knuckles in greeting. “Hey, there, Susannah.”
“Why don’t you come into my office and we’ll talk while Taylor completes her application,” Emily said. “It’s right down the hall.”
Wondering at that, he shrugged. “Okay. I’ll be back shortly,” he told Taylor.
She didn’t bother to look up from the application. “Whatever.” The word seemed to be her mantra.
He followed Emily down a hall, a short distance, but enough for him to check out her fine backside.
She led him to a windowed room just big enough for a desk, two kitchen-style chairs, a bookcase and filing cabinet and a doggy bed. Papers cluttered the desk, along with the usual computer, printer and phone, and a framed photo of an older woman with the same flirty mouth, smiling up at a man with a thick beard and silvery hair, who looked vaguely familiar. Although Seth had no idea why. Emily’s parents, he guessed. A clock and a dog calendar adorned one wall, and dark red curtains framed the window. That was about it.
She gestured at the chairs, which were both across from the desk. “Please, sit down.”
They took seats, Emily nudging a pile of folders to one side, to make room for a lined yellow pad.
“Taylor tells me that you’re a veterinarian and that you’re new in town,” she said.
“That’s right. I’m looking to build my business. If you know of a rancher looking for a vet who makes house calls, I’m your man.”
“If you make house calls, then in no time, you’ll have more business than you can handle,” she said. “How long have you been practicing?”
“Four years now.”
Twin lines marred the smooth space between her eyebrows as she moved the pad to her lap and jotted something down. Seth couldn’t see what.
“And you specialize in large animals?” she asked.
“Mostly cattle and horses.”
“Taylor mentioned dogs.”
“Now and then, but I don’t have a clinic or an office.” At the moment, he couldn’t afford either. But someday...
More scribbling.
“What happens if you need a clinic?” she asked.
“I have an agreement with Prosperity Animal Hospital, on the north side of town.”
“I know that place.” She jotted that down, too.
Weird. It almost felt as if she was interviewing him.
“How does your wife like Prosperity?”
“I’m not married.” A couple times he’d come close, but nothing had worked out.
“Oh.” Emily brought her hand to her hair and fiddled with it. “I assumed— Never mind. I didn’t realize there were any ranches in San Diego.”
The comment puzzled him. “I’m sure there are, but I wouldn’t know. I’ve only been there once or twice, and not for long.”
Her turn to look confused. “I’m pretty sure Taylor said she was from San Diego.”
He nodded. “She is.”
“I don’t understand. Aren’t you her father?”
No one ever understood until he explained. Dani, Sly and their families knew the facts, as did the teachers and counselors at Taylor’s school. Now Emily would, too.
“It’s complicated,” he began, giving her an out if she didn’t want to know. She nodded, and he went on. “Taylor’s mother and I were involved. We moved in together when Taylor was about five. Four years later, Annabelle broke things off and kicked me out.”
She’d stuck with him while he finished college, assuming that eventually they’d marry. Then immediately after earning his undergrad degree, he’d started vet school. Annabelle had continually pushed him to propose, but between school and a part-time job, he’d been too busy to think about much else. That was his excuse, anyway. The truth was he hadn’t been ready for marriage. Hell, he’d never even told her he loved her. He’d liked her fine, but hadn’t been capable of taking the next step. Tired of waiting for that ring on her finger, Annabelle had ended the relationship.
Story of his life.
“I see.” Emily frowned. “If you don’t mind my asking, why is Taylor living with you now?”
“I’m getting to that. In the years we lived under the same roof, she and I grew close. Annabelle never knew who Taylor’s father was. Although it wasn’t me, Taylor considered me to be her father, and I loved her like a daughter.
“At the time, we lived in Sacramento,” he went on. “I moved out, and a few days after the breakup, Annabelle packed up and left. She didn’t tell me about that or say where she was going, just cut me out of Taylor’s life.” Not all that different from what Seth had done with Dani and Sly, he’d come to realize a few years later. Standing on the other side of the fence had sucked, big time. “I tried to find them, but never did,” he finished.
He’d missed the girl terribly and knew she was likely missing him, too. “Fast-forward six years. I was still in Sacramento, with my own veterinary practice.” A few months earlier, his mentor from his undergrad days, Professor Greenfield, had died of cancer. Like Seth, the professor had been estranged from his family. Filled with regret, he’d begged Seth to make up with Sly and Dani before it was too late.
Seth had been mulling that over, assuring himself that he had plenty of time to make amends with his siblings, when the bomb that had radically altered his life had dropped. “Annabelle’s attorney contacted me with the news that she’d been in an accident and had passed away,” he said. “There was no other family, and in her will, she’d named me to assume guardianship of Taylor.”
Annabelle’s passing at the young age of thirty-five, the same age Seth was, had added a sense of urgency to make up with Sly and Dani sooner, rather than later. You never knew when your time was up.
“What a shock that must have been for both you and Taylor,” Emily said. “Poor girl. It must be hard to lose your mother at such an early age.”
Seth knew way too much about that. He’d lost his own mother when he was ten. Less than a year later, his father had followed her. “I think her death knocked us both to our knees,” he said.
As bad as he’d felt for Taylor, at first he’d balked at the idea of assuming responsibility for the girl he hadn’t seen in six years. But if he didn’t step up, she would go into foster care. Seth couldn’t let that happen, couldn’t let her go through that.
After both his parents died, Dani had been shuffled into foster care. She’d lucked out, though, when Big Mama, her foster mom, had adopted her. Meanwhile, Seth and Sly had been shipped off to Iowa to live with an uncle who never tired of reminding them that he hated kids. No child deserved to live with a man like that.
“No wonder,” Emily murmured.
“Pardon
