Page 110 of The Vet from Snowy River
‘Well sure, if you thought everybody dressed up as daggy eighty-year-old grannies to attend funerals, you were spot on.’
He chuckled, and then Poppy did too, and then the two of them were laughing like kookaburras, there in the wreckage that had once been the Cody and Cody Vet Clinic reception room.
Poppy slung her arm around him. ‘You’re gonna be okay, Dad.’
He kissed her hair. ‘Thanks, Pop.’
‘But … since we’re having a D & M and all …’
‘What’s a D & M?’
‘A deep and meaningful conversation.’
‘Is this another daytime TV counselling strategy?’
She gave him a shove. ‘I’ve been thinking about what to do about Jane Doe and the pups. They’ll be needing to go to a proper home before I’m back for the Christmas holidays, so it’s best if we get it sorted now.’
This was clearly a day for being reminded about all the shitty things headed his way. ‘I’m trying to block that out, Pop. I can only have my heart ripped out of my chest so many times.’
‘Dad, that’s kinda sad.’
‘I know. Come here and give your old man another hug and I’ll promise to be brave about saying goodbye to them all when the time comes.’
She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a squeeze. No eyebrow ring digging into his arm today, he thought, and hid his smile in her hair.
‘You know as well as I do we’ve had dozens of offers for those pups, Dad. The second they get their last shots, there’s going to be a queue at the door of people wanting to take them home.’
‘Hey. I’m supposed to be the practical one. You’re supposed to be persuading me to keep the whole litter.’
‘Dad. Get a grip.’
‘You talk to your mum about keeping one?’
‘Ten kilo limit in the townhouse complex, so that’s a no. Maximus is such a guts he probably weighs that already. Besides, he whispered a secret in my ear this morning when I jumped in the box to say hello to them all.’
‘Maximus can whisper?’
Poppy gave him a light punch to the arm. ‘You know that kid, Parker, who says his Rosie is our Jane Doe?’
‘I’ve not forgotten him.’
‘Maximus thinks Parker may prefer a young, frisky boy pup to an old dog with a grey snout who’s fallen in love with my dad.’
Crazy, but he felt tears back up in his throat. Was Poppy offering to give Max up so he wouldn’t have his heart broken when Jane Doe left? He cleared his throat. He was losing it. Totally, utterly, losing it.
‘Dad? You’re not saying anything.’
Because he couldn’t speak, damn it. He buried his nose in her hair. ‘Maximus is yours if you want him, honey, and that’s that.’
She gave a little sigh. ‘But Dad, I’ll be going to uni in a couple of years, and my brothers are way too crazy to be left in charge of an animal. Besides, Maximus is a Snowy River dog. He wouldn’t like the city.’
‘A bit like me.’ He sighed. ‘Max’s idea isn’t a bad one. Maybe he’s smarter than he looks, too.’
Poppy snorted. ‘Considering he looks like a brown bathroom sponge, that wouldn’t be difficult.’ She frowned at him. ‘Did you really hate the city so bad, Dad?’
‘No. You were there, which made it the place I wanted to be. But I always wanted to come home to Hanrahan. And now you’re older, you’ve got your own life, your own friends. You don’t need me to chop the crusts off your sandwiches every second week anymore.’
She grinned. ‘Or tell me off for getting my ears pierced.’
