Page 78 of Second Act
“Now we’re gonna talk, girlfriend,” Carla said.
“I haven’t heard any complaints about the paparazzi,” Jessica said. “Did they get bored and leave?”
Carla gave her a triumphant smile. “They left, all right. I called a buddy at the precinct and told him our business was being disrupted. A couple of guys from the K-9 unit came over with their dogs and suggested that the photographers move along. The cops still remember what you did for that German shepherd—what was his name?”
“Brodie,” Jessica supplied. One of the police dogs had been grazed by a bullet in a gunfight between the police and a drug dealer. It had happened nearby, so they’d brought the dog to her. “It was just a flesh wound, not a big deal.”
“You know how they feel about their dogs. They’re just like a human partner, and the cops don’t take hurting their partners lightly.” Carla pointed an accusing finger at her. “Don’t change the subject.”
“There was no subject. You just sat down and said we were going to talk.” Jessica took a bite of her turkey sandwich.
“Hugh Baker is the subject, and you know it.”
“What about him?” Jessica gulped a swig of water.
“Why are you back together?” Carla left her sandwich sitting on the paper plate on Jessica’s desk while she conducted her interrogation.
“Wow, you really cut to the chase.” Jessica started to peel the label off the water bottle. “He’s shared some things with me that kind of explain what happened eight years ago.” She looked at Carla. “But the real reason is that I never stopped caring about him. I just shoved it in a box and stuffed it down in a dark corner of my mind. When I saw him again, the old feelings came back to life.”
Carla did something Jessica had never seen before. She hesitated, drumming her royal-blue fingernails on the matching scrubs that stretched over her knee. When she spoke, concern filled her voice. “I want to believe in the power of true love as much as anyone, but he’s not the same Hugh Baker you fell in love with eight years ago. The man is in the stratosphere of money and fame. And it’s not that I think you don’t belong there, too, but that kind of success changes a person. He doesn’t know what real life is like anymore, riding in limos, staying in penthouse suites, getting tickets to the hottest play on Broadway with a snap of his fingers.”
“I think I can handle a penthouse suite without too much trouble.” Jessica tried to lighten Carla’s mood, but her words were an eerie echo of what she’d been thinking earlier.
“That’s the good stuff.” Carla waved her hand toward the front of the clinic. “There’s the bad stuff, like everyone wanting to know your business, women throwing themselves at him, traveling all over creationfor his job.” She leaned forward, her brown eyes soft with concern. “I’m just saying that maybe you should go slow and find out how you fit into all that.”
Since the same disquieting thoughts had crossed Jessica’s mind, she shifted in her seat. She’d been so happy this morning. Why couldn’t she go back to that blissful state? “So you think I should give up on him because he’s rich and famous?”
“Just be careful, hon. Don’t jump in with both feet right away,” Carla said. “Although I can see in your face that it’s probably too late.”
“I tried to be practical and fall for someone less complicated,” Jessica said, thinking of solid, stable, blond Pete, “but you can’t control who you love.”
“Yeah, that’s why we have music and poetry,” Carla said. “Because love screws with us all and we have to vent.”
Four hours later, Jessica sank onto her desk chair again, wishing she could forget Carla’s warning. But it had gnawed at her every time she had a break between patients. The paparazzi outside the clinic proved that she had been living in a dream world for the past two weeks. Being with Hugh was going to change her life in ways she couldn’t yet comprehend.
Tiana stuck her head in the door. “Riya Agarwal is here. Carla said ‘two thumbs up’ and asked if you want Dr. Agarwal to come to your office.”
“Sure, she might as well see the worst,” Jessica said with a grimace at the dreadful green chair the vet candidate would have to sit in. She unearthed the doctor’s résumé from under a pile of patient files and scanned the questions she’d jotted down. It felt good to have something normal and straightforward to focus on amid all the turmoil of the day.
A small woman dressed in black trousers, a white blouse, and a red blazer stopped in the doorway. “Dr. Quillen?” She had huge brown eyes, shiny black hair pulled into a fat bun at the back of her neck, and a shy smile.
Jessica stood and walked around her desk, holding out her hand. “A pleasure to meet you. Have a seat in the ugliest chair ever made.”
Dr. Agarwal laughed as she settled onto the seat. “At least it is comfortable,” she said in a musical voice.
Jessica went back to her desk chair and began to ask her questions. The doctor replied to every query with ease and expertise. The only odd note was struck when Jessica asked, just out of curiosity, how Riya had found the clinic. The other woman had an answer—she had looked up all the veterinary practices close to her and chose Jessica’s clinic as the one she was most interested in—but it sounded pat and rehearsed, unlike her other responses. However, Jessica didn’t care.
The clincher came when Geode strolled in and stopped to sniff at Riya’s ankles. Without pausing in her answer, the doctor reached down to give the cat a gentle head scratch. Jessica doubted the vet even realized she was doing it. The famously shy Geode not only allowed Riya to touch him, he crouched and leaped onto her lap.
That was when Jessica offered Dr. Agarwal the job.
“I look forward to getting to know the ropes tomorrow,” Jessica’s new part-time colleague said as they finished up ironing out the details. Jessica had been thrilled that Riya wanted to start as soon as possible. Then she remembered this morning’s unpleasant surprise. “I should probably warn you about a little issue we’re having here at the moment. When you come in tomorrow, you may find some photographers hanging around in front. Just ignore them.”
“Photographers? Why would photographers be here?”
Jessica sighed. “Do you know who Hugh Baker is?”
Riya’s large brown eyes widened like a startled doe’s before she nodded.
