Page 62 of Wanting Alex

“I don’t think we can, but maybe we can get Duke on this.” Declan went to leave my office and ran right into Dr. Henry.

“What the hell?” Declan grabbed the older man’s shoulders to stabilize them both.

“What? It’s poker night with Martin. I was just in the staff quarters.” His voice sounded back to normal now. “What can I do for you boys? You interrupted a good hand and a good shot of whiskey.”

I chuckled.

“We were going to ask how Alex was.” Declan gestured for Dr. Henry to take a seat.

“She’s doing the best she can right now, all things considered.”

“Is she okay?” I rose from my chair, ready to leave at a moment’s notice if she was in trouble.

“Well, I heard you broke her heart. Something about being engaged to someone else? While you were seeing her?” His eyebrow ticked up, and his arms crossed over his chest.

“It was an arranged marriage, but that’s over. None of us ever expected to marry each other. But regardless, we were able to get out of it.” I looked at my desk. “Now we just need Alex to give us another shot.”

“Why should I help you?”

I met his gaze. We needed him to know how serious we were about his daughter. “We love Alex. There’s no one else we want in our lives.”

“Okay, boys, give it to me straight. I need to hear it all.” He kept up the intimidating dad stare.

“We love your daughter. We went about it all wrong and didn’t tell her our situation when we should have. After we spoke to our parents, they let us out of the arrangement and are willing to make it all work.”

“Well, shit.” His thick Texan accent emphasized his curse.

“We’ve been trying to get in touch with her to apologize. Even just to speak with her, but she won’t answer any of our calls or messages.” Declan looked at the doctor.

“She’s been a bit preoccupied, son. She’s got a lot on her plate. I’m officially signing over the clinic at the end of the month. She’s been nose deep in those books trying to figure out how to stay afloat. I can’t believe I let it get that bad. And she won’t let me try to help fix anything.” He wiped his hand over his eyes.

“What’s wrong with the clinic? I thought you had everything under control?” The beating of my heart picked up.The thought of Alex in any type of distress made me want to run and be by her side.

“She knows you have the twins coming home soon. She has to find a way to keep the clinic going after the contract ends. I never thought about it when I was working with y’all. I just assumed she would just take it over, and you guys would continue on. It should have occurred to me the twins would take over the vet care of the animals.” He shook his head, chin touching his chest.

“Our plan isn’t for it to end. We’ve been trying to reach her about that as well.” Declan laid a hand on the man’s shoulder.

“We want her to head a new program we’re building here. The contract would be quite similar to the one we had.” I got up and rounded my desk.

Dr. Henry’s eyes lit up just enough to see he had hope.

“We’ve tried reaching out to her, but she won’t return our calls. Do you know how we can get in contact with her?” Declan’s voice cracked.

“I can try to help with that. You love her, and you want to give her another job? And you’re honestly telling me your engagement is off, and you’ll be open and honest with my daughter from now on?”

“We do, and we will. We want her back in our lives, no matter what.” I clasped my hands.

I’d admit anything her father wanted to know if it would help me get her to speak to us again. I would have much preferred for her to be the first to know we loved her, but I would take what I could get. I’d spend every waking minute telling her how much I loved her to make up for that.

“I’ll see what I can do. Just make sure you’re prepared for when she’s ready.”

“Yes, sir.” I nodded. We would drop anything and everything to rush to her side.

“You mentioned she had more on her plate?” Declan asked.

“Right. Yeah. Umm.” He glanced away.

He was hiding something.

---