like a DNR officer, and I was lucky enough to catch the tail end of the conversation.

“The cubs will be going to a rescue; they have the means to provide long-term housing and treatment for them. We can’t thank you enough for what you guys did last night. Based on the reports, it sounds like they didn’t have long left.”

While my soul wept with joy that they were going somewhere they could be taken care of, the officer wasright;they didn’t have much time. Another few days and we probably wouldn’t have been able to save them, and that thought alone brought tears to my eyes.

“What is local enforcement doing about this? This happened last year, and we thought it was taken care of.”

Dr. Lewis was one of the kindest men you would ever meet, and very rarely did you see him angry, but he was angry that clearly, an issue he thought was resolved wasn’t.

The DNR officer just shrugged. “Honestly, that’s way above my paycheck.”

Instant rage filled me, and before I could stalk over to him and give him a piece of my mind, Dr. Lewis started in instead. “I find that unacceptable. Tell whoeversignsyour paycheck that I’ll be in touch.” And he stalked off.

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