A chuckle rumbles in his chest as he starts to walk again, tossing the paper towel into a trash can on his way to me. “Well, this is an unexpected surprise.” He pauses, his dimples appearing as a genuine smile spreads across his face. “For both of us, I think.”
“What are you doing here?”
He stops a few feet away from me, his eyes slowly drifting over my face as he shoves his hands into the front pockets of his slacks. “Uh—I’m just keeping an eye on things for my aunt and uncle while they’re away.” He rolls his lips between his teeth, his tongue darting out to wet them. “They’re in Europe for the next two weeks and need someone here just to keep an eye on things.”
My eyes widen and I feel the warmth of Otto’s body as he sits back down beside me, using my leg to lean on. “No way,” I say. My smile falls into a frown. “I heard about your early retirement. I’m sorry.”
He corkscrews his lips and chews on the inside of his cheek. “Such is life,” he murmurs, his voice quiet before it lifts back to a normal volume. “Enough about me, though. What about you? What brings you back to Sugar Hill?”
I need to come up with a good answer to this question for the next time someone asks. I pause for a second, sifting through my mind as I carefully select my next words
“I’m taking a year off before I start vet school.”
Please don’t ask why.
Jace’s lips twitch. “Vet school, huh? You gonna come work for Aunt Maria’s clinic one day?”
My stomach tightens at his words, but I shove the feeling away.
“Yeah right,” I laugh, rolling my eyes at him. “It would be an actual dream just to have the opportunity to work with her.” I pause, my eyebrows tugging downwards as I look past him. “Who is Dr. Grey and why were you yelling at them?”
“Oh,” he says with a sheepish grin cresting his lips. “It’s my cat.” He shakes his head, pulling his hands from the front pockets of his jeans. “Her name is Dr. Grey.”
“Like Dr. Dre?”
He shrugs with indifference, but his eyes shimmer beneath the fluorescent lights. “It sounded cool at the time.”
As if she knows we’re talking about her, Dr. Grey jumps up onto the desk behind him. She pushes her body up against the side of the computer, purring as she rubs her head on the side of the monitor. She’s missing an eye and the other is a swirling mixture of black, brown, and white, almost like her eyeball melted.
“Let me get you checked in,” Jace says, his voice drawing my attention away from the cat. Otto walks with me to the counter and Jace bends down as the monitor screen flickers on. “Otto, right?” Jace glances up at me. “Finn’s new dog?”
“Yep.”
“Okay, here we go,” Jace mumbles to himself, clicking the mouse a few times. “I’m still trying to figure out the whole system here. Joyce said someone was coming to get neutered.” He grimaces as he stands upright and looks at Otto. “Sorry, bud.”
He comes around the desk. “I can take him back,” he says, his hand reaching out to me. “I’ll have Dr. Edwin give you guys a call after surgery and keep you updated on his recovery.”
“Sounds good,” I smile, handing the end of the leash to him. Jace’s fingertips brush against mine as he slowly takes it. His skin is soft and warm, and my heart stutters. I release it in a rush, letting him take Otto from me. I need to get across the street to check out the store. “We’ll talk soon,” I say in a rush with a tight smile and nod.
Jace’s eyes trail across my face again before circling back to my eyes. “Okay.”
My body shifts to walk back across the waiting room to the entrance, my head slower to turn. I’m finding it difficult to take my eyes off him. But I can’t stand here all day and ogle my oldhigh school crush. So much time has passed since then. So much is different.Weare different.
“Hey, Will,” Jace calls after me across the small space just as I reach the door. “It’s really good to see you.”
My feet falter and I pause to glance back over my shoulder. I catch his eyes on me with a ghost of a smile dancing across his lips. “You too, Jace.”
Leaving him with Otto, I quickly slip out of the clinic and only after I’m out of his space am I able to take a deep breath. He’s always had a habit of draining the air from my lungs just from looking at me.
Damn my heart for still beating a little harder and a little faster when he’s around. That’s something I’m going to have to work on because I’m not a teenager with a crush anymore. I’m an adult that has a lifewithoutJace Miller in it.
CHAPTER FIVE
JACE
Juggling the brown paper bag in one arm, I jimmy open the gate latch and sip into the front yard. I pause along the walkway and take in the length of the cape cod style house, trailing over the navy-blue front door and up to the two windows on the second floor.
My footsteps are light as I walk up the concrete to the steps of the porch. It looks almost identical to when I was a teenager, with the swinging bench situated in the space between the front door and the bay window. Since then, there have been some exterior updates, like fresh paint and new siding, along with new windows. Not much has changed though, and it provides a cocoon of nostalgia.
