Page 129 of The Vet from Snowy River
‘You reckon you could just give me a hug for a minute and pretend I’m not the world’s biggest idiot?’
Was she—
Heck.
He took two giant strides, hauled her into his arms, and rested his head on hers. ‘I can hug you for as many minutes as you need.’
He held her there, his mind racing. Aaron was clearly a nutjob, this darned trial was stripping the life out of the woman he’d lost his heart to, and he didn’t know where he stood in all of this.
‘Vera? Honey? Are you okay?’
She nodded. ‘I will be.’
He held her face in his hands and gave her a thorough inspection. She looked tired, and strain had left shadows the colour of bruises beneath her eyes. He’d bet a million bucks she’d been worrying about the cat, or the trial, or god knows what else all night instead of sleeping. He ran his hands down her arms, stopping when he reached a rough cloth about her hand.
‘Holy heck, what happened?’
‘Oh,’ she said, holding her hand up. Blood was seeping through some scrap of chintzy-flowered fabric. ‘The scissors must have cut deeper than I thought.’
‘He attacked you withscissors?’
‘No! God no. I was doing some sewing when there was a knock at the door. I was surprised because I don’t get visitors. I jabbed myself.’
He ripped off the cloth and investigated. ‘You need stitches.’
‘Bloody hell. I wrapped it up so quick I didn’t see how bad it was. Faulty pain receptors … it’s a cook’s hazard from all the slicing and dicing and hot pans. Hell, the scissors were rusty, too.’
‘Lucky you, one tetanus shot coming right up. I’ll drive you to the hospital.’
‘Really, Josh, I don’t need—’ She paused, and he waited for her to finish.
She placed her hand—the one that wasn’t bleeding—on his chest. ‘Actually, I’d like that. I’d like that a whole lot.’
He tried not to let his wounded heart leap at the idea that maybe she was talking about more than a ride to the hospital.
‘And Josh? Maybe you and I could have a talk. There’s some stuff I need to say … that is, if you want to.’
He took a breath. ‘Once the doctor’s checked you out, you can tell me anything you need to.’
CHAPTER
42
‘You stay out, buddy.’
Josh frowned at the tall woman in scrubs barring his way into the triage room.
‘She needs someone with her, and that someone is me.’
‘Sorry. Medical staff and patients only on the other side of this door.’
‘I’m a vet. I promise I won’t faint …’—he scanned the tag pinned to her scrubs—‘Dr Pozzi.’
‘You could be Dr Seuss himself, you’re still not getting through these doors. We’ve got a backlog of patients after some idiot ran her quad bike into the middle of her own eighteenth birthday party, and we don’t need any extras cluttering up our space.’
He blew out a breath. ‘Okay. I’ll be waiting.’
‘There’s black stuff in the waiting room that someone’s mislabelled as coffee. Go grab a cup.’
