Reva hugged her friend. They’d met a year ago at a grief support group right after Heather’s husband died, and despite the difference in their ages, they’d developed a true friendship. Reva might even say that Heather was her best friend. “You don’t need to do a thing, honey. Unless you need me to give you a job so you won’t hurry back home to the kids.”
Poor Heather, suddenly left with three kids to raise by herself. At least Dale had left them with enough money that Heather—a stay-at-home mom—hadn’t had to sell the house or find a job right away.
“I’m not in a hurry to get home.” Heather grinned, her green eyes crinkling at the corners. “Erin made me promise not to come home until after the twins’ bedtime. She’s saving up for a new phone.”
The back door opened, and Quinn—typical man—brought his friend into the house through the laundry room (which at least was blessedly clean except for Reva’s suitcase of dirty clothes on top of the dryer). Heather, standing beside Reva, didn’t move or make a sound, but something about her energy shifted. Reva looked over to see Heather’s always-pink cheeks get even pinker. Surely not hot flashes… Heather was much too young for those.
“Hey, everybody,” Quinn said, diverting Reva’s attention from her friend. “This is my old college buddy, Adrian Crawford. He’s a business consultant, so I thought he might be able to give us some advice on getting the shelter going.”
“I hope y’all weren’t waiting on me. I had another meeting that ran late.” Completely at ease as Quinn introduced him around, Adrian looked like Hollywood’s impression of a business consultant, with his black slacks and rumpled business shirt over Superman muscles, topped by an almost too-pretty face and a two-hundred dollar haircut. “Then I got lost. I drove past here twice before I noticed the porch light.”
Quinn introduced Adrian to Reva, and then to Heather.
Adrian took Heather’s hand and smiled a smooth and easy smile that warmed the depths of his deep blue eyes.
Ohhh. Reva looked at Adrian, and then back at Heather. No wonder she was blushing. Adrian was the kind of guy who could make any woman feel a little hot-flashy, and Reva knew that Heather hadn’t dated at all since her husband’s death.
Georgia jumped up to welcome Adrian, spreading joy and dirty paw prints and stray white hairs everywhere. Adrian released Heather’s hand and knelt to give Georgia his full attention, seeming not one bit concerned about the state of his expensive slacks. “Hey, little dog,” he crooned. “I haven’t met you yet. What’s your name?”
“It’s Georgia,” Reva supplied, looking at Heather over Adrian’s chestnut-brown head and those broad shoulders that challenged the seams of his tailor-made shirt. “Don’t let her get your pants dirty.”
“Aww,” Adrian drawled without looking up, “we aren’t gonna worry about that, are we, Georgia?” It almost looked as if he was avoiding further contact with Heather as he ruffled Georgia’s fur and rubbed her ears, causing her to moan in joyful surrender. Heather’s cheeks had gone back to their normal rosy pink, but her wide eyes still looked slightly stunned.
Quinn clapped his hands. “Let’s get busy, shall we?”
Adrian stood, and he didn’t even brush the dog hair off his slacks. Points to him. He glanced at Heather and smiled his easy smile but looked away too quickly. This guy with such polished social skills seemed almost nervous around Heather, who abruptly folded the dish towel she was still holding onto and hustled off to the safety of the kitchen.
But Reva wasn’t about to allow Heather to make herself scarce just because the presence of a fancy new rooster in town was ruffling her feathers. “Heather, since you’re in the kitchen, would you please bring us a pitcher of lemon water and a stack of cups?” It was high time Heather’s feathers got fluffed.
No point in letting him off easy, either, she decided. “Adrian, would you mind giving her a hand? We might need two pitchers of water, now that I think about it.”
Leaving those two to stew in their own juices, Reva handed a black pen to Quinn. “Assuming that the edges of the page are the boundary lines of your estate, can you draw roughly where the existing structures are on each of those pages?”
“Sure.” While he did that, Reva stuck another sheet onto the wall and wrote: Dog runs. Fenced play yards. Cat room with attached outdoor enclosure. Puppy room. Laundry. Office. She turned to the group of people who had settled at the table again. “Everybody grab a pen and use those posters to draw your ideas of what should go where at the new shelter. I’m making a list of things you’ll want to consider.” She looked at the list she’d written so far and chewed on the cap of her pen. “Y’all help me out. What else do you think the shelter will need, and how can we make the best use of what’s already there?”
“Kitchen,” Edna yelled out. “Gotta have a kitchen.”
Reva wrote kitchen.
Mack said, “Infirmary with a quarantine area. You’ll want to keep any sick animals away from the others.”
She wrote that, too. “Great idea, Mack.”
Quinn handed over the black pen. He had drawn outlines for the pool, the pool house, and the main house on each of the other pages. “We need to decide what to do about the pool. It’s leaking around the steps, so it’ll need to be fixed if there’s a reason to keep it. Otherwise, we’ll need to fill it in.”
“Oh, we’re keeping it,” Reva said. “We can use it for rehab when injured dogs come in.”
“And for playtime, too,” Abby said. “I’ve seen videos of a bunch of dogs playing ball in a pool together. It’ll be great for exercise and socialization with other dogs.”
“I dunno,” Quinn said. “I’ve tried to patch those steps, but they still keep leaking. We might need to go so far as to tear them out and put in new.”
Mack got up and started drawing on one of the sheets. “You could extend the pool’s shallow end to make a beach-style entrance. A lot of dogs won’t go in the pool if they have to walk down steps, but they will if it’s a gentle slope.”
Edna started drawing on another sheet. “You’ll have to put a fence around the pool, for safety.”
Sean stood next to Edna and drew a bunch of dogs playing ball—not exactly Reva’s idea of architectural planning, but fun. “We’ll get the dogs a tennis-ball launcher,” he said. “That way, they can play all day long whether there’s someone to throw the ball or not.”
Before long, everyone was standing together at the windows, tossing out ideas and drawing their vision for the new shelter on their posters. Reva stood back and watched, hugging herself to contain her excitement. Seeing everyone’s ideas on paper made the dream feel more real than it ever had. Maybe this time, it would really happen.
“Reva,” Edna said, “I know that in the past, you and Grayson offered to run the shelter, if the city would build one. But I don’t know how you’ll be able to do all that by yourself and still run Bayside Barn, too.”
“Let Abby run the shelter,” Mack said, turning to look at Abby. “You have office management experience, right?”
“I do.” Abby’s whole face brightened. “Do you think I could get the job?” Then she looked over at Reva. “Unless you want it, Aunt Reva?”
Abby was clearly trying to dim her excitement in case Reva wanted the job for herself. But honestly, she didn’t. She was more than happy to pass that torch along. Reva put a hand on Mack’s burly shoulder. “That’s a great idea, Mack. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it.”
Then she smiled at her niece. “I’ll be around to help out, if you need me. But I’m going to be busy with the barn and my new wildlife rehab thing, plus taking care of any farm animals that we’re keeping for the shelter.”
“And Abby,” Mack added, “since Reva’s back home now, and the shelter won’t be open right away, I sure could use your help at the vet clinic. I’m short one office manager these days.”
“Re
ally?” Abby’s smile lit up the room. “I’d love that, Mack. When can I start?”
“Yesterday would be good,” Mack said. “That is, if Quinn doesn’t need you on-site to supervise the building project.”
Quinn put an arm around Abby. “I think I’ll be able to let her go at least some of the time.”
Lord, those two were so cute together. They reminded Reva of herself and Grayson back in the day. And look at Heather and Adrian, the attraction between them a palpable thing, though they could hardly bring themselves to look at each other. They’d chosen to draw their brainstorming ideas on Post-it posters at opposite ends of the room, and Heather kept slinking off to the kitchen to refill the water pitchers and bring out artistically arranged plates of cookies.
“We’ll also have to hire someone to run the day-to-day operations,” Mack said. “Feeding the animals, cleaning the enclosures…”
“I’ll do it,” Sean volunteered. “Let me.”
Edna reached out and ruffled his hair as if he was five years old, but he didn’t seem to mind.
“You’re a little young for that job,” Reva said. “But I’ll need some help around the barn, if your mom doesn’t mind you working here a couple hours after school each day. That’ll free me up to help Abby get the shelter up and running.”
“I know just the person for the daily operations job,” Edna said. “Heather Gabriel,” she called into the kitchen, where Heather had disappeared again. “If you don’t want to be nominated for something, you’d best get back in here and speak up.”
“I’m coming,” Heather called back. “Just wiping down the countertops.”
Reva smothered a smile. She couldn’t wait to tease Heather about this the next time she saw her. She’d already wiped down the countertops so much that they’d need to be resealed.
“She’ll be perfect,” Edna said, “don’t y’all think?”
“Heather is wonderful,” Reva agreed. “And I know she has written grant proposals for the elementary school before, so she can help Abby with that.” But she glanced at Mack uncertainly; the actual hiring would be done by the city council, and while he’d been the one to think of offering Abby the job as the shelter’s director, Edna didn’t have that power.
But Mack grinned. “That sounds great, Edna. If Heather wants the job, I’ll put in a good word to the city council.”
Reva squeezed Mack’s shoulder. He was such a good man. “It feels like everything’s coming together, doesn’t it?”
As long as the mayor didn’t shoot the whole thing down.
Chapter 26
The city council members had agreed that the courthouse wasn’t big enough to hold the huge crowd expected at the council meeting that would decide the fate of Bayside Barn. So it was in the town’s auditorium that JP held forth on the benefits of building a huge marina complex. With the charisma of a talk-show host and the earnest conviction of a televangelist, JP made an argument that even Quinn wanted to buy into, and he knew better.
Quinn’s palms started sweating when he realized that not only would his presentation follow JP’s, but it would have to be even more convincing. This was their only shot. Abby squeezed his thigh, whether in warning or anxiety or comfort, he didn’t know. He glanced over to see her encouraging smile. “Stop worrying,” she whispered. “You’ve got this.”
And when President Tammy introduced him and he stood behind the podium to present his case, any nerves he had been feeling melted away. The vision of the future animal shelter just felt right. It felt meant to be.
He clicked through the PowerPoint presentation he had prepared, with photos of the existing property along with renderings of the changes and additions he would make. Even the leaking pool seemed to be perfect for the animal shelter, because the new beach-style ramp would make the pool accessible to the shelter dogs.
“We’ll build a concrete-block wall between the shelter and Bayside Barn,” he explained, showing another slide, “so the shelter animals won’t be bothered by field trip buses coming in to Bayside Barn. An access gate between the two properties will be large enough to accommodate any vehicle. Whenever the shelter receives any abused or abandoned livestock, they’ll be housed at Bayside Barn, at least until the shelter has its own barn space and fenced grazing pasture, which we’ll build in phase two, about a year after the shelter opens.”
When he finished his presentation, the packed crowd in the auditorium surged to its feet, whooping and cheering. Quinn felt himself blushing, his cheeks pulsing with his heartbeats. He had been so in the zone during his presentation, he’d almost forgotten how big the crowd was. He quickly gathered his notes and ducked back to his seat, while people he’d never met clapped him on the shoulder and congratulated him.
After a few minutes of quiet discussion among the city council members, President Tammy took to the podium. “The council unanimously agrees to allow Bayside Barn to keep farm animals, and indeed, any animals Reva Curtis deems appropriate for the education goals of Bayside Barn. We further decree that once given, this permission cannot be rescinded for any reason.” She glanced at the mayor, who answered her unasked question with a brief nod.
She sat, and the mayor took the podium.
“Furthermore,” the mayor boomed, “as the mayor of Magnolia Bay, I am delighted to accept Mr. Lockhart’s generous donation of the animal shelter that this community has needed for so long. As you all know, I have worked tirelessly to…” And while the mayor unfurled his stump speech, giving himself all the credit for making this miracle happen, Quinn noticed a quiet disturbance happening at the edges of the crowd.
Reva, Abby, Edna, and all the other Bayside Barn volunteers were moving through the auditorium, each carrying a cardboard box through the audience. People were gathering around the women to peek into in the boxes, then reach inside.
Abby bumped into Quinn from behind with the sharp edge of the box she was carrying. “Want one?” she asked.
“One what?” He tilted the box toward him. “Awww.” He sifted through the multicolored plastic stars and picked out a blue one with gold lettering. “I’m proud to be a Bayside Barn Buddy,” he read out loud.
“I’m proud you’re a Bayside Barn Buddy, too,” Abby said, her hazel eyes sparkling.
He pinned the star to his shirt and leaned in to give Abby a kiss. The big box of stars was in the way, so he took it from her and handed it to the nearest person. “Here,” he said. “Give these out, please, so I can kiss my girlfriend.”
The mayor finally ended his speech. President Tammy plucked the mayor’s white cowboy hat off his head, stepped to the podium, and waved the hat in the air. She started the chant, and then the whole crowd joined in.
Quinn hauled Abby up close, but stopped kissing her long enough to join in the chant: “Go, Bayside Barn Buddies, go!”
* * *
A mixed-up mass of emotions clogged Abby’s throat, and tears prickled behind her eyes as she sat next to Quinn in the office of the title company and watched him sign away everything he’d salvaged from his previous life. He flipped to another flagged page of the document, signed his name again, then repeated the process, over and over again.
Giving it all away to save Bayside Barn.
He laid the pen aside and slid the sheaf of papers across the conference table toward the mayor, who stacked the documents and grinned. “The city of Magnolia Bay thanks you, sir.”
“You drive a hard bargain.” Quinn stood and offered his hand across the table. “But I’m glad we could come to an agreement.”
The mayor had given Quinn until Labor Day to complete the building of the shelter and, as he so kindly put it, “get the hell out.” Mayor Wright wasn’t entirely happy about having to give up the prospect of the marina complex, so Quinn had been forced to sweeten the bait by promising that the shelter’s grand opening would happen before the city’s next mayoral election.
Abby stood, too, and Quinn took her hand in his. He squeezed her fingers. “We’d better go get to work.”
We, because the city council had indeed hired Abby to run the shelter. While Quinn was supervising the construction teams, Abby would be setting up the shelter’s office and interviewing potential staff members.
“Yep,” boomed the mayor. “Time’s a-wasting, clock’s a-ticking. Y’all better get busy.”
Abby waited for the familiar sense of worry to creep up behind her. How would they get everything done, even with the city’s financial backing and a slew of helping hands pitching in? What if the pressure of working together proved to be too great a strain on Abby and Quinn’s new relationship? But the worry and anxiety that had plagued her all these months seemed to have faded away. The what-ifs ahead would be challenging, no doubt. But she and Quinn would conquer them together.
Epilogue
“Abby,” Quinn said from the bathroom doorway. “What in the world are you doing?”
“You mean, besides taking a bath?” She poured another cup of water over her head, then yelled, “Whoo! That was fun! I’m getting clean!” She repeated the process, but this time instead of yelling, she shook her head and splattered water all over the bathroom and the two dogs who sat by the bathtub, watching Abby’s antics.
“Looks to me like you’re putting on a show for these dogs.” And for him, too; her wet, naked body and rosy-tipped breasts were a sight to behold.
“I’m really just doing it for Wolf.” She reached out to the dog, who leaned forward just close enough to lick her fingers but no closer. “I’m trying to show him that a bath is a good thing.”
She dunked the cup back into the water to fill it, then poured it out over her head, hollering with false glee and intentionally splattering the dogs. “I want Wolf to know that a little water won’t hurt him.”
Warm Nights in Magnolia Bay Page 33