‘Things are going great,’ Elliot was quick to answer, not wanting Daisy to have to deal with his brother’s questions. The way Caleb was studying her, Elliot was afraid he sensed something was odd about this whole thing. He’d always seemed to have an extra sense when it came to Elliot, like he knew when something was off about his brother.
Daisy sat up straighter. ‘Are you going to give me a lecture about not breaking your little brother’s heart?’
Caleb grinned. ‘Maybe.’
Daisy leaned into Elliot’s side. ‘I won’t.’ She said it to Caleb, but Elliot felt like she was promising it to him.
‘Good,’ Caleb said. ‘Because Elliot deserves to be happy.’
‘I agree.’
Elliot could feel his damn face heating. ‘Can we stop talking like I’m not sitting right here?’
‘Of course,’ Daisy said, nudging his shoulder again. ‘Anything to add?’
His brother was studying him, his brow furrowed like he really was trying to figure out if Elliot was happy, like he wanted him to be. Caleb could be a giant pain in the ass, but it was always out of love, so unfortunately, Elliot couldn’t be too mad about it.
‘No. Just that I won’t hurt you, either,’ he said, turning to face her, not caring that his brother was still studying them like he was trying to crack some secret code.
Daisy smiled at him. ‘I know.’
‘Good, glad to hear it,’ Caleb said, standing and brushing the dirt from his jeans. Apparently, he was satisfied for the moment that Elliot wasn’t ready to retreat from humanity again anytime soon. ‘I guess I should get back to work. Let me know what the vet says.’
Elliot and Daisy stood, too, right as there was a knock on the door. Goldie immediately started barking in excitement.
‘I’m happy she’s not scared of the vet yet,’ Dr. Vivienne said as she stepped into the office and was greeted by an exuberant puppy.
‘Thanks for coming,’ Elliot said. ‘We may have overreacted, but she got into the work site for a minute, and she was wheezing a little.’
‘Okay, no worries. Let’s check you out, sweet girl.’ Vivienne scooped up the puppy and put her on the table they usually used for lunch breaks.
Caleb was still frozen by the door.
‘I thought you were going back to work?’ Elliot said, startling Caleb out of his blatant perusal of the vet. He ran a hand through his hair like he was trying to neaten it after it had been under a hard hat all morning, and Elliot nearly laughed out loud.
‘No, I thought maybe I should fill the doctor in. Since I found the dog and all…’
‘Right. Of course.’ Elliot looked back to where Daisy and Vivienne were chatting over the squirming puppy. The vet was cute, small and curvy with dirty-blonde hair pulled back from her face as she worked. He’d just met her a few days ago when he brought Goldie in for her first round of shots. Elliot wasn’t sure he would have noticed she was attractive, especially not with Daisy standing right next to her, but with his brother staring at her like a man starved, Elliot could admit she was pretty.
‘So… are you going to talk to her?’ Elliot prodded and Caleb fixed his hair again.
‘Yeah… yep…’
Elliot had never seen his brother nervous to talk to a woman before. Or nervous for any reason really and it was quite entertaining.
He walked over to the table and Caleb followed.
‘Vivienne, this is my brother, Caleb. He found Goldie wandering around where she shouldn’t have been.’
‘Nice to meet you,’ Caleb barked, far too loud for the small space.
Vivenne’s eyes widened. ‘Hi, nice to meet you, too.’
‘Vivenne the vet,’ he said, emphasizing the ‘v’s. ‘I’m Caleb the contractor.’ Emphasis on the ‘c’ sound that time. Second-hand embarrassment coursed through Elliot’s body. Was this why Caleb was always so worried about him? Was it this painful to watch him interact with other people?
‘Ha. Yeah,’ Vivenne said, politely humoring him and Caleb winced.
‘What’s wrong with your brother?’ Daisy whispered to Elliot.
