All This Love (Stoneworth Series Book 2) Page 8

  “There’s a really nice shelter about ten minutes from here,” Sam offered. “They house women and men, but the men are in a separate part of the building.”

  “You’ve been there?”

  “Yeah. The first time we had a really bad argument. Patrick pulled his service weapon on me. Scared me half to death.” She tried to belittle the incident with a slight smile. “But that only happened once.”

  “He doesn’t have to do it again,” Jada whispered, nearly in tears. “He knows it’ll stay in the back of your mind forever.”

  “Well. Do you want to go to the shelter?”

  “Is there another option?”

  “You got any other friends? Former co-workers?”

  “Every number I had was in my phone.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  There truly was no other reasonable option. Jada sighed. “The shelter it is.”

  Chapter 11

  “Dr. Stoneworth?” his assistant called Knox’s name.

  Knox snapped back to reality. “I’m sorry. What?”

  “You want me to ask Mrs. Collins to reschedule for tomorrow, or can you see her dog now?”

  Knox checked his watch—4:58. He had no recollection of the past ten minutes because he had zoned out, thinking about Jada. Three days had passed since he’d been in contact with Jada. Her phone was going straight to voicemail, and she wasn’t responding to texts. If he didn’t hear from her in the next couple of days, he would have to make an unannounced visit to her sister’s house.

  Maybe helping a pet would ease his mind for a bit. “No problem. I’ll see her.”

  “I’ll put her in room twelve. Shelly’s staying a little later. She can help if needed.”

  “Fine. Have a good weekend.”

  “You, too.”

  He didn’t know who Mrs. Collins was or what her pet’s issue might be, but it didn’t matter.

  Knox forced himself to finish up documentation so he could see this dog, complete his workday, and leave. Not that he had anything important to do. Anyone to see. Truth be told, he missed Jada. In less than a week’s time, she had claimed a piece of his heart. It felt good to have someone occupying his lonely heart again. If only she would call him back.

  Papers aside, Knox looped his stethoscope around his neck and proceeded from his office to room twelve. Accepting after-hours appointments was simply good customer service.

  Upon entrance to the room, Knox’s torso tightened. Dominique.

  She wore a casual denim dress with a brown belt cinched around her small waist. The dainty, yet defined curves of her thighs and calves flowed beyond the short hem of the dress.

  Her beauty was undeniable.

  “Hi, Knox.”

  “Hello.”

  She stood and reached to pat what appeared to be a black, brown, and white mixed-breed dog lying on the floor.

  The sight of her wedding ring brought an abrupt end to Knox’s bewilderment. “Can I help you?”

  “My dog…n-needs help,” she stuttered.

  Without a word, Knox lifted the animal to the examination table. Dominique was playing games. She didn’t like dogs. She didn’t like animals, period.

  She stood across from him as though this animal were actually important to her. He could hear Dominique’s quick pants for air.

  Knox avoided eye contact with her. “What’s the problem?”

  “I-I found him. Near a school. Wandering. So I picked him up. He seems fine, but…I’d like you to check him out.”

  Knox steadied himself despite the familiar scent of Dominique’s perfume. He performed a routine visual examination. Listened to the dog’s heartbeat. Inspected his eyes, teeth, and underbelly. Spot-checked his skin. “He’s been on the streets for a while. And he has fleas.”

  Dominique groaned in disapproval.

  “Otherwise, he seems pretty healthy. You can bring him back Monday for blood workup.”

  “Umm…how old is he?”

  “I’d say nine or ten,” Knox guessed. “He’s got another three or four years to go, possibly.”

  Dominique nodded. “Umm…What breed is it?”

  Clearly, she was stalling.

  Knox informed her, “Somewhere between a Cocker Spaniel and a Beagle. They call them Coagles. You can research them online.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome, Mrs. Collins. Shelly will finish your paperwork at the front desk.” Still holding the dog, he opened the door for Dominique.

  “Wait. Knox.” She bit her lower lip. “I-I had to see you.”

  “Why?”

  “I can’t explain it,” she admitted as her eyes moistened. “We were friends, you know? I miss talking to you. I’m so dramatic and you’re so…calm. You always made me feel as though everything would work out. And it always did. I appreciate that about you now.”

  “But you didn’t appreciate it when you walked out of the chapel two years ago.”

  Dominique lowered her head. A tear fell to the floor. “Hindsight is twenty-twenty.”

  “Here’s your dog.” Knox held the animal away from his body for Dominique to take custody and leave.

  “I don’t want it.” She sniffed. “I’ll pay the bill for his checkup today. Just promise me you’ll give him to someone who’ll do a better job of caring for him than me. If he’s hooked up with the right owners, least one of us will be happy for the rest of our days.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Yes.”

  Dominique was right. Hindsight is twenty-twenty. Knox could see with great clarity that she was perhaps the biggest drama-queen he’d ever encountered.

  Knox cradled the dog against his waist. “Have a good day, Mrs. Collins.”

  Dominique ran out of the office, whimpering slightly. Knox could only shake his head.

  He sat the animal back on the table. “Dude. You have no idea what I saved you from just now. That chick would have driven you crazy.”

  The dog’s ears perked up.

  Knox laughed at the four-legged friend. “Yep. You owe me. Big time.”

  He carried the dog to the recovery room and sat him in a cage. Knox called the nearest animal shelter. After the usual pleasantries, Knox informed the shelter volunteer that a dog had been abandoned at his office. He described the animal in great detail.

  “Does she have a white tip on her tail?” the woman asked.

  “Yes, she does.”

  “That’s weird. Someone just rescued her from the shelter two hours ago.”

  “Wow.” Knox had known that the I-found-a-stray-dog was false. But the lengths Dominique had gone through to see him again…sad. “I’ll bring him by in a half-hour or so.”

  “Thank you, Dr. Stoneworth. Always a pleasure.”

  Knox found a spare kennel and loaded up the dog on his way out of the office. He said good-bye to Shelly as he left. “Don't work too late.”

  “I won’t. Hey – are you planning to put that lady’s dog down or something?”

  “No. Why?”

  “She was crying like she’d just lost her best friend.”

  She did. “She’ll be fine. Have a good weekend.”

  “Will do.”

  On his ride over to the shelter, he could be nothing but grateful. If Dominique was willing to use a dog as her pawn, what would she have done with children?

  He racked his brain trying to remember if there were signs that Dominique was selfish that he overlooked. She pouted every now and then when Knox refused to eat at her favorite restaurant or purchase certain big-ticket items on impulse. Knox wasn’t the type to walk into an entertainment center and buy a 50-inch television without first researching the pros and cons of several brands online. Dominique, however, would see a woman at church with the latest eight-hundred-dollar purse and rush to the nearest Neiman’s or Macy’s after the benediction to buy it.

  At the time, he simply thought that was a “woman” thing.

  Maybe I just don’t know how to pick a good woman
. Dominique had used him for stability. Jada might have, too.

  Knox parked and took the dog inside. The staff was happy to have him back, and by the way his tail wagged, Knox knew the dog was happy, too.

  He wished his fellow animal-lovers well and walked back to his car.

  His phone rang and “Job” appeared on the screen. He answered, “Yes?”

  “Dr. Stoneworth, it’s Shelly. I’m sorry to call you after hours, but someone called the backline and left an urgent message. A…Jada J—”

  “Did she leave a number?”

  “Yes.”

  Thank You, God!

  Knox stored the number in his short-term memory and called Jada right away.

  Her sweet voice put an end to the jitteriness he’d been feeling for the past seventy-two hours. “Knox. Thanks for returning my call.”

  “Where have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you since Tuesday afternoon.”

  “It’s a long story. I’m at the library on Folkner Street. Can you meet me here?”

  “On my way.”

  Chapter 12

  Being surrounded by mountains of books gave Knox a flashback. Years of serious studying had him camped out at libraries many-a-night. The rows of books seemed to welcome him as he searched through them for Jada.

  He found her in a section of the library marked “Computer Zone” by a bright, overhanging sign.

  The seat next to her was empty. He pulled the chair back.

  Jada, perhaps surprised, looked up at him with a questioning glance. Her brown eyes softened with recognition as she stood.

  Unable to contain his relief at seeing her again, Knox pulled her into an embrace. Her arms pressed tightly at his sides. She must have been feeling the same.

  “I’ve been calling you—”

  “Shhhh.” Jada playfully reminded him that they were in a library.

  “Right.”

  They sat and leaned in toward one another.

  “I’ve been trying to reach you for three days,” he half-fussed in a whisper. He wanted to touch her skin, kiss her lips, soak in her beautiful presence.

  “I’m sorry. Patrick killed my phone. I had to leave their house. Today was my first opportunity to get to a library so I could follow up on the resumes I sent as well as find your office number. I was praying I hadn’t missed you when I placed the call after five.”

  “Wait. Back up. Patrick destroyed your phone?”

  “Yeah. He put my sister in a choke-hold. I recorded the incident on my phone. He jerked the phone from my pocket, slammed it to the floor, and stomped it.”

  Knox’s fists clinched on top of his knees.

  Jada put her soft hands over his hands. “Don’t get upset. This is between my sister and her husband. Until she makes up her mind about what she will and won’t allow in her life, this is her problem. I can’t take a big, black magic marker and draw the boundaries for her life.”

  As much as Know wanted to intervene, he knew there was truth in Jada’s reasoning.

  “Where have you stayed this week?”

  “At a shelter.”

  Knox’s stomach turned. “A shelter?”

  “Yeah.” Jada tried a weak smile. “It’s pretty nice, actually. Women and children on one side of the building, men in a totally different part. Decent security, friendly workers. We each have our own section. Kinda. They have these partitions between spaces. Maybe four feet?” She raised a hand to show how high they were. “When you lay down on your cot, it’s almost like you’re in your own bedroom. A little privacy.”

  Knox could only stare back at her. The thought of Jada living in a homeless shelter was literally making him sick.

  “Why are you looking like I just said your Labrador Retriever died?” Jada chuckled.

  He blinked and stuttered, “I—I can’t believe you’ve been living in a homeless shelter.”

  “Umm…yeah. That’s where people who don’t have a place to go go,” she reasoned. “It’s not the worst place in the world, ya know? My mom was single with two kids. We spent a night or two in a shelter back in the day, before she got on disability.”

  “Wow.”

  “Knox. Please. With the economy the way it is and all these natural disasters…anybody could end up without a roof over their head at any moment.”

  He kept staring. A homeless shelter?

  “Except people like you, Knox, who have enough siblings to form a basketball team and parents with a guest house.” Jada rolled her eyes in jest. She turned her attention to the computer screen.

  “I guess you’re right.”

  Of course she was right. Between his siblings, uncles, and cousins, Knox could never imagine a day when he would have to sleep on a cot with only a 4-foot wall separating him from a total stranger. Thank You, Lord.

  She was also right about the fact that it didn’t take much for a person to find themselves without a place to stay. Thank You, Lord, again.

  Jada gasped. “Oh great. I missed an interview opportunity. They wanted me to come in yesterday but I’m just seeing this email today.” She smacked her forehead. Then she sighed. “Wouldn’t have mattered anyway until I can take this band-aid off my head.”

  “It’s been five days. Let me see.” Gently, he tugged at the corner of the adhesive strip.

  “Ouch!” Jada slapped his wrist.

  “Be still.”

  “Just yank it off.”

  “Who’s the doctor here?” Knox asked, laughing at Jada and realizing that the two of them probably sounded like an old married couple—comfortable enough to express themselves without fearing judgment or retaliation.

  When he had removed enough of the bandage to determine that her smooth skin was strong enough to stand a ‘yank’, he quickly pulled off the remaining inch of the bandage. He tossed it in the trash can beneath the computer desk.

  Knox noted the scab and the lack of swelling. “Yeah, those stitches can be removed now.”

  “Only one problem now. No cash-a-roni for the procedure.” Jada exhaled. “And now I have to get a new band-aid.”

  Knox shrugged. “Technically and legally, you can remove sutures yourself.”

  “Really?”

  “Yep. Helps to have the right tools,” Knox admitted.

  “Sound complicated.”

  “No. It’s not that serious. I’ve got the tools at my clinic.”

  “Dog tools?” Jada retorted.

  “They are not dog tools. They’re just tools. I use them on myself all the time.”

  Jada smacked. “For what?”

  “Anything. Ingrown toenail, splinter. Truth be told, many animals are cleaner than human beings. You’ll be perfectly fine removing your stitches with our sterilized tools.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Yes. And you need to take the sutures out before they bond with your skin tissue.”

  She puffed up her cheeks then blew the air out. “Will it hurt?”

  “May not be comfortable, but I wouldn’t classify the experience as painful.”

  “You’ve done this before?” she quizzed.

  “Yes.”

  “On humans?”

  “I have three brothers. We’ve all done it plenty of times. I even sawed off my youngest brother’s cast when I was sixteen.”

  “I don’t think that’s legal,” Jada said.

  “I wouldn’t advise it,” Knox agreed.

  “Fine. Let’s do this.”

  After two unsuccessful tries at removing the first stitch, Jada gave up. She dropped the tweezers and scissors on the metal tray and sat back in the chair, away from the magnified mirror. She and Knox were alone in a quiet but spacious examination room. “I can’t do this. It’s gross. And it’s too complicated.”

  “It’s only complicated because you’re having to shut one eye. A focus problem since you can’t see correctly without both eyes,” Knox assured her. “Does it hurt?”

  “No, but I don’t like the tugging sensation. And knowing that I�
��m the one causing the sensation with my own two hands, which makes it even grosser.” Jada pouted.

  Knox sighed. “Proposition. I will remove the sutures. But you have to release me from all liability first.”

  “Consider yourself released.”

  She watched as Knox produced his phone from a front pocket in his black slacks. He pointed the camera at her. “Repeat after me.”

  Jada snickered. “What?”

  “I, Jada Jones…”

  Jada doubled over in laughter. She tried to block the camera with her hand but Knox, who was also laughing, moved out of her reach.

  “Come on. For real. I, Jada Jones…”

  Jada caught her breath but wasn’t able to stop the smiles. “I, Jada…wait, cut.”

  “How you gon’ cut on your own last name?” Knox asked.

  This was the first time she’d heard Knox go southern. She liked it. “Okay. Okay. I’ll try again. I, Jada Jones…”

  “Do solemnly swear…”

  “Do solemnly BLEEP!”

  Knox’s camera skills declined, the phone shaking as he responded to her joke in laughter. “Do solemnly swear!”

  “Do solemnly swear.”

  “That I will not sue Dr. Knox Stoneworth.”

  “That I will not sue or knock out Dr. Knox Stoneworth…”

  He nodded. “Now we have the threat on video, too. Uh huh. You think you’re smart.”

  Jada smacked. “What else do you want me to say, dude? This confession is taking too long.”

  “Will not sue Dr. Stoneworth should I incur any injury having my stitches removed.”

  “Won’t sue a brotha if he messes up. But I would not strongly advise him to mess up. Amen.”

  “That wasn’t really a prayer, but I guess it works. Amen and amen.” Knox chuckled as he put the phone away. He pointed to the stainless steel table in the middle of the room. “Up.”

  “Wait. Do you put pigs on this?”

  “No. Only very large dogs.”

  “Who cleans it?”