CHAPTER ONE
DREW TREVELYAN EASED himself out of his car, pausing for a moment to take a deep breath of sea air. He’d always loved the clarity of early mornings here, the way the sea seemed to stretch out beyond the sheltered curve of the bay in an endless swell of ever-changing colours. When the construction of the new buildings of the Dolphin Cove Veterinary Clinic had been underway, he’d often come here just to sit for half an hour before going on to work in the cramped quarters of the veterinary practice he shared with Ellie Stone...
Drew smiled. A lot had changed in the last few weeks. He’d returned home to Dolphin Cove, after months in hospital and then rehab, to find that his stand-in at the clinic had left. His old friend and Ellie’s estranged partner, Lucas Williams, had been Ellie’s only option as a replacement and all Drew could do was look on helplessly at the time at the resulting turmoil. Now, another far more joyful turn of events meant that Drew had to remember to refer to Ellie as Ellie Stone-Williams, not Ellie Stone.
The clinic hadn’t changed though, and the early mornings here were still as peaceful as they’d been when he and Ellie had first moved in, two years ago. The buildings were starting the long process of becoming one with their surroundings, and moss was beginning to grow on the stone-built technology centre and operating suite on the other side of the ten-acre plot. Here, the wooden frame of the general practice building had begun to mellow, taking on the early autumn colours of the woodlands that lay beyond the drive. The low sun glinted on the high sheets of glass, making them sparkle like the sea.
He was back. Not officially—this visit was a matter of reacquainting himself with a place that he loved, and his diary was as blank as it had been for the last four months. But coming here was one more step that carried him away from the past.
Drew turned, catching up his walking stick and leaning on it heavily as he made his way around to the back of the car, clipping Phoenix’s lead onto her collar and lifting the ten-week-old chocolate Labrador down to the ground. She sniffed the air, and then started to tug on the lead, seeming to know that she’d come home too.
Phoenix had been Ellie’s idea. A puppy to love and care for, when everyone else around him seemed to think that he should stay down and accept their care. Drew appreciated their concern, but he longed to have a conversation that didn’t, at some point, include a solicitous enquiry about his physical and emotional health.
People were kind, there was no doubt about that. They’d been kind when his fiancée had been killed in a diving accident in Puerto Rico two years ago. And when fate had decided that it wasn’t done with him yet and the brakes on his car had failed, the village had rallied round again, writing notes and cards and visiting him in hospital. His smashed leg had taken a long time to fully heal, and even now his exercise regime was challenging. But being here gave him a sense of how far he’d come.
‘You know where you are, Phoenix?’ As he unlocked the main doors to the reception area of the clinic, the puppy started to yelp excitedly, pawing at the glass. ‘Not too loud, eh, girl? Ellie and Lucas will hear us.’
There wasn’t much chance of Phoenix’s barking travelling to the apartment that Ellie and Lucas sha
red upstairs at the other end of the building. But Drew wanted to be alone here for a moment. He walked into the reception area, past the oak tree that stood in a large tub at its centre. Maybe it was his imagination, but it seemed to have grown a few inches. Nothing else seemed to have changed all that much.
‘Everything’s fine, Drew. We’re managing without you, all you need to do is concentrate on being well again...’
He’d known that was a lie, even if Ellie had told it with the best of intentions. She’d found it hard to keep the practice running without him, and the last few weeks in particular had taken their toll on her. She’d been in turns deliriously happy and deeply despondent, and it had been touch and go as to which would win out.
‘Forget it, Drew. Ellie and I will work it out. Stay down for a while...’
Lucas had taken a more direct approach, although the message had been pretty much the same. Lucas and Ellie had worked it out, and Drew had been staying down for far too long now. He was more than ready to get back up again.
* * *
The deserted reception area smelled of wax polish and hope. The consulting rooms were still the same, one of them filled with a mass of photographs of Ellie’s canine patients, and another with a more restrained set of framed photographs that belonged to Lucas. Drew’s was...empty. Neat and tidy, without a speck of dust. Drew smiled. It was ready and waiting for him.
‘Drew! What the blazes are you doing here?’
Ellie’s tone generally became firmer, in proportion to the size and momentum of the animal she was dealing with. This must be the one she reserved for charging rhinos.
Drew did the only thing possible and let go of Phoenix’s lead. When he turned, he saw the puppy barrelling along the corridor, the lead trailing behind her, and Ellie fell to her knees, scooping Phoenix up into her arms. Worked every time.
Or... Every time apart from this one.
‘Come on. What are you doing here?’ Ellie stood to face him, trying not to smile as the puppy licked her neck.
‘I could ask you the same question. Shouldn’t you and Lucas be staring into each other’s eyes over your cornflakes? You are technically still on your honeymoon, even if you are at work.’
Ellie flushed slightly, presumably at the mention of Lucas’s eyes. ‘You do know what you’re doing, don’t you? Deflecting one question with another. It so happens that I didn’t have cornflakes for breakfast, and Lucas isn’t here. He’s doing the school run this morning.’
‘So you’re letting him in gently to the joys of parenthood.’ Drew grinned. He imagined that the other parents at the school gate were more of a challenge to Lucas than the whole six years he’d spent as TV’s favourite vet.
‘He said that yesterday was a bit like running a gauntlet of meerkats.’ Ellie shrugged. ‘He doesn’t mind, really.’
‘He loves it. You know that.’
Ellie nodded, smiling. She’d been in love with Lucas ever since the three of them had studied together at veterinary school. Lucas had left to become a celebrity vet, and Ellie had returned to Cornwall, where she and Drew had set up in practice together in Dolphin Cove. When Ellie and Lucas’s son, Mav, had been born, he had been so like his father, and a constant reminder that something was missing in all their lives.