Beckett shook his head, cutting me off. “I want to.”
“Okay.” I wasn’t sure what else to say. I didn’t want to come across as rude for turning down a kindness, yet it was just another checkmark in the column of things I owed the Eastons for.
“So, what did you get up to today?”
“I babysat for Birdie and Sage for a little while. They helped me with the bread, actually.”
“I’ll have to give them my compliments the next time I see them.”
“They’d love that.”
I toyed with the napkin on my lap. “And I got another job.”
Beckett’s eyes flared. “Where?”
The surprise there cut, but I couldn’t blame him. It was a shock to me, too, when it came down to it. And it wasn’t as if I were qualified for what I’d been hired for. “At The Gallery, helping a woman named Laiken.”
He nodded, warmth coming to his features. “Laiken’s great, and I’m sure having help will be good for her.”
The bite of jealousy at Beckett’s fondness for Laiken took me by surprise. “You know her?”
Beckett swallowed another spoonful of soup. “Small town. And her family’s from here. Hard not to know her. Her brother is a year younger than me.”
“She seems really kind. And I like her dog.”
“Her dog?”
I grinned down at my soup. “She has a little dog named Gizmo, who’s in a wheelchair. I like his spunk.”
“A dog in a wheelchair. That’s something.”
“He’s very cute.”
“I bet.”
I broke off a piece of bread. “How was your day?” I genuinely wanted to know, but the question came out stilted, out of practice.
“Long,” he muttered.
“Sorry.”
Beckett waved me off. “I should be used to long hours by now. But getting everything set up with the practice changing hands has been a bear. All these patients wanting to come in and check me out.” His lips twitched. “I got called a young whippersnapper twice today.”
I choked on my sip of soda, and it almost came out my nose. “That’s quite the title.”
“It’s hard to convince someone you’re now a qualified doctor when you got busted toilet papering their house on Halloween when you were thirteen.”
My eyes bugged. “You didn’t.”
Beckett gave me a devilish grin that stole my breath. “I was quite the bad boy back in the day.”
“But you aren’t anymore?”
His smile faltered a little. “Everything changed after Shiloh was kidnapped.”
My breath caught in my throat. Of course, I knew what had happened to Shiloh. Dad had forced me to go to Uncle Howard’s trial where he had been convicted of Shy’s kidnapping. But the Eastons didn’t talk much about it.
“I can imagine something like that has a ripple effect.”