Page 22 of Christmas at the Home Farm Vets (Hartfell Village #2)

‘Explain to me how this works.’ In the kitchen Oli had put the plates in the roasting tin and Erin winced. Now they would be greasy on the bottom as well, and she half wished he’d leave her to it.

‘I see your cooking ability extends to clearing up as well.’ Other than breakfast, he hadn’t eaten any meals in the cottage since he’d arrived. Last night he’d brought in takeaway pizza, and she’d been very grateful for it after a busy day.

‘So teach me,’ he said airily. ‘You fill the bowl with hot water, add soap and scrape with the scrubby green thing? Then what? Do the kitchen fairies show up and sprinkle everything with magic dust to dry them?’

‘Something like that. I’ll wash up, I don’t trust you.

’ Erin opened a drawer and chucked a clean tea towel at him.

He caught it and came to stand alongside her.

There was the scent of vanilla again, his body close to hers.

‘But when the fairies are busy gathering lost teeth to decorate the fairy queen’s castle, we have to use one of those.

And I’m not leaving you in charge of putting my kitchen right after a Sunday roast, I’m not that daft. ’

‘Ouch. So do you believe in the Easter bunny as well? And Father Christmas?’

‘You mean you don’t?’ She pressed a hand over her heart, leaving a soapy patch behind. ‘You’re killing me, Oli, really.’

‘Never saw the point,’ he said quietly. ‘I’m not big on fairy tales.’

‘Me neither.’ She wouldn’t be trying to decipher any meaning in that remark. His life was none of her concern, just like hers wasn’t his. ‘But Father Christmas doesn’t count, everyone knows he’s real. Looking at you now, it’s not difficult to imagine you’ve never washed a dish in your life.’

‘I have,’ he said indignantly. He seemed about to flick her with the tea towel and thought better of it. ‘There was that time at Catz when the dishwasher broke and I’d run out of everything, even the pizza boxes were green. I did it all in the shower, though, because the kitchen sink was rammed.’

‘Gross. Don’t even think of trying that here.’

‘I won’t, don’t worry. Your shower’s barely up to washing me, never mind mouldy mugs,’ he said, carefully inspecting a plate to make sure it was dry. ‘So you don’t think naked washing up will catch on?’

Erin’s traitorous mind immediately leaped back to that morning and Oli on his way to the shower. Letting him lodge in her home was one thing, thoughts of him half naked were quite another. ‘It had better not,’ she warned. ‘I’ve led a very sheltered life.’

‘I believe you,’ he mused, adding another dry plate to the pile of clean ones. ‘You never played pub golf at Catz and woke up with your head in the toilet.’

‘You got me there,’ she told him casually, tipping dirty water out of the bowl and running the hot tap to replace it with clean. ‘My middle name’s boring.’

‘No it’s not, it’s Iris. Because it means rainbow and your mum loves colour.’

The plate she’d just picked up plopped into the sink, sending hot water flying, and she grabbed a cloth to wipe it away. ‘How do you know that?’

‘Because you told me, that weekend. When we were in the car.’

She was trapped into stillness by his words and the sense that he could see into her deepest self, the part where all her fears, hopes and desires, and most especially her feelings about him, were kept hidden.

They’d spent hours together then, and shared all kinds of insignificant details that were still fixed in her memory.

‘So what’s my middle name?’ Suddenly his casual question sounded anything but and she was relieved to be spared a reply when her phone rang. She hurriedly dried her hands and answered it, her thoughts turning instantly to work as she listened to rushed details a worried owner was trying to impart.

‘I’ve got to go.’ Clearing up abandoned, she stuffed the phone into a pocket and was already on her way to the front door, snatching up keys. ‘Someone’s bringing a Vizsla down now, she’s been in labour all day and isn’t progressing.’

‘I’ll come with you.’ The intimacy of those last few moments had deserted them, and Oli raised a shoulder when she looked at him. ‘I know you can manage, but it sounds like it could be a caesarean and if so you’ll need more hands. I can help.’

‘Thanks.’ It made sense as only one nurse was on call and the puppies would require support the moment they were born. She shrugged on her coat and boots as Oli did the same, and they emerged into a wet and darkening afternoon, running to her pickup.

The practice always felt strangely quiet out of hours, as though it was missing a piece of its heart without the rest of the staff and clients coming and going.

Erin welcomed the owner and their beautiful, rust-coloured Hungarian Vizsla into a consulting room.

She introduced Oli and the woman informed them that the soon-to-be first-time mum, Cleo, had been in stage one labour of whelping for around twelve hours.

After the examination and once Erin had checked her general health, she concluded that they ought to carry out an emergency caesarean.

She promised to ring the owner with news as soon as possible, and she and Oli carried Cleo through to the prep room to ready her for surgery as Steph, the nurse on call, arrived.

Steph held a paw as Oli clipped away hair and attached a catheter to administer medication as Erin scrubbed up.

How swiftly their Sunday afternoon had switched into something different, she thought, as she felt the usual adrenaline rush ahead of the procedure she was about to perform.

Once Cleo was asleep with Steph monitoring, Erin began with a neat incision.

‘Got one.’ A few minutes later she lifted out a tiny, russet-gold puppy and handed it straight to Oli, waiting with a towel draped over outstretched hands.

He turned away to begin clearing membranes and mucous from the puppy’s mouth and nose, stimulating respiration and circulation as he dried it.

Soon it began to squeak, a welcome, high-pitched sound, and they shared an exultant grin.

He placed the puppy in a crate lined with snug bedding, smiling at the adorable face with its scrunched-up eyes.

‘And another.’ Erin was working with quick efficiency, years of experience guiding her, and she laid the second puppy in Oli’s waiting hands.

Soon there were six puppies in the crate, four girls and two boys, all breathing, squeaking and squirming.

Once Erin had completed the surgery and Cleo was awake, resting in a recovery room and slowly coming to, he brought the crate of puppies through.

Steph left to return to her niece’s birthday party and the end of the celebrations.

Erin eased the puppies towards Cleo, guiding the newborns to a first feed full of the essential colostrum and antibodies they needed to give them a flying start.

She settled on the floor with Oli on Cleo’s other side as the puppies wriggled close and tried to latch on.

She called the owners, who were ecstatic with relief and excitement, and would return soon to collect the new family.

‘Thanks for your help, Oli. It did make a difference.’ Erin closed her eyes; it had been a busy weekend and tomorrow she would be back at work as usual.

‘You’re welcome. A perfect outcome for a Sunday afternoon surgery. How do you feel?’

‘Yeah, elated, relieved. And tired. You know what it’s like. I hope I never lose the wonder and miracle of birth. The puppies are adorable and I’m very glad they and mum are okay.’

‘Totally. There’s nothing quite like that moment of fear and adrenaline when you begin a surgical procedure. After I qualified I think I lived on both of those things for about two years. I had all the theory but putting it into practice on my own was terrifying at first.’

‘Same.’ Erin had relished the challenges too, and it had allowed her to channel all that energy and training into her career.

Having Oli here now, working together for the first time since they’d been nervous students finding their way in rotations, was thrilling.

And concerning, lest she get too used to his presence in her home as well.

‘Are you tempted by one?’ He eased out a long leg to stretch it, his hand gentle as he stroked one of the puppies. It managed to latch onto Cleo and plopped onto its tummy to feed.

‘Maybe one day.’ When she was certain she could afford the extra cost, the long-term financial and time commitment required. She allowed herself a happy little dream of bringing her own dog to work, taking it for long walks in the sunshine. ‘Do you think you’ll ever have another?’

His smile was a wistful one and she glimpsed the sadness flare again in his eyes.

‘Hopefully. If I ever stop living like a student and settle down. What you’ve achieved is amazing, Erin.

A career you love in the place you’ve always wanted to live, a home of your own.

’ He fixed a long look on her. ‘What else is out there for you, apart from a puppy?’

‘To keep going and help my family, I suppose,’ she replied quietly, shifting positions to get comfortable; the floor was hard and cold.

The only risks she took were work-related ones, when she had to balance every carefully thought-out decision against a potential life or death outcome.

‘Don’t we all want the same things in the end?

Security and work, home, a place to call our own where we feel loved and valued?

’ She realised he’d made exactly this point during their time at Catz, and she’d dismissed it then.

‘Yeah, but home doesn’t have to be the same roof over my head every night.

I make my home wherever I am.’ Oli’s gaze was unflinching, and Erin felt as though they were suddenly having a very different conversation as his tone lowered.

‘Why did you let me come and stay, knowing it was me? Why not ask Gil to make other arrangements, given our history?’