Page 55 of Saving Veronica
“Norm wants to breed Molly with Major. Should I bring Major into you so you can check him out? I’ve got all his papers from the service. I don’t have a vet for him and if you’re taking new patients I can bring him in to you. I don’t know if Norm has a vet for Molly and how this breeding thing works.” Finn frowned, then rubbed his face hard. “God, I feel like such a pimp.”
Grady threw his head back and laughed. “I’m Molly’s vet, and I’d be glad to take Major as a patient. Call my office next week and set up an appointment. I don’t think I have to tell you that Molly has to be in heat for the breeding to take, and if I remember correctly that should be in a couple of weeks. We can get them together at the office. I’ll talk to Norm about it and see what he says.”
“About what?” the big man asked, and Finn told him what they were talking about. Norm sat down and saw how both dogs were huddled around Ronnie and keeping everyone away from her, protecting her. “God, I feel like a pimp.” He sighed and Grady and Finn laughed. He looked at the two men and sighed again. “I guess we can do it at Grady’s office, but it seems so sterile. Yah know.”
“I know.”
“Why don’t the two of you get together and check out each other’s houses? I know Molly’s uncomfortable in places until she gets to know the area. What about Major?” Grady asked.
“He’s good wherever he goes. The only time I’ve ever seen him hesitant was when we were searching buildings looking for insurgents, IEDs, bodies, or human remains. Other than that, I haven’t seen him balk at any public areas.”
His statement left the others quiet for a few moments, then Norm rubbed his face and passed Finn a card. “Give me a call when you get a minute.”
“I will,” he said, and together they all went back to the party.
Chapter 18
“Ready?” Gerald asked Ronnie, as he picked her up from school, and stood back to watch as she climbed into the front of his truck. Once she looked at him and nodded that she was ready, he shut the door, then grinned back at her as he climbed onto her scooter to load it in the back of his truck. With it covered with a tarp, he was back in the driver’s seat and started the truck.
“We should be there in three hours. Want to talk, or do you have homework to do?”
“I have homework, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all. I’m just happy that today is finally here.”
“You and me both, Grandpa. You and me both.” She sighed and looked out the side window. Her grandfather was taking her to the hospital to get her casts removed, along with the pins in her leg. She was supposed to go three days ago, but she’d had classes all day. Each one had an important test that she couldn’t miss, so she’d put it off. Today she’d only had two classes so she was done by ten thirty. Now she had a three-hour drive to the hospital. She hoped everything had turned out and once the casts were removed and x-rays taken, she’d be given a clean bill of health.
“I grabbed the pack you told Hector about this morning—the one with a set of clothes in them.”
“Oh, good,” she said, and grinned.
“What?”
“Hope you can stick around after the casts come off, because I have to shave this leg,” she said, and shuddered in her seat, causing Gerald to laugh.
“I’ll wait,” he said, and watched as she picked up her pack full of books, and they both settled in for the long drive. Twenty minutes out from the hospital, Ronnie sighed and closed her book, putting everything away. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, done with homework. Thank god today’s Friday. Now everything’s done and I can work in the barn this weekend.”
“After talking to the doctors, young lady.”
“Yes, Sir,” she said, and laughed. They continued in silence, and the closer they arrived to the hospital, the tenser they both became. Gerald parked, jumped out and retrieved the scooter, then watched as Ronnie exited the truck, and into the scooter like a pro. Gerald reached in and carried the pack with a change of clothes as they slowly made their way to the entrance of the Medical Center. He opened the doors and stood back when Ronnie wheeled up to the receptionist.
“Veronica Parker.”
“Yes, have a seat.” The receptionist looked up and stared in shock. “Um.”
“That’s okay.” Ronnie laughed, and wheeled over to where Gerald had moved two chairs, and she backed herself into the corner to stay out of the way of everyone. As they waited, Ronnie looked around and saw that everyone there had a cast someplace on their body. A leg, hand, thumb, arm. And they used a sling, cane, or crutches. It looked like she was the only one whose whole upper body was almost completely encased in plaster.
“Ouch,” a man across the room said, as he looked at Ronnie. “I hate to ask, but what happened to you?”
Ronnie sighed, looked at Gerald, then grinned back at the man. “Cats, horses, and ravines. Oh my.” She’d been saying it so long that it sounded like the Oz movie.
“Excuse me?”
“I was in the mountains retrieving my horse, when I found her, I helped her give birth, but we were halfway down a ravine, and she was facing downward. After we delivered the foal, Paige, went to the top and I walked the baby up to her. My other horse was up there. Then we heard screams and thunder. Turned out a herd of wild mustangs came up behind me and I don’t know what happened other than I was clawed by a mountain lion and the horses were all kicking at it. I happened to get caught by a hoof.” As she described what had happened, she touched the areas on her body. Before anyone could say anything, her name was called.
“Good luck,” several of the other patients called, as she wheeled herself to where the nurse indicated, and it was Gerald that held the door as the nurse turned, and Ronnie followed. In the exam room the nurse didn’t know what to do.
