Page 16 of Christmas at the Home Farm Vets
‘He doesn’t have to,’ Erin said calmly. It was way to soon to suggest anything more permanent and she wasn’t about to make Jason’s online relationship status an issue. ‘We’re just dating, we’re not a couple or anything.’ But part of her was hoping it might lead to more, that eventually she would have someone to come home to, someone to share her life with.
‘So is Jason still coming to the nativity on Friday?’
‘Yes, but he mentioned he might have to see a client first.’ Elaine was heading over with a tray of drinks and Erin was relieved to move the conversation from her love life, such as it was. ‘Thanks, Elaine, I’d love another.’
‘Shall we talk mince pies?’ Elaine said briskly. ‘What do you think if we do the tasting a week on Friday? Everyone brings in a sample, we each choose our top three and Gil can announce the winner at the party on Saturday. The only rule is that no one enters Violet’s from the shop as we all know hers are the best.’
‘Sounds good,’ Erin said, still thinking distractedly about Oli and what Jess had said. Gil and Pippa were hosting a staff party the weekend after next and the theme was ‘ugly sweater’. She was dismayed to realise it would be a social occasion she’d have to share with Oli seeing as he was now a colleague.
‘I’m in,’ Jess said airily. ‘I’m going for the win.’
Erin grinned. ‘You haven’t tried my nan’s recipe yet.’
After lunch she settled in the office and put her mind to paperwork. Gil was showing Oli around the companion animal part of the practice and then they’d be consulting for the afternoon. Soon after, idly aware of the buzz from reception as clients and their pets came and went, the email she’d been dreading arrived. It contained the results of Mungo’s blood tests, and they were worse than she’d feared. Abnormalities in his white blood cells had increased, and given the worsening symptoms of his chronic form of leukaemia, there was really only one course of action. She read the email again and picked up the phone, taking a moment to compose herself first.
‘That was quite a morning. I’ve decided on balance that you were harder to impress than Dorothy.’
‘Sorry?’ She turned to see Oli leaning against the door frame, arms folded. The mud on his face had gone and she’d rather be viewing her screen than staring at him. ‘You don’t need to impress me, Oli. Gil offered you the job on your own merits, not based on what I think.’
‘Maybe, but it’s clear he trusts you, and if you’d said the word after the induction I might’ve been out on my ear.’
‘Do you mind?’ Erin pressed a hand to her temple, trying to smooth away her sadness. How she wished it was different, and she could give Mungo more time. Another Christmas, then a spring and a summer, walks in the woods, splashing in streams. She loathed making these calls and found them upsetting even though they were a necessary part of the job. But she wasn’t going to give Oli an opportunity to cast doubt on her professionalism in the face of her feelings.
‘I’ve got to call an owner and confirm results that will likely mean they’ll decide to put their dog to sleep.’ As soon as the words were out she realised their implication and she didn’t miss the flash of pain in his eyes at the reminder of the situation with his own dog. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to…’
‘It’s okay. I’ve had to make plenty of those calls too, and act on them.’
‘But still, it can’t be very nice. Not after what happened with Honey.’
‘No, it never is. But I can still do my best by my patient and their family, make it as comfortable as I can.’ He paused. ‘You remembered her name.’
‘Oli, you adored her, of course I haven’t forgotten her name.’ Snippets of the conversations they’d shared often came back to her at inconvenient moments. Like now, reminded of the dog he’d loved and who’d been denied his comforting presence in those last moments.
‘Almost no one else ever talks about her,’ he mused. ‘But then I don’t really tell anyone.’
Erin waited a beat, wondering why she was even allowing herself to go there. ‘So why did you tell me?’
‘Because I knew you’d understand,’ he said softly. ‘Because I knew you wouldn’t mock me. And I thought you cared.’
‘I did, once.’ The phone in her hand trembled. ‘But now we have to work together, and I need to make this call. Was there a reason you were looking for me?’
‘As the newbie, I’m making myself useful and fetching everyone a brew,’ he said, some of the lightness returning to his tone, and she sensed he was trying to ease her through the difficult call ahead. ‘See, I’m already learning the lingo and calling it a brew. What would you like?’
‘Tea, very hot, milk, no sugar. Please.’
‘Right. I think I can manage that.’
The door clicked shut behind him and Erin drew in a long breath as she rang Mungo’s owners and took them through the results. Amid their tears, the plan was decided. He was comfortable for now and she arranged to see them on Saturday morning. She would be working out of hours anyway and his owners wanted to be together, to say goodbye to their beloved pet in his own home.
Chapter Seven
Yorkshire, thirteen years ago
When Erin woke up it took her a few puzzled moments to remember she was back home in Yorkshire, not in her student flat at Catz, and the familiar sights of her room came into focus. She checked her phone and saw it was almost eight o’clock already. She stumbled out of bed and went to freshen up in the bathroom; she’d meant to be up earlier. She heard her grandparents downstairs, which must mean that Oli was up too.
She dressed quickly and tapped on her mum’s door, deciding to leave her to rest when there was no reply. In the living room Oli’s temporary bed had been tidied away, the duvet folded neatly at one end of the couch. She went through to the kitchen and saw him sitting at the small table with her grandad, her nan at the hob frying bacon.
‘Morning.’ Her pulse pattered as Oli smiled at her and she was thinking of last night, of them holding each other. The decision she’d made to pull back when he’d touched her hair and how she’d been afraid to explore what might have happened next, the exhilaration when she’d known he’d wanted to kiss her.
