Still The One. Michelle Major

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      “Stephanie Rand?”

      “She’s my tech,” he answered with a nod. “You two hung out in high school, right?”

      Lainey swallowed. “Best friends since second grade.”

      He scooped Pita into his arms. “Let’s go then.” He strode across the dirt path that led to the main clinic building, carrying Pita like he was cradling a baby.

      Lainey stood alone next to the Land Cruiser. Stephanie Rand was another person Lainey hadn’t spoken to since she’d hightailed it out of Brevia—one of the few people who knew the full extent of what had happened to Lainey ten years ago. She’d wanted Lainey to tell Ethan everything right away—her parents, too. But Lainey couldn’t admit how badly she’d failed them all.

      Maybe that was why Lainey had cut ties with Steph when she’d left, hadn’t returned her friend’s calls or answered emails. Any reminder of the past hurt too much.

      Ethan’s voice brought her back to the present. “Are you coming?” He waited at the back door of the clinic.

      She reached up and slammed shut the SUV’s rear hatch. “Yes,” she called, and he disappeared inside the building.

      Lainey’s footsteps crunched on the gravel driveway. She looked around the property that had once belonged to her father’s family. The clinic stood where it always had, tucked into a far corner of the lot in a converted farmhouse where her dad had grown up.

      To the left stood the original barn that housed any large breed animals under the clinic’s care and the All Creatures Great & Small Animal Shelter her mother had founded after her father died.

      Guilt stabbed at her chest, the same guilt she always felt when she thought of her dad. She’d been on assignment in a remote section of India when he’d died. She’d missed her chance to say goodbye, lost the opportunity to reconcile with him.

      When she’d phoned her mother two days later from Bangladesh, Vera had told her she wasn’t needed. “Ethan and Julia are taking care of things” had been her mother’s exact words. Lainey had drowned her grief in a bottle of cheap wine, blamed the dull ache in her head on a hangover and flown to Nairobi for a shoot covering that country’s dwindling elephant population.

      She’d done what she did best: run away from her pain and try to convince herself she was living her perfect life.

      Right now her feet itched to scurry to the Land Cruiser. But not even a soul-crushing fear was strong enough to make her desert the dog. She would not inflict the pain of abandonment on another living being, even one of the four-legged variety.

      She followed Ethan through the back door of the animal hospital and found him bent over Pita in one of the exam rooms. Lainey crouched near Pita’s face. “I’m right here, girl.”

      Ethan straightened. “Steph’s getting the X-ray equipment warmed up. We need to figure out what’s causing the blockage. Surgery’s an option but a lot riskier. It would be easier if she could get it out on her own.”

      “She poops like a goose,” Lainey murmured to herself.

      “Hopefully,” Ethan said with a short laugh, “that will work in her favor.”

      Lainey was too worried to be embarrassed by discussing her dog’s potty habits with her ex-fiancé.

      Ethan lifted Pita again. “I’ll have her back to you in a few minutes.”

      Lainey sank into the mud-colored vinyl chair that sat against one wall. She closed her eyes but refused to pray. There was a time when she’d spent days on end praying, holed up in her bedroom, her knees hugged in a fetal position. She’d offered prayers, promises, threats—anything so she wouldn’t lose the life growing inside her.

      In the end, nothing had worked. Lainey had given up on prayer just like everything else.

      The door creaked open. She stood, expecting Ethan and Pita. Stephanie Rand stepped into the room. “He’ll be a few minutes more,” she said. “I wanted to say hi.”

      “Hey, Steph.” Lainey wondered for a moment if she would have recognized her old friend if she passed her on the street. “You look great.”

      The other woman gave a bark of laughter and finger combed her high bangs. “You always were a bad liar, Lainey.” Steph smoothed a hand across the front of her purple scrubs. “I still have twenty pounds to go on my baby weight.”

      “You have a baby?”

      “Three boys. Although Joe Jr.’s eight and the twins turned six last month.”

      Lainey’s eyes widened. “You married Joe Wilkens?” she asked, picturing Steph’s high school boyfriend. “Your last name …”

      “He’s my ex.”

      “Sorry.”

      Stephanie smiled. “There you go again. You told me Joe was a no-good loser thirteen years ago. He split when the twins were eight months.”

      “That’s awful.”

      “He was a terrible daddy and a worse husband.” She flashed a rueful smile. “Too bad I never lost the hots for him. He looked at me and I got pregnant.” She slapped her hand against her mouth. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean …”

      “It’s okay,” Lainey said, surprised to find she meant it. She took a deep breath and said, “I’ve missed you, Steph.” She meant that, too, although she hadn’t realized it.

      Tension seemed to ease from Steph’s shoulders. Her smile turned watery. “Me, too.”

      “Maybe I could meet your boys sometime.”

      “They’ll have you wrapped around their grubby fingers in five seconds flat,” Ethan commented as he walked through the open door. He’d changed into a pair of khaki pants and a navy polo shirt with the clinic’s name sewn above the pocket.

      Stephanie gave him a playful slap on the shoulder. “Not everyone’s as big a sucker as Uncle Ethan.”

      Uncle Ethan. He’d always loved kids, wanted enough for a football team he’d joked with her.

      Wanted to try again.

      Another layer of the pain she’d buried uncurled in her stomach.

      “Lainey?”

      She looked up. Ethan and Steph stared at her. “Where’s Pita?” she asked.

      Ethan’s brows furrowed. “I just said she’s asleep in one of the kennels. She was a trooper for the X-rays.”

      “Right.” She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “What did you find?”

      He flipped a switch on the metal box hanging on the wall and it lit with an iridescent glow. “There’s definitely something in there.” He slid the X-ray into place. “I’m not sure … uh … what exactly …”

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