Playing to Win (Summer Beach Vets 2) - sweet contemporary romance (9 page)

Dan’s words tormented her for the rest of the evening, and when Ellie woke up the next morning, she lay awake in bed for a long time going over everything that had happened again and again. Could she have been so wrong about everything? But it had all seemed to make perfect sense when she was thinking it through yesterday. She had been sure she was doing the right thing…

She thought of Will again and felt terrible. She had thought of going over to his house last night to apologise, but had been hesitant. She had never met his mother or any other members of his family and she wasn’t sure it was right for her to just turn up on their doorstep. Especially if Will’s mother was unwell.

I’ve got to make it up to the boy somehow, though
, thought Ellie as she climbed out of bed. She remembered their original plans for going to the beach this morning—would Will still come over?

Ellie showered, dressed, and made herself some breakfast. Then she made an attempt to clean the house. But all the while, she kept straining her ears for a knock at the front door and kept looking out of the windows, hoping to see a small figure skipping down the street with a chocolate Lab by his side.

By the time eleven o’clock rolled around, Ellie had to admit the truth—that Will probably wasn’t coming. She felt a sharp stab of disappointment, together with a panicked sense of loss. She hadn’t realised how much her friendship with the little Australian boy had meant to her until now. The thought of never spending a weekend with Will or Milo again filled Ellie with despair.

She made herself some lunch, went over the notes for her talk again, and even prepared her outfit for the awards evening—a specially purchased cocktail dress and matching stiletto heels. But her heart wasn’t in it. As the afternoon wore on and the hands of the clock slid past three o’clock, Ellie reluctantly began getting ready to leave.

It would take her about two hours to drive down to Sydney and she wanted to make sure that she arrived in good time for the start of the awards dinner at 6 p.m. Still, she applied her make-up and did her hair listlessly, then got into the shimmering navy chiffon dress without much enthusiasm. As she surveyed herself in the mirror, she wondered how she could feel so unexcited about an event that had been so important to her.

Ellie transferred the contents of her everyday handbag to the special evening purse that she had bought to match the dress and paused as she looked down at the silver tube of lipstick she held in her hand. She could still see Milo’s teeth marks on the case. She flashed back to the day she met the chocolate Lab and his boy—and suddenly she wanted to go back, to do everything all over again.

“Mistakes happen. Get over it. Pick yourself up, learn from the mistake, and move on
.”

Ellie took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. She still had a chance to do the right thing, to try and make amends. She couldn’t go to Sydney like this—it would torment her the whole night. She needed to see Will. Yes, the boy hadn’t come over this morning—but that didn’t mean that
she
couldn’t go to see him. She needed to apologise.

Ellie glanced at the clock on the wall. She still had a bit of time. If she stopped off at Will’s house on the way out of town, she could see him quickly before starting the drive to Sydney. She remembered Will’s home address—he had mentioned it once—it wouldn’t be a huge detour.

Collecting her things, Ellie hurried out to the car and started the engine, then sped off down the street. But when she came to the T-junction, she paused and hesitated. To the right, the road led into town and then out—past Will’s house—onto the highway. To the left, the road led down to the animal hospital and the beach. On an impulse, she turned left. She had an idea—a toy or a chew for Milo would help to sweeten her apology and the nearest place to buy pet supplies was the animal hospital.

Ellie pulled up outside the hospital and ran in. She hadn’t been in there since that first day when she’d met Dan and she was hit with a wave of memories as she stepped into the waiting room. The cool antiseptic smell, the cheerful posters warning about fleas and tapeworms on the walls, the faint sound of barking coming from the hospital ward at the back of the building…

The clinic kept shorter hours on the weekends and they must have been coming to the end of their appointments because the waiting room was largely empty except for a middle-aged woman and a young boy sitting huddled in the corner.

Wait…

Ellie froze as she recognised the boy.

“Will?”

The boy looked up. His face was blotchy and Ellie could see that he had been crying.

“Ellie!” He cried, jumping up and running over. He threw his arms around her and buried his face against her stomach, bursting into tears.

“Will, what’s wrong?” Ellie asked frantically, crouching down so that she was eye level with the boy. He was scrunching her cocktail dress up in his fists and the chiffon was becoming wet from his tears, but Ellie hardly noticed.

Will stepped back and wiped his nose on his arm. “It’s… it’s… Milo…” He gulped. “He got really sick… and he was crying and then he started puking. They say they have to cut him open… oh, Ellie! I don’t want him to die!”

It felt like the bottom had dropped out of Ellie’s world. She clasped the sobbing boy in her arms as her thoughts spun out of control.

Milo die?

No! No! No!

“Where’s Dan?” she asked Will wildly. “Have you spoken to Dan? Dan will know what to do. Dan will save Milo—”

“Dr O’Brien is in the middle of another surgery at the moment. But he came out to speak to us and he said that he would operate on Milo as soon as he could.”

Ellie looked up to see that the middle-aged woman who had been sitting beside Will had come over to join them. She looked harassed and weary, but she offered Ellie a friendly smile. “You must be Will’s new American friend. He’s done nothing but talk about you in the past few weeks. I heard around town that you’re working up at the resort?”

“Yes, that’s right, I’m the PR manager there,” said Ellie, returning the smile and offering her hand.

“I’m Sonia, Will’s aunt,” the lady said. “His mother is my younger sister. She’s been suffering from depression lately and hasn’t had much time for Will. So it’s been great that he’s had your company. Really nice of you to spend time with him lately.”

“Oh, no, it’s been my pleasure,” Ellie said. She hesitated. “I… I’m sorry to hear about your sister. I understand from Will that his parents are going through a separation?”

“Yeah, tough time,” said Sonia, making a face. “I’ve been helping where I can.”

“They’re lucky to have you,” said Ellie. “And what happened with Milo?”

Sonia sighed. “We’re not sure. We think he might have swallowed something at the beach races yesterday—that dog is always swallowing things! But he’s usually fine. Except that this morning, he started acting really strange. Wouldn’t settle, kept walking around in circles and drooling. Then he got really lethargic which worried me more, to be honest, because normally that dog never stops. He wasn’t interested in treats either—I’ve never known Milo to refuse food!” She shook her head. “Then he started retching quite badly. We rushed him in here twenty minutes ago. Dr O’Brien came out to examine Milo quickly and he thinks it might be a bowel obstruction. They’re doing X-rays now to confirm it. The only option would be surgery.” She glanced at Will’s bent head and dropped her voice. “The vet didn’t seem optimistic about the outcome.”

Will hunched his shoulders and buried his face deeper into Ellie’s side. She could feel his small body trembling. She wanted to hug him and tell him that everything was going to be all right, but she knew she couldn’t really make that promise. In fact, she wanted a hug for herself. She wanted someone to tell her that it was all a joke, that Milo would come bounding out any minute now with his wide doggie smile and his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth, pulling eagerly on his leash to get to the beach.

“Oh cripes—look at your dress!” Sonia exclaimed suddenly. “I’m so sorry! It’s ruined for your evening!”

Ellie glanced down. The front of her cocktail dress had a big wet patch, smeared with tears and mucus from Will’s crying. Sonia grabbed the boy and dragged him away from her.

“Will, look what you’ve done to Ellie’s dress!”

“No, no, it’s fine… don’t worry about it,” Ellie said quickly.

“You must have been going somewhere important to be dressing up like that,” said Sonia.

“Yes, I was going to an awards dinner down in Sydney,” admitted Ellie.

“Oh, well, you’d better get on the road then. Traffic can be awful heading into Sydney around this time. We won’t keep you—come on, Will.” She led the boy away.

Ellie glanced at the clock on the reception wall. Sonia was right. She was already late. If she left now, she
might
still make the beginning of the awards dinner on time. But instead of rushing back out to her car, Ellie found herself walking over to where Will was sitting and dropping into the plastic chair next to him.

“Ellie? Don’t you have to go?” He looked up at her surprise.

Ellie hesitated, then smiled. “No, I’m staying with you.”

“But—” Sonia looked confused. “Don’t you have to be at your awards thing?”

“No,” said Ellie, smoothing back Will’s hair tenderly from his forehead. “The place I have to be is here.”

Will smiled and leaned his head against Ellie’s shoulder. She took her cell phone out of her purse and called her boss. She knew that pulling out of the talk at the last minute was probably professional suicide. Her boss had been depending on her—she was representing the resort—and he wouldn’t be able to find anyone else to do the talk at such short notice. She was letting him down and embarrassing him in front of a lot of top names in the industry. Would he be so willing to overlook things and forgive her a second time?

It didn’t matter, Ellie thought. She knew that this was the right thing to do. She had never felt more sure of anything in her life. And even if it cost her her job, she didn’t care. She just knew that she wouldn’t be able to look at herself in the mirror tomorrow if she walked out on this little boy now.

Her boss answered and Ellie heard the dismay and disappointment in his voice when he realised that she couldn’t come.

“But… what’s happened? Why can’t you make it?”

“I’ve got a—” Ellie paused for a second, glancing at Will, “—a family emergency. I’m really sorry but I just can’t leave.”

He sighed and said, sounding slightly annoyed. “I wish you’d given me more notice, Ellie.”

“I know—I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “I know it’s really last minute. Do you think… You’ve got my notes for the talk. Could you do it instead?”

“I don’t know.” He sighed again. “Okay, I’ll see what I can do.”

Ellie hung up feeling strangely liberated. It was like when you first learned to skate and you were so terrified of falling… and then it happened. You lost your balance. You fell. You hurt yourself. And you got back up again—and were no longer held hostage by your own fears. After being scared of it for so long, Ellie was surprised to find that her dread of failing had been far worse than the reality itself. Not that she was proud of letting her boss down, but it had happened now. She had done it. Her biggest fear had happened—and nothing worse could happen now. She was still here. And she was
free
.

Ellie glanced at Will again. She had no idea what the repercussions would be—what this could mean for her career prospects—but she had no regrets. In fact, she felt strangely at peace.

The sound of a door opening and closing made them all look up, and Ellie’s heart skipped a beat as she saw Dan come striding down the hallway in scrubs and a mask pulled down around his neck. Again, she flashed back to that first day when he had appeared and put an end to the pandemonium in the waiting room with quiet, easy authority. She saw his eyes fall on her and caught a flicker of surprise in their grey depths. She realised that she must look slightly ridiculous, sitting here in an animal hospital waiting room, in her chiffon cocktail dress and stiletto heels. But he made no move to acknowledge her. Instead, he said something to the vet assistant hovering behind the reception counter, then he came over and spoke gently to Will.

“We’ve got the X-ray and ultrasound scans now and it looks like Milo may have swallowed a fork.”

“A fork!” Sonia threw her hands up.

Dan nodded. “I’m afraid we have no choice but to operate. There’s a confirmed bowel obstruction and there is also a risk that one of the sharp edges of the fork may perforate his intestines.”

Will gripped Dan’s wrist. “Is Milo going to die?” he whispered.

Dan gave the boy’s hand a squeeze. “Not if I can help it, mate. I will do everything I can to save him.” He crouched down next to the boy. “But I need you to know that I can’t make promises. Even if Milo makes it through surgery, there might be complications. He could get an infection or a condition called peritonitis. I don’t want to scare you, mate—hopefully Milo will do fine. But sometimes—no matter how hard we try—we can’t always save the ones we love.”

Will looked like his eyes might well up again, but he nodded bravely. Dan patted him on the shoulder, then stood up. His eyes met Ellie’s again briefly and she wanted to say something, but she couldn’t move.

“We’ve given Milo some IV fluids and pain relief, and he seems to be stable, so I’m going to start the surgery now. I’ll come out and let you know how it’s gone when the procedure is over. In the meantime, you can speak to Megan if you need anything, okay?” He indicated the receptionist, then with another encouraging smile at Will, he turned and headed back down the hallway.

They all sat down again. Sonia gave a loud sigh and shook her head in exasperation.

“This is like the tenth time we’ve had to come rushing in here because Milo swallowed something he shouldn’t. That dog has caused so much stress and trouble! And how much is this surgery going to cost?” She glanced at Will. “Why did you have to pick Milo out of the litter? I was talking to the Walkers the other day—they’ve got Milo’s sister, you know, the one I told you to pick instead—and they said she’s such a gentle dog, good as gold, never chews or tries to eat anything she shouldn’t. If you’d picked her instead, we wouldn’t have all this trouble.”

“I don’t care about Milo’s stupid sister!” said Will, jutting his bottom lip out. “I love Milo. He’s the one I want—and he’s worth all the trouble in the world!”

Sonia pressed her lips together and didn’t say any more. An uneasy silence settled over the waiting room. The clock ticked loudly on the wall and the seconds stretched into minutes, and then into hours. Ellie felt like her nerves were stretching as well, until they were as thin as frayed rope. She had never been good at waiting—and this was the worst kind of waiting she had ever done. Her mind kept playing out nightmare scenarios in her head. What if Milo didn’t make it? What if there was a complication with the anaesthetic and he stopped breathing? What if Dan cut an artery by mistake and Milo started haemorrhaging in the surgery? Or what if he came through the surgery, but then got an infection afterwards? Or the stitches came loose? What if—

Stop
. She had to stop this. Ellie got up restlessly and paced around the waiting room. She went up to the walls and began reading every one of the posters stuck there. By the time she finally sat down again, Ellie felt like she had had a crash course in pet care—from canine growth charts to feline pheromone diffusers, arthritis prevention to vaccination protocols. She looked at Will, marvelling at the boy’s ability to wait so quietly and stoically.

Megan officially shut the clinic and drew the blinds at the windows. The light was fading outside. Ellie glanced at the clock. The awards dinner would have started by now and the pre-dinner speeches would be well under way. She wondered how her boss was doing—but it was hardly more than a fleeting thought. Somehow, it all seemed so unreal and so far away. Her world had narrowed down to this waiting room, that shadowy hallway leading to the back of the hospital, and the image in her mind of Milo, stretched out on an operating table, a tube in his mouth, IV lines in his veins, fighting for his life…

A door creaked open and footsteps sounded down the hallway.

A tall figure in scrubs came towards them.

Ellie looked up, her heart thumping. Next to her, Will gripped the arms of his chair until his knuckles showed white. The dim light of the hallway made it difficult to read Dan’s expression. Ellie’s stomach lurched.

Had Milo made it?