How did they?
Maybe they were digging through our trash? I’d thrown two tests away that I thought I’d botched. Cian hadn’t suspected anything because I’d put them on the grocery list when we’d first started trying.
Cian made a noise in his throat—part growl, part desperation—and I knew it was because he’d connected the scene on the front step to our situation. Keenan’s hand pressed harder against his chest. Keenan was trying to restrain him. I knew memories of what had happened to his parents were probably attacking him, and he had the urge to flee like a wild animal trapped in a cage, his own bones locking him in.
“Stay down, lad,” Keenan snapped at him. “We have to keep him alive for now.”
Cian ignored him, forcing himself up. Instead of going for the very back, though, he got close to my seat, and resting his head against the headrest, slipped his hand around and set it over my womb. I set my hand over his, steadying him. He was trembling. It might have been partly from the gunshot, but I knew it was from a desperation he probably hadn’t felt since he was a kid hiding underneath that chunk of soil.
He closed his eyes a few minutes later, and I screamed, “Keenan!”
“Pulse is slowin’, but I think that’s because he’s relaxin’. Let’s just get there, aye?”
“How much further?” I asked Fiona.
“Five minutes.”
I made it there in two and a half.
We were in a small seaside town outside of Boston. My dad had taken me there once for lunch. It was quaint, and… I had no idea what we were doing there. I squinted against an overhead light haloing a wooden sign over the door of a picturesque old house. The word “Vet” was carved into it.
Cian waved off Keenan’s help once I put the car in park.
“I think we’re at the wrong place,” I said to Fiona.
She shook her head and hopped out. So did I. I gasped when Cian wrapped his arm around my waist and locked me there. We did this weird walk, Keenan keeping close to his free side, as we moved toward the open door. We were both trying to hold the other up.
The dogs flew past and ran around a woman in a flannel shirt, jeans, and boots standing in the middle of the doorway. She was a slim, dark-haired woman with light brown skin who seemed like she could handle her own. Her black hair was pulled back, and a few straight tendrils fell out, framing her face. I noticed a picture of a girl in a field of bluebonnets framed and displayed on the counter of her practice. Her certificate with her credentials hung on the wall in a plain gold frame and stated that she’d gone to veterinary school in Houston.
The place reeked of animal.
Her eyes widened some when she took in Cian. “Okay,” she breathed out, like she always knew there was a handsome face underneath all that wild hair. “Let’s see what you have for us this time, O'Callaghan.”
“Dr. Estrada.” Cian nodded.
Her eyes widened even more. She pointed to a room we should go in. “The gunshot is expected. The voice not so much.”
The room smelled like antiseptics, like she’d been cleaning before we got there. Cian all but collapsed on the table and she pulled up a seat and got to work. Keenan took a seat on the other side of him. Dr. Estrada called for another woman who looked like a younger version of her but wore scrubs.
Dr. Estrada cut away Cian’s shirt, examining his chest under bright lights with her gloved hands.
The room spun a little at the sight of all that blood and the hole in his shoulder. Then it came into sharp focus when she bent her head down to check the wound. Her hair must have tickled his nose, and he looked down at her. Through the scent of antiseptic, I could smell how sweet she smelled, and I wondered if he noticed it too.
It was the worst time, and totally unreasonable for me to feel, but a hot stab of jealousy seemed to stab me in the heart and made my stomach feel weak. Like I wanted to cry and hit something at the same time. I wanted to strangle the feeling, but it was too large to wrap my hands around.
Fiona held my arm in her grasp and tried to tug me out of the room. I shook my head, refusing to be moved. He’d told me I was his first, but it made me wonder if he’d ever been attracted to this veterinary doctor who also worked on this wild beast under the radar.
“Dr. Estrada,” he said, his voice gruff.
Her eyes flew up to his. “That’s going to take some getting used to.” She smiled at him. “Hearing that handsome voice.”
“A seat for my wife, if you will.” He nodded toward me. “Maeve O'Callaghan.”
Dr. Estrada’s eyes slowly rose to meet mine, like she was seeing me for the first time, and whatever tool she was about to use clashed to the floor. The woman assisting her took in the entire scene before she handed the doctor another one of whatever she was about use.
The doctor’s eyes met mine. “Maeve,” she said, and it was like the moment of shock was already gone. “Nice to meet you.”
“Same,” I whispered, taking the seat the nurse had brought in for me.
