Howl at the Loon (An Alpine Grove Romantic Comedy Book 6)

by Susan C. Daffron

  Someone walking by bumped into them and grumbled a half-hearted “sorry.” With a giggle, Robin looked down. Leroy’s large furry body was creating a serious impediment to pedestrian traffic. She took Alec’s hand again. “I missed you too. But maybe we should get out of the way and go have lunch.”

  He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. “Let’s go.”

  At the cafe, any residual awkwardness from work evaporated and Alec’s sense of humor returned. Robin laughed at his stories about his drive back to Portland from Alpine Grove. He’d stayed with his brother in San Francisco and poor Leroy didn’t know what to make of the crowds and noise from unfamiliar things like cable cars. Alec stroked the dog’s head. “This guy has had a lot to deal with over the last couple weeks, but he’s doing really well.”

  Robin smiled. “That’s because he loves you. It’s so sweet. Dogs are wonderful that way. No matter how awful your day is, when you come home, they are thrilled to see you.”

  Alec looked down at Leroy. “I think the only bad thing is that witnessing all that joy makes you realize you can’t remember the last time you actually experienced that kind of joy yourself.” He looked at Robin. “Even though doing the training was a pain, I liked Alpine Grove, and even the broken-down lodge. It was nice just fixing things, walking the dog, looking at the lake. I haven’t felt that good in a long, long time.”

  “It sounds like you seriously need a vacation.” Robin nibbled on a potato chip. “But I know what you mean. Driving home, I had a lot of time to think. Am I truly going to spend the rest of my life putting numbers into spreadsheets? Is that what my life is going to be about? Eight hours a day, five days a week? How pathetic is that? But at this point, it’s the only thing anyone will hire me to do. It’s sad to think that this is my so-called career.”

  Alec put his hand over hers on the table. “You could do something else if you wanted to. There are lots of other things you could do. You were amazing at the retreat. Even Darrell thought so. You found people to clean that place, which was a miracle in itself. And somehow you even managed to get me to pay for it. Then you kept everyone happy and fed without any help from the slightly strange absentee owner.”

  She grinned. “Thank your lucky stars Chuck and the roadies showed up, or we all would have starved to death. It’s also a good thing you brought your dad’s tools.”

  “I think you’re underestimating what it takes to operate a lodge like that. It’s difficult for most people to deal with that many people and details every day. You could run a hotel or a bed and breakfast.”

  “It’s no big deal. I make a lot of lists. And it doesn’t matter, because no one would hire me. All anyone looks at is my past experience and the software programs I know how to use.”

  He squeezed her hand. “Don’t sell yourself short.”

  Robin shrugged. He probably had no idea what it was like out there in the cold, unforgiving world of employment-seeking. When was the last time Alec had even looked for a job? She was pretty sure things were different over there in the executive suite.

  Alec glanced at his watch and waved for the check. “We need to get back. I have a meeting later.”

  On the way back to Alec’s condo, they held hands as they navigated the crowds on the sidewalk. Leroy led the way as if he knew where he was going.

  At the condo, Robin waited in the hallway while Alec settled Leroy in with a toy filled with peanut butter. Once the dog was contentedly chewing, Alec walked toward Robin. Her heart rate increased again as he approached. Placing his hands on either side of her neck, he bent to kiss her. Something about the way he moved his lips was crazily sensual. The kiss was overwhelming and exciting to the point that her knees went weak. Who knew that was a real thing? Falling down in a heap right there in front of the door might be embarrassing, but it would totally be worth it. By the time Alec released her, they both were breathing heavily. Robin gulped. “Jiminy crickets. My lunch breaks aren’t usually this exciting.”

  He grinned. “I know. I’m going to be so late for this budget meeting. Ralph is going to have a coronary.”

  “Ralph Andrews, the CFO?”

  “Yes. I’m not sure the man has ever laughed in his life. This is not going to be fun at all. I was supposed to review the numbers at lunch, but obviously I didn’t. We need to go.”

  They walked back to the car and Alec opened the door for her. “Even though I’d like to, I can’t ditch work like this every day. I’ve got back-to-back meetings the rest of the week. In addition to the budget meetings, one of the photographers quit and the person who was supposed to be managing the catalog photography while I was gone completely screwed it up. Sue is furious, but she’s still dealing with the copy situation, so now the photo mess is my problem.”

  Robin made a face. “That sounds like almost as much fun as my broken spreadsheet.”

  “Believe me, it’s not.” He leaned over, cupped her cheek with his hand, and looked into her eyes. “But I want to spend more time with you. I told Darrell that for a change, I am not working this weekend, no matter how far behind I am. Are you free?”

  She nodded. “Where do you want to go?”

  “There’s a street fair. You could bring Emma. Maybe we can go to a park too. I read in the paper, although people are fighting about it, that a few of the city parks are allowing dogs now.”

  “That sounds great. I think Emma misses Alpine Grove. The place she was staying had all these trails through the forest. I think she got a lot more exercise there.”

  “So did Leroy.” He smiled. “I guess I did too. And it was more fun than going to the Eagle River gym, which half the time I can’t get to anyway, because of meetings.”

  As they got closer to work, Alec became more subdued. Having a conversation in a convertible was challenging anyway, but Robin could sense his mood deteriorating. She didn’t understand it. Why did he continue to work doing a job he so obviously didn’t enjoy? Was it the money? She ran her fingertips across the soft leather interior of the Mercedes. How much money did one person need? The money from this car could pay her rent for two or three years. Maybe longer. Why didn’t he just find a new job? Of course, she was one to talk. It wasn’t like she was doing terribly well on the employment front herself, so what did she know?

  What she did know was that she liked Alec and had definite difficulties keeping her hands off him. He might be depressed about work half the time, but the other half of the time he was totally sexy. Robin smiled happily at the cityscape racing by the window. The upcoming weekend could be a lot of fun.

  The next couple of days passed at a glacial pace and Robin pondered updating her resume again. Somehow, getting away and doing something different had led her to question everything. After college, she’d coasted for years, mostly hanging out with her friends and not thinking much about work, the future, or what she was doing with her life. It just was.

  Now that most of her friends were far away and she only talked to them on the phone, it was harder to escape the fact that their lives were moving forward, while hers was not. Most of the people she had known in high school and college had careers, were getting married and having kids or traveling to amazing far-away places.

  Everyone else seemed to be creating interesting lives for themselves, while she was still cooped up in a cubicle entering numbers in spreadsheets. She had been so sure that moving to Portland would change everything. It was supposed to be such a cool, hip place to be. Certainly more interesting than Spokane, which was a utilitarian northwest city suffering from a serious inferiority complex. The reality of moving was that it hadn’t suddenly made her cool, just broke. When had she turned into such a painfully boring person?

  At least going to Alpine Grove and meeting Alec had been something different. After she returned from lunch with him, she’d been all keyed up, so she rearranged her cubicle to burn off some nervous energy and try to settle her raging hormones. Barney stopped by and asked her why she was making so much noise. She w
anted to tell him that continual humming counted as noise too, but she managed to control herself and simply said she’d try to be quieter.

  She went down to the sample room and talked the guy who worked there into giving her some posters to cover up the dreary faded cloth walls of her cubicle. Ads for pretty clothes were better than Steelcase gray. Shaking up her environment had actually helped a little. She even fixed the aggravating broken formula in her spreadsheet.

  That Friday evening, Robin spent several hours talking to her high school friend Amanda about her life as a math professor. Amanda was expecting a baby, so they chatted about everything from calculus to diapers and day care. Robin didn’t know much about math or kids so she probably wasn’t particularly helpful, but she was happy for her friend. It had been a pleasant conversation, but after Robin hung up the phone, everything in her world seemed more empty and depressing.

  Since rearranging her cubicle had improved her mood, maybe moving the furniture in her house would help shake things up even more. She looked down at Emma, who was curled up on the old rug in front of the TV, which was playing an ancient rerun of Magnum, P.I. Robin had the TV on more for background noise than anything else. Listening to Tom Selleck and Hawaiian tropical birds was better than overhearing the inane conversations of the people walking by on the street in front of her apartment.

  She put her hands on her hips and gazed at the blank white wall. There were old cans of paint in the laundry room. Although she probably wasn’t allowed to paint her apartment, what if she painted a design on a sheet and hung it on the wall? That could be interesting. It would be like a tapestry. Well, almost.

  Robin grabbed an old pizza box off the TV and walked to the kitchen to throw it away. Emma jumped up, looking interested. “Sorry Em. It’s not food. I’m redecorating. This place is a dump.”

  She moved the TV and its stand into the bedroom and shoved the old sofa around, trying to find a new spot for it in the room. Emma sat in the middle of the room, supervising the operation.

  A few hours later, Robin had the furniture in new locations, which had revealed gigantic clumps of dog hair everywhere. It wasn’t necessarily an improvement, but it was different. After sweeping up the fur, she went to the laundry room to investigate. Along with the paint, she was pleased to discover a huge piece of cardboard from an old refrigerator box leaning up against a wall.

  Robin laid out the cardboard and the sheet on the grass in the tiny fenced-in yard behind her house. Now all she needed was a design. She sat on an old chaise longue and pondered her color options. “What do you think, Em?” Apparently, all the supervision time had tired out Emma, who didn’t seem to have much input on the matter beyond wagging the tip of her tail a few times.

  The phone in her apartment rang and Robin jumped up off the chair to run inside and answer it. With a gasp, she picked up the receiver. Alec said, “Robin? Is that you?”

  “Yes. I was in the back yard trying to figure out a design.”

  “A design for what?”

  “I’m making a tapestry. Well kind of. It’s an idea. I’m not sure it’s going to work.”

  “Oh, so I guess you’re busy?”

  “Well, not that busy. I thought you had to work late every night. You said the dog walker had to do double duty.”

  “Yeah, I’m still here. Mostly I wanted to let you know that I need to go into work in the morning to get some stuff done, so I need to meet you later than we planned.”

  “Really? Yuck. I’m sorry. Go home.”

  “I know. I’m almost done. Sometimes I feel like I live here.”

  “Did you have anything to eat?”

  “No. I was going to grab some Chinese on my way home.”

  “How do you feel about art?”

  “What?”

  “If you bring me Chinese food, I’ll let you help me paint.”

  “You’ll let me? You’ve got to be kidding. This is like Huckleberry Finn, isn’t it? You’re going to get me to paint a fence or something, aren’t you?”

  “No, this is art! My walls are boring and creating art is relaxing and good for you. You’ll feel better, I promise. Leroy and Emma can hang out too. He’s probably lonely.”

  Alec laughed. “Okay, fine. I’ll bring you food and a dog.”

  “Be sure to wear old clothes.” Robin hung up, returned to the back yard and did a little dance with Emma around the sheet. “Leroy is coming over, Emma. I got you a date for the evening!” And one for herself too.

  Robin peered over the wooden fence. Alec and Leroy were walking up the sidewalk toward the front door. She yelled over the fence, telling him to come around back. He opened the creaky wooden gate and Leroy and Emma greeted each other in a flurry of wagging.

  The sheet now had a stripe of blue paint and a few blue paw prints on it. Quite a bit of the paint was also on Robin’s clothes and in her hair. Alec looked at her and grinned. “What happened?”

  “I’m calling it my blue phase. Emma and I are expressing our creativity.”

  He laughed. “If you say so. I hope that’s latex paint.”

  Robin held up her brush. “Hey, I’m not stupid.”

  Alec placed the boxes of food on the rickety metal table and sat down on the chaise. Emma and Leroy pointed their noses upward, enjoying the fragrance of oriental food, while Alec pulled apart little wooden chopsticks. “So can the artist take a dinner break?”

  Robin put down the brush and closed the paint can. “Sure. I’m starving.”

  “You’ve been suffering for your art.”

  She took a box and pointed a chopstick at him. “We artists are temperamental. It’s worse when we’re hungry.”

  “At the risk of showing my lack of artistic aesthetic, what exactly are you trying to do here?”

  Robin waved a chopstick toward the house. “I can’t paint the walls in my apartment, so I’m painting a sheet to put on the wall. Like a tapestry. It will be cool.”

  “Have you thought about buying a tapestry? Around here, there must be fifty head shops with those Indian tie-dye tapestries everyone had in college.”

  “That would be more expensive and less fun. I don’t have much money and I was thinking I need more excitement in my life since my job is so painfully dull. I rearranged my cubicle and the furniture in my apartment too.”

  “You’ve been busy.”

  Robin gobbled down some food and put down the box. “I’m trying to shake up my life a little. It’s too boring.” She went over to the cans of paint and selected a reddish color. “On that note, it’s time for a new color!”

  “Were you trying to do a stripe?” He shrugged. “I guess I’m a little confused about the overall design here.”

  “It’s abstract.”

  “That’s for sure.”

  “Everyone’s a critic.” Robin shook the brush to emphasize her point, splattering red paint on Alec’s face, his shirt, and the top of Leroy’s head. She gasped, uttered an obscene expletive and slapped her palm over her mouth.

  Alec looked momentarily shocked, then burst out laughing and pointed at her, “I’m gonna tell your momma on you! That one is absolutely on George Carlin’s list of seven dirty words. And then you even graduated to a compound word. My impression of you is completely shattered.”

  Robin grabbed a rag and tried to rub the paint off Leroy’s head, turning the paint splatters into a huge pink smear. Alec was still laughing. He leaned back on the chaise, holding his stomach, gasping for breath. Pointing at Leroy, he said, “Stop turning my dog into a flamingo!”

  Robin looked down at the spot on Leroy’s head. It seemed that white fur mixed with old red paint turned into a flamingo-like shade of pink. Leroy didn’t seem upset, but it was a little disturbing. “Oh flaming heck, Leroy, I’m so sorry. I know there are quite a few people in this neighborhood with pink hair, but I don’t think this look works for you.”

  Alec got himself under control enough to sit up. He swiped a fingertip across his cheek, removing a big blob o
f red paint, and reached over and wiped it onto Robin’s chin. He widened his eyes and said with mock sincerity. “I think this color works with the blue of your eyes and the blue of your hair.”

  Robin wiped her chin and looked at the red paint on her hand. She grinned and swiped the paintbrush across her hand. “Oh, you’ll be sorry you did that. Never mess with the artist when she’s in the throes of creativity.”

  He scrambled out of the chair and fell on the grass. “Don’t you even think about it.”

  She jumped on his back and smeared red paint on his face. “Oopsie. I spilled.”

  Rolling her over onto her back, he pinned her wrists down and looked into her eyes. He kissed her and grabbed the paintbrush out of her hand, crawling over near the sheet.

  Robin stood up and pointed down at him. “Cheater! You distracted me.”

  Alec turned and jerked the paintbrush at her, flipping a line of paint splatter down her pant leg. “Leaping lizards Annie, I believe I may have spilled too.”

  “I’m going to get you for that!” She dove for him and caught the can of red paint with her foot, knocking it over onto the sheet. He scurried backward and swiped at her with the brush, using it like a sword. “Get away from me.”

  Robin pushed the brush aside and pulled his other arm out from under him so he landed on his back with a thud. Jumping on top of him, she kissed him like she really meant it. Two could play that game. He was momentarily still, then flipped her over on her back, kissing her like he meant a whole lot more. Flinging the brush into the grass, he found other things to do with his hands, shoving them under her paint-splattered shirt.

  Emma poked her nose in Robin’s face, interrupting the action. Robin glanced up at the light shining from the windows in the house. At this point, all of her neighbors in the four-plex were getting a free show, watching her make out with Alec in a puddle of paint. Even in Portland this was taking performance art a little bit too far. She sat up and pushed Alec away.