Chapter 11
Hours later, we were still at the vet with little to no news.
Charlie’s system was being flushed of the toxins.
He was responding to the medication.
He was not out of the woods yet.
I tried pacing, I tried sitting still, I tried scrolling mindlessly through my phone and none of it made any difference. I felt out of control and useless while my poor cat fought for his life where I couldn’t reach him. There was nothing I could do except wait, and I was no good at it.
“El, sit down, you’re making me dizzy,” Abraham said softly, his voice less of a reprimand and more of a plea.
“Why isn’t there any news? Why aren’t they telling us what’s going on? Why can’t I see Charlie?”
Abraham rose from his seat and stopped my pacing with an arm around my waist. He sat back down, pulling me onto his lap in the process.
Without my permission, my body relaxed into his strong embrace. In his arms, it was easy to believe that everything would be okay. Easy to believe he’d make it better no matter what it was.
Abraham leaned down and kissed the top of my head. “If you take a seat, I’ll go ask the receptionist if you can see him, okay?”
I nodded and slid off his lap, onto the next seat over. Abraham stood up, placed a kiss on my temple, and sauntered off to the front desk.
Those poor middle-aged women didn’t know what hit them.
Abraham flashed a wide, white grin at the two older women behind the desk and I could hear their hearts beat faster from across the room.
“Hi, ladies. I was hoping one of you could help me with something.” His voice was smooth as butter.
A dark-skinned woman with a short bob and big eyes spoke up first. “Sure, honey, what do you need?” she cooed, and I barely repressed an eyeroll.
Abraham took a step closer to the counter and leaned over it, resting one of his meaty arms on the top. “My friend here is wondering if she could see her cat for a few minutes.”
The first woman looked to the second, a matronly looking redhead. “I don’t know,” she said slowly.
Abraham stood up straight and crossed his arms across his wide chest. I swore he flexed a little too, but I might have just been imagining things.
“She won’t be long. She just wants to make sure he’s okay. That wouldn’t be a big deal, would it?”
The second woman’s eyes went glassy and I knew she’d fallen under Abraham’s spell as well. Damn, I never stood a chance, huh?
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” the redhead said as she stood. “Come on back with me.”
Abraham turned to call me over, but I was already halfway across the room. When I got closer, I elbowed Abraham in the ribs.
“Friend?” I asked with a quirk of my brow.
He nudged me back and leaned down to whisper in my ear. “I thought they’d be more willing to help if they just thought you were my friend. If you want though, I could tell them all about you. How beautiful and smart and sexy you are. How crazy I am about you. How loud you moan when I put my–”
I gasped and punched him in the arm, thankfully, shutting him up. He wrapped his arm around my neck and kissed the side of my head.
“No? You don’t want me to tell them all that?”
I shot him a withering look. “No. They don’t need to know all that.”
Abraham’s smile was smug. “Didn’t think so. And don’t think I missed you callin’ me your boyfriend when we were in with the doc.”
Crap.
I had called him my boyfriend, hadn’t I?
Was that wrong? Was it too soon? Did he not like the title?
Abraham leaned down further, his lips grazing my ear as he spoke. “Don’t worry, I liked it.”
How did he always guess what I was thinking? Was I really that obvious?
“And you can keep callin’ me that. For now, at least.”
I frowned and turned to him as the receptionist lead us through a series of doors. “For now?”
Abraham nodded once, pressing his lips together like that was all he had to say on the matter. I would have pushed it further, but the secretary opened the last door that led to the kennels and all thoughts of my relationship status with Abraham flew out of my head.
I could smell Charlie right away, so it only took me seconds to find him.
“Your cat is right over there,” the receptionist pointed out unnecessarily as I was already on my knees in front of his door.
I vaguely heard Abraham say something to the woman in his deep voice and her respond with a breathy laugh, but I wasn’t really paying attention. I was here for Charlie.
My poor tabby was laying on his side, an IV stuck into one of his shaved legs. I watched his little furry chest rise and fall steadily with his breaths and sighed with relief.
He didn’t look good. He was lifeless and listless and so unlike my clumsy cat that I felt my nose begin to sting with the onset of tears. I sniffed once, hopefully holding them off until I could be alone. I would not cry in the middle of the vet’s office.
“We need to get goin’, hon,” the receptionist said, her voice raised so I could hear her across the room over the barking and meowing of the other animals. I hadn’t even noticed them when I first walked in, but now their overlapping sounds were making it hard for me to concentrate.
Knowing I had a few precious seconds left, I unlatched Charlie’s door and reached in to give him a head scratch, his favorite. I wished I could stay there, sitting next to his crate waiting while whatever medicines were administered to him. Wished I could hold him while the vets worked on him.
Above all else, I wished this had never happened to my poor, defenseless cat.
I felt Abraham’s presence before he spoke.
Large hands engulfed the tops of my shoulders and his deep voice was there in my ear. “We need to go. She said the doctor should be ready to talk to us now.”
I gave Charlie one more stroke on his soft head before I closed and latched his door. When I spun around, the secretary was eying us with a kind patience, using one arm to hold the door open.
We got back to the front of the office and the doctor who initially examined Charlie was there waiting for us.
“If you’ll come with me, we can talk in one of the exam rooms,” the vet said.
We followed him down the hall to an unused room where he motioned for us to have a seat before sitting himself. He took a deep breath and gave us each a long look before speaking. I just knew what he had to say wasn’t going to be good.
“Like I thought, Charlie’s dish tested positive for rat poison,” the vet informed us, with no preamble at all. Instantly I liked him more. Someone who didn’t believe in beating around bushes was my kind of guy.
I, of course, already knew this, but I widened my eyes and gasped like I was hearing it for the first time. “How could that be?” I asked him.
The vet eyed us one more time before speaking again. “Usually in cases like this, we’d inform the SPCA, so they could conduct a cruelty investigation.”
My blood ran cold through my veins.
“A cruelty investigation?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. Tears stung the backs of my eyes. “But I didn’t hurt Charlie. I love him I would never do anything to hurt him.”
The vet eyed the both of us for a long time. “I don’t think you did. Usually, if someone’s going to poison their pet, they don’t rush them to the vet right after but, someone put that poison in his dish because he sure didn’t. Do you know who could have done this?”
No. I didn’t. But I sure as shit was gonna find out.
Abraham spoke for me. “We’ll look into it.”
The vet nodded, seemingly appeased. “You need to figure out how and why this happened, so it doesn’t happen again. I don’t want to save his life only for him to be poisoned again.”
Abraham opened his mouth to speak, but I interjected. “That won’t be an issue. I promise, nothing like this is ever going to happen again.”
Abraham reached down to entwine his fingers with mine. “We won’t let it,” he confirmed.
“Well, Charlie is responding well to the medication and we’ve stabilized him. He’ll have to stay here for a few days though.”
“A few days?” I asked.
“At least. Maybe a week.”
A whole week. My cat was going to have to spend a whole week in a cage.
I nodded, feeling numb. “I need to go back to Raleigh for the week. I can’t stay out here. I won’t be back until the weekend.”
“He probably won’t be released until then,” the vet said.
“But I won’t be able to see him for a whole week. And he’ll be stuck in a cage with no one that he knows.” My breath was coming faster as I imagined him struggling for his life while being stuck alone in a crate for a week.
Abraham squeezed my hand tightly, pulling me out of the downward spiral my thoughts had taken. “I’ll take care of it. Someone will be here every day with him.”
I turned to him, taking in his handsome but serious face and felt nothing but relief. Abraham would take care of it. He’d make sure Charlie wasn’t alone all week. He’d make it better just like he promised.
My shoulders fell as the tension drained from my body. “Okay.”
The vet stood and held out his hand for each of us to shake. “We can give you a call in the morning to let you know how he did overnight,” the vet offered.
“That would be great, actually,” I said.
The vet held the door open for us. “Just make sure the front desk has all your information before you leave.”
We followed the vet through the maze of hallways and back to the reception area. I confirmed my information with the two secretaries who spent more time taking peeks at Abraham out of the corner of their eyes than looking at me.
I looked at the man in question myself. His broad chest filled out the plain white t-shirt he was wearing. My eyes traveled over the rest of him, wondering how he made worn-in jeans and dirty boots look like high fashion.
He caught me staring and winked one perfect blue eye in my direction. My heart thumped out an extra beat and his smile widened.
Could I blame these women for their reaction to him?
No, because I was these women.
I was just as affected by his presence as them, I’d just gotten a little better at hiding it.
When they confirmed that they’d call me if Charlie’s condition changed, I let Abraham lead me out to his truck with an arm around my shoulders.
I climbed in the cab, barely noticing Wyatt filing into the back or Abraham firing up the engine. My thoughts were on my Charlie.
“He’s going to be okay,” Abraham said, placing a warm hand on my leg.
I sighed. “I hope so.”
Abraham squeezed my leg again and left it there as he directed us out of the parking lot. The ride back to the lodge was quiet for the most part, all of us lost in our own thoughts. When we reached the bottom of his long, steep drive, I finally voiced the question I’d been too afraid to ask.
“Do we know who did this?”
The tension in the car was immediately palpable. I heard the other men’s hearts beat faster and their breathing quicken. They knew something.
“We’ve narrowed it down to a few people,” Abraham said slowly.
“Okay, like who?”
The crunch of the gravel beneath the truck’s tires was almost deafening as I waited for an answer. Waited for a culprit. Waited to know who hurt my cat.
Abraham was silent the rest of the way up the driveway and just when I was about to speak again and demand he answer me, the lodge’s garages came into view and with them, his sisters.
Evey was the first to the truck, ripping the door open and pulling me off the seat and into her surprisingly powerful arms. “Oh, Ellie, I’m so sorry about Charlie. Is he okay? What happened to him? Is he here?”
I hugged her back tightly. “He’ll be at the vet for the week.”
Evey pulled back with a gasp. “A whole week? What are you gonna do?”
I shrugged, my heart falling in my chest. “I need to go back to Raleigh today. I still have court tomorrow.”
The worry in Evey’s face quickly transformed into determination. “We’ll take care of him out here, Ellie, you don’t have to worry about that.”
My nose burned with the tears I was trying to keep at bay. Surprising the both of us, I pulled Evey back into my arms and squeezed her as tight as I could. Her laugh was like wind chimes in my ear as she hugged me back just as fiercely.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
Evey ran her hand down the back of my head. “No need to thank me, Ellie. You’re family now. This is what we do for family. This is just the start of what we’d do for family.”
Family.
That word never failed to elicit a mix of emotions inside me. It was so strange, being a part of a family when I’d been on my own for so long. In just a month, these people had wormed their way inside my heart and thrown down roots. I knew I’d never get them out, and I never wanted to.
“Would ya’ quit hoggin’ her, Evelyn?” Del called as she pulled me from Evey’s arms into hers. “I’m so sorry about your little cat, Ellie. Is he gonna be all right?”
I had to take a deep breath before I could answer past the lump in my throat. “The vet said he was responding well to the medication, and that I got him there in time.”
I wish I could tell her Charlie would be just fine. I wish I knew my cat would come home to me healthy and whole, but I had no such reassurance.
When Del finally released me, mild-mannered Callie was there, patiently waiting her turn to offer support and condolences.
“He’ll be fine, Ellie. I know he will,” she said softly into my hair.
I squeezed her once tightly before I pulled away. “I hope so, Callie.”
In the meantime, I’d figure out who did this to him and why. I’d make sure nothing like this ever happened again. Make sure he had a happy and safe place to come to. I’d never risk his life again. If need be, I’d make sure Abraham stationed a guard outside his door 24/7. Whatever it took, I’d make sure whoever did this paid for hurting my cat.