“What?”
He gave me a look that told me I was being stupid. “For the loft? I just got my first paycheck so I thought I’d give you something since you’re letting me stay here. We didn’t talk about it but—”
“I don’t want you to pay for anything!” I shouted.
Alex huffed in annoyance and slipped the second boot on. “Well, I don’t want to stay here for free, so deal with it.”
He stood and reached for his coat, which was draped over the back of a chair on the other side of the room before bypassing me to head to the stairs.
“Where the hell are you going?” I asked, growing angrier by the second.
“Work.”
“You worked last night, and you’re already going again?” I asked, stunned. “You’ve got to be exhausted.”
“Yup. But with all this snow, we need to stay on top of it.”
Roxy and Noel chased Alex down the stairs, barking happily as they went outside to play in the snow. If I hadn’t been so frustrated, I would’ve laughed at how the snow seemed to swallow Roxy up. Nearly eight inches had fallen, bringing it up to her shoulders, but she didn’t seem to care, bouncing around as happy as could be.
“Well, when are you done?” I pressed.
He shrugged. “Dunno. Probably around one or two. Maybe later. Just depends on how much we get done.”
Alex didn’t turn away from me when I stared at him, and it took me a moment to realize he hadn’t seemed as frustrated as before either. Actually, Alex wasn’t shutting me out at all. He was just busy, trying to get ready for another’s day’s work. That revelation calmed some of my anger and made it easier to think straight. Besides, could I really blame him for working so hard? I would do the same thing if I wanted to make things better for myself.
“Will you please come by when you’re off? I’ll make some soup for lunch. It’ll help warm you up.”
He finally looked away. “I’ll try.”
Roxy pawed at Alex, and he quickly bent to pick her up, planting a quick kiss to her head. She struggled in his arms when he turned back to the building.
I acted solely on instinct by reaching out to place a hand on his arm. “Let her stay with us. I’m not working today, so Noel and I can keep her company.”
Alex narrowed his eyes, knowing perfectly well that my offer had nothing—well,almostnothing—to do with Roxy and everything to do with trying to force his hand in talking.
“Please, Alex. Just let her have some fun with us.”
He hesitated but reluctantly handed her over. “Fine. I’ll see you in a bit.”
And with that, he was gone.
28
I had been restless all morning. Seeing Alex and not being able to really talk things out with him before he left for work had been torture. I worried about him out there in the stormy weather while at the same time, I dreaded him coming back. There was so much that needed to be said between us, and if I was honest, I had no idea how to say it.
The snow had stopped a few hours ago, and there was nothing but blue sky and sunshine above us, so it gave me hope that Alex would be home soon. I triednotto glance at the clock every ten minutes, but I was pretty sure I failed.
After calling my mom and sister to check in with them both, I left Noel and Roxy to themselves and made my way over to the clinic shortly after noon. I didn’t really have a plan or know what I was going to do once I was there, but I needed the comfort of work to keep my hands and mind busy.
I checked on the puppies almost as soon as I was in the building, thrilled to see they were still doing well. I owed their health to James for continuing to check in on them while I was gone. Buddy wasn’t in the kennel anymore, but the notes James had left in his file had me grinning from ear to ear. The golden retriever’s eye socket was healing just as well as we expected, and he was already getting back to his usual happy-go-lucky self. I made a note to follow up with his owners this week to see how he was doing.
Pulling the cleaning materials out from the cabinet, I turned on some music on and began wiping everything down. Someone knocked on the door only about ten minutes later. Knowing it could have been someone with an injured animal, I rushed over and unlocked the door.
A man with a thick puffy coat and simple fleece hat greeted me. He was a plain man around Alex’s height, with a rounded belly and a shortly cropped, dark brown beard that covered most of his face.
“Hi. Are you Vaughn?” he asked.
“Uh… yes?”
