Wincing a little behind her paper mask, Meagan nodded without looking up from her patient as she prepared to make the first small incision. “Yes.”
“Uh-huh.”
Scalpel poised, Meagan frowned at the tech. “What does that mean?”
Gale’s eyes crinkled with a smile. “You’ll be a great stepmom.”
“Uh—let’s just concentrate on our work, okay?”
“Whatever you say, Doc.”
Calling on her years of training and practice to push extraneous thoughts to the back of her mind, Meagan turned her attention on her patient. She couldn’t think about Alice’s distress now. She could only say a quick prayer that Seth would bring his daughter’s pet safely home.
Almost two hours had passed by the time Meagan made it to Seth’s front door. She’d finished the procedure successfully, and then had had her secretary cancel all her appointments for the remainder of the afternoon. Fortunately there had been nothing too pressing; she would have to scramble a bit tomorrow to make up for her abrupt departure but she could manage.
She felt the muggy early August heat envelop her as she pressed the doorbell. It was a miserably hot afternoon, almost a hundred in the shade. She hoped Waldo was somewhere safe and cool and that he had access to water. She couldn’t bear the thought of the silly mutt suffering in this heat.
Alice answered the bell. Her face was red and splotchy, her eyes swollen from crying. She burrowed into Meagan’s arms. “I just talked to Dad on the phone. They still haven’t found Waldo. He’s gone, Meagan. I just know he’s hurt or…or…”
Resting her head on the girl’s tumbled curls, Meagan hugged her tightly. “Don’t imagine the worst, honey. Waldo’s probably fine. Maybe someone found him and took him to the animal shelter.”
“Jacqui’s checked all the shelters already. She’s going to all the closest veterinary clinics now. Daddy’s driving up and down streets looking for any sign of Waldo. He’s been looking for almost three hours.”
Alice must have called Meagan not long after her father had started the search. “How long has Waldo been missing?”
The girl sniffled and wiped her damp face with her sleeve. “About four hours, I think. Jacqui and I walked all over the neighborhood looking for him before I called Dad. I thought maybe he’d gone to your house again, but he wasn’t there. It took Dad about half an hour to take care of things at work so he could come help. And then I called you because—”
She sniffed again. “Because I’d been sitting here by myself thinking of all the terrible things that could have happened to Waldo and I thought—I don’t know, you just helped so much when Nina was hurt.”
“I’m sorry it took me so long to get here. What can I do to help now?”
“I don’t know, I—” Falling silent, Alice cocked her head. “Is that Dad’s car?”
She threw open the door. “It is. He’s here, do you think—is that Waldo with him?”
Looking over Alice’s head, Meagan laid a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Yes. I see him, in the backseat.”
“He found him!” Turning to hug Meagan again, Alice repeated happily, “He found him. Daddy found Waldo.”
They both hurried to welcome the errant dog home.
Had it not been for Alice’s stress and her own deep relief, Meagan might have been amused by the sight Seth made when he climbed out of his car. Though he had discarded his jacket and tie, he still wore a dress shirt and suit pants. Both were caked with mud, as were his once-nice leather shoes. There was mud in his hair, on his hands and on his face, along with a deep scratch down one cheek that had oozed blood into the caked-on dirt. Sweat had trickled down his cheeks, leaving tracks in the grimy splotches.
He didn’t see her immediately. He was dragging the equally-muddy dog out of his car and muttering steadily beneath his breath, probably words he would just as soon his daughter didn’t hear. Meagan had never seen him looking so bedraggled or frazzled. There was no telling how he’d gotten in that condition, but she knew there was nothing he would not have done to bring his daughter’s beloved pet home to her.
Her chest clenched once, and then slowly relaxed as her heart beat with a peaceful new rhythm. A new purpose.
“Heel, Waldo,” Seth said, and his tone had the dog falling immediately into position at the end of his leash, ears drooping and tail tucked.
“Waldo.” Alice fell onto her pet, oblivious of the mess as she hugged him and searched him frantically for injuries. Keeping a wary eye on Seth, the dog greeted Alice with tail wags and licks.
Only then did Seth spot Meagan, who’d held back a little so as not to interfere with the reunion. His eyes widened in surprise at seeing her there at only four in the afternoon. “Meagan? What are you—”
“I called her, Dad,” Alice said, just a hint of defiance in her still-husky voice. “I just wanted her to know.”
Meagan had her eyes on Seth’s injured face, which Alice hadn’t even seemed to notice yet. “What happened?”
He shrugged. “Stupid dog had wandered down to the construction site on Candle Street. No one was working there today, probably because of all the mud from yesterday. He wiggled through an opening in a chain-link fence and got his collar caught on a piece of metal. I don’t know how long he’d been there when I found him. Don’t even know what made me look there, exactly, it was just the only place I hadn’t looked within several miles of here. I had a heck of a time getting him free. Had to lie down in the mud with him to reach his collar and he kept squirming, and then he jumped up when I freed him and knocked me facefirst into the broken part of the fence.”