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‘Don’t.’ Her voice was louder than she’d planned, and she felt Poppy’s eyes lift in their direction. Perfect. Now she’d brought attention to herself having a moment with her employee’s father. She must be the most unprofessional person alive.

It was his turn to frown. He held his hands up and took a step backwards. ‘Hey, Vera. I’m sorry if I upset you.’

She drew in a shallow breath. ‘I’m not upset.’ Bitter, angry, disillusioned … yes. But not with him. With herself and her own mosh pit of drama.

‘Dad, is everything okay?’

His eyes, the curious expression she read there, drifted from her to his daughter. ‘Sure, honey. I thought I’d walk you home, if you’re finished. Jane Doe’s tied up to the streetlamp outside. Poor girl needs a break from those eight hooligans she’s given birth to.’

‘Vera? You want me to help you tidy up?’

‘No, Poppy. You go on home.’ And take your handsome father with you. ‘I’ve got this.’

‘Cool. Dad, come on. I’m starving. I’m heading back to school on Monday afternoon, Vera, but can I call you if I’m coming up for a weekend? Just in case, you know, you need a super keen waitress for a few hours?’

‘Sure, thanks honey. Enjoy school.’ Vera watched them leave then turned to the counter and just stood there a moment until a lean, sun-spotted hand reached over hers.

Kev was back.

‘All right, Vera?’

She paused. Fixed a smile to her face, then felt some of her stress melt as he brought his other hand up over hers, holding her there.

‘I’m fine.’

Kev cocked a bushy eyebrow in the direction of the doorway, where a fat brown labrador was leaping up at her fifteen-year-old waitress. Josh was chatting to Marigold and watching indulgently while the dog and the girl behaved as though they’d been separated by stormy oceans for a decade.

‘Your shoulders got all droopy, my lamb. What’s got you and the town sweetheart all lathered up?’

She shot her eyes back to Kev’s face. ‘Excuse me?’ He winked at her, tapped his nose. ‘He’s a mighty fine-looking fella. Reminds me of me when I was a lad. Something else you should know about him, too. He’s loyal. You don’t find that very often.’

Vera could feel a blush staining her cheeks. ‘You’re imagining things, Kev. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a stray cat in the alley waiting for her saucer of milk.’ She rushed through the swing doors to the kitchen before anyone else could drag her into a conversation and read her all-too-obvious thoughts about Josh Cody.

She was so not ready for life in a small town.

CHAPTER

16

Josh ripped off his tie and threw it into the corner of the treatment room. He’d made no progress whatsoever with his heritage works development application, but that was only the first setback of his Monday morning. ‘Next time,’ he ranted at his sister, ‘you’re going to see Barry bloody O’Malley. Two hours I waited before he showed up, Hannah,two hours,and he still wouldn’t tell me who lodged those complaints. There were about a hundred other things I would rather have been doing on Poppy’s last day.’

Hannah had her hand halfway down the throat of a bull mastiff and didn’t look up. ‘I thought you’d been a long time. Lucky we had a quiet day here; I sent Sandy home after lunch.’

‘Yeah, lucky,’ he said sourly.

‘That bad, huh?’

‘Remember Principal Kincaid—made you sit on the bench outside his office for an hour, then when you finally got in to tell your side of the story he actually didn’t give a shit?’

‘Aha!’ Hannah slowly withdrew her arm from the dog’s mouth, bringing a broken-off shaft of chicken bone with her. She tossed it into the rubbish bin and turned to Josh. ‘Unlike you, I never got called to the Principal’s office, Josh. He thought I was an asset to the school. Citizenship Awards five years straight if I recall correctly.’

‘Well, if you’re such an asset, why don’t you take these nuisance complaints up with council?’

‘I don’t own a tie.’

He snorted. ‘You can borrow mine.’

Hannah plunged a needle into a bottle of antibiotics and then injected the fluid into the dog’s neck. ‘Give me a second, here, will you? Rambo’s my last patient for the day, then we can lock up and you can tell me all about it. There might be a couple of beers in the blood fridge if we’re lucky.’