So it came as a shock when she walked in the office and Dr. Rydel met her beaming smile with a cold glare that sent chills down her spine.
“You’re late, Miss Drake,” he said curtly. “Please try to be on time in the future.”
She looked as if she’d been hit in the head by a brick. Keely, at the counter, gave her a sympathetic look.
“I’m… I’m sorry, sir,” she stammered.
“I need you to help Keely with an X-ray,” he said, and turned away abruptly.
“Right away.” She put up her coat and purse and rushed to join Keely, who was going in the room where they kept the medical cages. She took a hair band out of her pocket and scrunched her thick hair into a ponytail with it. Inside, she felt numb.
“It’s Mrs. Johnson’s cat,” Keely explained, wary of being overheard by the vet, who was just going into a treatment room. “She stepped on his paw. It’s swollen, and Dr. Rydel is afraid it may be broken. Mrs. Johnson is no lightweight,” she added with a grin.
“Yes, I know.”
“She had to leave him with us while she went to see her heart doctor. She was very upset. She’s just getting over a heart attack, and she’s worried about her cat!” she said, smiling. Keely opened the cage and Cappie lifted the old cat. It just purred. It didn’t even offer to bite her, although it was obvious that it was in pain.
“What a sweet old fellow,” Cappie murmured as they went toward the X-ray room. “I thought he might want to bite us.”
“He’s a sweetheart all right. Here.” Keely motioned to the X-ray table and closed the door behind them. “What in the world is wrong with Dr. Rydel?” she whispered. “He came in looking like a thundercloud.”
“I don’t know,” Cappie said. “We went to the carnival Friday night and he was happy and laughing…”
“You didn’t have a fight?” Keely persisted.
“No!” She wanted to add that they’d talked about rings, but this wasn’t a good time. The tall man who met her at the door didn’t look as if he’d ever said any such thing to her.
“I wonder what happened.”
“So do I,” Cappie said miserably.
They got the X-ray and Cappie took the old cat back to his cage while Keely developed it. Dr. King gave her a worried look, but she was too busy to say much. Cappie felt sick. She couldn’t imagine what had turned Dr. Rydel into an enemy.
* * *
She waited and worried all day through two dozen patients and one long emergency. Mrs. Johnson came to pick up her cat, his paw in a neat cast, crying buckets because she’d been so worried about him. Cappie helped her out the door, smiling even though she didn’t feel like it. Earlier, she’d thought maybe Dr. Rydel would say something to her, explain, anything. But he didn’t. He treated her just as he had when she first joined the practice, courteous but cold.
At the end of the day, she wanted to wait around and see if she could get him to talk to her, but a large animal call took him out the door just minutes before the staff went home. She drove to her house with her heart in her shoes.
* * *
“You look like the end of the world,” Kell remarked when she walked in. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” she said sadly. “Dr. Rydel looked at me as if I had some contagious disease and he didn’t say one kind word all day. It was business as usual. He was just like he was when I first went to work for him.”
“He seemed pleasant enough when he picked you up Friday night,” he remarked.
“And when he brought me home,” she added. “Maybe he got cold feet.”
Kell studied her sad face. “Maybe he did. Everybody says he was the biggest woman hater around town. But if that’s the case, he might warm up again when he’s had time to think about it. If he’s really interested, Cappie, he’s not going away.”
“You think so?” she asked, hopeful.
“I know so. Men who act like he did when he came to supper don’t suddenly turn ice-cold for no reason. Maybe he just had a rough weekend.”
Which was no reason for him to take it out on Cappie. On the other hand, she didn’t really know him that well.
“Maybe I can get him to talk to me tomorrow,” she said.
