“Thank you!” Thea called after her.
As they headed to the exit, Aiden asked, “Did I miss your stint as a vet tech or something?”
“Not all my friends are from old jobs, I’ll have you know.” Then she tipped her head in acknowledgement. “But okay, yeah, I met her during my not-so-illustrious time at the zoo.”
“Right, the zoo. Where you learned how to feed lions and muck out the lemur cages, right?”
“I wish. That would’ve been better than soothing angry guests.” Funny that with Aiden, her checkered job history didn’t feel like something to be ashamed of. He made her experiences seem worthwhile, like they all contributed to who she was. After years of apologizing for her work hopscotch, it was a novel experience.
He dropped her off at her car outside his building after extracting a promise that she’d let him pick her up when Kylie called to say the dog was ready. “We’re in this together,” was his last word on the subject.
Four hours later they were back at the vet’s to claim what looked like an entirely new dog. Thea gasped in delight.
“She did clean up well, didn’t she?” Kylie said proudly. “We even dug up a fancy collar for her.”
The dog had emerged from her grooming session with a light brown, slightly curly coat and a pointy little snout that twitched as she sniffed around the room. She was still painfully thin, and she wore a hot-pink rhinestone collar around her neck that was absolutely ludicrous and absolutely perfect for her somber face.
“Look at you, beautiful Blue!”
“Blue?” Aiden asked.
She scooped the dog into her arms and buried her face in the soft, clean fur to hide her blush. “Short for Blueprint? I just figured since you found her on a construction site. And I know you live to make sketches of all your projects.”
His delighted smile eased her embarrassment at such a sentimental, Aiden-centric name. “Blueprint. I like it.” He reached out to ruffle the dog’s fur, and for a scary second the three of them felt like…
No. Those feelings—thosefamilyfeelings—had no place here. Zero. She didn’t do family feelings, and neither did he. She squashed them and turned to her friend. “Thanks, Kye. I owe you.”
“Happy to help.” She handed over a clinic-branded leash. “Call me. Let’s do drinks sometime.”
Aiden held open the door for her, and after they’d paid at the counter, they came face-to-face with an older couple who’d just entered with a miniature poodle on a leash.
Aiden stopped short, and his hand shot out to claim hers, linking their fingers in a death grip. “Mr. and Mrs. Santiago. Hello.”
The stiffness in his tone surprised her, but she threw herself into good-girlfriend mode without batting an eye, softening into his side ever so slightly and letting her lips curve into a pleasant smile.
“Hello.” The gray-haired man spoke curtly, his gaze darting to Thea and then down to Blue, who was in the middle of sniffing the poodle’s butt.
“This is my girlfriend Thea Blackwell. Thea, this is Tony and Isla Santiago. They own Santiago’s Pharmacy. Murdoch Construction’s in the middle of a big renovation project there.” He spoke carefully, with none of the relaxed confidence she was used to, and a glance at the Santiagos showed identical grim sets of their mouths.
Huh. No idea what this was all about, but the tension radiating from all three of them made her want to crawl out of her own skin. “Nice to meet you,” she said, flipping through her mental index of people she knew. “Let’s see, Santiago… Are you related to Millie?”
If anything, that made the vibe so much worse. Aiden twitched, Isla frowned, and Tony’s mustache quivered in outrage. “That’s our daughter,” he bit out, eyes cutting to Aiden.
Shit shit shit.It didn’t take a genius to figure out where the awkwardness stemmed from. Time to do some serious tap dancing to smooth over whatever sexual indiscretion Aiden had committed with their darling little girl.
She took a tiny step forward to ever so slightly interpose herself between Aiden and the frowning couple. “Oh, that’s so great! Millie and I were in the same graduating class. She was the smartest girl in algebra. How’s she doing? Last I heard she was studying engineering, right?”
At the mention of Millie’s smarts, the Santiagos melted before her eyes. “She finished her PhD last year and went to work for Saratoga.” Isla beamed.
“Did she really? That’s amazing! Is she designing medical equipment for them, or is she more on the manufacturing side?”
Now Tony came to life. “Manufacturing. Very hands-on.”
“Well of course! Do you remember our senior year science fair? She built a working semiconductor that put my golf ball model of the solar system to shame. I always knew she’d get out there and change the world. And is she still dating that medical student?”
She held her breath, praying she was correctly remembering the conversation she and Millie had the last time they’d bumped into each other at a bar on Thanksgiving Eve a year or two ago.
She’d guessed right.
