CHAPTER TEN
Austin
“Waldo, where are you, boy?” This damn dog sneaks out the front door more times than I can say any woman ever has.
“Waldo!” I press my fingers to my lips and give a piercing whistle. There he is. Waldo jumps up over the growing corn stalks that I have told him to stay out of at least hundred times this week alone. He does not listen to a thing I say. “Get your damn ass over here.” He sprints toward me but not because I called. Nope, there’s a butterfly he’s chasing. What kind of manly dog chases a butterfly through corn stalks? My dog, of course. “You’re going to make me late, Waldo.”
He stops about ten feet from where I’m standing, looks up at me, wags his tail, and I already know he’s about to bolt in the wrong direction. “I’ll give you a treat,” I offer. Waldo’s ten years old. I don’t do treats like I used to, so I save them for when he’s being defiant and I’m at risk of being late. Now he’s running toward me, getting ready to plow me over. He’s a buck fifty in weight, which is probably some kind of absurd record for a lab. On top of that, he thinks he’s the size of a small cat. And he’s covered in mud.
Shit. “Waldo, get inside.” I pat him on the back, and as I open the front door, the clock on the wall catches my eye. I see that I have less than twenty minutes to get to the hospital before my shift starts, and now I’m covered in mud too.
I get Waldo his treat and quickly change my clothes before running out the door.
Normally, I walk to work, but with my time constraints, I grab the keys to my truck, hoping there’s a spot for me to park my ass in. Our employee lot has five spots, which isn’t nearly enough, and patient parking is normally filled. The whole small town, small hospital thing doesn’t always work out so well.
I hop in and take off, leaving nothing but a cloud of dirt behind me. I’ve got this damn jitter in my chest, thinking about that chick from yesterday. Maybe it’s because I enjoy a good puzzle and want to figure her out. She’s probably not going to let that happen, and I’m not the pushy type, so I gotta let the thought go. She’s probably not even going to last in this town for more than a week or two anyway, seeing how she was acting last night.
With five minutes to spare and a prime parking spot, I lock the truck and jog inside.
“Good morning, Austin,” Daisy chirps.
“Mornin’, Miss Daisy,” I respond as I hustle by the front desk and into the staff room where I find Clara. We’re not usually in here at the same time because there are only two of us on the clock most of the time.
“Good morning, Austin,” she says. Her voice is a little less chipper than her norm, and I assume something’s wrong. She wears her heart on her sleeve and her eyes can tell a whole damn story if someone were looking hard enough.
“What’s with the sourpuss?” I’m quickly changing into my scrubs while I try to do the friend thing, but suddenly, I see she needs more than just a pick-me-up. Something is wrong.
“Oh, nothin’, I’m fine,” she says, standing up and walking toward the other side of the room.
“Bullcrap,” I tell her. “Spill it. You got ninety-seconds before I’m on the clock.”
“I’m fine, really.” She opens her locker and pulls out a sweater, then takes a seat on the bench behind her.
“Okay. Don’t say I didn’t ask.” A mom, a sister, and plenty of girlfriends have taught me to ask a girl why she isn’t smiling. No matter how much they say nothing is wrong, something is almost always wrong.
“I broke up with Derek last night,” she finally spits out just as I finish slipping on my scrubs.
I close my locker and head over to the bench she’s on. “You okay, darlin’?”
“No, I’m not,” she says with a hitch in her throat. “I thought he was the one. Maybe I was just trying to convince myself, though. I feel like I’m getting older now, and starting over means I’m still years away from getting married and having kids. It’s like this timer in my head, and it’s making me crazy. Is it so wrong to want a family before I’m too old?”
“Clara, listen to me, honey. You’re hardly thirty.”
“It’s thirty, Austin. That’s like reaching the top of the hill.”
“Okay, that’s crazy. You’re not too old to start over, and if that’s the only reason you’re staying with a man, that’s the worst reason in the world. You’ll surely end up divorced within a few years and left as a single mama. You don’t want that either.”
She looks up at me as tears shroud her eyes. “That’s quite insightful coming from you, the man who plans to die alone.”
“I’m observant.” I grab her arm and pull her up to her feet so I can offer her a hug. “It’s going to be okay.”
“I wish I was as sure as you are.”
“You’re a pretty little thing, and one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, Clara. You aren’t going to have a problem finding someone to love you. I promise.” There was a time when I couldn’t keep my eyes off this woman. She’s always been taken by another man, but I learned over the years that I wouldn’t be a healthy choice for her. I carry a lot of baggage, and I’m not too good with the sensitive folk. She’s the one who taught me looks are only skin deep, and it’s good to be attracted to a woman, but if I want someone a little more permanent in my life, I need to find someone I’m internally compatible with too. It wouldn’t just be for my sake, but for my partner’s too.
I notice the blush in Clara’s cheeks after my comment. I didn’t mean to make her uncomfortable, just trying to boost her esteem. “You’ve always been here for me, Austin. Thank you.”
“What are friends for?” I throw that in there quickly to clear up any cause for confusion, thanks to my filter-less mouth.
