The Vet from Snowy River by Stella Quinn

CHAPTER

23

Vera was hiding in the kitchen like a coward and she knew it. Cooling fruit buns could only be checked so many times, and the orders had thinned; no more lasagnes just cake and coffee requests, all of which could be handled out front.

Dishwasher stacked, oven gleaming, knives sharper than an arctic breeze. She’d run out of excuses. She was going to have to go out there and say hi to Josh and try and untangle the mess she’d made of their date before her head split apart.

Her aunt was in a coma, and she was about to drive two hundred clicks to face a magistrate. Her travel bag was packed for a two-night stay, she had a boot full of indexed facts and figures and affidavits, and all she could think about was the guy sitting in the second stool from the end at her café counter.

She needed a clear head, and she wasn’t going to get one before she’d explained why she’d blown so cold after blowing so hot the day he was kind enough to take her for a horseride.

She could make it brisk. Impersonal. Just stride out there to her front counter and say it. So, Josh, yeah. I’m facing a criminal chargeand I’m about to drive to Queanbeyan and I may go to prison. Rescue the cat, will you, if I’m not back by Friday? Mrs Butler on the ground floor has a key.

God, no. Josh, you’ve been kissing a jailbird. Thanks for the memories. Nope. That sounded like a country and western song no-one wanted to hear.

She could always try the truth. She whispered the words to the refrigerator in a test run. ‘I’m a fool, Josh, and the last guy I was involved with took something from me when he betrayed my trust and started this whole chain of disasters that’s ended up with me shelling out a fortune in legal fees to stay out of prison. He took the part of me that could be with someone. He took my faith in humanity. And I don’t know if I’ll ever get that back. Even for a guy with kind eyes and a kiss factor that’s off the freaking charts.’

Vera rested her head against the fridge, wishing the cold sheet of stainless steel could work its way inside her thoughts and chill them down, too.

That was the problem. Well, one of them.

Since those kind eyes had started looking in her direction … since she’d felt the brand of that kiss showing her a future she might have had if not for all the shitstorm brewing about her …

Her thoughts couldn’t settle. When she closed her eyes, Josh was there. Usually undressed, and there was a part of her that kept wondering would it hurt to sample just a teensy tiny bite of what he had to offer?

She might not have a future, but she had a now, didn’t she?

Josh deserved a future that she couldn’t give him, but damn it, she’d tried being noble and look where it had got her.

The lonely voice inside her head kept workshopping scenarios in which it would be okay for her to be with Josh … to have him march on into the kitchen and haul her up against all that manly hotness like she was a souffle and he was her own personal white-hot ceramic dish.

Just for a bit.

Just until the preliminary hearing pinched away at all that was left of her.

Maybe she could invite Josh over for a drink. He’d probably say no … she’d given him plenty of reasons to put her in the high-maintenance-blows-hot-and-cold basket, but …

‘Don’t say no,’ she murmured into the silent cool of the fridge door.

‘Vera? Are you okay?’

Perfect. It would have to be the town’s self-appointed do-gooder, sticking her nose through the kitchen doors just while she was talking to herself about seducing the town vet. To the refrigerator. She was genuinely losing her marbles. Maybe it wasn’t too late to text her lawyer and throw in an insanity plea.

She hauled open the fridge door and started clanking bottles of sauce around. She was a busy cook, not a loser who’d … well, lost it.

‘Marigold. You need something?’

‘Not sure, but Graeme and Josh just ran out of here and Graeme asked me to let you know. They can smell smoke. I’m heading out to see what’s up, and—’ Marigold broke off. ‘Can you hear a siren?’

Vera reached up and killed the switch to the industrial exhaust rigged up over the grill, and into the silence fell the unmistakable noise of sirens. ‘They sound close. I’m coming. Let’s see what’s going on.’

The diners lingering over dessert were lined up at the window, and even the crafters had put aside their projects to wander out. Before Vera and Marigold could reach the front door, it flicked open, bringing with it a waft of smoke smell and Kev Jones.

His eyes met Vera’s. ‘Honey, it’s the vet clinic on fire.’

‘What?’ The clinic! And Josh and Graeme had gone down there! With two sharp claps she silenced the rising din. ‘Everyone! Please, the café is going to shut. You can pay next time you’re in if you haven’t paid already.’

Marigold was by her side, and she grasped the woman’s arm. ‘Can you see the craft group safely to their cars? I have to go. I don’t know if—’

She stopped there. She didn’t know anything. She just knew she needed to go find out.

‘Leave it to me. You got spare keys? I’ll lock up when I’m done.’

‘Marigold, thank you.’

‘Well now. This is the first time you’ve leaned on me, Vera, and I’m pleased I can help. I reckon you’re thinking like a local now.’

Vera grabbed for her coat then pulled the spare set of keys out of the till drawer and handed them over.

‘You go on and make sure my Kev doesn’t forget himself and start acting like a hero. God will snap that man up for himself first chance he gets, and I’m not done with him.’

Hanrahan’s residents had congregated in the corner of the park and watched the blaze take hold. Two fire trucks blocked Dandaloo Street, their strobe lights a whirlpool of dizzying blue and red. Vera squeezed through, nudging shoulders and handbags as she made her way to the front of the crowd. A cordon had been rolled out, and she could see Alex—Graeme’s partner—hauling hose equipment down from one of the trucks. A policewoman was urging the onlookers to stay back, move along, remember where their homes were and go to them.

The reality, when she saw it for herself, took her breath. The Cody building was in darkness—someone must have cut the power—but the lower storey was ablaze. It looked like a meteor had torn through the reception.

Raised voices, the crackle of radio traffic, and everywhere action, water, hoses thicker than elephant trunks, all directed on the beautiful old building. Where was Josh? Where was Graeme? She pushed forward to the cordon, ignoring the frowns from the police officer.

A man, vaguely familiar from the café, stood by a red-and-white traffic cone.

‘Do you know what’s happened?’ she asked him.

‘I know my stock will be ruined.’

She raised her eyebrows at him and he pointed to Bits and Bobs, the small gift shop that operated out of the ground floor of the next building. Vera’d been in there once searching for a book on Hanrahan’s history to read to Jill.

‘Has the fire spread there too?’

‘Not yet, but the smoke stink will have. A lot of my stock is fabric: cushions, tea towels, scarves, that sort of thing. Worthless now, and my landlord’s so stingy she won’t give a damn.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Stock could be replaced, she thought. People couldn’t … kind-eyed vets and outrageous gold-hearted baristas couldn’t.

To her side she caught sight of a green corduroy cap—Kev. ‘Do you know what’s going on?’ she said.

‘I’ve spoken to Alex. He says they’re trying to work out if Hannah was in there, and they’re trying to get the animals out.’

‘My god, is that safe? Alex wouldn’t let them go inside, surely.’

‘Hold your horses, pet. Let’s not get the worry beads out until we have to.’

Vera scanned the crowd and was relieved to see Marigold swooping in on them like a hippy rescue angel. She would know what was going on.

‘Keep away from the cordon, please, ma’am.’

Marigold patted the policewoman on the arm. ‘Sergeant King, thank heaven you’re here. What can you tell us?’

‘It’s too soon to know much, but the Fire Chief—’ The policewoman turned away mid-speech as the radio she wore crackled to life. ‘Copy that,’ she said into her mike. Her face was more relaxed when she turned back to them. ‘Everyone’s clear of the building.’

Shouts sounded from the laneway around the corner, and Vera squinted through the smoky darkness. Was that— Not Josh, but Graeme, carrying one end of a cage. As he reached the street, she saw Hannah was holding the other end of the cage, her face covered in ash, an old oilskin riding coat miles too big eroding her of shape.

But where in heaven’s name was Josh? As she thought it, the sturdy shape of the brown dog who’d adopted him came barrelling across to the park. Behind her the unmistakable silhouette of the vet. Her vet. The man she’d been having inappropriate fantasies about not half an hour ago.

She dragged in a breath of smoky air. He was safe.

Close behind Josh was a firewoman, with something—puppies?—in her hands. The firewoman herded the group over to the cordon and lifted it so they could duck through.

‘Kev, grab a pup from Lorraine, will you?’ said Josh. ‘If we put them down out here, they’ll get trampled. Vera, would you mind taking the other? I need to find a crate.’

Wordlessly, she held out her hands and the firewoman handed her a squirming yellow lump of fur. Her eyes clashed with Josh’s for a charged moment. ‘Josh. I’m so sorry. Is there anyth—’

‘Next time I give you an order, Josh Cody,’ cut in the firewoman, ‘you’re going to pay attention, you got that?’

He turned to her. ‘Yes, Chief.’

‘Now, you get those animals you’ve got stuck in your pockets sorted out. And if I see that snake loose, I’m gonna cause a ruckus the likes of which Hanrahan has never seen.’

‘Now, Lorraine, he’s harmless to everyone here except the guinea pig he’s currently sharing a cage with.’

‘A snake’s a snake, Cody. If you don’t want to see the chief of the Rural Fire Brigade—namely me—crying like a toddler in front of all the stickybeaks cluttering up this park, you keep that thing out of sight, that’s all I’m saying. Now, get yourself sorted and stay outside the cordon. I’ll come find you when we’ve got this fire contained.’

‘Thanks, Lorraine. Appreciate it.’

‘Meg, arrest him if he crosses through.’

The policewoman nodded. ‘No worries.’

Lorraine patted Josh on the cheek then headed over to the broken windows where the main fire seemed, finally, to be losing its battle.

‘Josh,’ said Hannah, ‘what about Max and the other pups?’

Josh reached into the jacket he was wearing. ‘How many pockets you got in that coat?’

‘Plenty.’

He handed three of the pups over. ‘Zip them into your jacket, will you, Han? It’s pretty cold out here. I’ll keep Max.’

‘How on earth are we going to tell Mum and Dad about this?’ said Hannah.

‘Hopefully they’re out of range of a cell tower. We can ring them when we know more,’ her brother replied.

The two Codys stood shoulder to shoulder, the smouldering shell of their home lit up before them. Vera knew what it was like to lose everything, to have the foundations you thought you could count on ripped out from under you. She knew … but what words of comfort could she offer?

A half-date that had ended with a hot-handed kiss on a bridle trail and her charging off in tears like a crazy woman, a few charged looks over a busy café counter, a dozen midnight fantasies in the privacy of her own home … that wasn’t enough. She wasn’t part of Josh’s life, she was a bystander.

And she was a mess. This wasn’t even her home burning down, and she could feel her eyes stinging from more than smoke. A wet nose snuffled into her hand and she looked down at the golden pup she held. His eyes were open, and regarded her like she was his rescuer, not the big capable guy standing on the kerb with his sister. She pressed her nose into his fur and hoped it would dry the tears on her cheeks. ‘Don’t look at me like that, big guy,’ she murmured. ‘I didn’t run into a burning building and haul you out.’

No. But she could do something. A crate, Josh had said. She had a dozen or more fruit boxes stacked outside the back door of The Billy Button Café. She tucked the pup firmly into the crook of her arm and slipped off to the opposite side of the park.

She’d find the Codys a crate. And then she needed to get in her car and drive two hundred kilometres to see if she could find herself a future.