He stared at her for a few more seconds and then nodded as a wide grin spread across his face. “I think I do remember you. Weren’t you the one who she got caught sneaking out to some party with one night? My mom and dad were livid.”

  Haylee cringed. “Yes, that was me. I’m afraid I might not have been the best influence on your sister while I was here.”

  Joel just laughed and shrugged. “Trust me, Robyn got herself into enough trouble on her own. That’s not all your fault.”

  She waited as he read through the rest of her application, hoping he’d see her as a suitable candidate for the job based on her marks and references from the places she’d volunteered over the years. She didn’t want to get the job just because she was some old friend of his sisters from high school.

  “You know, I probably can’t pay as much as you would earn in the city. But living in Quinn Valley has its perks, and the cost of living isn’t as high, so hopefully that would be a consideration if you do take the job. Not many people want to move to a smaller town and filling positions can be a bit difficult. I’m actually in the process of trying to find another vet to come and work here at the clinic too.”

  Was he saying she had the job? As long as she was making a livable wage, she didn’t care. She’d never wanted to become a vet tech to become rich. All she wanted was the chance to work with animals and prove she was good at what she’d spent so long studying for.

  In her mind, animals were often kinder and more deserving than people. She would work for minimum wage if she had to in order to be doing something she loved.

  “And I know you mentioned looking for an apartment to rent. There is actually a two-bedroom suite above the clinic that’s open. I lived there when I first built the place until I could get my house built. It’s nothing fancy, but until you can find something a bit bigger, I’m sure it would work.”

  She wasn’t sure what to say because it almost sounded too good to be true. What was the catch?

  “Does that mean I have the job?” She was still confused about what exactly he was offering her.

  His cheeks turned a bright shade of red once more and he shook his head. “As you can see, I’m not great at doing the business side of things. I’m beginning to think my grandmother is right and maybe I have spent too much time with animals.” He put his hand out to her. “Yes, if you’d like the job, it’s yours. I can see by your resume that you’re more than qualified. And besides that, Stanley has never steered me wrong. If he takes a liking to someone, it usually means they’re a good person. We can discuss wages, hours, and benefits if you wish to accept the offer.”

  She laughed as the dog in question lifted his head at the mention of his name. He looked at Joel, then to her before plopping his head back down on the soft bed. “Well I have to admit, this is probably the strangest job interview I’ve ever had. You’re basing your final decision on the opinion of your dog.”

  He leaned back in his chair and shrugged. “Not entirely. But your job is to work with animals, and I think it would be wrong to make any decision just on the facts written on a resume. There are people out there who are good with animals, and there are some who aren’t, no matter how much experience or training they have. Stanley has given his approval, which lets me know which category you fall into.”

  Haylee swallowed the lump that mysteriously formed in her throat. What was wrong with her? Just because this man had told her, in a roundabout way, that she was a good person and was worthy of this job didn’t mean she needed to end up breaking down in his office. It wasn’t like he was the first person to make her feel worthy, or was he?

  After almost flunking out of high school, Haylee had ended up receiving the highest grades in all her vet technician courses. So, she had all the awards and slips of paper that gave her accolades for her amazing accomplishments.

  But for some reason, sitting here in this room and hearing this man say he knew she was a good person just hit her hard. She realized with a start that she’d never truly believed herself to be anything more than that foster kid who was moved from home to home for poor behavior. She hadn’t been willing to admit all those years, that all she wanted was to be liked by someone.

  Stanley suddenly jumped up and stepped over to place his head on her lap, looking up at her with eyes that seemed to know every thought she was having.

  Joel laughed and leaned forward to run his hand down the dog’s back.

  “See? Stanley says he thinks you should definitely take the job.”

  Haylee smiled down at the sad face resting on her knee. “Well, how could I ever refuse an offer like this?”

  Chapter Three

  “And then Grams said he completely lost his cool and muttered something about liking dogs too instead of introducing himself straightaway.” Brooke slapped her knee as she laughed out loud, even giving her head a little shake for extra dramatic effect.

  Joel scowled across at his twin sister who was his current crokinole partner.

  Crokinole wasn’t a game many people around here played but since the Quinn family was well-known for their family game nights, there wasn’t a game out there they hadn’t tried. When their father had been on a trip to Canada, he’d brought the game back and it had quickly become a family favorite. One reason was because when you were feeling especially irritated with your partner, you could flick the wooden disc hard in their direction and hope it managed to flip off the board and hit them on the forehead.

  And that’s exactly what he did now.

  “Ow! You did that on purpose!” Brooke brought her hand up to rub her brow where the game piece had connected.

  “No, I didn’t. Why would I waste a perfectly good turn?” He gave her an innocent look that let them all know he had no remorse whatsoever.

  “Children, do we need to separate you?”

  Their mom’s voice interrupted from the other table, set up with the other new crokinole board being used for their mini-tournament. Brooke and Joel were currently playing against Robyn and Brooke’s fiancé Jared, while the other table had the rest of the family. Names had been drawn for teams to start and they’d all move around to play each other until the final winning team was decided. Their mother, Irene, had been paired up with the youngest sibling, Vicki, while their father, Harold, had been stuck with Travis. Joel’s younger brother, Travis, was by far the worst crokinole player in the world and never seemed to get better, so Joel had been relieved he hadn’t ended up being paired with him.

  But he was beginning to think having Travis for a partner might have been better than being stuck at this table full of people who only seemed interested in talking about him.

  “For the record, I was merely letting her know I liked dogs too after she’d commented that she liked them. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  “Yeah, leave the poor guy alone. It’s not always easy being a guy and coming up with witty introductions. Well, at least that’s what I’ve heard. I’ve always been great at making first impressions.” Jared grinned over at Brooke who immediately pushed an eyebrow up.

  “Really? I’d say you still hold the record for worst first impression.”

  Joel laughed, glad for the chance to move the conversation to someone else. “That’s a record that will be hard to beat.”

  When Jared had met Brooke, she’d mistaken him for a blind date that was supposed to be showing up. He’d realized the mistake but hadn’t said anything. So as far as Joel was concerned, that was far worse than simply making a silly statement about liking dogs.

  “Well thankfully, my charm won her over in the end. Hopefully you can do the same with this poor girl.” Jared shot his disc, knocking one of theirs off the board.

  “I never said I’m trying to win Haylee over. You’re the ones who seem to think there’s more to it than there is. She’s going to be working for me now, nothing more.” He shrugged with a nonchalance he wasn’t actually feeling. He would be the first to admit he’d love there to be something more, but he didn’t know if that would be a good idea since she was going to be an employee now. Of course, it would be his luck that when he finally finds himself drawn to a woman who he can’t stop thinking about since meeting her, she would be off limits.

  “I’m just so happy to hear Haylee is doing okay. She had such a rough time growing up and I always hoped she’d be able to follow her dream. Although I should have known she would do it. She was always determined.” His sister Robyn had been shocked when he’d mentioned that his new vet tech was going to be her old friend Haylee Evans. Haylee had arrived in a foster home in Quinn Valley for their senior year in Riston High School, so they hadn’t really had a lot of time together, and Robyn had said they’d quickly lost touch after graduation.

  “She has a sister who lives with her, but she didn’t really give me much information about it, other than she’s thirteen and just recently came to live with her.” Joel felt guilty talking about Haylee for some reason, but he had a curiosity about her he couldn’t shake. He was trying to see what else Robyn might be able to tell him about her.

  Robyn scrunched her face in confusion as she looked at him. “That’s funny. She never mentioned having a sister, although she would have been so much younger than us, maybe she just didn’t talk about her. But, she hadn’t seen her mom in a few years by the time she came to Quinn Valley.” Robyn looked back down at the board to take her shot.

  “I know she was in a foster home? But why hadn’t she seen her mom?” Joel shook his head and put his hands up. “No, never mind. It’s none of my business. If Haylee wants to tell me herself someday, she can. I don’t feel right talking about her like this.”

  Robyn raised an eyebrow and tried to erase the smirk from her face as she looked at Jared, then Brooke. They were all nodding. He ignored them and lined up his shot, hoping the burning in his cheeks wasn’t giving too much of his embarrassment away. He knew they all thought he was interested in her more than as an employee, but he didn’t care. That’s what she was. He was just being a concerned boss, that’s all.

  “It really wasn’t a big secret or anything. She came to Quinn Valley to live with Miss Ida Rose. Of course, that was before Ida’s husband passed away and they used to take in foster children. She never really said much about her life growing up other than her mom hadn’t cared about being a mother, so she’d been living in foster homes most of her life. And I never asked her why she was sent here. She carried so much anger about her past, that we just never talked about it much.”

  “Miss Ida Rose? You mean Ida Rose who comes into the clinic all the time with her pets and who I have a ‘date’ with next week?”

  Even though Quinn Valley was small, it was still quite a coincidence that he’d know the woman so well and had in fact just been won at the Valentine’s Auction by her.

  “I wonder why Haylee didn’t mention anything about knowing anyone else in town? You’d think if she’d lived there, she would have talked about maybe visiting with Ida or staying there perhaps.”

  Robyn shrugged. “I don’t know. I got the impression Haylee was so tired of foster homes by then, that she might not have really wanted to be there. I know the day she graduated, she packed her bags and left town. She’d turned eighteen the month before and had said she was no longer a ward of the state, so she was leaving.”

  He just couldn’t picture Ida as being anything other than the kind, gentle woman he’d gotten to know over the years. Why wouldn’t Haylee have wanted to live there?

  “You know, for a guy who really doesn’t want to talk about her, you sure do have a lot of questions.” Brooke leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms in front of herself, while Jared took his turn, shooting the disc with a loud snap against the board.

  “I don’t want to talk about her. I’m just curious. She’s going to be working for me now, so I want to make sure she isn’t someone who will start her job and then leave right away.” He somehow knew after meeting her briefly that she would never be the type to do that, but he hoped it would get the others off his back.

  Thankfully, Travis let out a loud whoop and clapped his hands, interrupting the conversation. “We won! I can’t believe I actually hit that one!”

  They all looked over and burst out laughing at the excitement on his face. Their dad was sitting there looking completely stunned that they’d actually won. You always knew if Travis was on your team, you were going to lose.

  Stanley jumped up in the excitement, banging his large head into the card table that held their game board, quickly knocking it sideways.

  “No! Stanley…stop!” But the big dog was filled with energy thinking that someone might want to play with him. He couldn’t take any chances that he might miss out. He lunged forward, taking the table and the board right down to the ground with him.

  Robyn brought her hands up to her cheeks while Jared burst out laughing. Brooke was frantically trying to pick the pieces off the floor as she muttered under her breath about the big, clumsy dog. “Of course, just when we were finally winning. Honestly, Joel, why does this dog have to always be under our feet?”

  Stanley raced back over to Brooke, giving her a big lick across her cheek since she was the only one down at his level. She groaned and wiped her face as she rolled her eyes. But she couldn’t stop the grin that covered her face.

  “Because you’d be lost without him, Brooke, and you know it.”

  She huffed as she stood up and set the board back onto the table which Jared had set back upright. “Well, all I know is that if you ever do plan to find yourself a woman, you better teach that dog some manners or she’ll be running out the door before you can even blink.”

  Joel reached down and put his hand out to scratch Stanley behind the ears. The big dog leaned against his leg, enjoying the attention and completely oblivious to the fact he’d just left a trail of destruction behind him. Joel couldn’t help but remember how Haylee had immediately fallen in love with the dog, even as he’d almost knocked her over and covered her in slobber.

  So, maybe Brooke wasn’t right about Stanley. Just maybe, if Joel could find the right woman, she’d love Stanley as much as he did.

  Because like it or not, they were a package deal.

  Chapter Four

  “I still don’t see why we had to come live in this little hick town anyway. We were fine living in the city. This little town doesn’t even have its own high school, so I have to ride a bus to the next town over.”

  Haylee took a deep breath and held it for a second to compose herself as she listened to her sister vent about their new living arrangements. She knew how Claire was feeling, but it didn’t make it easier for her to deal with. And she remembered feeling the same way all those years ago when she’d been sent to live here…

  “Because I needed a job and there weren’t any in Lewistown. I went to my last year of high school in Riston too and it really isn’t that far from Quinn Valley. You’ll love it there.” She kept her eyes looking ahead at the road and hoped Claire wouldn’t be able to see the truth in them.

  Haylee had hated every minute of being in high school, but she had so much more hope for Claire. Maybe she could find a way to fit in like she never had. “And, I thought it would be nice for us to just have some time away from everyone there.” Claire had fallen in with some friends who Haylee knew were leading her down a bad path. Haylee was worried that if they’d stayed there, she would have lost her sister completely.

  And that wasn’t something she was prepared to live with. The day she’d found out she had a little sister over two years ago, she’d worked hard to finish her education so she could eventually have the chance to bring her to live with her. When she’d finally been granted custody of Claire, Haylee had decided then she would do everything she could to give her the life she’d always wanted.

  Their family might not be perfect, and the home she could provide for her wasn’t the nice house with the wraparound porch she’d always dreamed of having, but they were family and they were together.

  Haylee pulled into the lane with the large sign announcing the “Quinn Valley Paws-pital.” Her heart pounded excitedly as she thought about the new adventure she was about to take. Working with animals was a dream come true for her, and she’d fought hard to get to see this day.

  Thankfully, Joel Quinn believed in her enough to give her a job. Not to mention the chance to live in the apartment upstairs until they could find something better. It would give her some time to save and maybe even have enough for a down payment on a house.

  After the job interview the other day, they’d gone back to the city to pack up what few belongings they had to make their move here. Her sister had barely spoken a word to her today since they’d left the city for their new life.

  Haylee knew she had a long way to go to earn her sister’s trust after the life she’d had growing up, but at least now they had a place to be together. She just had to find a way to get through to Claire and to get her to open up to her.

  As she pulled up to the far side of the building, she could see a house set back in the trees. She knew that had to be Joel’s. He’d said he lived on the property just behind the clinic so he could be close by for emergencies.

  There was another large building beyond the clinic that was entirely fenced in. Haylee could see a few dogs running around playing inside the pen. Joel had mentioned he also housed dogs that needed extra care when coming into a rescue and kept any who couldn’t be placed when they were full to capacity.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9