Page 87 of The Lies We Told Ourselves

“Yeah, know anyone good?”

He tried to look offended, but we’d known each other for too long for him to even slightly get away with it. “I know a guy. Oof, he’s expensive though.”

“I’m sure we can work something out.”

We walked Cole over to his truck, and he loaded his supplies into the back. “Email me some details, and we can see what we can work out,” he offered. “The practice is quiet at the moment. I can put the time in now. It’s actually perfect timing because I want to bring in a trainee next year so I can maybe get a night off once in a while.”

Cole was the only vet in the area now. Most of them had moved on over the last few years. Thankfully, he was also one of the best I’d ever worked with, so it worked out well for me.

I hadn’t realized how much the town had slowly been losing over the years. The domino effect of the economy slowing down was leaching into every business around, and we needed a lot of them to sustain just the local population. We should have done this years ago. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered if the delay in my father’s actions was down to him trying to turn a bigger profit.

I wanted to think better of my father than that, but he’d never really given me a reason to.

Hopefully, we weren’t past the point of no return, but I had a feeling that things wouldn’t pick up quickly enough for some businesses around here to survive.

“If things get too slow, come and talk to me,” I told Cole. “I don’t want to lose you if there’s anything I can do to help.”

“Awww, you getting attached to me, Booker?” Cole asked.

Reece sniggered, and I just shrugged. “What can I say? It’s hard to find a good vet nowadays.”

“Damn right, it is.” Cole shook my hand and climbed into his truck before leaning out the window. “Thanks, Booker. It means a lot.”

“No worries. You got much else on for today?” I asked.

I knew I was fishing for information, but I wanted to know if he was close to packing up the practice.

“Just heading over to the Barrett place.” Cole’s mouth snapped shut and then he half shrugged like it was no big deal as he fired up the truck. “See you around, Booker. Reece.”

Reece waved goodbye to Cole, and I watched in confusion as he drove up the driveway.

“Trace and Delaney don’t have any animals on the farm,” I said.

Reece looked up at me and laughed. “Nope.”

She grinned like she knew something I didn’t as we turned back to the house.

“Come on. Let’s grab some lunch,” Reece said, changing the subject.

I made it three steps before I couldn’t take it anymore.

“I don’t get it. Tell me what you know,” I demanded.

Reece laughed again, and I could see she was thinking about teasing me and withholding information.

It was time for the big guns.

“If you tell me, baby, I’ll do that thing on page 187 you want to do.”

“Have you even read page 187 yet?” Reece asked, slipping out of my grip and skipping ahead of me. “You might not like it.”

Damn, I was pretty sure there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t like to do to her. It must have shown on my face because her breath hitched, and she gnawed on her lip as she got that look in her eye that meant I was about to be a very lucky man.

“Fine,” she sighed. “Cole’s interest doesn’t lie solely in animals, you know? And there’s a certain single someone who hasn’t moved out yet with beautiful pink hair.”

My face wrinkled in confusion because, of course, I knew who she was talking about. Poor Cole. He had no idea what he was getting himself into.

“Cole and Blake?”

---