Blaze (The Firefighters of Darling Bay Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

something. James is standing there openmouthed, and the doctor just walks out, saying he would leave them in for about twenty minutes.” 
    “What the point of this story? That acupuncture makes cats purr?” 
    “It means cats don’t know what the needles are supposed to do to them. But they react to it, without knowing. And yeah, after about twelve sessions, that dang cat was peeing on his own again, jumping in and out of the litter box. It was crazy.” 
    Tox said, “He probably just finally healed.” 
    “Sure. That was obvious. But something made him finally heal, and the only thing that changed was the acupuncture. And for me, it helps my insomnia.” 
    Tox pulled at the edge of a sticker on the side of the phone monitor. 
    “Stop that.” She slapped his hand. “I’m going to give you two sessions with her.”
    He would have to spend more time with Grace if Lexie did that. No, he didn’t think so. Tox didn’t want that. 
    Except that he did. “Nah,” he made himself say.
    Lexie swung in her chair to yet another computer. “I’m doing it.” She typed something, then pulled her wallet out of her purse. 
    He pointed to her credit card. “What are you doing?” 
    “Gift certificate.” Lexie entered her card numbers faster than he ever could have. When Tox used the computer in the day room to type up his reports, he had to hunt and peck with two fingers, and it always hurt his neck. Which was why Susie Costello at Admin was always breathing down his neck about missing reports. 
    “No, don’t—”
    “Too late.” She tapped something loudly and the printer began to spit out a piece of paper. “You are no match for technology.” She held it out to him. “Take it.” 
    “No.” 
    “Fine.” She put it on her desk and started folding it. 
    Tox watched. 
    Sixty seconds later, Lexie sailed a perfect paper airplane at his head. It hit him square in the middle of the forehead. “Now take it. And go. If you don’t get fixed, you’re gonna end up on light duty, in here with me, and neither of us would be able to stand that.”

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    Grace was settling into the rhythm of the clinic. Finally. It felt good. The first year she’d been open, she hadn’t known what to expect. She could go from busy to dead in the space of fifteen minutes. About six months ago, she’d had a Friday on which every scheduled patient had canceled and she’d gotten no walk-ins, not one. It had scared her so badly she’d spent her whole weekend on the computer, setting up advertising, brainstorming ways to get the clinic’s name out there. And then, that following Monday, she’d been so busy she’d never gotten a chance to eat lunch. She hadn’t even had her tea. 
    This Monday morning she had three appointments scheduled, and she hoped for more walk-ins. But usually no one came in before ten except for Mrs. Finch who got up at five every morning because she said a day without a sunrise was a day wasted. Grace tended to think that was a little overboard. The sun came up without her worrying about it. Most days, anyway.
    She walked out onto the front porch of her practice. She’d managed to grab the little Victorian cottage when it had come on the market, when it was still a fixer-upper. She’d put her own sweat equity into it, taking months to get everything done before opening. It had been a mark of pride, though, learning how to redo drywall and how to retile the roof. Knowing how the bathroom was plumbed made her confident she’d know what to do if the sink started leaking again. It felt more like home here, at the practice, than her own small house did, a quarter mile away. 
    Grace set her mug of tea on the porch rail and looked out onto Jonquil Street. From here, if she stood on tiptoe, she could look over Felicia Dow’s low gabled roof and catch just a glimpse of Darling Bay. On foggy summer mornings like this, sound was captured and carried farther than normal.