Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 95712 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 479(@200wpm)___ 383(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95712 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 479(@200wpm)___ 383(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
“Too late,” Emeline replied, an I-told-you-so expression on her face.
“Hey, Emeline. Table for two?” the young waitress asked.
“A booth, if you can, Lucy.”
Grinning, she grabbed two menus and motioned for us to follow her. She tucked us into the back corner and set the menus down. “Thought you might like some privacy.”
Emeline looked at me with one brow raised.
“It’s fine, we don’t need privacy…Lucy, is it?” I asked.
Her cheeks flushed. “Lucy Miller.”
I didn’t dare look at Emeline. “It’s a business lunch. We’re here to talk about my son attending a session at River Falls Summer Camp.”
“And having Dr. Tucker here volunteer at the camp, as well,” Emeline interjected.
Lucy’s eyes lit up. “A doctor? Are you new in town? Will you be working at the new clinic that just opened?”
“No, I’m a vet.”
Lucy nodded. “Thank you for your service. Were you a doctor in the military?”
I blinked at her a few times, until Emeline subtly nudged me. “Um.” I shook my head, then replied, “A veterinarian. The other kind of vet. Not a vet like in the military… It doesn’t matter.”
Lucy looked confused.
Emeline smiled at the young girl. “An animal doctor, Lucy.”
The light bulb went off. “Ohh! I’m so stupid. Daddy calls our local veterinarian a fleecer.”
Emeline laughed, then quickly covered it up by coughing.
“He calls him a fleecer?” I asked, frowning.
She nodded. “Is that another name for a veterinarian?”
I looked over to Emeline, who was practically turning red from trying to hold her laughter in. She also gave up on a different table, and finally slid into the booth.
“No, it’s not,” I answered with a forced smile.
She shrugged, as if bored with the conversation. “What can I get you both to drink?”
“I’ll have a water for now,” Emeline stated.
“Same for me.”
“Two waters, coming up!”
Turning on her heel, Lucy walked toward the counter. I took that moment to glance around. The café wasn’t crowded, but there were still a good number of people here. All of whom were still watching us.
Anna’s Café hadn’t changed a bit. It still looked the same as when I was little, sitting at the counter when my father brought me in for a shake. I was pretty sure they hadn’t remodeled it since it opened in 1955.
I focused back on Emeline, who was looking through the menu with a small smile on her face.
“I think I should let my father know what Mr. Miller thinks of him.”
She giggled but didn’t say anything.
Opening the menu, I asked, “Wait, who is her father?”
Emeline glanced over the menu. “That would be Jed Miller.”
I groaned. “Janet’s younger son?”
“That’s the one. Anna’s his aunt.”
“Does Jed have just the one girl?”
Her eyes sparkled. “He has four girls.”
I was positive my eyes went as wide as saucers.
“And three boys.”
“Fucking hell,” I mumbled. “Seven more Millers?”
She bit her lower lip and dropped her eyes back to the menu.
Leaning closer, I asked, “Do they all work here at the café?”
Dipping the menu so I could only see her eyes, I could tell she was smiling when the corners crinkled. “They’ve all worked here at one point, and at the newspaper.”
Looking toward the kitchen, I sighed. “The cook?”
“That would be Monty, Jed’s youngest son. Monty and Lucy are the only two left in town. The rest all left.”
“Fled the town, huh?”
She looked up again, brow raised. “Fled the gossip.”
“The gossip they caused, or were they subject to it?”
“Oh, family members aren’t excluded when it comes to The Daily Dirt.”
“Their own grandmother gossiped about them?”
“Yep.”
When I didn’t say anything, just gaped at her, she laughed and said, “They have an excellent BLT here.”
“A BLT? Em, I can make that at home.”
“Yeah, but is the bacon from your own farm, with an aioli sauce to die for?”
“Nope, it definitely is not.”
I quickly reviewed the menu. When Lucy came back with our waters, we both told her we’d have the BLTs, and I added a Coke to my order. She took our menus, then slipped away.
“So, what would you need from me for this volunteering gig your mother signed me up for?”
Emeline set her water down. “Levi, if you don’t want to do it, you really don’t have to. Just because my mother guilted you, doesn’t mean I’ll hold you to it.”
“I want to do it. I think it’ll be a good way to re-enter the community and ease my way into my father’s practice. He’s been talking about retiring, and I’m not so sure I’m ready to do this all on my own.”
“Was the vet practice you worked at very big?”
“Six vets, and two who were large animals only.”
Her eyes went wide. “Wow. I take it you were one of the large-animal vets?”
“Not exclusively, but if the other two vets needed help, I’d step in.”
“Are you looking forward to going to a smaller practice?”
I chuckled. “It may be smaller, but it’s going to be a lot busier. Dad really should have brought in another vet years ago.”