Renee Andrews - Finally A Bride

“So I can take extra good care of him.” She tenderly brushed a tear from his cheek. “Is that okay, Eli?”

“But what if—what if he dies? What if he goes to Heaven, too?” He looked toward Gavin and then back at the doctor. “What if I was too late—again? Like I was too late when Mommy and Daddy died?”

Gavin felt punched in the gut. Last year, the kid, at only six years old, had tried earnestly to save his parents, even after all the adults around him had given up.

The vet bit down on her lower lip and Gavin could tell that she was trying to control the emotions pressing forward at the hint of Eli’s tragic past. And he recognized the same deep sorrow that he felt every time he thought of the way this little boy had been left, all alone, with no one to care for him.

Much like that little dog in the woods.

“I’m going to do my very best to make sure that doesn’t happen,” she promised.

“Can I come see him, though? Like, every day?” Eli shifted the quivering dog to one arm and wiped the opposite red mitten across his cheek to knock the tears away before returning it to cradle the pup. “Can I come after school? He needs to know that I love him. It’s important. I’ll need to show him.”

She blinked twice, held on to that lower lip a long beat before finally speaking. “That would be very nice, and I know it would comfort him to know you care.”

Eli nuzzled the puppy, who had fallen asleep in his arms. “Can I, Mr. Gavin? Can I come see him every day until he’s better?”

“Yes,” he said gruffly, as if any other answer would escape his lips. “I’ll bring you after school, after you finish your homework. But you need to give the puppy—Buddy—to Dr....” He’d noticed her name embroidered on her white jacket, but from this angle, he couldn’t read the script.

“Calhoun,” she supplied, and then she softened that clear, lyrical voice, looked at Eli and said, “or you can call me Miss Haley.”

Haley Calhoun. The name sparked a hint of a memory, something he’d overheard recently, but he couldn’t recall what was said.

Gavin shook the scattered thought away and nodded to Eli. “Now give Buddy to Dr. Calhoun, so she can take care of him and help him get better.”

Eli eased the lifeless animal toward the doctor. “O-kay.”

Her eyebrows dropped, fingers probing gently as she took the puppy.

Trying to divert the boy’s attention from the doctor’s sudden look of concern, Gavin pointed to the schoolbag Eli had dropped near a chair by the door. “Eli, why don’t you grab your backpack and get ready to go? We’ll come see Buddy again tomorrow.”

Gavin’s phone rang and he saw that Savvy Evans, who ran the children’s home with her husband, Brodie, was on the other end. No doubt she wanted an update on the mistreated puppy. He answered, “Hey Savvy, we’re still at the vet.”

Eli halted his pace toward the backpack. “Can I tell Miss Savvy about Buddy?”

Gavin nodded. “Savvy, Eli wants to talk to you.” He gave him the phone and listened as the boy recited every detail, from holding the puppy on the way to the vet to everything Haley—Dr. Calhoun—had said since they’d arrived.

While Eli was occupied talking, Gavin took the opportunity to approach the doctor, now quietly instructing her assistant about Buddy’s initial course of treatment. The assistant left for a moment and then returned with a blue blanket in her arms.

“It’s warm?” Haley asked, and the other woman, who looked around twenty, nodded. Then the doctor tenderly transferred the pup, as though he were extremely fragile, to the blanket in the assistant’s arms.

“Hello, Mr. Thomason,” the younger blonde said.

Gavin was clueless and apparently showed it.

“Aaliyah Smith. I go to church with you,” she offered, “at Claremont Community Church.”

“Right.” He hated the fact that he was so often preoccupied with his own world that he rarely noticed others, even during religious services. Or maybe, he was so often preoccupied with his past that he rarely noticed the present.

But he noticed the children in his care, and most everyone else who was involved with helping the boys in his cabin.

Aaliyah gave him a soft smile, presumably not offended that he hadn’t recognized her, and then hurried to the back with the dog. Observing her haste, Gavin feared the worst. So while Eli continued telling Savvy about Buddy, he moved toward the doctor and touched her shoulder. “You can’t let that puppy die.”

Unfortunately his words came out brusquely, more like a command than a request.

The vet’s eyes widened, her mouth formed a small O and then she stole a glance at Eli, still talking, before lowering her voice to match his. “I can promise you I will do my best to bring him back to good health. That’s my job, and I take my job very seriously.”

Gavin wasn’t influenced by the fact that he’d irritated her. He needed answers, pure and simple.

“Okay, what does that involve? What’s wrong with the dog, and what are you planning to do?” He hated the accusatory tone, but he also couldn’t control it. Whether she liked it or not, she’d become a key factor in whether Eli lost something else he cared about, and Gavin wasn’t about to let that happen. Not on his watch.

She narrowed those green eyes again. He’d offended her. That hadn’t been his intention, but if it got him the information he needed, so be it.

“Buddy has been on his own for at least three or four days. He is dehydrated and needs to be treated for parasites.” Her voice had taken on a clinical tone that he knew all too well. It’d been the same one the doctor had used when Gavin received the news that his wife—the true love of his life—died giving birth to their son. And then, merely an hour later...that their baby boy had died, too.

Two years ago today.

Gritting his teeth to combat the pain of the past, he forced himself to listen while the doctor continued.

“We will start by putting him in a quiet, safe area away from other animals, lights and activity. We want to keep him as calm as possible. Aaliyah is taking his temperature now, but he felt cool, so we’ve wrapped him in a warm blanket and will regulate his temperature slowly. If this is done too quickly, it could harm his delicate nervous system.”

Gavin kept an eye on Eli while he took advantage of his preoccupation to learn more about what the doctor planned for Buddy’s treatment. “And then what?”

Still in that clinical tone he loathed, she explained in detail the steps planned to help the pup.

She paused when a white-haired woman carrying a pink floral bag walked toward the lobby from one of the exam rooms. The bag mewed continually as she crossed the floor. White fur and green eyes pushed against the mesh end.

“Why, Mr. Thomason, what brings you here?” Mae Martin asked. Then she saw Eli, his back facing her as he talked on the phone on the other side of the lobby. “Oh, my, was that crying child I heard one of your darling boys?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Mae was a regular visitor to Willow’s Haven, one of the volunteers who read library books to the children. The readers had become a part of the kids’ world, so that, even though they didn’t have a real family, they still had a family of sorts through Willow’s Haven and the small Claremont community. Mae had been assigned to Gavin’s cabin, so she knew each child. Her eyes moved to Eli, who’d turned in her direction but was still too focused on his conversation to notice Mae.

She shook her head. “Bless his little heart. Those children have already been through so much. I could tell he was upset when I heard him crying, but I didn’t realize when I was in the back that it was Eli. Such a tenderhearted child. Is everything going to be okay?”