A Roll in the Hay, стр. 47
“So…” Tess finally said when they were about halfway back to Hayleith. “Did Finn say how bad it is?”
Susannah snapped out of her reverie. “Hmm?”
“I asked if Finn gave you much detail. Is this just a stalling tactic, or can Robin really mess you up?”
“The solicitors are dealing with it.” Susannah checked her phone again despite the lack of signal on this stretch. “They don’t think the injunction will stand, but it can slow me down. It might also give the council a reason to deny me permission. That’s the real stumbling block.”
“That offer to take a hockey stick to her car still stands.” Tess squeezed Susannah’s leg. “And I’m sorry if all that back there was a distraction when you need to focus on other things.”
“What? Oh no,” Susannah said, leaning across to kiss Tess on the cheek. “No, this is one thing going right. I don’t want you to think all I care about is business and money and—”
“I don’t think that,” Tess jumped in. “I’ve seen you with the horses, and I’ve heard all the things you’ve said about what you’re trying to get done. You don’t deserve this resistance, Suze.”
“Oh, you think you’ve been promoted to nickname level, do you?” Susannah teased.
Tess enjoyed hearing the lightness creep back in. Keeping a vet practice afloat was stressful in some ways, but she couldn’t imagine having all that responsibility every day. In Susannah’s shoes, she might well have sold off the whole thing and retired young to a nice cottage in the south of France. That was what rich people did, wasn’t it?
“Well if I’m not on those terms already, I’m happy to work my way up to them,” Tess replied.
“You were making good progress. I really am sorry about the interruption.”
“I know, I know.”
“It’s just there are things they can’t do without me. I have to speak to the right people, sign some things, work out what comes next.”
Tess took Susannah’s hand.
“Hey, it’s seriously fine. I was just putting the offer out there in the universe. We’ll pick it up another time. At least I hope we will.” Even when she was trying to sound confident and reassuring, Tess couldn’t help but let a smidgen of doubt creep in. Rich, gorgeous, powerful women like Susannah just weren’t supposed to fall for the local vet.
She let go of Susannah’s hand to change gear again. This would have been a great time to drive an automatic. “Let’s get you back to your office, so you can rain down hell on those who deserve it.”
They drove on in comfortable silence, and Tess smiled when Susannah resettled her hand on Tess’s thigh.
“You’re back early.” Margo walked into the staff room where Tess had just reunited with Waffles. “I thought you and Lady Muck would be out most of the day.”
“She’s going to take the horses at the farm, and we didn’t get a chance to go to the second set.” Tess scritched Waffles behind his ears until his back foot thumped on the floor in time with his tail. “More business for us, yay!”
“Yay?” Adam took off his lab coat as he joined them. “I don’t think that’s a word I’ve ever heard you say before.”
“He has a point.” Margo ran her hand unconsciously over her bump, which had started to show much more in recent weeks. “You look suspiciously chipper for someone who just spent hours with our most difficult client.”
“You haven’t been on the ketamine, have you? The party drugs are just for the animals, remember?” Adam asked, and luckily for him, he was joking.
Even so, Tess found that he wasn’t quite as irritating as usual. “No, just out with a couple of fine horses, that’s all. The younger one has some mild hip inflammation, so that’s going to be the first job for us.”
“For you,” Margo replied. “I don’t fancy a trip up to the stables. She probably keeps a stall for the staff to sleep in.”
“She’s not that bad,” Tess started to protest, and too late she realised the trap that had been set.
“Aha!” Margo and Adam called out in unison.
“You do like her,” Margo said, triumphant. “Pay up, Adam. I told you she got up to something at that night out.”
“Now, wait a minute,” Adam said. “Defending someone’s reputation is no proof of anything. It’s not like they were snogging behind the bike sheds or anything.”
Tess wished more than anything that she didn’t have the typical ginger’s complexion. Any other skin tone and she might have been able to hide it, but she could feel the heat of a blush racing up her neck and over her cheeks.
“Oh-ho!” Margo was practically out of her chair at this development. “Theresa Claire Robinson, you’ve been holding out on us. There is gossip afoot, and you have been keeping it to yourself. Unacceptable!”
“Eh, not to get in the way of the sleepover bonding vibe here or anything,” Adam said, “but aren’t we a little concerned that we’re talking about fooling around with our biggest meal ticket here? Midsummer Estate can seriously keep our lights on. You’ve already racked up a couple of thousand from the initial few visits and problems.”
“Adam!” Margo scrunched up the paper from whatever she’d brought for lunch and tossed it at his head. It bounced right off his overly styled short hair and hit Tess on the shoulder instead. “Tess is our best friend. Her happiness matters more than money.”
It was nice to hear that, although Tess suspected the enthusiasm was more about Margo still trying to make up for the