by Judy Baer
“He just doesn’t know you, buddy, that’s all. You shouldn’t have growled at him even if you were scared. You’ll charm him, won’t you?”
The dog looked at me as if I were speaking a foreign language to him, which, of course I was.
When I got to the store the next morning, Annie was already there and fuming.
“Did you see Nick outside? Is he coming?”
“No. Is he supposed to?” He was the last person I needed to see right now. All night I’d dreamed that Nick was stealing Bentley from my apartment and I was chasing him, trying to discover where he was taking my dog.
“I called him.” Annie held up a piece of broken glass. “Someone tried to break into the shop last night and I’ve got a hunch who it might be.”
Before I had time to process that, the bell on the door rang and we looked up to see Nick standing in the doorway. His eyes darted from side to side and I recognized the behavior. It was how he’d always come into the shop, glancing at the kennels at the front of the store to see what they held. How had I missed it before now?
But I didn’t have time for self-recrimination because Annie bolted past me waving the glass at Nick. He stood his ground as if crazed women with shards of glass attacked him daily. And yet he’d panicked at the sight of Bentley?
“It’s that kid at the Toy Shop,” Annie said flatly. “I’ve seen him snooping around here with his scuzzy-looking friends. He stops in sometimes and talks to Winky. I’d bet money that he was trying to steal him.”
Break windows? Steal Winky?
“Annie, those are pretty strong words.”
“He never comes in when you’re here, Norah. I think he watches to make sure you’re gone. Who else could it be?”
“Any number of people.”
“And who of ‘any number of people’ would leave this?” She pointed to the floor by the back door where a familiar leather wristband lay.
“Bryce?”
“His name is on it. Tell me that’s a coincidence.”
“Did you touch anything other than that glass?” Nick asked.
“No. Just the telephone, to call you.”
“I’m going to get somebody in to see if we can pick up fingerprints.”
I grabbed Annie by the arm. “Let’s get out of here and let him work.” It was a relief to get away from him to regroup. I felt uncomfortable in Nick’s presence after last night. Surely it was all a misunderstanding.
Annie and I walked dazedly across the street and settled on the patio at the Java Jockey so we could watch the comings and goings at my store. Neither of us bothered to get coffee, so Joe and Lilly were surprised to see us when they came out of the building.
“What are you doing here?” Lilly asked, as if I were trespassing on Joe’s property.
Apparently I wasn’t even welcome to breathe Pond Street air anymore.
Fortunately Annie had no such sentiment. “Somebody broke into Norah’s store and I think I have an idea who it is. They broke the window in the back door…”
I let Annie have the floor. I didn’t want to talk. I doubt that if I were a camel, I’d be able to take one more straw before this spine of mine fractured. I saw shock and sympathy grow in Joe’s and Lilly’s eyes, but it changed nothing. Too many weird things had happened in the last few days. Even God, who I know is out there, has been silent.
Joe and Lilly were concerned and considerate but as helpless as Annie and me. The one thing that would have helped didn’t happen. Lilly didn’t tell me she no longer blamed me for her problems with Connor. That would cure a basketful of ills. If Lilly understood that I hadn’t gone after Connor and if Nick liked dogs, life would be good….
Nick and dogs…. No one reacts to Bentley like that! It’s like having a fear of powder puffs or feather pillows. But Nick had made it very clear that he disliked my dog. Unfortunately I can’t make Nick like Bentley any more than I can force Connor to fall in love with Lilly.
Nick finally came to talk to us.
“What did you find?” Joe asked.
“Not much. It’s strange. There’s not a fingerprint anywhere, not even Norah’s or Annie’s. Wiped clean.” Nick frowned. “I think you all should start taking extra precautions until we find who’s doing this.”
“Talk to that weird kid at the Toy Shop,” Annie grumbled. “Norah, you need to take Winky home with you until this is settled.”
Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse I had to adopt Winky as a roommate? I almost started a pity party right there in the street.
“And that boy hangs out at Auntie Lou’s Antiques. She lets him play the pinball machine,” Annie continued. “We should warn her, too.”
“Auntie Lou! Has anyone talked to her today?”
We began to stand, but Nick held up a hand. “Let me check on her.”
“I have her spare key,” I offered, holding up my key ring.
“Then you come with me. If someone’s been around her place, we don’t need any more people tramping around.”
I was on my feet in a heartbeat.
She hadn’t opened the front door of the shop. That isn’t so unusual as to be worrisome, but I would rather have seen her in the back, puttering with the china or sitting in her rocker stroking Silas.
Nick strode around to the back of the shop. I found him there standing with his hands on his hips, staring at the disarray before him.
Every bit of garbage had been pulled out of the Dumpster and strewn around. Two galvanized tin trash cans had been stomped on until they were nearly flat and a garden hose was looped over the edge of the Dumpster where it had been left to run, making the ground behind the store a sodden mess.
“You’d better go around to the front. I’ll get the guys to see if they can pick up any prints, but I doubt it will happen. Whoever is out causing mayhem doesn’t want to be caught.”
I opened the front door and made my way through the gloomy collection of old furniture and books to the stairs to Lou’s apartment.
“Auntie Lou? It’s Norah. I’m coming up.”
Nick caught up with me as I reached the bedroom. I rapped on the door and heard a faint “come in.”
“Hi, I’m sorry to barge in on you like this…Auntie Lou?”
She’d tried to get up. That was apparent by the tangle of blankets around her legs. Her alarm clock was on the floor, along with a now-empty glass of water. I hurried to her side.
“I can’t believe this,” she muttered, sounding irate and anxious at the same time. “My legs aren’t working properly. I should have stayed off that ladder yesterday.”
I started to help her up but Nick stopped me. “Leave her, Norah. I’ll call an ambulance.”
“No need for an ambulance, young man. You just put that phone down.”
He smiled at her with a gentle amusement. “Are you sure? Really sure?”
To my amazement, Auntie Lou backed down. “You’re a silly boy even if you are a policeman. Go ahead, call. You’ll see that I’m just fine.”
“Thank you.” And Nick began to dial.
“How did you do that?” I whispered as we waited for help to come. Auntie Lou did look terrible, but probably nothing that teeth, a wig and makeup wouldn’t cure.
“Years of practice and irresistible charm.”
“Of course, how could I miss it?” I know I have a hard time resisting him.
Within minutes paramedics were making their way up the stairs and set about moving Lou gently from bed to gurney. As they rolled her toward the door, she waggled a finger at me. “Take care of Silas and the shop. I won’t be gone long and this smarty-pants young man will see he’s not as clever as he thinks he is.”
Then she shook that same finger at Nick as they moved her through the door and toward the stairs. “Then you can quit worrying about me so much.”
“What did she mean?” I asked after the ambulance had pulled away.
“Oh, nothing,” he said with a chuckle. “Although yesterday she did threa
ten to have a restraining order put on me if I didn’t quit coming into the shop to check on her.”
“You’ve been doing that?”
“I try to stop by during the day. I didn’t like that fall of hers in the back room and I want to make sure she doesn’t take a tumble like that again. I know you check on her, but I thought another pair of eyes couldn’t hurt.”
“That’s very sweet of you.” Very sweet. I even felt a little choked up to think that this man, new in town and a complete stranger, was watching out for Lou. Maybe it was my fragile emotional state, but it touched me so much that I wanted to cry.
Of course, everything makes me cry—the trouble with Lilly and Connor, the hurt looks Joe has been giving me, Nick’s reaction to Bentley and now Auntie Lou. I feel like pulling a shade down over my face and hanging an Out To Lunch sign on my forehead. Anything to get away and think things through.
“Maybe I should follow Lou and see what’s up,” I suggested. “Annie can watch the store and I’ll give Lou a ride home when the doctors prove that you had nothing to worry about.”
“Fine. I’ll finish downstairs. Want to meet later today and fill me in?”
I almost suggested we meet at my house. A little time with Bentley would change his mind about everything, but the words out of my mouth were, “I’ll stop by your place about six.”
“Burgers okay?” he asked, assuming I’d stay for dinner.
“I’ll bring chips.”
And that, I realized later, was a date. Apparently Nick thinks that liking me and hating my dog are two mutually exclusive sentiments. Little does he know….
By the time I got back to Nick’s, I was so tired I could barely hold the sweating glass of lemonade he handed me.
“Long afternoon?”
“You have no idea. At the rate it took us to get to a doctor, do the necessary tests, consult with him, determine that Auntie Lou had to go back into the hospital and then convince her that she needed to be there…I love her, Nick, but Auntie Lou can try one’s soul.”
“I can imagine.”
“Dr. Andrews didn’t have much to say because the tests won’t be back until tomorrow, but he looked very serious.”
“And Lou?”
“Frankly, I thought she’d be more resistant. I think she’s scared.”
“And that makes you scared.”
“Yes, it does. What if…”
“No need to go there,” Nick said calmly. “The burgers are just about done. Want one?”
“I forgot the chips. I’m sorry. There was so much happening…”
“I figured you would, so I bought some. Sorry about the salads and baked beans but I bought them, too. Not enough time to make it all from scratch.”
My life was falling apart and he was worrying about baked beans? I opened my mouth to say something and then shut it again. I’d told Nick about the rift between Lilly and me but he didn’t realize how hurt Joe had been by my going on the boat with Connor. He didn’t know that I’d promised to help Auntie Lou stay in her home as long as possible or that I was going to have to bring a trash-talking bird home to live with me. And then there was the Bentley thing. He had no idea how last night had shaken me.
I looked up to see him standing before me with burgers in one hand and the offending store-bought beans in the other.
Nick, you’ll make someone a perfect husband.
I quickly reached for a burger to hide my distress.
That’s a dangerous thought considering Nick’s reaction to Bentley.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“What’s wrong, Norah?” Nick put his finger beneath my chin and lifted it gently. I thought of resisting, but I had to look at him sometime. It might as well be now.
“You’ve been staring out my window for twenty minutes.”
“Nice garden.” And it is. Nick’s no slouch in that department, either. It also explains his calloused hands. He’s been wielding a rake and a hoe.
“Not that nice. What’s going on?”
“Nick.” I mustered up my nerve. “What happened last night?”
“The business with Auntie Lou, you mean?”
“Not that. Later. With my dog.”
He grew deathly still. “I didn’t know you had a dog, that’s all.” He looked down at the floor. “I don’t like dogs.”
No kidding.
“You said he should be put down, that he was growling and aggressive.”
“I wouldn’t have an animal like that in the house.”
“An animal ‘like that’? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Dogs can be dangerous, Norah. You don’t want to endanger yourself or your visitors.”
“‘Endanger?’ Bentley? Nick, the only thing in danger from Bentley is his dinner! I’ve got a rabbit with more aggression than Bentley.”
He had a very stubborn set to his finely shaped jaw. “I don’t agree with you.”
“Well, that’s too bad, because you don’t know my dog. He’s the sweetest, most gentle, lovable animal on the planet.”
“He growled at me. I don’t call that lovable.”
“You scared him!”
“I pointed a finger at him.”
“Exactly. Bentley was abused. We are working through that. When a man, any man, raises a finger to him, he becomes terrified.”
“And growls.”
“It’s his way of showing fear.”
“The dog is part pit bull, Norah. Do you know…”
“I know the vet says he’s Staffordshire terrier, beagle and a half dozen other things.”
“You aren’t being reasonable about this,” Nick said with studied patience, the patronizing kind of patience that makes my skin crawl.
“Me? Not being reasonable? You came into my house, upset my dog and then said he should be destroyed. Nick, no one has ever insulted me so deeply.”
Not even Lilly, but I didn’t say that out loud. It wasn’t until I’d started to express my frustration and upset with Nick that I realized how deep it went. “How could you?” I wanted to scream. Instead I did the adult thing—I crossed my arms over my chest and pouted.
“I don’t want you hurt by that dog.”
“You be careful, Nick. The only way I’ll be hurt is if you keep threatening Bentley. I love him. He’s one of my best friends.” My only friend at the moment.
“Norah…”
“Thanks for dinner, Nick. And for help with Auntie Lou. I need to go now.”
“Will you come back?”
“Not until you come to my house and get to know how loving and gentle my dog is.”
His face hardened and for a moment he looked as though he’d been chiseled in granite. “That won’t be for a long time.”
We stood in a tense face-off. Finally, I turned and walked to the door. “Well, it’s been nice knowing you, Nick. Have a nice life.”
My knees shook all the way home and as soon as I got inside my front door I broke down in hysterical sobbing. Have a nice life? Did anyone ever really say that? What had made it come out of my mouth?
Bentley, of course. And there he stood. I knew he’d been waiting for me all evening, probably in that very position, with my bunny slippers in his mouth. I picked him up and held him like a baby and he sighed and rested his head against my chest.
“I can’t believe this is happening to me, Bent. Me! Norah the diplomat, out to please the world. And now I have to choose between a man and a dog?”
Just as it occurred to me I might need to have my head examined, Bentley reached up with his tongue and began to gently lick away the tears streaming down my cheeks and collecting along my jawline.
Dog. I am definitely choosing the dog.
Lilly’s curiosity outweighed her annoyance with me Wednesday morning as Joe and I sat on the terrace discussing Auntie Lou. It didn’t hurt, either, that Connor was in the Java Jockey getting coffee. Nick, who watched me like I was a time bomb set to go off, also joined us even though I tried to give him a d
aggered look and scare him away. I’m not even sure what a daggered look is. My eyes are probably throwing penknives.
To appear uninterested in Nick’s presence, I picked up the newspaper and began to skim the headlines. Nothing I read connected with my brain until my eyes fell on a unique but familiar name in the obituaries—Mazie Henderson. I skimmed the obit to find my fear confirmed. It was indeed Lou’s friend who had passed away. An unexpected wash of sadness sluiced over me. It could easily have been Lou’s obituary I was reading.
“How long will she be in the hospital?” Joe inquired.
“I don’t know, but Dr. Andrews will probably tell us something today,” I responded absently.
“Us?” Lilly said.
“Auntie Lou has asked me to be with her. She doesn’t have any family, you know, so she really needs someone.”
“She sure does,” Connor chimed in, even though he barely knows Lou. “Good thing there are a lot of nice nursing homes in the area. Too bad, though. She runs a great antique shop. Shoreside will miss her.”
“She’s not going anywhere! Not if I can help it,” I blurted, surprising everyone, including myself. Mazie’s obituary burned in my brain. “You’re all talking like she’s practically dead.”
“Isn’t she?” Joe said.
This time I did feel daggers shooting from my eyes as I stared at Joe.
“Not like that, Norah, but how can she work? She lives alone above the store. If she can’t lift, do stairs or take care of her personal needs, I don’t see how she can…”
“You don’t know anything about it,” I said stubbornly. “I’m the one who has been at the hospital with her.” They all stared at me as if I’d slipped a cog. “Well, I have.”
“We don’t doubt that, Norah,” Joe said gently. “We’re just being realistic. Lou’s got to be eighty years old, at least. She’s been running a business on Pond Street for more than fifty years. If she can’t work, the store will either have to close or be sold. If she’s not well, no one expects her to go up and down stairs. What else should we think?”