“It’s not an insult, Evelina.” Her mother perched against the arm of the standard-issue upholstered chair. “I have been thinking about our… discussion, if you will… last night.” She released a breath. “You will rarely hear me say this, but it’s probably agood thing you didn’t listen to your mother and become a cardiologist. Both you and your patients would have suffered for it.”
“Wait a minute.” Evie put her hands up. “Did you just feel the earth shake underneath your feet?”
Her mother rolled her eyes. “Always with the dramatics.” But then her expression softened. “I do not always say it, but you do know that I am proud of you, don’t you?”
Evie stiffened with shock. The emotion that welled in her throat was instantaneous and abundant enough to choke on.
“Sort of,” she managed to say. Then she shook her head. “No. Actually, I did not know that. I haveneverdoubted your love for me, but pride?” She shook her head again. “It has always been a struggle for me to decide what meant more: my happiness or earning your respect and approval. It’s something I still struggle with, if I’m being honest.”
“That’s my fault,” Constance said.
“It is,” Evie said with a hiccupping laugh. “But mine too. I should have spoken up a long time ago.”
She studied her mother’s face, wondering how they had arrived here. She’d come to ask for her mother’s assistance in planning the gala. But now that they were finally having this conversation, Evie decided to go all the way.
“I never should have gotten back together with Cameron after the first time I broke up with him,” Evie said. “I continued to go back to him because I thought becoming a veterinarian was my little act of defiance, and I owed you something for not choosing the career you wanted for me. But it’s my life. And I’m grateful for what you and Dad have provided, but it should not come at the cost of my happiness or my dignity.”
Constance stood and reached for Evie’s hands. She took them in hers and gave them a reassuring squeeze.
“I never want you to compromise your happiness for anyone, even me. It is no secret that I have made compromises and sacrifices for things that I think are important, but you are your own person, Evelina.”
Evie was overwhelmed by the gratitude that filled her chest. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t known hearing these words from Constance would affect her; she just had not realizedhow muchit would mean to finally have her mother see and accept her for who she was.
“Thank you,” Evie said. It’s all she could think to say. It’s all that needed to be said.
Well, that wasn’tallthat needed to be said.
Evie let out a cleansing breath. “Okay. Now that we’ve established that I am my own person who can accomplish anything on my own, I need my mommy’s help.”
Constance’s face lit up in a rare smile.
“Oh, you do?” she asked, amusement brightening her brown eyes, which looked so much like Evie’s that it felt as if she were staring into a mirror. “And just what do you need my help in accomplishing?”
“You know that fabulous, over-the-top party you threw last night? How about a repeat, but on an even grander scale?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Right there. There’s another mass.”
Bryson used the tip of a ballpoint pen to point out the kidney-shaped mass on the X-ray of a Yorkshire terrier’s spleen.
“Dammit,” Bryson cursed in a low whisper. He hated this part of his job. “We can’t go through with this surgery. It would be different if we were dealing with the one tumor, or a younger patient. But we’re up to four tumors on a thirteen-year-old dog. It’s too much.”
“That’s not the news Mrs. Cane will want to hear,” the surgical tech said. “She’ll be heartbroken if you tell her that she has to put Pinky down.”
“I wish I had better news,” Bryson said.
“She will tell you that money is no object.”
“It’s not about the money. It’s about what’s best for this dog. Money can’t solve every problem.” He snatched the X-ray from the lighted view box. “Which consultation room is she in?”
“Room three,” the tech said.
Bryson slipped the pen back into the pocket of his white coat and started for consultation room 3. He really,reallyhated this part of the job.
The lab tech had been right in her prediction. Mrs. Cane was devastated by the news Bryson had the unfortunate duty of imparting. She took a credit card from her wallet and threw it at his chest, begging him to go through with the surgery. It wasn’t until Bryson explained the trauma such a complicated procedure would cause to her dog’s body that she finally acquiesced.
He held her hand as she suffered through the most loving act a pet owner could carry out for their cherished companion. Then Bryson held Mrs. Cane as she cried in his arms for a solid ten minutes.
