He snorts. “You’re not the same.” He lifts his turquoise gaze—so like his mother’s—to me and gives me an impish look. “Mum said you have a nice bum.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “She did not say that.”
“She did! She said you looked good in your tight shorts.”
I clear my throat. “Right, enough of that. Time to take the dogs out for a run.”
My lips curve up, though, as we start unlocking the cages and letting out the dogs. Out of the mouths of babes…
Chapter Six
Isla
Today is decidedly less busy than yesterday, but still enjoyable. I spend most of the morning in the Hotel, helping out with the animals who’ve had operations. I also help with things like sterilizing the equipment, washing the bedding, and cleaning out the cages, tasks that are more tedious but still need doing.
Besides, it takes my mind off things. Rob rang again last night, after Max had gone to bed, and tried to talk me into going back home. I refused, though, and when he started to get aggressive and threatened legal action, I hung up on him again.
I can’t keep burying my head in the sand, though. My first instinct was to flee, and I’m glad I did that, but I need to work out what I’m going to do on a permanent basis.
“You should talk to Nix,” Beth says when we chat during morning tea. Cullen and Max are apparently over at the Petting Zoo, helping Fitz the groundskeeper mend a fence. I feel a tad guilty leaving Cullen to look after my son, but they both seem happy with the arrangement, and I don’t get the feeling that Cullen is the sort of guy who does something he doesn’t want to do just to please people.
“Nix?” I ask.
“She was Nicola Dixon, hence the nickname, but she’s married to Leon King now—he’s the head of HR and Finance here, and she’s his PA. They work with the Women’s Refuge because of the connection between domestic violence and animal abuse, and she has lots of resources and contacts. She might know where you should start.”
“I’ll do that. Thank you.” We’re leaning on the fence of the break room garden, looking out at the paddock, and beyond itthe Pacific, sparkling in the morning sunshine. I pick a piece of fruit from the apricot and cream cheese muffin that the women in the break room made this morning, and eat it. “It’s hard, asking for help, and admitting that your relationship has ended this way.”
“Yeah, I get that.” She hesitates. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“Now that you look back, do you think there were signs that Rob was going to be abusive? I mean, did it come out of the blue, or was he always controlling?”
I have a bite of the muffin, thinking about it. “He’s always been controlling. I didn’t recognize it as that for a long time, but now I can see it for what it was. I would never have thought I’d end up in a relationship like that. I always thought I was independent and strong.”
“You are,” she insists.
“I don’t know how it happened, but over the years he became so manipulative. Like, he hated me seeing my friends alone. He always hid it behind this veneer of ‘I love you so much, I can’t bear to be apart from you,’ but the truth is that he was jealous of them. If I did go out with them, when I got back he’d be moody and sulk, and because I hated it so much, I stopped going out without him.”
She nods and sips her coffee thoughtfully. Something about her manner makes me wonder if there was an ulterior reason for her question. “Beth… are you and Jude okay?”
She doesn’t deny it, so I know there’s something wrong. “I don’t know,” she says slowly. “Things were great at the beginning, but we argue a lot now. Like you said, I often do things to try to ward off his moods. I don’t like that.”
“It’s such an easy trap to fall into. We just want peace, so we try to avoid confrontation.”
“Yeah. We had an argument late last night, and…” She breaks off and smiles as one of the other nurses comes up to chat, and we don’t get another chance to discuss it before it’s time to head back to work. But I feel for her. It’s really tough when you know you’re being manipulated, and you know you’re enabling their bad behavior, but it’s just too hard to fight.
Back in the clinic, I help Hal out with a surgery, and then he asks me to take a miniature poodle he rescued down to the Forever Home. “They’re expecting him,” he says. “He’s all recovered and ready to find his new home.”
So I carry the dog along the corridor, not missing the way my pulse picks up at the thought that I might see Cullen again. Sure enough, he’s in the barn, and this time Max isn’t with him. Cullen is in the open space in the middle, trying to teach a Cavalier King Charles spaniel to sit. I lean against the door, stroking the poodle to keep him quiet while I watch him take a piece of chicken out of his pocket, hold up his hand, and say firmly, “Sit!”
The spaniel stares at him, then wanders off to sniff the table leg, and he sighs.
“Is she proving rebellious?” I ask as I go in.
He looks over with a wry smile. “Just a bit. I have no luck with women.”
“Oh, I can’t believe that. You already have me eating out of your hand.”
