Page 70 of A Much Younger Man
Chapter Sixteen
I enteredmy clinic through the back door and slunk down the hall to my office. It felt more like a walk of shame than anything I’d done in years, but why? I had disappointed yet another man, but that man was Dylan, not Beck.
Beck had left in an awful hurry the night before, but he’d been laughing at me at the time.
Lena poked her head into the office. “You’ve got a walk-in. Lab might need some stitches.”
“I’m on my way.” I knocked ashes off an imaginary cigar. “Just let me get my Lab coat.”
She glared. “You make that joke every damn time.”
“Because it’s a jewel, and I have so little in my life that amuses me.” I slipped into said lab coat and, as nonchalantly as I could, asked, “Did Beck come in this morning to feed the kittens?”
She nodded. “He and Travis are back there now. Do you need him for something?”
“Not now. How’s Stripes doing?”
“April said he looked good when she left.”
“Good. I’ll check on him and call his family when I get done with the Lab.”
The morning went quickly after that. I saw Beck in passing, but he left while I was suturing Jake the yellow Lab, who had gotten the worst of a collision with a broken fence. He was going to be just fine, and he’d have a snazzy scar to show off to all the lady Labs.
Later on, Georgie and his mom picked up Stripes. Despite two awkward casts, he seemed to be doing well. As she left, Georgie’s mother mouthed, “Thank you.”
“My pleasure.” I did love my job and not only because I made a good living. Reuniting Stripes and Georgie made my day in a way no amount of money could.
After they left, I slipped Stripes’s chart into the stack for Lena to file, then turned to find Travis staring at me with an odd expression on his face.
“What?”
“Your mother sent someone to your house?”
I gave him a nod as we walked to the staff room. “It was a total shitshow. Did Beck tell you about it?”
“He said he went there for pie night, and the dude was just sitting on your porch.”
I took off my lab coat and went behind the curtain to change my scrubs. “He was. And you know what? Dude’s deathly afraid of birds. He called Rico a feathery dinosaur. I had to talk him off the ledge.”
“No.”
“And there was Rico, squawking, ‘You ruin everything!’ Dylan actually took it personally.”
“I’d pay good money to see a cage match between Rico and any of your hookups.”
“It wasn’t a hookup. Mom set me up.”
“So why was his car still in your driveway this morning?”
“You saw that?” I got tangled awkwardly in my undershirt.
Travis helped me out and handed me a clean shirt. “I picked Beck up on the way to work. We both saw. That’s when he told me about your ‘date.’”
“Great.” Oh my God. Did Beck think Dylan and I slept together?
“Your mother’s hilarious, but she’s not going to stop until she has you married off.”
“She warned me he might call, but I had no idea he’d be at my house.”
