Page 50 of Home Between Homes

“Well, Seastone has captured my heart,” I said, looking at Jack, who blushed at my words. “So I thought we should at least talk about opportunities.”

“There are definitely some opportunities here,” Dany replied. “But I want to be honest. We’ve been trying to find a replacement for my father for years. We had a lot of recruits, but most of them ghosted us.”

“They didn’t even decline?”

Dany shook his head. “We offer a good deal, I think. Overall, the clinic is well managed with eight techs for two point five doctors. We have an AAHA-certified, beautiful integrative medicine hospital. Thirty-two hours maximum for all staff.”

“Two point five vets?”

“Yes, at the moment, it’s just my dad and a vet from Ashbourne who helps out when things get too busy. As I said, one of the positions is completely vacant. The goal would be to fill that for now, pay you a good salary, and gradually work on you taking over the clinic so that my dad can be replaced in ayear or two, hopefully. He’s very fit for his age, and even though he said he’d work until he dropped dead, we’d like him to have his well-deserved retirement.”

“Understandable.”

“Are there any other questions I can answer while we wait?”

“How much time do you schedule for appointments? Where I worked before, they only gave me fifteen when I would’ve needed at least twenty, if not up to thirty, depending on the case.”

“We know about that. Dad used to do fifteen, but now he needs twenty. Appointments should be twenty minutes as you get more experience, but we’ve scheduled thirty for newbies. And you don’t have to write records because the techs do that.”

“I’m not going to lie. That sounds great.”

“Doesn’t it? Although there’s a ‘but’ in there from me.” He took a deep breath, his fingers gripping the back of the chair. “Somethingmust be wrong. I’m not in these conversations with my father, so let me tell you this: if there’s a catch and you don’t want it, that’s fine. Just let me know if we can do anything better.”

The opening of the front door made everyone look up and hold their breath as if they were afraid that if my first impression of Dany’s father wasn’t good, I would run away screaming.

A guy, maybe twenty-four, in a dark brown coat, entered the room. He took off the used over-ear headphones that kept his jet-black hair down. His eyes widened as he noticed the obviously unannounced gathering. “Hey, everybody,” he murmured. His eyes rested on me briefly, darting to Jack and then back to me.

“This is Alex,” Dany’s said. “He’s staying with us right now.”

Alex waved to me and then looked at Dany. “I shoveled all the snow around the sheds,” he replied. “Is there anything else?”

“Thank you. You can go back to your music.”

Alex waved to everyone again and then headed for a staircase at the back of the kitchen.

Dany turned back to me. “The kid’s obsessed. Talented, though, but let’s not get into that now.”

I remembered Dany had mentioned that a guy who lived with them was also gay, but I had other things on my mind right now.

Dany sighed and looked at his watch and then at Laura. “He probably can’t get away from the cows.” Dany looked at me. “Dad friggin’ loves cows. How about I take you to him instead?”

“Sure, let’s go.” I stood up and looked for Jack, who remained seated. I raised my eyebrows at him.

Jack laughed. “You go with Dany. Laura and I will wait here. I’m not a vet, after all.”

Dany pursed his lips as if he had to hold back the offer to pay for Jack’s education again, but a stern look from Jack was enough to keep him quiet.

“How about I make us something to eat?” Laura said. “I want you to see the best of Seastone, and my tomato pie is one of them, I promise.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I look forward to it.”

Jack sent me off with a wink as I turned and followed Dany.

The conversationwith Dany’s father, who introduced himself as Dorian, went well. He didn’t look nearly seventy at all. He was fit, with strong upper arm muscles, a three-day beard, and—sorry to say—looked like the older version of how I imagined one of the cowboys from Mrs. Candice’s book.

We walked through the stables, and he told me about his clinic and all the fancy equipment they had that I could only dream of at my last job: EMR, their own well-stocked pharmacy(because otherwise, things would get complicated so far from the rest of the world), digital radiography, tonometry, and even aworkingmicroscope. He told me how he trained the support staff in restraint, phlebotomy, and radiographic techniques. At some point, it felt like he was bragging. He asked me about my experiences, and after telling him all the things he could have read on my resume if I’d brought a copy, I decided not to sugarcoat anything. I told him how I had worked almost twenty-four-seven and how it had made me lose my passion for the job, but that I would push through to find it again. He was very understanding and said that this was a thing happening all over the country and that he would be happy to help me find a good work-life balance. It wasn’t a thing when he was young, but he wished it had been.

We also talked about money. Dorian apologized and said that he knew it was a little less than what I could make in the city, but they couldn’t afford more at the moment. I couldn't tell him that his offer was better than what I would have made at the FDA. We agreed that I would sleep on it and visit him at the clinic before either of us made a decision.

---