Читать книгу Wednesday Walks & Wags - Melissa Storm - Страница 9

Chapter 3

Bridget’s friends stayed for a few hours before obligations to work, family, and other commitments forced them to return home. Bridget herself had a start time of seven the next morning, when she was scheduled to assist her favorite vet with spays and neuters.

This was a new responsibility, and one she was quite excited to add to her growing list of tech duties. While she wasn’t quite as gung ho as Nichole when it came to learning, Bridget did love to master new skills. It was one of the best ways to stay busy.

Set big goals and then exceed them.

She’d always been the overachiever in her family. Her dad had remarked more than once that Bridget’s commitment to her mother’s care was what had kept her alive so long at the end. The problem, of course, was that a higher bar meant a longer way to fall when she wasn’t able to reach it as planned.

Recognizing this tendency didn’t make it any easier to avoid it. It just gave Bridget more to fixate on. Maybe this realization played a small part in keeping her up that night. She was filled with excitement and nervousness about the big day ahead, even though she knew she was once again playing into the addictive pattern of achieving success and then promptly growing bored of it.

The lack of sleep might have also been because she was still adjusting to her new place. Maybe her bed wasn’t set up for maximum feng shui, or Marie Kondo, or whatever interior organization thing everyone was doing these days.

The fatigue that weighed down her limbs now begged her to accept Hazel’s help getting this important piece of her life right. Then again, she’d probably be so tired when she returned home from work tonight that she wouldn’t even be able to make it to the bedroom before she fell asleep in an exhausted heap outside the door.

Whatever the case, she lay blinking up at the ceiling for hours before sleep finally took her. Of course, Teddy woke her less than three hours later with another exuberant bout of barking.

Bridget groaned and pulled the pillow over her head, which prompted the fuzzy Pomeranian to jump up onto the bed and dig at her side until she sat up with a huff.

“That’s it! You’re getting crated and covered at night,” she threatened even though they both knew she didn’t mean it.

Teddy smiled so wide his tongue lolled from the side of his mouth.

“How can a tiny eight-pound ball of fur make so much noise?” she asked, receiving a loving lick in response.

“You’re lucky you’re so cute,” she grumbled, then pushed the covers aside and pulled herself from bed.

Thanks to Teddy’s early wake-up call, Bridget had extra time to get herself ready for work, and she needed every additional minute. By the time she’d downed her third cup of coffee and applied a second coat of concealer to cover the deep purple bruises beneath her eyes, she felt about 75 percent human and only 25 percent sleep-deprived zombie.

Progress.

* * *

“Good morning,” the receptionist called brightly from her place behind the giant circular desk. Two of the office cats flanked her, clearly happy for the company.

“Sheryl. Oreo. Mr. Jinx,” she said, greeting each of them in turn.

The cats ignored her completely, having decided they no longer liked her much after she’d adopted her three rescue dogs. Never mind that she was the one who most often cleaned their litter boxes.

“Oh, Bridget. You’re here!” Her favorite vet, Dr. Kate Llewelyn, appeared from the back room and came to place a concerned hand on her shoulder. “Rough night?”

Apparently the extra coat of concealer hadn’t helped as much as she’d hoped. She put on her best smile, even though she hated hearing what essentially amounted to an observation that she looked like crap. “Just busy with the move,” she answered sweetly.

“Ready to do our part to curtail the pet overpopulation crisis?” Dr. Kate asked, lifting her hand from Bridget’s shoulder and using it to pantomime the snipping of scissors. “Or do you need some more coffee first?”

“Ready.”

“Good, because Napoleon is ready and waiting. C’mon.”

Bridget and Dr. Kate worked side by side throughout the morning, mostly keeping quiet as they each gave their all to the animal patients before them. As the tech, it was Bridget’s job to cart the animals back and forth from their kennels and the surgical room and to hand Dr. Kate the tools she needed. The exciting new task became second nature by the time they finished that morning’s surgeries.

“See?” Dr. Kate said brightly, pulling off her latex gloves and shoving them in the waste bin. “You’re a pro already.”

Bridget smiled at this. She loved helping animals and especially loved that not a thing had gone wrong with any of their patients that morning. She continued to smile as she floated out into the main waiting area of the clinic to grab a snack from the mini fridge kept at reception.

That was when she saw him for the fourth time in less than twenty-four hours. Her mysterious jogging neighbor.

“Hey,” she called before she could stop herself.

He turned his full gaze toward her, his sky-blue eyes attempting to identify her but apparently coming up blank.

“I think we’re neighbors,” she explained, pushing a hand toward him. This caused the husky at his side to growl defensively.

She immediately pulled away, not afraid but knowing better than to mess with a distressed dog. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to upset him. I was just saying I think I saw you the other night going for run. Hey, don’t you have another dog, too?”

He stared at her without speaking for a few beats before finally nodding and wiping his palm on the side of his pants. “I’m Wesley. And this is Beau. My other dog is Snow, and it probably was us you saw. We try to get out and run at least twice a day, if we can. Dusty Peak Apartments, right?”

“That’s the place.” Bridget accepted his hand when it was offered again. This time Beau remained quiet at his side.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you before. You must be new,” Wesley said thoughtfully. It looked as if he was still trying to figure her out, and that made her a bit nervous.

“Very new,” she mumbled, keeping her eyes on Beau as she spoke. “Just moved in yesterday.”

“Well, welcome. If you ever want to go for a run, you can find us in 106.” Even as he said the kind words, his face remained neutral at best, giving her the distinct impression that he didn’t mean a single one of them.

“Thanks. It’s nice to know someone there now.” Her smile lingered for lack of any idea what to say next.

Wesley turned away and cleared his throat. “I, um, don’t have a lot of time. Couldn’t get the boss to give me more than an hour for my break. Is the doctor ready to see us yet?”

“Yes, sorry. I’ll go get her.” Bridget shook her head but still felt fuzzy and vaguely confused by the encounter.

By the time she returned with Dr. Kate at her side, Wesley and Beau had already been settled into one of the exam rooms.

So now she knew one of the neighbors, but she hadn’t the slightest idea whether he liked her. Maybe he was just shy, or maybe he was weird with everyone. Maybe Bridget reminded him of someone he’d once known.

Not that it mattered. Not really.

Bridget didn’t plan on making any new friends, and she always preferred life when it went to plan.