The afternoon sun was bright and warm through the pines as Jim called out to the workers.

“Lunch! Everyone take an hour! Even if you don’t stop I ain’t payin ya so drop your tools, boys!”

I wiped my face with the towel hanging off my belt and approached him. “Hey Jim, I need to take off now, do you need me again tomorrow?”

He smiled and grabbed another envelope like the one he gave me yesterday from his back pocket. “Yup, show up same time and I’ll drive you out here. Got another few days on this build if you’ve got the time to help out. You need a ride home?”

I smiled in return. “No thanks, my uncle is picking me up. See you in the morning, then.” Walking out to the front parking lot, I started looking around the large clearing, scanning through the faces of the workers, then towards the large glass windows into the building.

Wait… am I looking for him?

Thoughts of last night’s… learning experience… flashed into my head and I felt my face instantly go bright and hot. 

Why was I thinking about that sort of thing right now?? 

I quickly shook my head, as if to throw the thoughts out of it, and increased my pace as I hurried towards the front parking lot.

I don’t need to see him again right now, anyway.

It’ll just make me more confused.

It’s better this way, to give me more time to process these feelings.

“Hey, Kyle, over here!” My uncle’s deep, kind, voice echoed through the parking lot, and I looked up to see him smiling and waving as he leaned out the window of his modest and practical white Volvo.

“Hey Uncle Simon, when are you going to get a new car? You’ve had this thing since I was in high school!”

I laughed as I got into the passenger’s seat, and Uncle Simon looked at me with an expression that could only be described as sheer horror and disgust.

“Replace sweet little Ginger here? You must have heatstroke, I’ll have to examine you when we get back to the clinic.” He chuckled and pulled onto the gravel driveway leading out to the highway.

The wind was picking up around the bluff by the time we got to the clinic. I hopped out of the car and walked around, opening my uncle’s door for him while he reached back to grab the satchel he keeps his paperwork in from the back seat. We walked into the front lobby, bright and clean as always, and Uncle Simon set his bag down on the front desk.

He glanced over his shoulder at me as he put on his white lab coat. “Claire called to let me know she’ll be about 30 minutes late today, do you think you could handle the reception work until she gets here? We have an appointment first thing, and we’ll need someone to check them in and get them registered. First time client, a cat.”

“Oh? New cat? That’s rare, are they just visiting out in one of the rentals at The Grove or are they local? Someone we know?”

“Hmm… local I think, someone new.” He pulled out his phone and squinted at it for a minute. “The address here is out in Glenn Grove, but I don’t think this is one of the rentals. Pretty sure this is the one that’s owned by that reporter guy… hmm, but the address is listed as a sub-unit, so looks like whoever it is, they’re living or staying in the attached guest house. Well, guess we’ll find out, won’t we? Make sure when he gets here that you ask him if he’s a resident or just visiting, we’ll need a permanent address for his file if this isn’t where he lives. Thanks, Kyle!”

With that, he vanished into the back room. Almost immediately, I heard the clang of the cowbell Uncle Simon had hung above the clinic’s front door last year.

“Hey, welco…” I trailed off as I realized I was looking into those same serious, dark brown eyes from before.

“Hey, you again… Kyle, right?”