“Oh, she’s so cute,” Jarrod said as he leaned over the counter to pet the small furball. “Keeland found him by the side of the road about a week ago and gave her to me.” Dom grinned. “I don’t want to piss the doc off and have him take her back.”
Keeland found himself nodding his agreement with the artful story Dom was spinning. Not one word of what he said was a lie. It just wasn’t the whole truth.
“Well,” Jarrod said, “no one’s better with animals than the doc. If he has any ideas on how to make Henrietta’s life easier, I’d go with them. He really knows his stuff.”
Dom grinned. “My thoughts exactly.”
“We don’t have any animals in the kennel,” Keeland said, “so you can just check the doors, then close up and go home. I’ll see you back here in the morning, bright and early.”
Jarrod was all grins. God, he was young. “Okay, Doc.”
Keeland walked out of the clinic, knowing Dom would be hot on his heels. He’d been able to get out of work easily enough. It helped that he worked for himself. But he knew if they didn’t leave now, Jarrod would start asking more questions, questions Keeland didn’t think Dom wanted to answer.
“Where’s your bike?” he asked when they reached the parking lot.
“I told you, I won’t drive my motorcycle when I have Henrietta with me.”
“So where’s your truck, then?”
“Back at the shop. I walked here.”
Okay, that made things a bit easier.
“My truck is around back.” Keeland started walking, knowing once again that Dom would follow. He had no idea how he knew that, just that he did.
When they reached his truck, Keeland hit the unlock fob on his key chain, then climbed into the driver’s seat. He waited until Dom got into the passenger seat and got belted in before starting the vehicle.
“Where to?” he asked.
“Do you know where West Elm Street is?”
Keeland thought about it for a moment before asking, “Isn’t it down by the grocery store?”
Dom nodded. “Turn right on West Elm. Gabriel lives a couple of miles outside of town.”
Keeland put the truck into drive and started heading where Dom had directed him. He wouldn’t mind finding a place out of town, but that was a ways off. He needed to be more established with his clinic before then.
The silence in the truck was a little disconcerting, but Keeland had no idea what to say or even if he should say anything at all. His skin buzzed with an uncomfortable edge. He just knew something was about to happen that would change the way he looked at the world.
He always knew when that was about to happen, ever since he was a small child and knew before the phone call that his father had died in a car accident. It had been a curse he’d lived with almost his entire life.
He really hoped he wasn’t about to find out Dom was married or something. He wasn’t sure he could handle that without going completely to pieces.
“Turn here,” Dom said after they had driven a couple of miles out of town.
Keeland was a little surprised at how nice the small farmhouse they pulled up to was. The termquaintcame readily to mind. It was two stories tall with a full porch that went the entire length of the front of the house. Green shutters framed most of the windows except the large picture window on the first floor. It even had a green door.
“Your brother lives here?”
Dom nodded as he reached for Henrietta. “My brother and his…partner, Chay, who also owns the motorcycle shop with me, both live here.”
“Your brother and your business partner are involved?”
“Engaged actually.”
Okay, that made things either easier or harder. Keeland couldn’t decide which. It was nice to know his interest in Dom wouldn’t be looked upon with disdain by the people close to the man. Being gay wasn’t a disease to be ridiculed, contrary to popular belief. What he did in the comfort of his own home was no one’s business but his own.
Keeland parked the truck and turned it off. When Dom climbed out, he followed. Nerves fluttered in his stomach as he joined Dom on the front porch. He was about to meet the family of the man he was interested in. That was pretty nerve-racking.
