‘Not you?’ She managed a smile.
‘I’m the best when he’s not around. You’re sure you’ll be okay here for a minute?’
‘I’ll be fine. Go...’ Lucas would be able to reassure Peter better than she could if he decided to question what was going on with his puppy.
‘All right. Call me if you need me. And thank you, Caro.’
‘My pleasure.’
Caro watched as Lucas walked over to the coffee table, motioning to Tegan to sit back do
wn again when she saw him and jumped to her feet. Peter chuckled with glee as the three tiny tortoises wove around each other on the tabletop. Now all she had to do was sit and wait and hope that Rolf was going to be all right.
* * *
Drew had explained everything to Laura, and when he made his way back to the reception desk he found Caro answering the phone, while everyone else was crowded around the coffee table. She seemed very alone, and the agonised look she gave him after he’d dragged Peter away and sent him on his way with his mother tore at his heart.
‘They are such fun!’ Tegan bounced back to the reception desk, handing her tortoise back to Caro with a hint of reluctance. Caro found a smile from somewhere.
‘Keep it, if you like.’
‘Can I? Thank you! I can paint its shell...’ Tegan displayed her purple sparkly nails, in an indication of how her tortoise might look like when she’d finished with it. ‘I’ll put it on the table and the kids will love playing with it.’
‘Perhaps we can commission some from you, Caro?’ Drew wasn’t sure whether Caro knew just how much she’d helped by keeping Peter entertained.
‘Great idea. How much are they?’ Lucas asked.
Caro shrugged. ‘They don’t cost anything much to print, and the micro-electrics are pretty standard. I’d be happy to make some more for you.’
Lucas looked as if he was about to protest, and Drew silenced him with a shake of his head. They could sort all that out later, and he’d make sure that Caro was recompensed for her work, even if they just bought new supplies for her 3D printer. Caro obviously had something more important on her mind, and that meant that Drew did too. He hurried her away and back to the consulting room.
‘What’s the matter with Rolf?’ The question came almost as soon as he’d closed the door behind them.
‘First things first. He’s going to be all right.’
‘Oh! Thank goodness.’ Caro flopped down into a chair. ‘I should have known, really. Lucas said you were the best at what you do...’
Warmth flowed through Drew’s veins. Not just because Lucas had said it but because Caro had heard it. ‘I’m the best when he’s not around.’
‘He said the same about you.’ Caro smiled suddenly. ‘What about Ellie?’
Drew chuckled. ‘Ellie’s in a league all of her own. Neither Lucas nor I presume to compete with that.’
She nodded. ‘Wise move. So what did you see, Drew? Something to do with Rolf’s gait?’
She was perceptive, noticing everything. That was probably one of the things that made Caro so good at what she did. Along with a liberal helping of hard work, which Drew preferred not to think about at the moment, because it always prompted a flutter of concern for her in his heart.
‘Yes, I noticed that he’s got a slightly swaying gait, which is one of the signs of canine hip dysplasia.’
Caro’s eyes widened in alarm. ‘I don’t know what that is...’
Drew sat down opposite her. ‘It’s quite a common genetic condition, where the hip develops laxity early in a puppy’s development. If left unchecked, it can cause a great deal of pain and stiffness, but we’ve caught it early so there’s lots we can do to prevent it from developing. I think that Rolf will be able to live a perfectly happy and pain-free life.’
She nodded, clasping her hands together. ‘That’s...good. What are you going to do?’
Caro needed all the information she could get so that she could fit all the pieces of the puzzle together. Drew smiled. He was beginning to like the way that her mind worked.
He got to his feet, fetching the model of a canine hip from the glass-doored cabinet, and when he turned he found her standing at his elbow. ‘Okay, here’s how it works. In the first few weeks of a puppy’s life the ligaments that stabilise the joint can become loose, eroding the cartilage so that the bone doesn’t develop properly. When the puppy moves, the joint is displaced, like this...’