stepped inside a waiting area that was divided down the middle of the large room by a waist-high wall. Lucy noticed one side appeared decorated for the feline patients while the other side was indicated for dogs. She almost yelped when she saw a teenage boy seated on a bench with a python wrapped around his shoulders. She hoped the expression on the snake’s face didn’t have anything to do with hunger.
“Can I help you?” asked a young woman behind the counter. Light-blue medical scrubs decorated with tiny kittens wearing wings and halos covered a large pregnant belly. She smiled at the two of them.
“I’m Nick Donner. I’m supposed to be working here.”
She nodded and pressed down on a button on the phone console. “Gwen, the kid is here.” She looked at him. “The vet tech will be out here in a second.”
“I’m Lucy, his mother,” Lucy said, keeping as much distance from the snake as she possibly could. She transferred her attention to a silvery gray dog that looked like a husky that sat near the woman. What appeared to be a cell phone was lodged firmly between his jaws. She hoped the dog had been fed lately because he looked awfully hungry. Between the python and the dog, she felt like an afternoon snack.
“Nick Donner?” A spritely blonde walked out from the rear. She greeted him with a broad smile. “Hi, I’m Gwen.” She introduced herself to Lucy and then explained, “Don’t worry, Mrs. Donner, he won’t be around anything dangerous. “He’ll be under the supervision of our shelter staff along with Dr. Kincaid and myself.”
Lucy was reassured by the young woman’s matter-of-fact manner. “I’ll be back at six, then. Nice meeting you.” As she made her way out, she determinedly kept her eyes down instead of looking around for Logan Kincaid. With Nick working here for the next six months, she knew she’d be dealing with the veterinarian sooner or later.
She was hoping for later.
NICK FOLLOWED Gwen to the back. She walked swiftly while talking over her shoulder. “The shelter has two regular employees who work a rotating schedule. Kristi is working today. She’ll show you the ropes. I’m sure Logan will come back to see you when he finishes with his patient.”
“Okay.” Nick looked at the framed color sketches of dogs, cats and exotic animals that lined the hallway walls.
“You’re our youngest worker,” Gwen told him as she pushed open the rear door. Barking and feline yowls greeted them as they stepped into the large room. “Just don’t let Kristi scare you off.”
Nick gulped as he entered the shelter. For a brief moment, he wondered if he should have found another way to accomplish his goal. It had seemed so easy when he’d mapped it out to the judge.
“Kristi, this is Nick Donner. We’ve got him for the next six months,” Gwen announced.
Nick stared at the young woman dressed in a midriff-baring black tank top and camouflage pants tucked into Doc Martens. Light danced off the tiny gold ring hooked to one nostril and another bisecting an eyebrow, while a red stone sparkled from her navel. A barbed-wire tattoo circled one slender upper arm. Her short spiky hair was as black as her top. Dark-brown eyes surveyed him with clinical interest.
“You don’t look like the typical juvie Judge Kincaid sends here,” she drawled. “What’d you do?”
“I hacked into my school’s computer system and gave them a whole new set of records.”
She looked impressed. She gestured for him to follow her to the back of the large building. “Cool. Okay, here’s how it goes. You do the dirty work. I supervise. Gwen or the doc handles any medications that need to be administered. Jeremy or I handle the records. That means you keep your paws out of the medication cabinet in case it’s unlocked, which is pretty much never. What you’ll be doing is hosing down and cleaning the kennels. You’ll also exercise the bigger dogs, which means you take them out to the fenced-in dog park the doc set up out back. They can run free out there, but you still have to stay in there with them. Most of them enjoy chasing a ball or chasing you. You have a dog, right?”
“No, we have a cat. Luther.” He eyed one rambunctious German shepherd with a trace of unease. “He’s real old and cranky.”
She shrugged. “You’re a kid. You can handle a dog.”
“Nick Donner?”
Nick turned around to see a tall man with dark blond hair coming toward him. Sunglasses hung from his T-shirt neckline.
“Logan Kincaid.” He held out his hand. “You’re Lou Walker’s grandson, right?”
“I guess you’d call me more a nephew or something by marriage. My uncle is married to Lou’s daughter,” Nick explained, taking his hand.
“And you reworked the school’s computer records which now has you slaving away here.” He shook his head. “You’re going to regret it real fast. Work around here is pretty dirty.”
“Don’t scare him off,” Kristi warned her boss.
“I don’t have to. That’s your job.” Logan looked her over. “New tattoo?”
She glanced down at her arm. “It was time. You can’t see my other one unless I’m wearing a bikini.” She turned to Nick. “Don’t even try to imagine where it is,” she warned him.
“I know it’s hard to believe, but Kristi’s bark is worse than her bite,” Logan told Nick.
“Yeah. Uh, yes, sir.”
“Just call me Logan. We’re pretty informal around here. Do you understand what we do here?”
“You’re a veterinary clinic. You treat sick dogs and cats.”
“That along with treating pretty much any other critter that shows up. We’re also an animal shelter. The county shelter is usually overloaded. This area was growing enough that we needed a more local place for dogs and cats dumped on the back roads or given up by owners. We have a successful adoption program.”
Nick must have looked uneasy, because the doctor gave him an assessing look and said, “Look, if you have a problem with this, I’ll talk to the judge about putting you somewhere else. Just because you’re ordered here doesn’t mean it’s written in stone, no matter what he says.”
“That’s not it. I’m not used to being around dogs except at the Walkers’s and Jasmine’s real low key.” He mentioned Cathy and Lou’s German shepherd. “We only have a cat.”
“Then I suggest you make friends with the dogs first. Don’t worry about them. They’re all friendly and love the attention. Just make sure to read the tag on each door and always greet them by name. Also, if the tag has a warning about biting, don’t do anything with them. Let Kristi or Jeremy handle those animals.”
“Uh, boss.” Kristi held up a broom. “The kid’s got work to do.”
Logan laughed. “Okay, he’s all yours, Kris.” He walked to the front of the clinic.
“Come on, it’s time to earn your keep.” Kristi chuckled. “So to speak.”
She showed Nick how to clean out the first dog run then handed the cleaning tools
