Bark to the Future (An Alpine Grove Romantic Comedy Book 5)

by Susan C. Daffron

  “Spare me, Beth. What indications? You have no proof of anything.”

  Even though Graham couldn’t see them, Beth held up her fingers, so she could count off a list. “Your distance, lack of interest in me, changing plans at the last minute, the inability to reach you at odd hours, flirting with students, the odd behavior of your co-workers toward me, the fact that you stopped attending social events with me, your endless criticism of me and my choices, and last, but not least, my intuition.”

  “Give me a break. That’s not proof. It’s all a bunch of speculation.”

  “It is enough proof for me. And the biggest thing of all is that even after all this time and many speculative discussions, you have never been willing to verbally express any type of commitment to me at all. You have never even met my mother or anyone close to me who would ask questions about your intentions.”

  “Is this you harping on marriage again? I told you I already tried marriage and it didn’t work.”

  Beth sighed. “I don’t think wanting a commitment should be such an outrageous thing if you truly love me. I wanted so badly for us to be in love and I kept thinking things would get better if I gave us more time. But I’ve finally realized that will never happen. To get married would require standing up in front of witnesses and legally and morally expressing that you want to enjoy a lifetime of physical and intellectual commitment to me, excluding all others. I think that last point is the troublesome one.”

  “Fine, Beth. You’ve succeeded in terminating our relationship. But nothing about us had better come back around to the university, or you’ll be sorry.”

  “You can save your threats, Graham. My lips are sealed. However, you might want to share that sentiment with your other girlfriends, particularly if they are not as gullible and don’t trust you as much as I did. For me, that trust no longer exists. Goodbye.”

  As she hung up the phone, Beth sat down at the table and put her head on her arms. For the first time, she cried quietly, letting herself mourn the loss of the man she had idolized and adored years ago. But she knew she had done the right thing. She’d been fooling herself about being happy with Graham. He wasn’t the person she’d originally thought he was, at all.

  Even if Drew was right and they couldn’t stand to be together long-term, she’d never go back to Graham. Being alone was far better than being with him. That chapter of her life was definitely closed.

  Chapter 8

  Revisions

  At about nine, Drew stumbled down the stairs, looking disheveled. Beth looked up from her perch on the sofa. “Good morning.”

  “Coffee.”

  “There is a fresh pot in the kitchen.”

  He waved a thank you and mumbled, “Mmmfph.”

  Returning to the living room with a mug, he sat down next to Beth. “Are your contacts bugging you? Your eyes are all red.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “Well, you look ready to roll outta here.”

  “Yes, I need to leave in about twenty minutes to open the store. I’ll leave you a key to the house. You can come and go as you please. Just be sure to put Arlo in the kitchen behind the gate.” She grinned. “And, by the way, Cindy arrives to walk Arlo at noon. You know how Alpine Grove women tend to swoon over men who have all their teeth, but you might spoil her impression of you if she sees you like this.”

  “Yeah. Gotcha. Good to know. We’ll be outta here before then. I need to get over to the house and see what horrible things my editor is gonna tell me today. I get a new installment every day to sort of draw out the agony.”

  Beth reached out to caress his cheek. “Don’t take it so hard, Drew. Maybe we can talk about it tonight.”

  He took her hand and kissed her palm. “Thanks Bethie. Yeah, I’d like that. Would you be willing to read the draft?”

  She clasped her hands together. “Oh Drew, would you let me? I’d love to.”

  “I’m warning you though. It’s a first draft.”

  She grinned. “I understand. Everything has to start somewhere. A wise person once told me that you can’t edit a blank page.”

  Drew set his mug on the coffee table so he could give her a slow, mind-numbing kiss. “I’m not that wise. But I am getting better at Monopoly. Thanks for making up the guest bedroom last night.”

  “I prefer staying in there. I think I’ll tell my mother she can turn my old room into a sewing room after all.”

  Drew laughed. “Sewing machines don’t care about heat.”

  “Very true.” She kissed him again. “I’ll see you later.”

  “I’ll be here.”

  It was another quiet day at the store with Linda, who arrived again to sort books. After a few hours, Beth was too curious to remain silent any longer. “Linda, I’ve offered to pay you for your time and I know you won’t take money. But if you don’t mind me asking, why are you here doing this?”

  Linda looked up from her book. “I want to get out of the house. It’s too empty.”

  “Have you thought about getting a job?”

  Linda shook her head vigorously, her straight brown hair whipping back and forth. “No. I hate dealing with the public.”

  Beth smiled. “I’ve noticed. And I definitely understand. I feel the same way. I spent most of my high-school years hiding back there in the storeroom, doing my homework. My mom loves her customers, but I was terrified to even look at anyone. Even now, I still feel like an idiot half the time when I’m collecting someone’s money during a purchase.”

  “No! You’re great.” Linda waved the book in her hand toward the street. “I just never know what to say to people. For everyone else, it looks so easy. It didn’t matter most of the time when my primary job was to be a mother. Then the kids left and Walter left. Now it’s just me.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want payment? Like I said, I really am happy to compensate you for your time. It wouldn’t even come from the store receipts, so don’t worry about that. I’d pay you from my own pocket just because now I have this unreasonable need to finish this book-sorting project before I leave in a week. I think that thanks to you, it might actually be possible.”

  “Thank you for offering, but I got a very generous settlement from Walter. It’s just nice to be here away from everything. I feel useful. I was starting to worry that I’d become one of those weird old ladies who are afraid to leave the house.”

  “Well, I don’t think that would be the case, but I do appreciate it. My mother will never go through these books.”

  Linda giggled. “She’ll be surprised when all the boxes are gone.”

  “I think stunned may be a more accurate description.”

  That evening, Beth went back to the house and found Drew in the kitchen making dinner while Arlo and Dixie looked on. She walked up behind him, put her arms around his waist, and kissed his neck. “You appear to be working with food. Did you learn to cook at some point in the last decade?”

  He turned and kissed her. “I have been known to embark on fine culinary creations. This isn’t one of them though, so don’t get your hopes up. We’re having spaghetti.”

  “That sounds wonderful, largely because I didn’t have to make it.”

  After dinner, Drew pulled his laptop down from a bookshelf. “I put this out of puppy range, but if you want to read the dreadful novel, you can. I don’t have a printer, so you’ll have to read it on the screen.”

  Beth jumped off the sofa and took the laptop from him. “Oh yes, definitely. Let’s plug it in over here.”

  After Drew had turned on the computer and opened the file, Beth sat down on the couch with the laptop in front of her on the coffee table. “I’m going to save a new version so I don’t accidentally overwrite anything.”

  He shrugged. “Okay. Do whatever you want. After I finished it, I made a zillion backups because I’m paranoid like that. If you want to put in notes or something on your copy, go for it.”

  Beth pulled the laptop off the table and leaned against Drew with
the laptop resting on her thighs. “I can’t believe I’m the first person to read this.”

  “Well, other than my editor. In today’s installment, she called one section in the third chapter improbable, and that was the nice part of the e-mail.” He put one arm around her and held a novel in his other hand. “I’m gonna drown my sorrows in quality literature.”

  “That’s a completely subjective value judgment. What are you reading?”

  He held the book cover in front of her. “This.”

  “Ugh, Drew, even my mom hates E.L. Jakes. She said the books are awful. And she never says that about anything.”

  “Supposedly, this one is selling like crazy. It’s on all the best-seller lists, but so far I’m pretty sure your mom isn’t wrong. We’ll see how it goes. Maybe it gets better.”

  Later, Beth was hunched over the coffee table reading and typing notes into the manuscript file. She glanced over at Drew, who had fallen asleep with one arm flung out to the side. He looked so peaceful lying there all sprawled out and relaxed.

  Beth’s gaze moved to the floor, where Dixie was contentedly sleeping in a pile of shredded paper that had been the E.L. Jakes novel. It looked like confetti.

  Beth jumped up and yelled, “Dixie! How could you?”

  Drew started awake with a groan as the puppy leaped off her paper nest and ran off toward the kitchen, followed by Arlo. Drew sat up. “What happened?”

  Beth pointed at the pile of paper on the floor. “Look! Your dog completely consumed that book.”

  “Yeah, she kinda has a thing for paper.” He leaned to peer over the side of the couch. “I must have dropped it on the floor when I was resting my eyes.”

  “Obviously!”

  He shook his head slowly. “You know, I hate to be critical of another author, knowing how hard it is to write a book and all. But Dixie is right. That thing was trash. Now we don’t have to feel bad about throwing it away.”

  Beth took a deep breath and sat down again. “I guess I wasn’t paying attention. I’m sorry I yelled at Dixie.”

  “If you take her outside, I bet she’ll forgive you.”

  Beth shut down the laptop. “Nice try. It’s late. I’ll take Arlo. You take Dixie.”

  Drew moved his legs off the couch, putting his feet on the floor with a thud. “Fine. At least they’re saying it’s gonna get warmer tomorrow. The word thaw was even used. I hope they’re right, for a change. The weather reports here are about as useful as a trap door on a canoe.”

  “At least I’m not the only person who complains about the cold.”

  “I’m from the south, Beth. When the temperature drops below sixty degrees, there’s panic in the streets and we start bundling up in parkas.”

  Beth giggled. “And my mom says I’m wimpy.”

  Over the next couple of days, Beth fell into a routine of working at the store during the day and reading Drew’s novel at night. Despite his dire predictions, Drew was easygoing and fun to be around. Yes, he was a slob, but he also knew he was a slob, so he’d crack stupid jokes about it, probably in an effort to get her to lighten up, as he would say.

  Saturday night, Beth was hunched over the laptop again, completely engrossed in the story. Arlo was curled up on the floor, next to her feet. Although she had made a number of suggestions for improvement throughout the manuscript, Drew’s writing was no less engaging than in his prior books. She ran across the improbable section in Chapter Three and talked to Drew about it. There was no way Liz Logan would do something like that. Absolutely no way. Drew had said he’d take her comments ‘under advisement,’ causing Beth to do a mental eye roll. It was such a Drew thing to say.

  Dixie was snoozing on the couch curled up next to Drew, who was supposedly reading, but actually was ‘resting his eyes’ again. Beth smiled at them. It was adorable seeing the fuzzy brown puppy curled up in the crook of his arm.

  Beth stretched her arms above her head and turned back to the novel. The tension in the story was building and although it was late, she had to find out what happened in the next chapter. How were they going to get out of this one?

  A few minutes later, Beth gasped and yelped, “No! That’s not possible!” She put her hand over her mouth as tears slid down her cheeks.

  Drew moved and Dixie squeaked in protest. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Sorry, Dix. Sleeping there comes with some risks.” He looked at Beth. “What happened? Dixie is right here.”

  Beth waved at the laptop. “Oh Drew, the way Liz dies. It’s just…just…terrible. I mean, I know you told me you killed her off, but that is just too heartbreaking.”

  “Well, given the look on your face, I guess it had some emotional impact anyway.”

  “Emotional impact? How could you do that to Liz?” Beth rubbed her eyes and a contact lens flew out and landed on the floor. “Stop! Don’t move!”

  Drew scrubbed his hand across his face. “Dang, Beth. Not again.”

  Arlo sniffed at the tiny green circle next to him, then slurped it up with his long pink tongue. Beth shrieked, “Arlo, no!” The dog got up and ran to the kitchen.

  Beth stood up with her arms at her side, fists clenched, as currents of rage flowed through her body. She willed herself not to scream and took a deep breath instead. “Do you have any idea how expensive those things are?”

  Drew looked up at her. “No. But you have glasses.”

  “I hate my glasses! They look terrible on me and they hurt if I have to wear them all day.”

  Moving Dixie aside, Drew stood up and put his arms around Beth. “You know how Arlo gets about stressful situations. If you don’t go apologize to that animal, he’s gonna go crap in your shoes again.”

  Beth relaxed against him and put her head on his shoulder, giggling helplessly. “Oh nooo…not crap in my shoes. Maybe I’ll find my contact lens in there.”

  “Well, just so you know, I am not helping you look for it this time. I mean it. I’m not kidding. No way.”

  Beth took another deep breath, rested her hands on Drew’s shoulders, and kissed him. “Perhaps I’ll just wear my glasses for a while.”

  The next morning, Beth stretched over Drew to reach her glasses on the nightstand. He grabbed her around the waist. “Careful with that knee, missy, or there aren’t going to be any more trips down Boardwalk or Park Place for you in the future.”

  She put on her glasses and rested her forearms on his chest, looking down into his face. “I’m so happy I don’t have to go to the store today. One entire, glorious day off.”

  He ran his fingertips through the hair at her temple. “It’s supposed to be a day of rest. Why are you waking me up at the butt-crack of dawn?”

  “The sun woke me up. Look out the window. There is sunlight! We should go somewhere. I haven’t gone anywhere except the store since I’ve been here.”

  “We could go down to the lakeshore trail. It’s probably cleared off by now. We could look at the water. Dixie would probably love it.”

  Beth patted his chest excitedly. “Yes, let’s do that! I haven’t been there in years.”

  “I think we should wait until it warms up some.” He carefully pulled her glasses off and laid them back on the nightstand. “And right now, I can think of other things I’d like to do that don’t involve going outside into the cold.”

  Beth moved to meet his kiss. “Yes, I do see the merits of body heat.”

  Later that afternoon, they were slowly strolling along a trail that wound alongside the lake. Arlo was plodding along, methodically checking each tree and shrub, while Dixie was excitedly darting ahead and running back when she reached the end of her leash. Beth looked at Drew. “Your dog is behaving like a yo-yo.”

  “Yeah, she’s gonna gas out here if she keeps doing that. I think Arlo’s dawdling is boring her.”

  “Let’s go sit on that bench for a minute. Arlo is getting so slow, I think he might need to rest. I want to absorb some Vitamin D and talk to you about the scene I read last night.”

  He s
ighed. “I’m not gonna like this, am I?”

  “Probably not. But you just can’t leave it like it is. What did your editor say?”

  “I think you’re ahead of her on reading this thing now. She’s got a whole lot of books she’s working on, not just mine. Given your response, I’m not looking forward to the next e-mail from her.”

  Beth looped Arlo’s leash over her arm and leaned back on the bench in an effort to soak up the maximum amount of sunlight from the weak rays filtering through the trees. “After five books, I’ve grown attached to the character of Liz. Plus, she reminds me of me.”

  Drew lifted Dixie onto his lap. “Ya think?”

  “Well, except that she’s much prettier than I am and she doesn’t exhibit a number of my less-endearing qualities, such as awkwardness in social situations.”

  “She doesn’t sound like a dictionary when she’s pissed-off, either. My vocabulary isn’t that large.”

  Beth turned to look at his face. “Oh please. If that were true, you would never understand what I’m saying and it’s quite apparent that you always do, even when other people don’t. Returning to my point, that was a horrible thing to do to poor Liz, and your readers will not be pleased.”

  “What do you suggest? Everybody lives happily ever after? It’s not a romance novel, Beth.”

  “I’m not sure. I need to think about it. But I’m sure there has to be a way to rework the plot a bit so that Liz doesn’t have to meet such a horrific end. Aside from making readers like me burst into tears, it also precludes any possibility of a follow-on book.”