Page 14 of The Banned Books Club
“See you tomorrow morning?” Cormac said as he crouched to pet Duke, who liked to lie around the front office near the windows, where he could see what was going on outside.
“Any chance you’d be willing to go at a more decent hour?” she asked with a hopeful wince.
“Sorry, it has to be six, or I won’t be able to keep up with things around here,” he responded with a chuckle. “But nice try.”
“Okay,” she relented. “I’ll be ready.”
He gave Duke a solid pat before standing. “Dress warmly,” he told her as she went out. “It’s chilly in the mornings.”
Louisa closed the door and dropped the polite expression she’d been wearing throughout the exchange. “What was that all about?” she asked.
“Thankfully, nothing.”
“Astro’s okay?”
“He will be once we get his weight under control.”
His sister’s face revealed her confusion. “So...what was the emergency?”
“Fear.”
“Fear?” she echoed.
He set about cleaning the room in preparation for his next four-legged patient and had to dodge Duke, who kept getting in the way. “Yeah. She’s already lost too much, can’t bear the thought of saying goodbye to another member of her family, so she tends to panic if Astro shows any signs of slowing down. But they’re both going to be fine.”
She shook her head as if she still didn’t understand why he’d had to jeopardize their entire schedule to see Astroimmediately. “Okay, well, we’d better get moving, or we’re going to have some very disgruntled patients this afternoon.”
He put away the antiseptic he’d just used. “I’m all set.”
She started to open the door but, before Duke could even walk out, closed it again. “I almost forgot what I came in to tell you.”
“What’s that?”
“Edith texted me while you were with Mrs. Wood.”
Edith was his other sister, the baby of the family. Although Louisa and Edith were younger than he was, they were both married with children. At thirty-four he was definitely behind the curve on starting a family—which was probably why so many of the pet owners he dealt with tried to set him up with various women. “What’d she want?”
When Louisa seemed reluctant to say, he got the impression it wasn’t good.
“Don’t tell me something’s wrong withherdog.” His youngest sister’s Corkie was getting old. Cormac had been doing all he could to prolong the dog’s life while keeping him comfortable.
“This has nothing to do with Malone.”
“Thank God.”
“I’m not sure you’ll be so relieved once you hear what she had to say.”
This must have something to do with their father. Evan had been a mess ever since Cormac was a junior in high school. He couldn’t keep up with his bills. His last wife—the fourth in a succession of marriages since their mother left him seventeen years ago—was hounding him about some charges he put on her credit card after they split up. The next-door neighbor was complaining that Evan wasn’t keeping the grass in his yard cut. Evan’s boss was threatening to fire him for having alcohol on his breath when he came to work. The list went on. “So...was it about Dad?”
“Sort of.” She lowered her voice. “Gia’s in town.”
“Gia Rossi?”
“Yes, Gia Rossi.”
The girl who’d nearly destroyed his family. The horror and humiliation he’d experienced when she’d accused his father of inappropriate sexual conduct nearly two decades ago washed over him again. “She won’t be here long,” he said to battle the rising tide of his own resentment. “She never is.” That, in his view, served as proof that she didn’t want to face the repercussions of her lies.
“Apparently she’s staying months, maybe the whole winter,” Louisa informed him.
