Cody had walked out on her Sunday morning, and who was to say he wouldn’t do it again? Like everyone else in her life, he had left her, and it hurt. A nagging voice said she was punishing him for the crimes of others, and maybe she was. Had she overreacted to his leaving the way he had? Everything was just so confusing right now.
He had spent the morning at K2 presumably to begin planning the operation his boss had mentioned last Saturday night. What if something bad happened and he had a relapse of some kind? Would he walk out again? This afternoon, he was meeting with his doctor, getting Tom’s opinion on how ready he was to go back to active status. In her opinion, Cody wasn’t ready, but she kept that to herself.
They’d slept in the same bed the last two nights, but other than hold her, nothing else had happened between them. That was at her request, and it was killing her. She wanted him so badly that there had been a constant ache in her heart. But until they worked things out—if that was possible—she didn’t want to fall in love with him. She huffed a breath. As if she had control over her heart.
“Stupid heart,” she muttered.
“Your first afternoon patient’s in room one,” Brooke said, stepping into Riley’s office.
“Thanks. Be there in a sec.” She scooped the last bite of yogurt out of the cup as she glanced at the day’s schedule, which showed that it was a new patient. Before she went to the exam room, she made a detour to check on Pretty Girl and her cats. Unwilling to leave them alone and vulnerable to a madman, or madwoman, as the case might be, she’d brought the entire crew to work with her. The K2 man sitting in her lobby, pretending to wait for his appointment, was using Sally as a prop. Because they got along so well, Riley had let her cats and Pretty Girl stay together in one of the large dog kennels.
Her phone vibrated, and she pulled it out of her lab coat pocket to see Cody’s name on the screen. She debated answering, but she had a new patient waiting, so she let it go to voice mail. After a minute, it beeped a message. She peeked around the corner to see that Pretty Girl and the cats were curled up together, napping. Not wanting to disturb them, she headed down the hallway, listening to Cody’s message.
So Mr. Ziegler had been married. Cody also said that he had died a year ago, and that Mrs. Ziegler fit some of the points on the profile. He ended the message by telling her he’d come straight to the clinic after his session with Tom.
Was it possible they had found the person making her life miserable? Being afraid all the time was exhausting. Hope blossomed that she would have Pelli back soon, but would an honest mistake in cremating the wrong dog send someone over the edge? Somehow, it didn’t seem likely, but if the woman was already unbalanced, maybe the death of her husband had contributed to her mental state.
There was no way of knowing until someone talked to Mrs. Ziegler, and since she had a full afternoon ahead, Riley shelved her questions. Just as she put her hand on the doorknob to enter the exam room, a ping sounded that she had a text, and she paused to read it.
I’m missing us darlin’.
So was she. How long was she going to hold on to her hurt feelings? It was time to trust her heart, and tonight when they got home, she was ready to have that talk. She texted him back.
I’m missing us too.
A heart and a smiley face appeared, and she grinned as she dropped her phone back into her pocket.
With a smile on her face, and a new bounce in her step, she entered exam room one. She glanced at the new patient form for the owner’s name. “Mrs. Napier, I’m Dr. Austin.” A tall, thin-as-a-rail, somewhat disheveled woman turned from the cat carrier she was leaning over.
Riley gasped. “Mrs. Decker?”
“So you remember me?”
“Of course, I do. How-how are you?” Riley was taken aback by the malice in the woman’s eyes. She shouldn’t be surprised, though, since Mrs. Decker blamed her for Reed’s death. Why was she here?
A plaintive wail sounded from the carrier, and Riley froze. She knew that meow. “Pelli?” she whispered. The odor of urine and feces coming from the carrier reached her nose, and she rushed over, opening the door. Pelli sprang out, right into her arms. As a thinner Pelli snuggled against her neck, Riley turned, intending to give Reed’s mother a piece of her mind. The words died at the sight of a gun pointed at her chest.
“Stupid cat cries all the time,” Mrs. Decker said. “Here’s how this is going to go.” She tossed a canvas tote onto the exam table. “You’re going to put on a wig and glasses, and then we’re leaving by the back door.”