Viper's Kiss (Back Down Devil MC #8)(4)

And here was Jessa, just a hair over thirty. Working as a veterinarian when she should have been a medical doctor by now. All those years of school, working, saving, it was all laid to waste after one night. It changed her life forever and while the passion for medicine and a need to care never went away, that desire toward humans was destroyed.

“What do you think, Doc?” Jim asked.

He was tall, handsome, piercing blue eyes and a perfect hairline. He was a ruthless lawyer - or so Jessa had heard - but any time she had a run-in with Jim, he was teary eyed over his childhood best friend.

Brenda gripped his hand tight.

Jessa had heard from one of the receptionists that Jim and Brenda had been trying have a baby for years and weren’t able to do so. They had done every possible treatment and test and experiment with no luck at all. So Jessa knew that this wasn’t just a dog or a family dog or even just Jim’s childhood best friend. This was Jim’s child, basically. The child he couldn’t have right now.

“Let me take a look at a few things here,” Jessa said.

She examined Brandy and everything was about the same. Her hips were slowly deteriorating. There was no stopping it. There was no real treating it other than medication to make the dog comfortable. The same for the cataracts.

“Well, I’ve got good news and bad news,” Jessa said. “The good news is that nothing’s really changed at all.”

“But that’s also the bad news,” Jim said.

“Yeah.”

“Shit.”

“Jim,” Brenda said. “Don’t curse at her.”

“I didn’t curse at her,” Jim snapped.

“It’s fine.” Jessa leaned against the counter. She closed the folder again and turned her computer screen away. “Listen. I would never do anything to mislead any of you. All three of you. My goal right now is to make sure Brandy is happy and comfortable. The same for you both. It’s never easy coming to terms with the inevitable around us, and I’m sorry for that…”

“Just be straight,” Jim said. “Do we need to talk about putting her down?”

“Jim,” Brenda said. “I don’t want to have that conversation.”

“Well, we can’t let her suffer.”

Jessa looked down at Brandy and pointed. The dog was resting on her side, breathing fine, still with that smile on her pretty blonde face.

“You’ll know when she’s suffering,” Jessa said. “Right now, she’s content. I believe dogs know just as much as we do. She knows her body is getting old and changing.”

“I said the same thing,” Brenda said. “Maybe it’s weird to think, but Brandy has been around so long and been through so much, she’s not a dog to us…”

Brenda caught herself.

“I see that quite a bit,” Jessa said. “I wouldn’t change a thing right now.”

“She had a bad night, Doc,” Jim said. “She was crying at one point.”

“Well, I’ll order more X-rays and we’ll keep a close eye on things. You know how to reach me. I don’t just go and disappear, right? I’m always available to talk to. Brandy is going to have good days and bad, just like any of us. You have her medication and you know how and when to use it. I’m putting this blunt and forgive me if I sound rude, but as long as you don’t give up on her, she won’t give up on you or herself.”

Jim crouched and scooped up the dog. He lifted her with ease and cradled her. It was quite the sight to see a man in a suit holding a shaggy retriever like he did. But in that moment there was almost a childhood flicker in his eyes. He probably held the dog like that when he was twelve and she was just a puppy.

“As long as she keeps smiling, you’ll be okay,” Jessa said.

“But there’s going to come a time when she’s not okay,” Jim said. “When she passes.”

Jessa reached out and touched Brandy’s head. She offered a frail smile to Jim and Brenda. “The same could be said for all of us, right?”

That was the last appointment of the day. It wasn’t the worst way to end a day, but it certainly didn’t send Jessa back to her office with a hopeful smile on her face. She sat down behind her desk and felt herself choke up. Never in her wildest dreams did she think she’d become so attached to animals like she did. Hell, the entire career choice was a shotgun thing. Med school on a Monday, then veterinarian school by Friday. Lucky for her she had someone to help her through everything. A friend of a friend owned her own office and took a liking to Jessa. Her name was Dr. Ashland. It all seemed to happen too easily. Of course, throwing her original dream down the drain had been hard enough.

But Jessa knew she never had a choice in the matter. Not after what she saw happen. Her entire life had been about becoming a doctor. Wanting to help people who were sick or didn’t feel right. To save people. To stitch up cuts. To remove a bad appendix. There was a flip side to it all. The side when people were too sick to cure. Or when surgeries went bad. Or just time caught up and took control.

That was a crash course Jessa never expected… especially with her best friend.

Jessa shut her eyes and rubbed her temples with the pointer and thumb of her right hand. So many times the images would just pop into her mind.

Getting there a minute too late. Hearing nothing. Literally nothing. Because they were gone. Opening the door and seeing a hand on the floor, outstretched… her fingertips almost touching…