“Hey, girl,” I said halfheartedly, getting up to greet her. I couldn’t look Alex in the eyes as I scratched Roxy’s ears. “You ready to be a free dog again? Come on.”
“She was trying to run when I walked to the house,” Alex said as he shut the door. “With Noel, I mean. They were playing, and she was trying to run with the cast.” He shook his head, laughing. “Funniest damn thing I’ve ever seen.”
Again, I tried to smile, but it just wasn’t in me. Not when my heart was so bruised and hurt.
I heard him asking about a place to stay…
Was Alex really going to just leave after this? Just pack his bags and go, and pretend like nothing had happened between us? Would he even say good-bye?
Alex set Roxy on the ground while I fired up the equipment. Her cast scraped across the linoleum floor as she sniffed around, tail wagging in a circle. The tiny dog truly did seem happier than I’d ever seen.
When Alex took off the baby carrier and held it in one hand, it sparked an idea.
“Okay. We have two options,” I said, not bothering with small talk. “I can give her a mild sedative to help me use the regular X-ray machine on her leg, which is what I normally do for dogs with as much energy as she has right now. Or if you’re okay wearing a protective vest, we can try having you hold her in that sling while I use the portable scanner. It’s not as reliable, and if she moves at all, it won’t work. But it means no meds, which is always the best option. So it’s worth a shot as long as you’re comfortable with it.”
Alex must’ve heard the tone in my voice because he furrowed his brows. “Yeah, that sounds fine. Are you okay, Vaughn?”
I kept my face neutral and reached in the closet for the vest. “Yup.”
He gave me a disbelieving look when I held it to him. “You don’t seem okay.”
I all but shoved the vest at his chest. “Just put that on while I get the handheld scanner ready.”
I had to force myself to take a few deep breaths when I left the room.Just get through this; then you can talk.
By the time I returned, Alex had the vest and carrier back on and was trying to settle Roxy back into it, but she wanted nothing to do with being in the confined space again. Reaching in the treat jar on the counter, I pulled out a handful of small biscuits and held one up for her, just out of her reach.
“Gotta stay still for your daddy, okay, Rox?”
Her ears perked as she tilted her head to look at me.
“This is important. You want that cast off, don’t you?”
I wanted to laugh when she huffed in response. Handing her the biscuit, Alex tried again to get her situated, and this time, she went, too distracted by the treat.
Alex used a couple more biscuits to keep her occupied while I took a few pictures. It was damn near torture to be this close to him with so many doubts lingering in my mind. To breath in his addictive woodsy scent and not feel that same level of comfort as before. It felt like everything was unraveling, yet I wasn’t even sure what had caused the snag in the first place. Why would Alex be looking into other places to stay, and why hadn’t he said anything to me?
It wasn’t long after I transferred the file to the computer that the images came up on the screen. “Well, good news. Everything looks perfect. So we can get the cast off.”
“You hear that, girl?” Alex beamed. “You’ll be able to run around for real! How about that?”
Roxy tried to lick Alex’s face, making him laugh, and all it did was poke at the Alex-and-Roxy-sized hole in my chest. Every one of his relieved laughs or Roxy’s excited whimper made my temperature rise. How dare Alex leave and take Roxy with him! Couldn’t he see that they belonged here, with me and Noel?
I quickly cut through the cast and tossed it into the trash before making up some excuse to leave the room. It was probably rude to just abandon them like that, but fuck. They were breaking my heart!
After about ten minutes, I heard Roxy’s nails clacking against the linoleum and a second later, Alex leaned against the counter.
“Thank you, Vaughn,” he said, “for everything.”
I kept my head down, pretending to write something important in Roxy’s file. “Yup.”
“Okay. Really. What’s wrong?”
His ignorance made that coil snap into a hundred tiny shards. “What’s wrong? Alex, I’ve been wondering the same thing for two days!”
He flinched.
“You avoided me almost all day yesterday, and today, you didn’t even come over for breakfast!” I shook my head, trying to tamper the sudden burst of anger. “Then I had to hear from Melanie that you’d called someone about a place to stay!”
