I introduced him to Lake and Ben and encouraged him to go get himself a plate.
“I’ll grab a drink, too. Either of you want anything?” I asked as I got up.
Lake and Ben didn’t want anything, so I followed Dr. Cobb.
Cook was organizing the food trays, and the two of them were chatting.
I filled my water bottle from the water cooler we’d rented for the occasion. Abe ran into the small office space.
“Uncle Toby!” he squealed, throwing himself at his uncle.
Dr. Cobb chuckled and put his half-full plate on the table, then picked Abe up like he didn’t weigh a thing.
“Hey, kiddo. Have you been having fun?” he asked, smiling at the boy with clear love in his gaze.
“Yeah! I’ve been shadowing Seb, because I think I wanna be a vet when I grow up.”
“Not a human doctor like your uncle?” I asked while Dr. Cobb put Abe down.
“No, I think I like the animals better,” Abe replied thoughtfully.
“You and me both, kid,” Cook deadpanned, making us all laugh.
Seb walked in then, and stopped in the doorway. “Oh, hi.”
“Seb, this is my Uncle Toby.” Abe went to tug Seb closer.
Something about the way Seb and Dr. Cobb looked at each other told me they’d met before. Cook made eye contact with me behind everyone’s backs. He’d noticed the same thing.
I quickly walked out to give them a bit more breathing room, and Cook wasn’t far behind me.
“That was some charged situation,” he said quietly when he caught up with me.
“Tell me about it. Geez.”
“What’s going on?” Lake looked at us worriedly.
“Oh, nothing bad. I’ll tell you later.”
Lake seemed doubtful, but ended up saying, “Okay.” Then luckily, Theo called him away to talk to someone.
“How’s Rey doing?” I asked Cook before he could retreat to the house.
“He seems fine. Like he’d want to be out here, but he’s not there yet.” He grimaced. “Especially after the incident last week.”
I had been at work and Lake and Theo had been in town for a lunch date, when a couple had come to pick up their kitten.
Except the man had been clearly high on something and started to act aggressively. Rey had changed his mind, then panicked when the man started to yell at him. Without Cook there, who knew what would’ve happened. Rey didn’t want to talk about it, but there was a new kind of hero worship in his eyes whenever he looked at Cook, one that seemed to make the chef a bit uncomfortable.
Neither of them had told any of us what exactly happened, other than they’d gotten the couple to leave without a kitten and Sierra had blacklisted them. Another family had adopted the kitten a couple of days later.
“I hope he bounces back soon. Weren’t you already taking small walks?” I asked Cook.
He nodded. “I like walking, so I offered to be his support person whenever he wanted. So we’d been walking along the walls of the house. He got halfway around it the day before the asshole scared him.”
“Wow, that’s really good.” Ben seemed surprised. “I mean that he was out that far. He’ll be able to go inside the stable soon.”
I loved Ben’s enthusiasm and positivity. We needed that here.
