Page 49 of Hold Me Instead (Elmwood Falls #1)

“Alright, I’m off. Have some baking to do for tomorrow’s church reception,” Maura said, tugging on her coat.

“Okay. Thanks for handling this, Maura.”

Charlie’s wheels turned, trying to decide a good way to bring it up to Daniel. Maybe coming from Maura, it would be more well received.

She walked into her office, the sight before her now familiar, as Zachary hunched over his desk. He glanced up, forehead etched with creases.

He’d been going over documents so rigorously, coming in earlier than her to dive into whatever project had been keeping him busy. A project he hadn’t shared with her, which she tried hard not to take personally.

“Hey.” He stretched.

“Was just talking to Maura. We’ve had a lot of people donating to the Dale Fund. And the contributions for the rescue are amazing. Did you see the pile out there? That was from today . Cory is going to freak.”

A corner of Zachary’s mouth twitched.

“Hey,” she said softly, settling into her chair. “What’s up? Something’s stressing you.”

“Uh.” He tapped his pen on the desk.

She waited. When he said nothing, she leaned forward. “I like helping.”

He glanced at her. “I know, Harris. It’s not something I can talk about right now.”

“Oh. Okay.” She tried to ignore how that stung. Right when she was about to spin toward her desk, he sighed.

“He asked me not to.”

Her head jerked back. “Who? Your dad?”

He gave her a single nod.

Daniel didn’t want her to know what was going on? What could be that extreme?

“Oh my God. He’s not giving me the practice, is he?” The words were a whisper.

Zachary looked at his lap.

“Wow.” She melted into her seat, spinning to look out her window, the trees a blur.

The wheels of Zachary’s chair churned the short distance, and he reached for her hand .

“It’s not that. He wants you to have it.” He cursed under his breath.

Charlie looked at him, saw his anguish as he struggled between telling her or not. She couldn’t bring herself to ease his worry, couldn’t tell him not to bother. She needed to know.

“The practice is completely tapped out.” He brought his gaze up to hers and held it. “He even took out another loan. I guess a number of pro bono things turned into too much, and in order to cover expenses and keep prices low with the competitors…Well. He’s in too deep.”

Charlie blinked slowly, the words sinking in. “Okay. What can I do to help?”

He huffed out a soft laugh and squeezed her hand, releasing it so he could pace the room. “That’s the problem. He doesn’t want your help.”

“Why not?”

“Many reasons. But he’d rather let this place sink than pass it to you with a mountain of debt.”

Charlie swallowed. “How bad is it really? I have some money saved. I could still buy in, help alleviate some of it.”

Zachary was already shaking his head. “No. He doesn’t want you to cover it.”

“Well then, what other option is there?”

“Getting a buyer.”

She threw her hands out wide. “I could be a buyer!”

“He doesn’t want it to be you!”

Her stomach dropped, his next words hitting her harder.

“He wants me to take over the practice, Charlie. Transfer it through family means.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Then what, kick me out? ”

He shook his head. “No. He wants you to be part of it, but I know you’d hate that. You don’t want to work for me.”

“No.” Right ?

“See, no hesitation. Not that I blame you. But the other thing is…” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “Neptune Corp has given him an offer.”

Charlie pushed out of her seat. “No, he can’t sell to them. This won’t be EFVH anymore. It can’t become part of some corporate machine. Our clients didn’t ask for that!”

Zachary’s nods were slow. She stepped toward him and set her hands on his shoulders. They finally locked eyes, and she felt it, deep in her gut. A hum of energy was buzzing through her, and she hoped she was interpreting it right.

“What if we buy it together?” she asked.

“That’s not—”

“If it’s truly a ‘mountain,’ why should only one of us deal with it?”

“Charlie.”

“Think about it! We’ve already worked through a hell of a lot to find our rhythm, and we work really well together.

” She wiggled her eyebrows, then went for it.

“Besides, I like seeing you here. The thought of sharing this with you is way nicer than it was in the beginning, when I thought you were vying for it. Wait, this isn’t all some ploy, right ?

” She was teasing, though there was a small part of her that worried about its truth.

“God, no. You know my plan wasn’t to stay.”

She swallowed, nodding. “Right. Right. You have a job to get back to. ”

“Shit.” He shook his head. “No, I don’t. I was let go. My ex-father-in-law let me go.”

Stepping back, she asked, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I thought if my dad found out, he’d use it as a way to rub it in my face, how I was burned, which he’d warned me about.

He felt burned by me, I know. Plus, I thought he’d try to keep me here.

” He laughed, unamused. “Guess that didn’t matter, did it?

Worried myself about something that happened in a way I hadn’t planned. ”

“That…really sucks,” she said.

“Oh, and my replacement is Anna’s new boyfriend.”

“Seriously?”

He grumbled.

"Zachary," she said softly.

"Wasn’t an ideal situation there in the first place," he said, turning back to his desk.

“Well, okay. There are a lot of things to think about…How about you consider my offer?”

“Charlie—”

“Daniel will hear us out. He loves this place. He won’t let it crumble.

And we won’t stand by and watch it become unrecognizable by a company like Neptune.

” She paced a moment, desperate for time to create a solution.

“Just think about it, okay? Maybe there’s another buyer out there who secretly wants to revive a struggling veterinary hospital. ”

He snorted.

“I’ll think on some things we can incorporate to help alleviate the weight,” she added. “Can’t hurt to have a few more ideas in mind, right?” She forced a grin, trying to ignore the building panic .

“True.” He stood a beat, looking at her, or maybe through her. “I actually have to head out,” he said. “The kids have a holiday concert thing.”

That’s when she registered he had on jeans with his fleece.

“Oh! Right. Okay, yeah, cool.” She shuffled papers around. Without looking at him, she asked, “You want company?”

The beat of silence felt long, like a distance wedged between them in that instant.

“I would, but…They had to reserve seats, and each family only gets so many.”

She faced him, waving her hands to shove the words aside. “All good. I get it.”

He scratched his cheek. “I was going to tell you, it just didn’t seem like a big thing.”

“Or we’d be making it a big thing. If I went with you, I mean.”

“Yeah, that too,” he said softly.

“Yeah,” she said, the word barely audible. She cleared her throat. “We downloaded a lot of information. We can talk more later.”

“I’ll call you.”

She forced a smile. “Have fun.”

He clenched his jaw, stepped forward to peck her cheek, then left.

It’s what they signed up for—his time home was temporary. Even if he bought the practice, it didn’t mean he’d stay. Didn’t mean they’d stay together.

Everything was…temporary.