Erin Kern - Along Came Trouble

You know that’s not true. Stop being so cranky .

Brinkley whimpered when Brody laid him on the table. The tech told them the vet would be with them in a moment.

“Would you like to stay with him?” she asked Elisa.

For some strange reason, Elisa tossed an unsure glance at Brody. He grabbed her hand. His palm was warm and so much bigger than hers. The feeling of his fingers entwined with hers eased her nerves slightly. As though just being with him could get her through anything. Even the heart-wrenching experience of losing a pet.

“I’ll stay with you,” he said with a reassuring smile.

The way his lips curved reminded her of the look he’d given her after they’d made love the first time. Her heart had turned over in her chest and had landed at the bottom of her stomach with a resounding thunk . Oh man, how could she ever have thought she could erase him from her subconscious? Elisa nodded to mask the need she had for him. “I’d like to stay with him until it’s over,” she answered. Brinkley deserved to have someone next to him until the end.

She and Brody sat in hard plastic chairs next to the metal table where Brinkley lay on his side. The dog had barely moved. In fact, it looked as though he was barely breathing. Elisa couldn’t bear to look at him. She knew she was doing the right thing, yet she felt like the worst possible person in the world.

“You hanging in there?” Brody whispered. His grip on her hand tightened.

He was too close, yet too far away. She wanted to crawl in his lap and bury her face in his neck. Then maybe she could inhale the scent that was so quintessentially Brody and forget everything. Forget about ending Brinkley’s life, an animal she’d spent so little time with but loved with all her heart. She could forget that she and Brody didn’t have a future together and that, when she left, she’d be leaving her heart with him.

She inhaled an unsteady breath and settled for returning the squeeze he’d given her hand. “I just want to get this over with.” Brinkley didn’t move when she touched his soft ear and stroked it. One eyelid opened and he gazed at her out of a soulful brown eye. A single tear rolled down her cheek, which Brody swiped with the pad of his thumb.

Shit, why did he have to touch her like that? Like he still cared? “Thanks for staying with me,” she said.

He slid an arm around her shoulders and pulled her tight against him. It felt so good to be near him again and feel those solid muscles beneath the fabric of his shirt, muscles that had been pressed intimately to every inch of her body. Now they were reassuring and still so strong but comforting at the same time.

“I told you I would stay,” he responded in a low voice.

I told you I would stay . Not I’m here because I want to be with you.

His presence was just an obligation, merely following through with what he’d told her. The realization should have devastated her. However, she was too numb to feel much of anything.

A moment later in walked the vet, a middle-aged man with thinning black hair and a slight paunch. His white doctor’s coat was immaculate and had his name and the acronym DVM stitched in blue.

His eyes softened when they landed on Brinkley. He whipped the stethoscope from around his neck and pressed the listening part to the dog’s midsection. “How are you doing this morning, Ms. Cardoso?” he asked while moving the device over Brinkley’s stomach.

“I’m okay.” But not really .

“You’re going to stay in here with him?” He directed his kind brown eyes at her.

“Yes.” She watched the doctor move around Brinkley, examining or looking for something, Elisa wasn’t sure. He wound his stethoscope around his neck. “Will it hurt him? I mean—he won’t feel any pain, will he?”

The doctor smiled. “It’s very fast—it happens in a matter of seconds. The first injection will make him fall asleep. He won’t feel a thing.”

That was a small reassurance that made her feel slightly better. Over the next few minutes, the vet and his technicians moved in and out of the room, bringing equipment and various supplies with them. They murmured to each other in soft voices, using terms she didn’t understand. She sat quietly in her chair with one hand on Brinkley’s head and Brody’s comforting presence next to her. Touching her. An arm around her, a hand tucked in hers, a thigh pressed along hers. Anything he could do to take away her doubt and pain.

Then the doctor slapped on a pair of examination gloves and held up a needle. “This is going to make him go to sleep. After that, I’ll inject him with a solution that will stop his heart.”

Elisa could only nod as a sick feeling formed in the bottom of her stomach. Brody leaned in close and pressed a soft kiss to her temple.

Just a few seconds later Brinkley’s eyes dropped closed as though drifting into a deep sleep. She didn’t want to watch but couldn’t tear her eyes away. His stomach still rose and fell with shallow breaths. She wanted to call off the whole thing. Was it too late to whisk her dog away from here and spend just a few more hours with him? It took every ounce of willpower she had to remain seated in her chair, to keep from yelling at the vet to stop the process.

Brody must have felt her whole body go stiff. His arm unwound from around her shoulders, and his hand grabbed hers. “Hang in there,” he whispered, then pressed a kiss to the back of her hand.

The vet discarded the first needle and picked up a second one. This time Elisa did turn her head. She couldn’t stand to watch him insert that hideous thing into Brinkley’s flesh. More tears ran down her cheeks when the doctor set down the last needle and used his stethoscope on Brinkley. He moved the listening device around, probably checking for a heartbeat.

“He’s gone,” the man said.

Was she supposed to feel relieved? A sense of peace that Brinkley was no longer in pain? Because she didn’t feel any of those things. All she felt was a deep sense of loss and mourning for the animal she had come to love.

She was vaguely aware of people moving in and out of the room, picking things up and talking to each other. Were they moving in slow motion? Was that her they were talking to?

Thank goodness for Brody. Elisa couldn’t seem to form a coherent thought. He practically lifted her out of the chair and ushered her to her car. She clung to him like the lifeline he was, as though he was the only thing capable of rooting out the despair that latched onto her heart like a leech. Wasn’t that why she hadn’t put up much of a fight when he’d insisted on coming with her? That she would have known how much she’d need his strong resilience?

He placed her in the car, running a hand over her hair before shutting the door. She leaned her head back and allowed her eyes to drift shut.

Sometime later, they were on their way back to her house with Brody driving silently and the town of Trouble passing by the car windows. Once at home, she could slip into oblivion for days and not think about anything.

Even though she’d protested him accompanying her, she was grateful to have Brody by her side. How could she have driven herself home when she couldn’t even keep her eyes open? How would she have sat there in that room by herself, watching Brinkley’s life slip away without Brody holding her hand?

She may have been mad as hell at him, but she was thankful—thankful to have met such a wonderful man as Brody.

He finally pulled into her driveway, turned off the car, and came around to open her door for her. She wanted to exert her independence by pulling away from him, but she just didn’t have the strength. So she allowed herself to lean on him, to feel all that muscle and rock-solid body holding her up. And it felt so good. He felt good. As if he would never let anything bad happen to her. Or so she once believed.