When he was suitably attended to—although still meowing for food—I moved along the line, giving everyone a look over. There were more cats than dogs today, and I stopped to see Luna, the silver Maine Coon who’d been spayed yesterday afternoon. She purred the moment she saw me, and a quick glance at the wound showed it was healing nicely and she could go home today. Mila, the dark-nosed Rag Doll kitten in the crate next to her was in the same situation, although she was a lot more miserable in her cone than Luna was.

Blue, Mila’s brother, was next to her, but not because he’d had his balls snipped—nope, he’d eaten a piece of dry pasta that I hoped he would pass this morning so he could leave with his sister.

After seeing Delilah, a terrier mix who’d gotten in a fight with a bulldog in the dog park, I checked in on Bruno, a Great Dane puppy who’d also eaten something he had no business eating.

Animals.

Anyone would think their owners never, ever fed them. Especially if they heard Lucifer’s caterwauling right now—and I knew he’d been fed, because I’d done it myself the moment we got here.

I shook my head and asked the tech not to feed the greedy little bugger, assuring her he’d already eaten an adequate amount of food, then walked through to reception. There, I updated Joy on everything and asked her to make the necessary calls after nine a.m.

With her agreement, I returned to my exam room and stared at my phone, sitting where I’d left it on the table.

If I was going to stop thinking about Hannah, I was going to need to spend every second of this shift with the animals.

I pocketed my phone and went right to the back where the animals were—including a still-meowing Lucifer.

***

“In you get.” I put the carrier with Lucifer in on the front seat of my car and strapped it in place, then put his medicine down in the center console. You never knew when you needed to do an emergency stop, and this little critter was a noisy little bastard as it was.

I didn’t need him screeching and the box going flying into my windscreen if an arsehole pulled out on me.

With him secure—but still meowing, of course—I got in the driver’s side and started the engine. My brain was going a million miles an hour, whirring like mad. It was like a tornado going through my mind, obliterating all thoughts that weren’t of Hannah and what the bloody hell I was going to do now.

I had to tell her I knew. She had to know that I knew, regardless. If she’d saved my number the way I had hers, it would have come up immediately when she’d called.

Fuck, if I’d known…

Would I have given her my number? I didn’t know. This was such a fucking weird situation, one that I never imagined I’d be in, so I didn’t really have an answer for it.