Falling Again for the Single Dad Page 18

  Ellie made an empathetic noise. ‘Mrs Coutts?’

  Henry grinned. ‘You clearly know your patients’ owners well.’

  ‘One of the keys to our success here in Dolphin Cove.’ She patted the newspaper-covered play area where she was stretched out, puppies using her like a climbing frame. ‘Join me?’

  Henry, who’d valiantly stepped in to be her emergency locum vet over the last few months, grinned and sat down opposite her. ‘How could I resist?’

  The puppies climbed and tumbled over him, vying for cuddles. For someone with a puppy tucked in the crook of each arm, her mentor didn’t look all that chirpy.

  ‘You’re looking serious. Got a new surgery you need to brainstorm?’

  Henry shook his head, his white hair flopping across his forehead as he did so. He looked every bit the mad professor. Semi-retired and as smart as a whip, he was also her hero. Who else in the whole of the UK would’ve given up their summer holidays to come down to Cornwall and take over the roster of complicated surgeries her business partner had lined up?

  She shoved aside the niggle of discomfort the question elicited and smiled at him. Just about no one, that’s who. No one she cared to lay eyes on, anyway.

  ‘It’s not that,’ he said, easing yet another puppy into his arms.

  Ah. So there was something.

  Ellie gently extracted her insanely curly ponytail from one of the puppy’s mouths. One day she’d get her hair under control. She snorted. And one day pigs would fly. ‘Not a pull toy, little one,’ she cooed, easing a final golden coil out of its gummy mouth.

  She inspected Henry as the pup he was holding scampered away and he pulled one of her favourite pups, the only chocolate Lab in the litter, into his lap. He was looking awfully serious.

  The chocolate pup put both of its paws on Henry’s beard then slid back down into the nook of his arm and instantly fell asleep.

  Ellie laughed. ‘I guess that was enough playtime for him.’

  ‘Guess so.’ Henry cupped the little pup’s head in one of his big old hands. His tone was much more reflective than a vet with over forty years of experience might be. He must have seen thousands of puppies curl up into sleepy little balls of fur and puppy snorts over the years.

  ‘C’mon, Henry. Out with it. There’s something playing on your mind. You rescued me in my hour of need. If I can do anything to help you in yours, just say the word.’

  She wasn’t kidding. When Drew, her business partner and her bestie, was in a horrific car accident, Henry came right down. Drew’s long stint in hospital was coming to an end, but there was still ample rehab and healing to keep him away from the surgery for at least the next eight to ten weeks. More if there were any setbacks.

  Uh-oh. Drew hadn’t had a setback had he?

  Henry readjusted the puppy and something about the look in his eyes made her scoop one up into her own arms. She gave it a nuzzle as Henry began to speak. When he’d finished, she could hardly hear for the buzzing in her ears.

  It wasn’t Drew. It was a favour. And not just any old favour. He was asking her to do the one thing she’d promised she would never do. Let Lucas Williams work at Dolphin Cove.

  But she owed Henry. She owed him big time.

  Four months ago she’d barely held it together when Drew’s life hung in the balance. Henry had come to her rescue. Not only did he tackle Drew’s incredibly complicated surgeries, he also brought along students from the Royal Veterinary College down for internships to help ease the load. Much to her embarrassment, he used Ellie as an example of what you could achieve if you stuck to your guns: build one of Britain’s most innovative veterinary surgeries in one of its most old-fashioned villages even when your heart had just been smashed to absolute smithereens.

  Okay.

  He didn’t say that end bit.

  He focussed on the good. Which was how she’d survived her heartache and the epic life change that came in its wake. The Dolphin Cove Veterinary Clinic was literally her dream come true. And now it could all disappear in the blink of an eye. If she let herself be prone to dramatics. Which she was, because...oh, damn!

  This felt almost as bad as— No. Nothing felt worse than having the love of her life take back his proposal and throw all of their hopes and dreams to the wayside to become television’s favourite celebrity veterinarian.

  The Uber-Vet.

  Bleurgh.

  Uber-Louse more like.

  The man on television—which, obviously, she’d only ever watched season after season by total accident—was so far removed from the geeky, funny, hilariously wonderful man she’d fallen in love with she could barely stand to look at him.

  So much for I’ve got to save my dad’s clinic, Ells. I just want to keep everything low-key to keep the stress down. I’m all they’ve got now. I don’t want to ruin your dream.

  It scared her to realise how raw the old wounds still were. Wounds she had done everything in her power to heal as she’d embarked on the new life she’d built for her and her son.

  ‘He really said you have to go now?’ Ellie knew she was repeating exactly what Henry had just said, but she didn’t seem able to get the facts to sink in.

  Lucas Williams, ex-love of her life, wanted Henry to take over his stupid television show. Immediately. And to make that happen? He was going to come to Dolphin Cove and replace Henry.

  The skin prickled at the back of her neck.

  This was the moment she had hoped against hope would never happen.

  Henry scrubbed a hand through his hair. He of all people knew what a bit ask it was, but there was a lot at stake for him as well. ‘The students depend on these scholarships, and with money so hard to come by these days—’

  She waved her hand to get him to stop talking. She, more than anyone, knew how important the scholarships were. There was no chance she could’ve attended the Royal Veterinary College without a bursary. Denying other students the chance because of pride? It would be an unspeakably selfish thing to do.

  She forced herself to repeat the facts to Henry to make absolutely sure she’d got them right. ‘So, what you’re saying is, Lucas Williams is giving up his job as the Uber-Vet and he wants you to be the new one?’

  ‘That’s right.’ Henry nodded. ‘We’d film at the veterinary college, raising its profile, and all of the proceeds would go towards scholarships for less well-off students.’

  Just like she’d been.

  ‘And you have to go tomorrow?’

  ‘Day after. Lucas is going to drive down tomorrow. The television producers seem to be mad about the idea and they want to start filming...’

  ‘ASAP,’ they said in tandem.

  She looked out beyond the low wall of the puppy pen to the big old floor-to-ceiling glass windows that faced the private cove beyond the clinic. Still sunny. Still gorgeous. At least something was the same. Another perfect summer’s day in Cornwall.

  She squinted at the sun. It’d be hours yet before it dipped into the sea, but those hours were quickly evaporating and before she knew it, it would be tomorrow morning, Henry would leave and the man who had changed her life for ever would be arriving. And all of this exactly when she had one of the most important surgeries in Dolphin Cove Veterinary Clinic’s entire history on the books.

  Prosthetics for a beautiful Bernese mountain dog. A gorgeous beast of a dog called Moose who’d struggled to recover from a car accident a few weeks back. Ellie, a specialist in emergency surgery and internal medicine, had done her best, but had ultimately held up her hands and said, ‘It’s not enough. This dog needs more.’ The type of ‘more’ only an orthopaedic surgeon could envision. An orthopaedic surgeon exactly like Lucas Williams.

  The father of her child. The son he didn’t know he had.

  She swallowed back an uncomfortable lump of guilt. ‘And there’s no one else in the enti
re world who can come down apart from him?’

  ‘You want and deserve the best, Ellie. Lucas is the best there is.’ She scuffed her foot against the floor exactly the way Maverick would’ve if she’d told him it was time for bed.

  ‘Of course, I could always turn down the offer and stay here.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ Of course Henry must go. It was a once in a lifetime offer. Putting the finest veterinary college in the UK in the limelight as well as giving its poorer students a critical financial lifeline? There was no way she could insist Henry stay. Even so. ‘Just...give me a minute to process this, all right?’

  Henry opened his mouth, presumably to say she’d be fine, but...urgh! She didn’t want fine. She wanted everything to stay exactly as it was. Well. Not exactly. She’d rather Drew wasn’t in recovery from his accident and that he’d never been through the emotional and physical wringers the past couple of years had thrown at him, but what was the point in working your fingers to the bone and aiming for the moon and the stars beyond it only for life to throw her biggest fear into her path?

  A clammy skittering of goosebumps ran across her skin.

  She could’ve done what her parents and Drew had suggested when she’d found out she was pregnant. Told Lucas she was having his son. But to do so precisely when the papers had started crowing about a rumoured engagement between the Uber-Vet and his producer? No chance. Instead, she’d poured all her hurt and anger into building the clinic even Lucas would admire.

  She gave her arms a rub as a chill swept through her.

  What good was venom or comeuppance when the secret she held would change his life?

  Lucas would be angry. He had every right to be. Over five years of not knowing he had a son... She’d be raging if she were in his shoes. But she’d done what she’d done for a reason. Lots of reasons. One of which was ensuring she had full custody of Maverick.

  All that might change now.

  Who was she kidding? Everything would change once Lucas found out Maverick was his son. Anyone who cared for animals the way he did couldn’t be all evil.

  Henry slipped the sleeping puppy in his arm onto a bed. ‘I’d better get up to the flat and start packing.’

  ‘Don’t leave.’ Ellie gestured for him to stay then twisted her coils of strawberry blonde curls into a messy topknot. ‘Not just yet.’

  ‘How many more weeks until Drew’s out of hospital?’ Henry asked as he sat back down, even though he knew the answer as well as she did.

  ‘He’s home in the next couple of weeks, but he’s got a good two months of rehab before he can come back here to the clinic and even then...’ She glowered, the frown quickly softening as a pair of puppies began to climb a small set of steps onto a short slide and...whoosh. So adorable! Maybe she’d give Drew a puppy as part of his rehab. He hadn’t seemed so keen on doing all the exercises they’d given him last time she’d visited him in hospital, but once he was home and had a puppy to entice him out on a walk...

  ‘And his recovery is going well?’ Henry asked.

  What was going on here? Henry had visited Drew practically as much as Ellie had. Saying that... Ellie knew Drew better than just about anyone in the village. Not only was he her best friend from Dolphin Cove, he had been a student alongside Lucas and Ellie at the Royal Veterinary College. He’d watched her fall in love. He’d been part of the plotting and planning for each and every component of their dream clinic. He’d been there to mop up the tears when Lucas had ripped her heart out of her chest and walked away from each and every one of their plans. He’d also been sitting beside her as she’d watched the smiley face appear on that fateful pregnancy test nine weeks after they’d returned to Dolphin Cove to set up the clinic without Lucas. She’d clocked one missed period up to stress and heartache. Two?

  Well.

  She had her boy and she loved him to bits, so...not everything about her time with Lucas had turned out badly.

  She forced herself back onto topic. ‘I think it’s fair to say being a patient doesn’t really suit him.’ Poor Drew had already suffered so much loss. If he was permanently disabled because of his leg injuries? Nightmare. She couldn’t imagine him living a sedentary life. Not happily anyway. The man was made of motion. Except for these past few months. Suffice it to say her bestie was going to have to pull some hardcore determination out of the bag if he wanted to stand at an operating table for eight-plus hours ever again.

  Henry tapped Ellie on the knee, presumably having seen her drift off into A World Without Drew. ‘Ellie, love. I know you’ve been through a lot lately, but I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t the right thing to do. Think of all of those amazing vets I can send down here for internships.’

  Ellie heaved a melodramatic sigh, hoping Henry knew she wasn’t actually angry, just...digesting things. ‘I know. I should be cracking open the champagne for you. I just... It’s one of those crossroads moments.’

  ‘One you, of all people, have the strength to get through.’

  ‘You think?’ The last thing she felt right now was strong. Terrified, shaky, anxious and defensive? Definitely. Able to hold her own against the man she’d once loved with every fibre of her being? Not so much.

  ‘You’re made of stronger stuff than you ever give yourself credit for,’ Henry said, scooching over to her side of the puppy pen and giving her a half-hug. ‘Who knows? Maybe it’ll be the best thing that ever happened.’

  ‘Ha!’ She crinkled her nose up. ‘Having the Uber-Vet here is not going to be the best thing that ever happened to me.’

  ‘No.’ Henry gave his beard a thoughtful stroke. ‘But having Lucas Williams here might be.’ Henry smiled as if he knew something she didn’t then left the room, Ellie’s jaw still hanging open in disbelief.

  * * *

  Lucas pulled off the main road, such as it was, and onto the long, wooded drive leading down to the clinic. Seeing the clinic sign and then glimpses of the cove peek through the woodland felt as familiar to him as if he’d done it a thousand times. In a way he had.

  They’d talked about every detail of their ‘fantasy clinic’ a thousand times. More.

  Back when this site had been private land, they couldn’t have dreamt of affording let alone building a state-of-the-art clinic on it. Dreaming the impossible was easy with Ellie. She was a woman who could look at anything and spot nothing but possibility. Nothing but hope. Which went a long way towards explaining why he’d fallen in love with her the instant she’d walked into that first day of veterinary college wearing a studious expression and a tiger onesie.

  It surprised him how raw he felt, seeing their shared dream as a reality he wasn’t a part of.

  Sure, he was proud of turning his father’s failing clinic into something extraordinary, too. It had saved his family from unimaginable problems, but...looking at Ellie’s clinic on the website before he’d come down here had stirred something in him he hadn’t been sure still existed. Hope. Hope that the two of them might be able to find a peace with their complicated past.

  Most of the staff photos were action shots, unlike his well-lit posed one taken by the production photographer. There were loads of Drew, of course, but the pictures of Ellie were the ones that had punched him in the solar plexus. Ellie deep in concentration in surgery. Ellie playing with the pups she bred as service dogs from Esmerelda, the puppy he’d given to her with a diamond ring on her collar and a question on his lips.

  Will you marry me?

  If only—

  He loosened his white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel and continued to drive. If only a lot of things.

  As he drove through the woodland, a broad expanse of lawn opened out before him and then the drive split—one lane signposted for the main clinic and community petting zoo and the other for the surgical ward. He let out a low whistle.

  Ellie and Drew had clearly worked their socks of
f. He felt a burst of pride on their behalf and then, in its wake, an all too familiar stab of guilt.

  He steered the car towards the main clinic. The car park was still relatively full, even though it was near the end of the day. The building was a glass, beam and wood-shingled number that oozed confidence and comfort. Exactly the type of place you’d want to bring your pet if they were hurt. Exactly the type of place he and Ellie had envisioned opening all those years ago. He huffed out a laugh. She’d really gone and done it. With her trusty childhood friend Drew, who she had no doubt fallen in love with by now. Had kids with. Pets of their own.

  At least she’d kept Esmerelda.

  A dog isn’t just for a proposal...

  He imagined Drew slipping a ring on Ellie’s finger, felt a surge of something fiery and hot fill his chest, then checked himself. He had no rights in that area. And certainly no right to be jealous. Who Ellie loved or didn’t love was no longer his business. Helping her was.

  He parked the car, clapped his hands together and gave them a rub. He’d waited a long time to make amends. Maybe too long. Tunnel vision had been the only thing that had kept him going as he’d dealt with the massive debt his father’s London-based veterinary clinic had accrued as Parkinson’s had begun to take its toll on his father’s health, then dementia and then, six months ago, his passing.

  There were countless other threads to his family’s complicated story, and making sure Ellie wasn’t mired down with them had made breaking things off seem like the only option. Now, with Henry taking over the reins of the show he’d created to save his family from financial ruin, he felt as if he was breathing freely for the first time in years.

  A bell tinkled above his head as he entered the bright, welcoming atrium-style reception area. At its heart stood a small oak tree. The tree, a couple of metres in height, was planted in the centre of a wraparound bench seat where patients and their owners sat waiting for their appointments.

  The sight threw him back in time, feeling his hand close over Ellie’s smaller, more delicate hand as he’d passed the acorn from his to her palm when they’d decided this was the perfect spot to build their clinic.