Page 59 of The Lies You Love
“I’ll bring him back. The doctor is in between patients, we’ll induce vomiting.”
I nod, putting my hands on my hips, leaning over to suck more air. “Sorry Pork, but you did this to yourself, buddy.”
Then I pace, realizing I don’t even have my purse. The waiting is painful. Grapes. I only know because Gypsie ate a grape once and almost died. Roxanne told the story like it was a harrowing experience. I remember not thinking anything of it before Pork, but now every story I hear about a dog, I think of Pork. The nurse comes back about ten minutes later and takes me into a room. “The doctor will be right in.” She swallows hard, and her eyes are too wide.
“Oh, Jesus, did Pork die?” I start hyperventilating, waving a hand in front of my face rapidly. “Oh, god. I can’t do this. I can’t do this.” Breathe, Auden. In through your nose and out through your mouth. This is a dog. You can handle this. It’s a dog I love.
The nurse looks terrified. “No. He didn’t die.” Then she leaves, closing the door a little harder than she should have. I didn’t fill out any paperwork and I realize how weird that is.
Then the doctor walks into the room, white lab coat crisp, and gaze wide and shocked.
His name tag reads Dr. Beckett Fallon.
And I thought I needed to worry about paperwork.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Beck
“Auden,” I say, bottom jaw slack as I stare at the object of my dreams. She’s here, in the flesh, staring at me like I’m a ghost. She puts a hand on her forehead, then sits in the chair in the corner.
“God is putting me through the emotion Olympics today. It’s the only explanation for this.”
I stay silent, content to stare at her beauty in the flesh. My heart races and my body has every response it always did when we’re together. I want her. I want every inch of her. I stayed away because I want what’s best for her more than I want her. Professionalism, Beck, fuck. This is your place of business and this is a client. Yes, that’s the switch I need to flip. “The ah, dog, the dog is fine. Luckily, he didn’t chew them up, he just swallowed them and they came up when we induced vomiting. He’s hooked up getting some IV fluids and start some medicine to make sure his kidneys are okay.” I clear my throat. “Little is officially known about grape toxicity. Some dogs eat them all their lives without a reaction and others eat one grape and become poisoned.” I slide my hands into my coat to hide the fact they’re shaking. “He’s going to be okay. We see so many of this breed, I didn’t recognize him as yours.”
Her gaze meets mine and it causes emotion to war with sense. Auden covers her mouth with one hand, and she closes her eyes. Pain. “Thank you. I love that dog more than is reasonable. Thank you.”
I swallow down the lump in my throat. “You’re welcome.” Silence streams on for a few beats and I can’t resist. “Auden, how are you?”
Her big eyes meet mine. “You’re better than I am,” she says, shaking her head. “Is this you now?” She waves a hand at me. I don’t feel stable so I sit on the rolling stool and slide myself into the center of the room, but not close enough to reach out and touch her.
I smile sarcastically. “Well, I sort of got fired when my Principal died,” I say. “It’s kind of frowned upon.”
Her eyes turn inward as she studies me. “Died?” she croaks.
I press my lips together. “Yeah, Ramsey.” I furrow my brow. “You got wrapped up in the investigation and they didn’t tell you?”
Auden huffs. “Guess that’s one thing I didn’t connect. She was your Principal. Well, that makes a lot more sense.” She slides her tongue across her lower lip and an uncontrollable urge to kiss her rears up. “So, you just fell back into a regular life, and you didn’t call me?”
Ah, more pain, except this time it consumes the room. “It was never about my job. Well at the end, it wasn’t.” The top of her scar peeks out from the top of her shirt and she catches me looking and pulls up the shirt to hide it completely.
Her eyes look wounded as she looks at me. “A lot of unfair stuff has happened to me over the course of my life, but this has to top the list.”
“Are you happy, Auden? As happy as you can be without us?”
“Is that a joke?” Auden says, tears streaking down her face. “You have to be joking. How am I supposed to be happy? Tell me?”
“I always only wanted to be worthy of your love. Please know, I never meant to hurt you. I know I broke promises—told you I’d always be there for you, and I failed you. At every turn, I was failing you. I got fired and threw myself into resuscitating this career and it helped ease the ache. Auden, you changed me. Your love changed me.”
She stands and crosses to stand in front of me. I look up, and the fluorescent lights illuminate her blonde hair. She’s cut it shorter than the last time I saw her, and my mouth dries—a desperate, thirsty man being offered the promise of water. “If it’s love like you say, how can you turn me away so easily?”
“Easily?” My voice cracks on the word because it’s ludicrous. “Nothing about this is easy for me. I-I was told you were seeing someone and you were happy.”
“And you believed them?”
“I had to, Auden. I fucked up so badly, I knew I never deserved you.” I want to touch, hold, and fuck her. It’s almost as if she knows the power she wields as she steps forward again, placing herself in between my knees. “Seeing you, fuck, it puts me back at square one.”
She nods. “I knew it would, and maybe that’s where we need to be.”
