Her Veterinarian Hero, page 20
Tyler checked his cell phone and found a text message from Sandy.
Faucet working fine. Thanks.
“It was a pretty good festival,” Gary said, breaking down their table. “I’ll have to tell Hattie.”
Tyler shoved his cell phone in his pocket. “You two were getting friendly.”
“What? Oh, no. We’ve known each other for years.”
“I saw you dancing out there. You gave the walking club plenty to talk about tomorrow morning.”
“Oh, shut up,” Gary said, though he was grinning from ear to ear. “When a woman asks you to dance, you always say yes. At least, that’s what Hattie said.”
Tyler quirked a brow. “I doubt you needed much persuading. Just the same, I’m glad you had fun.”
“I sure did, but I don’t think she is.” Gary elbowed Tyler in the side while staring at the dance floor. “Don’t look now but your girlfriend needs you.”
Dex Randall, who had always been a hard-edged brute of a guy, was trying to persuade Olivia to join him on the dance floor.
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
It certainly was.
The burnt orange sky was quickly darkening to dusk as a jaunty tune filled the gazebo and dance floor. Many folks had congregated to cheer on the fiddler, who had gone off-page and played harder and faster the more people clapped and cheered. The resurgence of excitement had only continued when thousands of twinkle lights, which had been strung over the dance floor, powered on. People finished clapping for the fiddler and then looked up in awed delight. That was probably how Olivia had found herself milling close to the dance floor and directly in Dex’s sights.
From afar, Dex looked like he was exhausting all of his persuasive tactics. He hadn’t reached for her, but Tyler thought he was standing just a little too close. His eyes had narrowed on her just a little too intensely. Regardless of what Dex was saying, he gave Tyler the impression he would pursue Olivia until she agreed to dance.
The adrenaline coursed so hard, so fast, that Tyler shoved the box he’d been holding into Gary’s waiting arms with a thud.
“Ugh,” Gary groaned. “I’ll take that.”
He knew Olivia could handle herself, even with a guy as assertive as Dex. Still, he felt compelled to help her. Every fiber of his body sprang alert, ready to jump in and do...something.
Tyler muttered, his eyes fixed on Olivia. “She needs...”
“Yep,” Gary said.
“I gotta go and...”
“Yep.”
“Give me a minute,” Tyler said. He cut a straight line to Olivia and Dex.
He was at Olivia’s side, reaching to take her hand, before Dex could manage another word. Her eyes flooded with relief when she saw him.
“Olivia,” he said. “You promised me a dance.”
Dex scowled. “Wait a second, Doc. We were in the middle of something.”
“Not anymore.”
Olivia threw Dex an apologetic smile and clasped Tyler’s hand tightly. “I’m so sorry... Dex, was it? I have to go home soon, and I did promise him.”
Dex’s expression darkened. He pursed his lips as Tyler pulled Olivia to the dance floor.
“You’re just in time,” she breathed. “Again.”
“Again?”
“You have a habit of saving me.”
“Dancing with Dex is worse than falling off a cliff.”
Olivia muffled a laugh. “I got that impression, too. Thanks.”
“That’s what friends are for.”
Tyler led Olivia to a clearing in the center of the dance floor. A group of teenagers had formed a small circle. They cheered as each one took a turn solo dancing inside the ring. Children and their parents continued to mill around the space.
Tyler knew people would see them; people would talk. He imagined Caroline and Hattie and Gary winking at each other in that sly, knowing way adults sometimes did. CeCe would probably add them to her list of gossip topics for the next day, giving the walking club plenty of fodder.
If Micah spotted them, Tyler wondered if he would be shocked at the development. His mother was dancing with a man who wasn’t his father. Could something like that shake a kid up? It had felt very strange when his dad had started dating Robin, but his dad had been so unhappy for such a long time, Tyler had forced himself to feel better about the match sooner than later. As it turned out, his dad’s happiness had been very, very short-lived.
One song, Tyler told himself. Friends could dance to one upbeat tempo song without causing a stir.
Olivia wore a blue dress that in the sunshine looked cobalt. The light of dusk now played with the shade. As she sashayed her hips, he marveled at the way her body moved with the music, the cotton fabric shifting over her curves like dark waves on the ocean.
“We should stay out here for a while,” he said. “At least until Dex leaves.”
“Whatever you think.”
He thought it was fascinating the way her face caught the twinkle lights. Just as soon as he thought about touching her cheek to remember how soft it was, fate dealt him an opportunity. The up-tempo song ended and a new song, a dangerously slow one, began.
* * *
OLIVIA HAD ALWAYS loved the way a man looked when offering his hand to a woman. As a young girl she had seen the scenario dozens of times in television shows or movies. Whether he was helping her step down off a train or greeting her at a ball, the man’s eyes usually looked so warm and inviting.
But when Olivia accepted Tyler’s extended hand, it wasn’t his eyes that overtook her. It was the way he invited her into his space, his closeness.
“Do we dare?” he said. His voice hinted that they were breaking some sort of rule.
She supposed they should stay on the dance floor a little longer. After all, she didn’t want to return to the booth and get cornered by Dex again.
Olivia took Tyler’s hand and maneuvered closer. He positioned his arms to frame her body, like a craftsman sizing up a portrait. His broad body was perhaps as sturdy and protective as a break wall shielding her from nature’s fury, or at least the jitters wriggling throughout her body. In this moment, with him, she didn’t have to be strong. She didn’t have to make any more judgment calls or second-guess any decision. For as long as the song played, she could just be with Tyler.
The warmth of the day had cooled to night. Tyler slipped his hand more snugly around her lower back like setting the canvas in the frame. With his other hand, he guided her palm to his chest just over his heart. He traced a fingertip over her knuckles, tracing something she couldn’t decipher but understood all the same.
“Is this okay?” he said, the tenderness in his voice eclipsing her hesitation. She wanted to say that it was more than okay. She wanted to say that all day she’d reviewed the reasons they should stay friends, but just then, as his touch tickled, she couldn’t remember any of them. Swaying in time to the music, wrapped in Tyler’s embrace, she couldn’t clear her mind long enough to remember what she had been thinking.
He covered her hand with his own. Between the slow-tempo guitar strum and the thu-thump of his heartbeat under her palm, she didn’t have to know the choreography of their steps. The beat of his heart was as steady as a metronome, guiding her, leading her. She could set her feet to it and to the melody drifting all around them.
Their feet shuffled, mere centimeters at a time, rotating them slightly in a circle. The Roseley firmament had settled, sealing them off from the rest of the world, but she surrendered to it willingly and gratefully.
Carefully, she lay her head against his warm chest and relaxed on her feet. Tyler lowered his head to nuzzle his face closer to hers. His whiskers scratched against the collar of his shirt. It was a sound so simple yet dripping with masculinity. It resonated in her ear and sent tickly shivers down the back of her neck like sparks falling from flint.
“I like this song,” she murmured.
“Me, too.”
She closed her eyes and let her other senses take over. Tyler’s controlled breath blew faintly on her eyelashes. His hand shifted at her back, adjusting to keep her pressed against him. They moved as one, a pair of bookends that had come together for one song only.
“Olivia.”
“Hmm?” she hummed.
“Olivia.” His voice caught an edge that felt out of place.
“Wh-what?” She blinked, confused. The song hadn’t ended, and she felt cheated. “Tyler,” she said, staring up at him. His face had sobered in a flash. “What is it?”
“Micah.”
On his word, Tyler bolted from the dance floor. Olivia had no idea where he was going or what was wrong. All she knew was that her son had been the cause. That fact instantly flooded her veins with fear.
Olivia followed as Tyler ran behind the clinic’s booth and over a large stretch of grassy hill that butted up to the closest parking lot. The jerky flash of Tyler’s truck brake lights was all she could focus on as Tyler reached the pavement and called to the driver.
The truck jolted backward.
“Put it in Park!” Tyler cried.
Olivia raced to catch up. Most people had begun to clear out for the night, but out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Hattie and Gary running toward them.
Once the truck had come to a complete stop, the driver’s-side door creaked open.
“Is it in Park?” Tyler said, holding his forehead as he caught his breath. “Are you okay?”
Micah sheepishly slid out from behind the steering wheel. “Yeah,” he muttered. “I didn’t drive it far. Just from the far side of that lot.”
“Micah,” Olivia said, her sheer exasperation keeping her from saying anything but her child’s name. She couldn’t say she was angry—yet. More than feeling worried or scared or furious, she was completely shocked at her son’s behavior. He might have been a challenge on occasion over the last two years, but he’d never attempted something like this. She stared at him, mouth agape.
“Gary wanted to finish breaking down the booth,” Micah explained hurriedly. “He gave me the keys so I could unlock the truck tailgate and start loading. But it made more sense to pull the truck closer. Work smart, not hard, right?”
“If something had happened, I would have been liable, Micah,” Tyler said. “It’s my truck.”
“Nothing happened, though.”
“I don’t care,” Tyler returned. “You don’t have a driver’s license—far from it.”
“Micah,” Hattie said, finally reaching them. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.”
“Heavens, child. You could have hurt yourself or someone else.”
Micah’s eyes flashed, hot with anger. “I’m not a child.”
“Micah,” Olivia said. “Is that all you heard? You could have hurt somebody.”
“I didn’t hurt anybody!” Micah held out his arms to prove it. “Do you see anyone hurt? It’s not that big a deal.”
“Not that big a deal?” Olivia repeated.
She might believe Micah had had a momentary lapse in good judgment, but to not acknowledge he’d done something wrong infuriated her. She didn’t recognize the boy standing in front of her. His thick, curly hair was dewy with sweat just like it used to get when he had spent an entire summer day playing baseball. She’d wrap her arms around him at the end of the day and bury her nose into the top of his head. He smelled sour, the fragrance of summertime lived to its fullest.
But with his sulky expression and dismissive response, he also looked so much like Jeb when he was shaking off any wrongdoing, like he always had when they’d been together. Jeb had wanted to live marriage by his own rules. She’d seen the same look on Jeb’s face the night she’d told him she was tired of being second, sometimes even third, to his career. When she’d dropped the word divorce, he had at first mocked her, treating her like she was completely out of touch with reality. How could she have known that that night of arguing would be the last time they would have a conversation that lasted longer than twelve seconds. She’d argued with him that night out of anger and hurt and rejection. She didn’t want to speak out of anger again and say something she might later regret.
Micah’s face was still round, his body still lean, the build of a boy who hadn’t yet done hard work or gotten dirt and life under his nails. He wanted so much to be a man, and she struggled with what to say to him. He was floundering to find his way, trying to punch the gas into adulthood without knowing how to shift gears safely.
“Micah,” she began, reminding herself to breathe.
“Mom, I don’t want to hear it.”
Olivia made a noise she had never heard herself make before. It was an assertive scoff that cued her son into their new reality. “Excuse me?” she burst. Micah’s eyes rounded, preparing for impact. “Micah Joseph Howard,” she said, her voice turning gravelly. “You will hear every single thing I want to say to you because I am your mother.”
Micah turned to Tyler, most likely looking for support, but his boss backed away.
“We’ll give you two a minute,” Tyler said. He motioned for Hattie and Gary to follow him back to the booths. As he walked past Olivia, he gave her a quick, supportive wink. She had no idea what she was going to do next with Micah, but she appreciated the fact that Tyler had her back.
“Aunt Hattie,” Micah called. “Can you drive me home?”
His request dissipated into the evening air as Hattie had already begun walking away. It was just the two of them now.
“Go get in the car, Micah,” Olivia said.
“Are you going to ground me?”
Olivia wasn’t sure what she was going to do, but she had to think quick to figure it out.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
TYLER SAT BEHIND the wheel of his truck. He’d gotten to the clinic at the usual time, a few minutes before the walking club arrived, but he wasn’t ready to go inside yet. He was curious if Gary would act any differently this morning, seeing as his dance with Hattie had overshadowed gossip about anything else—even Tyler’s dance with Olivia.
After the events of the weekend, Tyler had had a hard time believing life could get back on schedule so quickly. As much as he wanted to get back to normal, things felt different. He felt different. He’d spent the entire night tossing and turning, trying to piece together why. He’d gotten out of bed that morning sleep-deprived and without any answers.
He’d texted Olivia before heading to bed Saturday night, to ask how it’d gone with Micah. He’d told himself that a friend would follow up to check on her, and considering Micah was his employee and he had grown to be quite fond of the kid, he had all the more reason to check in.
Olivia had texted back to explain that she’d taken Micah home, had had a one-sided conversation where she did the talking and he did the mumbling, and then she’d sent him to bed, grounded. He figured she hadn’t slept very well, either.
Tyler spotted Dolores’s violet-gray perm from a long way down the sidewalk. It was the first sign that she, and the rest of the walking club, were back in action. The ladies marched up the sidewalk, heads forward and arms swinging. CeCe, as usual, had taken the point.
Tyler counted down slowly to himself, watching for Gary’s cue.
“Five...four... Gary...” he muttered. “Two...”
Just then, Gary swung open the clinic door and jostled his keys. He always made a big show of unlocking the doors and then pretending to notice the ladies.
Tyler couldn’t say for sure which woman in the walking club Gary liked the best. As a general rule, however, he enjoyed their attention just before seven o’clock every morning.
Just as Tyler leaned back to watch the daily exchange, his uncle spotted him in his truck and waved him over.
“I was giving you some privacy, big guy,” Tyler muttered before stepping out.
“Dr. Elderman!” CeCe called as he approached. “What was your favorite part of the festival?”
Tyler knew holding Olivia in his arms had been the highlight, but he figured CeCe was looking for something a little more festival related.
“Does he have to pick just one?” Gary said. The women giggled. Once they’d finished chatting, Gary waved the ladies down the sidewalk as Tyler slugged his uncle in the arm.
“Do you live for this every day?” he said.
“It’s a perk of working on this street, yes.”
“Which one do you like?”
“All of them.”
“CeCe is married but several of the others are single. Do you ever want to ask one to dinner?” Tyler pressed.
“I don’t know. I like things the way they are.”
Gary opened the clinic door and went inside. He flipped on the lights and wandered to the back kitchen to start the coffee maker.
“Joan Baskins is sweet on you,” Tyler said, following him.
“Is she?”
“And Dolores, I think.”
Gary swept a hand around the clinic in a grand gesture. “Everything I need is right here. I have my work, which I love. I have my hobbies.” Gary released a satisfied sigh and studied his nephew. “Anyway, are you sure we’re talking about setting me up?”
Tyler frowned. “As far as I checked.”
“What about Olivia?”
“What about her?”
“I saw you two Saturday, stealing glances at each other for hours before you ended up on the dance floor.”
“I was saving her from Dex. We’re just friends.”
