by Abby Tyler
He wore an Eagles High School T-shirt and gray workout shorts, but he was definitely too old to be a student. He led them toward the walking path along the lake. Ginny generally avoided this area because Roscoe lunged forward at the sight of every human. If he saw another dog, the peril of being dragged loomed very real.
But this man seemed to have the situation well in hand. Roscoe trotted along beside them as if he’d just finished obedience school.
“You’re Ginny, right? I didn’t think there would be any other beautiful girls with an oversized dog in Applebottom Park.”
Her face flushed at the word beautiful. Was that his word or someone else’s?
“Yes, I’m Ginny. Who did you say sent you?”
“Delilah. The beehive lady who owns the dog bakery.”
Great. So this guy knew all about what happened. Probably everybody did. “Roscoe went a little crazy in her store a few days ago.”
“I don’t have any details,” he said. “I was just told to find you, that you were down here, and this was a good time.”
Did everybody watch everyone else around here? Not surprising. A newcomer was probably already fascinating, and Roscoe made them qualify as a circus freak show.
He switched hands that held onto the leash and extended his right one. “I’m Carter. I coach football at the high school. I hear you’re starting at the elementary school on Monday.”
Ginny shook his hand, warm and strong. A little zip went through her.
“Yes. Seems they finally got a budget for an occupational therapist.”
“It was quite the effort of the town to figure out a way to pay for that,” he said. “Everyone is dying to meet you.”
Except the ones who already had.
Ginny brushed loose bits of hair out of her face. Her ponytail was definitely the worse for wear after the mad dash. “I’ve been up to the school a couple times to set up the room.”
“I’ve seen it,” he said. “It’s amazing.”
She cocked her head at him. “Will some of the football players be coming to me at the elementary?”
“I don’t think so, but I hear you’ll be at the high school on Fridays.”
“They’re still looking for a space for me to set up. The school is full?”
He nodded. “We have a bigger senior class than usual. Thirty-seven.” He laughed. “I guess that seems small to someone from Chicago.”
“My graduating class was six hundred.”
He whistled. “I bet you didn’t know them all.”
“Not even close.”
The wind rustled the trees, catching their attention.
“Hello, autumn,” he said. “Can’t wait for the leaves to turn. They’ll start falling in a few weeks.”
“It’s already chilly in Chicago,” Ginny said. “I’m not going to miss that extended winter.”
“This weather is going to be a dream compared to that.”
“I guess I’m going to find out.” They grinned at each other, and despite everything that had happened in Applebottom since Ginny had arrived, she felt this incredible surge of hope. This had been the right move. Uproot herself. Escape the city and get out of the rat race. She’d spent the last two years dashing from one part of town to the other, seeing kids in their homes.
Now she had a room of her own. The students wouldn’t change every few months, but be the same all year long. She could really track their progress. Her life felt full of purpose.
And of course, now there was Carter.
Chapter 2
Carter McBride walked alongside this newcomer and tried to manage the unexpected optimism that had overcome him since he’d spotted Ginny and her dog.
The dirt crunched beneath their feet, and the trees arched overhead. They had talked about nothing more important than the weather, but Carter felt oddly at home.
He hadn’t felt this comfortable around a woman in a long time. He hadn’t let himself, not after his last humiliation.
The Great Dane ambled contentedly alongside them. Carter kept a strong grip on the harness, still not sure what to think of the big beast. He’d nearly dragged this girl across the park on her belly.
Delilah had been right. Ginny needed help with her dog.
“So how’s the team looking this year, Coach?” Ginny asked.
Carter wanted to laugh. This was way more of a contentious subject than she knew. “We have a freshman quarterback with some promise,” he said. “My hope is to score more than fourteen points.”
“That’s a good goal for a game,” Ginny said.
He had to smile at that. She had no idea about Applebottom’s losing tradition, one that began long before he arrived.
“I mean fourteen points in the season.”
“Oh.”
Now she got it.
“It’s not a complaint,” he said. “I love it here. I’m from Branson. The pace in Applebottom is much slower, and I can head over the lake anytime I want to return to a bigger city.”
“I heard they have an amazing Titanic Museum,” Ginny said. “I loved the movie, but I don’t want to see a bunch of gimmicks.”
“It’s the real deal. You should go.”
Because he had such a tight grip on the dog, he immediately noticed when Roscoe’s pace faltered. He’d seen something. Carter braced his arm against his side to make sure he could hold the Great Dane if he bolted.
“Oh!” Ginny said.
Carter looked up. Betty Johnson, the seventy-year-old owner of the Town Square tea shop, approached with her little white poodle, Clementine.
“Watch out,” Ginny said. “Roscoe gets a little excited around other dogs. He might take off.”
Carter was already aware of Roscoe’s intention. He’d stopped dead, straining forward to look at the little dog.
“I’ve got him,” Carter said. Betty and Clementine were still well up the path. “So what’s the deal with this dog? You never trained him?”
“I only got him a few weeks ago,” Ginny said. Her face registered concern as Roscoe strained harder against the leash. “My friend found him starving and scrawny behind her apartment complex, but her landlord threatened to evict her. So I took him.”
Carter coaxed Roscoe into a slow walk. The three of them had to stick pretty close together for Carter to remain an intermediary between the dog and Ginny with the harness connecting them. It took all of his focus not to bump into Ginny as he tried to keep the dog at bay.
“Let me guess,” he said. “He got hale and hearty and was no longer the sweet rug dog you’d gotten to know.”
Ginny had her eye on the approaching poodle. “Exactly. By then I was on my way here, away from any trainers or obedience schools. I’ve searched, but there’s nothing here.”
“There’s bound to be some in Branson.”
“There are. But after that epic drive down, Roscoe won’t get in the car again. He’s too big for me to force him.”
“That’s a problem for sure.”
When Betty got close, little Clementine put on her doggy brakes. Carter could see her tiny legs shaking. Betty tugged gently on the leash. “Come along, Clementine,” she cajoled.
Carter and Ginny halted with Roscoe as well.
“We can step off the trail,” Carter said.
“Don’t worry yourself,” Betty said. She bent down and scooped up the tiny white poodle. The dog’s pink bows exactly matched Betty’s jogging suit. “She’s just fine. She thinks this enormous guy could eat her in a single bite.”
“He’s a big one, for sure,” Carter said.
Betty’s clear blue eyes rested on Ginny. “I see you found her.”
So the whole town did know about this meeting. Carter had figured that would be the case. Delilah had contacted Sadie Cole, the high school secretary, who tracked Carter down. If Delilah was involved, probably the whole Town Square society had talked about it. Betty was part of that. Not much happened in Applebottom that those ladies missed.
“Jus
t in the nick of time,” Carter said. “Joe was down there selling hot dogs for the band fundraiser, and Roscoe was ready to clean him out.”
“Oh, I bet that was tempting.” Betty turned to Ginny. “I’m Betty. I own Tea for Two, the little sandwich shop on the square. Near the doggy bakery that your pup visited recently.”
Ginny’s cheeks brightened to pink. “I’m so sorry,” she said.
Betty waved her hand to dismiss the apology. “We all talked about it, and we decided Carter was the best solution. I’m glad he found you. Have a good one.”
Carter kept Roscoe close, his fingers gripping his harness as Betty and Clementine passed. When she was out of earshot, Ginny said, “This is humiliating. Everybody knows.”
He couldn’t blame her for feeling that way. The Applebottom society women were a lot to manage. But he didn’t want to discourage her. “Just know that the whole town is ready to welcome you and solve your problem.”
“So they sent me you.”
Carter crossed his free hand over his heart. “And I most solemnly swear to help out wherever I can.”
And he meant it. Seeking out a young single woman wasn’t something he would’ve done on his own. But if he had to help her with the dog, well, that was just neighborly.
“You have any experience with giant dogs?” Ginny asked.
“Not a bit. My mom strictly got us Pomeranians. They fit in my her purse.”
“So it sounds like you and I will be figuring this out together.”
“We will indeed.” Carter couldn’t help but grin at her as they moved forward to finish out the walking path. Roscoe had probably seen enough action for today. Carter steered them toward Ginny’s street.
“You know where I live?” she asked, then quickly added, “Of course you do. I’m sure everyone here knows everything.”
“I’d say that’s pretty much the way of it.” They turned down her road. His beat-up red pickup was parked in front of her house.
“That yours?” Ginny asked.
“Every rusting bit.”
“Thanks for helping me out back there,” Ginny said. “I never know what’s going to trigger Roscoe.” When they reached her porch, Roscoe sat on his haunches like a perfectly behaved dog.
“He knows a few things,” Carter said. “We just have to get you some commands, so he’ll obey you. The team doesn’t practice after school on Tuesdays. You want to meet then?”
It was his only weeknight off, but he didn’t mind spending it this way. The dog presented a fun challenge. And then there was the girl.
Ginny tucked a piece of stray hair behind her ear. She was definitely pretty, and he liked how straightforward she was. She didn’t put on an act or try to snag him.
He’d had a heckuva time his first year in Applebottom, trying to manage the expectations of all the single women in town. He gone out with a few of them. But nothing seemed quite right. And in a town this small, he couldn’t let things get too far without having a trove of local citizens advising him about the appropriateness of his behavior.
Ginny was different. She seemed mainly concerned about getting control of her dog. He could help her with that.
Carter scooped up the package he’d left on her door before he set out to find her. “Delilah sent me with a gift. I left it here in case I couldn’t find you.”
Ginny took the little bag, peering inside. “It’s a dog training book and a bag of treats!”
“Subtle, that Delilah.”
“We did sort of destroy her store.”
“Back at the park on Tuesday? Five o’clock?” Carter asked.
“I’ll be there.”
Roscoe let out a little woof.
“We’ll both be there,” she added.
They laughed, and Carter found that he actually looked forward to Tuesday and the challenge of the dog.
And of course, Ginny too.
Chapter 3
Ginny arrived in her classroom on the first day of school ridiculously early. She’d been there all week setting up.
Today, though, everything felt different. The halls buzzed with teachers doing their last-minute prep. She’d passed the principal organizing the crossing guards, who were already ushering the earliest drop-offs into the cafeteria.
Ginny would no longer be alone in the room opening boxes of equipment and arranging the space. Actual students would arrive. She would begin her real work.
She took a moment to walk around and touch everything, pleased with how it had turned out. The floor was carpeted to absorb sound. In one corner, she’d arranged mats and cushions of different heights and shapes to be a sensory walk. In the opposite corner, a clear space left room for a large body-sized swing. Students who needed extra vestibular stimulation would use it to get calm and hopefully return to class ready to learn.
A circle of inflated ball chairs filled the center of the room, each on a nubby mat that kept them in place. The kids could bounce and shift and move their bodies on them while they listened to instructions.
Along the back wall were bright green cabinets filled with all the smaller tools she would use in specific cases. One was filled with sand-filled balls made expressly for children who tended to get their aggression out by throwing things. Three targets were painted on one wall for them to aim at. It was definitely better than flinging chairs or scissors, incidents that had been reported more than once last year.
Ginny’s heart filled with hope that she could help all these kids, who apparently needed her desperately enough that the town had funded an endowment for an occupational therapy position. She was lucky, and she knew it.
A voice at the door got her attention. “Hello?”
She turned. It was Carly, one of the special education teachers Ginny had met when the school interviewed her. Carly had only recently returned from a vacation in Italy, so Ginny hadn’t seen her while she was setting up.
“Hey!” Ginny said.
Carly wore the professional dress of a teacher who wanted to look nice even though she did plenty of manual labor with her students. Stretchy pants with a fitted top, tennis shoes, and a ponytail. She wasn’t much older than Ginny—maybe thirty—with a bright, happy expression.
“This looks amazing,” she said. “I can’t wait to bring my kids in here.”
“I can’t wait to meet them.”
Carly held out her hand. “I don’t know if you remember me. I was there at your interview.”
“I remember. Thank you for hiring me. I’m extremely excited to start.”
“So are we. You’re literally the answer to a lot of parents’ and teachers’ prayers.”
Ginny hoped she could live up to that. “How was Italy?”
Carly let out a long sigh. “Perfect. Even more perfect because my parents paid for it. I think they just wanted an excuse to have the baby to themselves.”
“How old is your little one?”
“Sixteen months. And a pistol. Running all over the place and causing trouble.” She sat on one of the balance balls and bounced a few times, her ponytail swinging. “I might have to come in here to calm myself down.”
Ginny laughed. “Feel free.”
Carly stood up from the ball. “You know where I am if you need me, right? Two doors down, opposite side of the hall.”
“I do.”
“You may not have a whole lot of students the first couple of days,” she said. “We have to get the schedule established first. You know, the routines.”
“That makes sense,” Ginny said, although this meant it might be a long, slow day.
“Just be available. There will be a few meltdowns, and we might bring them here. Some kids won’t be emotionally ready to handle the rigors of a full day away from home. You’ll get to know them pretty fast.”
Ginny nodded. “Thanks. I’ve got everyone’s files. And I have most of them memorized anyway.”
“Good. I think you’ll really like it here. Applebottom is a tight community. Everyone knows everyon
e, and most of the time they’re here to help.”
Most of the time.
Carly paused by the door and looked back. “I heard you met our football coach. Isn’t he something?”
Ginny stared at her shoes. “He was nice.”
“Nice!” She laughed. “He’s been on every single woman’s list since he showed up. But no takers.”
“Really?”
“I don’t know what he’s looking for, but they’re not it.”
“He’s just helping me with my dog.”
“Sure he is.” Carly winked.
The noise level suddenly rose in the hall. “Uh oh, they’ve released the assembly,” Carly said. “To the trenches. Have a great first day!”
Carly hurried out. Voices and footsteps echoed down the hall. Soon it became a cacophony. Ginny moved out to the hallway, directing parents and lost kids in the right direction, glad she had walked the halls enough to know where things were. A couple mothers came up to introduce themselves, and Ginny recognized their children’s names, thrilled to finally be able to connect their actual presence with their documentation.
An energetic woman in yoga pants and a fleece vest embraced Ginny in a tight hug. “I can’t believe we actually got you,” she said. “I think you’re going to make all the difference in my son.”
Ginny glanced down at her boy, about nine, wearing oversized headphones to muffle sound. He bounced on his toes, his eyes darting left and right.
“Is this Mason?”
“It is!” Her eyes sparkled that Ginny knew his name.
Ginny kneeled to his eye level. “I’m Miss Page. I’ll be seeing you soon.”
Mason’s eyes swept her for only a moment, but Ginny knew he’d taken in everything he needed to know. She was already formulating activities in her head to help him with his visual scanning, stims that could feed his need for sensory input so that he could pay attention but not disrupt others. He was close to being mainstreamed. Maybe she could be the one to push him over the threshold.
As the halls quieted, and the children settled in their rooms, Ginny retreated to her own space and thought about what the mom said.