Running Wild(Wild #3)(56)



“I don’t want you to miss anything on my account.”

“I still like the view I got, lookin’ out that window and seeing the lights on next door. And it’s too hot for me in Mexico, anyway. Plus, there’re the sharks to worry about.”

I laugh. “You don’t even swim.”

“Hey, I’ve always wondered, where do you suppose sharks go on vacation?”

We’re switching out of this somber, depressing conversation and back into corny dad jokes, a far more comfortable area. “I have no idea.”

“You should ask Tyler. I’ll bet he knows, given he’s from Finland.”

I frown. “Why would—” The answer hits me, and I groan.





CHAPTER FOURTEEN





My head is down when the front door to the clinic chimes.

“You’re in early today,” Cory says in a singsong voice.

“Yeah. Couldn’t sleep, so I figured I’d do some housekeeping.” I abandon the computer screen to watch her glide across the floor to the desk. I’ve always said she looks better in blue scrubs than anyone I’ve ever met. “And you’re in an unusually good mood for a Monday morning. Why?”

“Oh, no reason.” She props her chin on her palm.

The diamond on her ring finger shimmers for attention.

My jaw drops. “No way! Joe finally did it?” They’ve been dating for almost seven years.

Cory’s round face bursts into a beaming smile.

I leap out of my chair and rush around to crash into her, my heart swelling, her excitement contagious. “Oh my God! Congratulations! When did he do it?”

“Yesterday morning!” she squeals.

“Where? How? Hold on! Let me pee first. I’ve had too much coffee already.” I’ve been here for hours, replaying last night’s family blowout and crunching numbers to try to prove to myself that Liz isn’t right.

So far, I’m not sure I can.

“Fine, but hurry.” She taps the sign I printed and taped to the counter, reading it out loud: “‘All payments for services rendered are required same day. No exceptions.’ This is new.”

“And long overdue.” Especially when I tallied the outstanding invoices. No wonder Jim has been on my case. Brad Garvis’s bills are still unpaid, and he and his ferrets haven’t been back. A copy of his outstanding bill is printed and ready for the mail, with interest tacked on that has always been part of my policy but I’ve never enforced. “We’re going to run things a bit differently here from now on.”

“Well, giddyup. You know I’m game.” Cory stretches her arms in front of her, her entwined hands cracking at the knuckles.





*



“What did you feed him?” I can’t help the accusatory tone. When Cory begged me to squeeze in her future brother-in-law today, I thought it was for a simple examination. Looking at the ball python on my table, its head and body riddled with vicious bite marks, it’s clear a thawed mouse wasn’t on the menu.

“A rat.”

“A rat.”

“My friend down in Florida feeds his snakes rats all the time. I thought it was okay!” Ivan shrugs.

“Like, a feeder rat from the pet store?”

He hesitates.

“I need to know what happened, so I can help him.”

With resignation, he admits, “I flew down to Juneau with a buddy in his plane so I could visit my mom, and she was complainin’ about some rats in her shed, so I figured I’d catch them and bring them home for Benny.” He shrugs a second time. “It’s a free meal, right?”

“You brought rats home from Juneau and fed them to your snake,” I say slowly, my face surely a mask of dumbfounded shock. “Okay, there are a few issues with this, Ivan. First of all, what you caught are wild rats. They’re not the same as a feeder rat your friend in Florida buys at the pet store. Wild rats do this—” I point to the snake in the container. “Secondly, bringing rats here is a big problem. They are highly invasive. You could get into a lot of trouble if people found out you did that.”

The Anchorage area has so far avoided the kind of rodent problems that some of the islands and cities like Juneau can’t seem to shake, and they’ve done it through stringent laws and vigilant measures. To have a rat-free port is unheard of, and yet Anchorage has worked hard to maintain it.

The twenty-two-year-old blanches. “Really?”

Cory warned me this guy is far from the smartest person I’ll ever meet. “How many did you catch?”

“Three.”

“And where are the ones you didn’t try to feed to Benny? Tell me you didn’t let them go?”

“Uh … I didn’t let them go?” he says slowly, unconvincingly.

Hopefully, a fox catches them. And they’re both male. “Okay, Benny is going to need surgery.” I haven’t operated on a snake in years, but this is fairly straightforward. “Luckily, I have some time in my schedule today.” Otherwise known as my lunch break. “But I don’t think I’ll be able to save his eye.”

“Really?” He stares at his injured pet as he processes it. “So … I’m gonna have a one-eyed snake?” A slow grin stretches across his face. It vanishes when he sees that my stony expression isn’t breaking. “How much is this gonna cost me?”

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