Chapter 23

It was barely lunchtime and this was quickly turning into the day from hell. In the clinic hallway, Cade swiped the device screen to pull up his next patient's chart, hoping to hell for a depressed hamster or routine vaccination.

He'd had to euthanize Mrs. Frederick's eighteen-year-old cat when she'd brought it in for weight loss and he'd discovered a pancreatic tumor. Shit way to start the day. Especially because Mrs. Frederick was pushing ninety and was recently widowed. She loved that damn cat more than her deceased husband. Not that Cade blamed her. Mr. Frederick had been a crotchety old fart who spent most of Cade's youth bitching they played ball too loud. Like it was Cade's problem the Frederick's lived across the street from the little league park.

Then they had to put down a German short hair for age-related issues, and hell if watching ten-year-old Andy Diedry cry buckets over his dog didn't nearly kill Cade. Brent was still misty over that one.