The Doctor Next Door. Victoria Pade

Faith said, not wanting to commit to more than that when it came to Northbridge.

      It seemed like a good time to change the subject so she opted to embark on her ulterior motive. “What are you up to for the next hour or so?” she asked her sister.

      Eden held up a cell phone. “I’m waiting for a call to tell me whether the last fairy sketches are all right.”

      Eden had ended her career as a forensic artist and was now illustrating a children’s book.

      “You could take your phone with you and help me out,” Faith proposed hopefully.

      “Help you out with what?”

      “Your brother-in-law. According to his receptionist, he’s keeping Charlie another night. I guess Charlie still isn’t eating or drinking and he needs to watch her. But I wanted to at least visit her. The receptionist put me on hold to ask if that would be all right. He okayed it but the receptionist said his schedule today was full, so would I come after the last appointment. As if my being at the office would interfere with anything.”

      Eden either didn’t notice the derisive note in Faith’s voice or she chose not to mention it. Instead she said, “What does that have to do with me?”

      “I don’t particularly want to go alone. Your brother-in-law is a creep.”

      “Boone?” Eden said with a laugh. “You have to be kidding. Boone’s a pussycat.”

      “He is not. He’s rude and obnoxious and we sort of had a fight yesterday. I was hoping I could pick up Charlie this morning and not even see him, but now not only don’t I get to take Charlie home, I’m sure I’ll have to see bad-news Boone while I’m visiting my dog.”

      “Are you sure we’re talking about the same person? The tall, hunky guy who resembles my husband except he has longer, darker hair and lighter eyes and when he smiles he gets those creases down his cheeks?”

      “I wouldn’t know what happens when he smiles because I didn’t see anything that came close to a smile. But yes, longer, darker hair—at least I think it’s darker underneath the layer of dirt that was covering him from head to toe.”

      “Dirt?”

      “He said something about coming straight from saddlebreaking a horse.”

      “That would probably get him pretty dirty.”

      “But he’s in the medical profession. No medical professional should—”

      “Didn’t you have to call him in on his day off? In an emergency? Seems to me you take what you get under those conditions.”

      “Still. He didn’t even apologize for it or explain it until late in the game. And dirty or not, he was awful.”

      “To Charlie?”

      “No, he was fine to Charlie. He was awful to me.”

      “Seriously?”

      “Why would I make this up?” Faith asked. “He called me high-and-mighty and nose-in-the-air. He brought up something I guess I said in high school about Northbridge being the land of the hayseeds and then he said some weird stuff about how he couldn’t care less about me or about anything to do with me.”

      “Boone?” Eden repeated with more disbelief.

      “I asked him if I’d done something to make him mad. He said no—that was the part about how he couldn’t care less—but he acted mad. He acted as if he hated me.”

      “Why would he hate you?”

      “Good question. As far as I know, I haven’t seen him since high school. Not even when I’ve come to Northbridge to visit. Have I turned into some snooty bitch who goes around offending people without realizing it?”

      “You, a snooty bitch?” Eden repeated with a laugh at how ridiculous that sounded. “You’re the one who was in trouble with your mother-in-law for not being snooty enough. Didn’t you get your wrists slapped for buying birthday and Christmas gifts for the house staff, and letting them call you by your first name? But Boone? Honestly, since coming back to Northbridge and hanging around with the Pratt family I’ve never seen him be anything but nice and even-tempered and calm. I’ve certainly never seen him be a creep. It just doesn’t sound like Boone.”

      “Well, unless he has an evil twin, it was Boone.”

      “Did you do something to him when we were kids?”

      “I thought about it all night and most of today, but I can’t think of anything. I mean, I remember him being short and kind of pudgy. I remember that he almost never talked and I think sometimes he had wildlife in his pockets—”

      Eden laughed. “Wildlife?”

      “Like frogs or toads or turtles or lizardy things—the kind of things little boys might have in their pockets—but we were in high school. I remember him always turning red, too. As if he was embarrassed even when there wasn’t anything to be embarrassed about. But I never made fun of him or anything. I never really had much to do with him beyond sitting in front of him in classes where seating was alphabetical.”

      “Maybe that’s what rubbed him wrong—that you didn’t have anything to do with him,” Eden suggested.

      “That I didn’t say hi to him in homeroom over a decade ago?”

      “That does seem far-fetched.”

      “So what’s up with him?”

      Eden shrugged this time. “I couldn’t tell you.”

      “So will you go with me to visit Charlie and save me from more of his bad attitude?”

      “I really can’t, Faith. This call is important and Cam should be home any minute and we need to—”

      “You’re just going to throw me to the wolf?”

      “Give him another chance. Maybe he had a bad day yesterday and he’ll be nice today.”

      “That would be an even bigger change than the change in his looks,” Faith said as she stood to leave, wishing all the while she was saying goodbye to her sister that Boone Pratt’s looks hadn’t changed.

      Because maybe if they hadn’t she might have been able to stop thinking about the way he looked.

      Which was something she hadn’t quite managed. Over the past twenty-four hours the image of him had stayed in her mind’s eye no matter what she’d done to switch channels.

      * * *

      When Faith arrived at the veterinarian’s office, Boone Pratt’s truck and another car were parked in front of the building, which was shaded by a semicircle of tall pine trees. She had no idea if the other car belonged to a pet owner or to one of Boone Pratt’s employees. Not wanting to set him off by going inside if he was still involved in his last appointment, she waited until a woman came out and got into the other car. Only then did Faith leave her own vehicle, not appreciating how on-edge she felt at the prospect of having to go through an ogre to get to her pet.

      Inside, the office was quiet. Boone Pratt must have heard the door open and close because from somewhere in back came his deep voice. “Is that you, Faith?”

      That didn’t sound ogreish. Or as abrasive as the previous day. But not even a more amiable tone made her feel any better as she answered. “Yes, it’s me.”

      “We’ll be right out.”

      Was there going to be some courtesy today? That was a change.

      Faith sat on the cushioned bench seat built into the wall across from the receptionist’s station. She flicked a piece of lint off the skirt that was very much like the ankle-length A-line she’d worn the day before except that it was brown. On top she had on another blouse—this one also white but with