Tucker slung the old camera off his shoulder and took the beer. The two of them stepped into the cabin and went wordlessly to the small sitting area. Tucker took a long drink of beer, then set the bottle on the table. He played with the camera absently, going through all the features. He popped open the film chamber. A little thrill went through him. A roll of film, used all the way up, sat inside.
“You got pictures in there?” Cade was watching him curiously.
“Yeah.” Tucker took another drink. “From high school. I haven’t taken this out since then.”
“Most of your dark room equipment is still at the house, if you want to try it. I’m not sure if the chemicals are still good, but it’s worth a shot.”
Tucker grimaced and switched out the camera for his beer. “Maybe later.” He drained the rest of the drink and met his brother’s eyes. “Things didn’t go that well at Avery’s.”
“No?” Cade’s eyebrows shot up. “Liam said he found an X-ray machine for a good price. I thought you’d have bought it.”
“I did,” he said helplessly. The story poured out of him, starting in high school with his ill-advised breakup and ending with Avery discovering the new machine. “She’s so buttoned-up tight now that I don’t think I can get the full story of the breakup out of her. She won’t tell me what the worst of it was. It always seems like she’s holding something back.”
Cade sighed, tapping his fingertip against his beer bottle. “Avery’s right about one thing. You should have talked to her about buying the equipment instead of going behind her back.”
“Yeah, I know it. She’s just going to sabotage her happiness and future by not accepting help.” Something brushed against the far reaches of his memory, but he couldn’t for the life of him remember what it was.”
“I don’t know, Tuck. Maybe—”
The two brothers were interrupted by the front door banging open. Shanna ran in first, and Tucker’s heart twisted at the familiar way she came into the cabin—like she’d been doing it all her life, and not the last couple of weeks. He struggled to remind himself that it wouldn’t have been like that if he’d stayed with Avery. They would have gone somewhere else together, not lived in this little cabin on the Wells farm. Or, who knew. Maybe they would have. He’d never know the answer to that.
“Look.” Shanna was breathless, happy, cold coming off her clothes in waves. “Look at the pictures I took.”
The girls had gone out into the fields with some of the cattle and then come back to the fence, where they’d taken turns photographing each other out in the snow. Shanna’s blue eyes practically jumped out of every single photo, her face alight with happiness. No matter what happened, at least he’d have this—she was happy. Even if Avery kept him out of the picture—and he dreaded the day she made that move—Shanna was doing great.
The door opened again to reveal Cade’s wife, Becca. A stab of jealousy sliced through him at the way his brother’s face softened and warmed at the sight of her, and the way she smiled back. They had their problems, he knew, but all those issues paled in comparison to the way they felt about each other. But with Avery, the troubles loomed so large they couldn’t see past them.
Shanna thrust the camera into his face again, and he was looking at a photo of Joey, grinning by the fence, when Becca spoke.
“Listen, boys. Girls. I came to invite you all over to the main house for dinner. You’ve got to be cold and hungry—don’t tell me otherwise.”
Joey rubbed her hands together. “What are we eating?”
“Tacos.” Becca laughed. “As many tacos as you can eat. And I’ve got two trays of brownies. Shanna, are you coming?”
Shanna looked at him, hope in her blue eyes. Tucker didn’t want to go sit with his brothers and their wives, watching happiness bloom all around him. He wanted to stay here and shut the world out. But the expression on Shanna’s face did something to his heart—something unique. He’d never felt it until he met her. And he couldn’t say no.
“Yeah, of course.” Shanna jumped up and clapped her hands, cheering. “Let’s head on over. I’m starving.”
14
The last thing Avery wanted to do was open the clinic. But a week after she and Tucker fought, the world presented her with no other option. On Tuesday, she shoveled the space in front of the clinic and spruced up the snow piles around the sidewalk. And on Wednesday morning, she’d come out to find a small lineup of locals waiting by the door of the clinic with their pets. It didn’t matter that she didn’t have a sign—they knew this was the vet’s place, and Tucker had done enough to make it look ready for business.
So she’d been taking patients for a little over a week. It had taken her some scrambling and a loan from her parents to get the final details taken care off—additional supplies to stock the clinic, a new computer for the reception desk instead of her old laptop, and a printer. But she’d done it.
Avery came out from the patient wing the next Wednesday and balanced her clipboard on the counter to make some notes on the case. Julia, Doc Oates’ old receptionist, smiled up at her from her seat behind the reception desk. She’d been one of the people in line to see Avery the week before and had volunteered to help out in the clinic a few hours a week. Thank goodness, too, because Avery hadn’t had a moment to breathe, much less hire someone for the job. Anyway, it turned out that Julia was indispensable. She, unlike Avery, could decipher the Doc’s handwriting on some of the returning patients’ files, and she spent all her downtime entering it into the new electronic records system. Avery would owe her for
