“A problem with the surgery?”
Serena knew Jenna was feigning interest. Her friend found Mack intimidating and scary. Jenna was much happier with the smaller dogs. Trouble was, Mack liked her. Or rather he liked the dog treats she kept in her pockets as samples for clients. Serena had told Jenna over and over that Mack’s interest in her was motivated purely by greed, not any desire to knock her over with his enormous paws and big, strong head. Jenna remained unconvinced.
Serena couldn’t really blame her friend. It was a fact that shelters found it difficult to get black dogs and black cats adopted. Mack was huge and mainly black and some people would never like him because of that. Which made Serena all the more grateful to Nick for giving Mack a home.
“No, the surgery seems fine,” she said. “No infection. No swelling. Not that I can see anyway. He’s keeping his meds down. It’s odd.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t know if I should feel offended or not that you haven’t stopped yawning since you said good morning.”
“Ohmigod, I’m so sorry. I’m just so tired. Mack moaned and whimpered every time I left his sight. That set Snowball off then, all edgy and yappy. I had Bessie with me as well. Thankfully, she’s so sweet she’s no trouble at all.” Serena yawned again just at the thought of it and quickly covered her mouth with her hand.
“Maybe you’d better get Mack to the vet in case there’s something wrong.”
“Lydia is going to do a house call this afternoon; thank heaven she was available.”
“Better protect your boyfriend’s investment.” Jenna munched her bagel.
“Investment?” Serena frowned. “That’s a funny way to put it. And by the way he’s not my boyfriend.”
Serena didn’t want to jinx anything by referring to Nick as her boyfriend when they hadn’t even gone on a date. Then there was the fact that she tended to feel trapped when people started putting labels on her relationships.
Jenna shrugged. “Kylie reckons he virtually admitted to her he offered to pay for Mack’s surgery as an excuse to see you.”
“Oh. Well.” Serena couldn’t help flushing. “If that’s true, it’s kind of sweet, isn’t it?”
“Come on, Serena. It’s obvious he’s head over heels for you. Just like a long line of guys before him.”
Serena looked around at the other tables to make sure no one had heard her friend’s thoughtless remark. “Jenna, that makes me sound like some kind of . . . of . . . well, you know,” she said in a hushed voice.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that. It’s just this guy’s interest is so obvious to everyone but you.”
Serena pulled a face. “Remember high school? I couldn’t even get a date for prom.”
“Until you grew boobs and ditched the braces. Then the boys came running. That was even before your nose job.”
Serena’s hand went automatically to her neat, straight nose. “Hey, it was a deviated septum, remember. That they got rid of that bump at the same time was just a bonus.”
Jenna snorted. “Yeah. Right. That you’d had your nose fixed was the first thing I noticed about you when we met up again after all those years.”
Serena took a deep breath. “I know you think we should all be as nature intended, but I hated my nose and I’m glad I had it done. It photographed badly, too. I would never have got any modeling work with my old nose.”
Serena wasn’t sure she was that comfortable about where this conversation was going. It wasn’t the first time they’d had it. Sometimes she wondered why she persevered with Jenna. Maddy often asked her the same thing. But she always came back to the same point. Jenna had known her before the whole girl-in-a-bath-of-chocolate thing. Knew her as just plain Serena Oakley long before she’d made her name as Serena St. James. It was a link she valued.
Luckily, Jenna seemed determined to defuse things. “Would you believe I’m coming around to the idea of giving nature a helping hand sometimes? What’s the difference between fixing your nose and dyeing your hair?” She leaned over the table. “I’ve had some streaks done. Notice? A hair-coloring virgin no more.”
Serena looked closely. Sure enough, her friend’s hair that had been the same soft, pretty brown since high school was now artfully streaked with expensive, wheat-toned highlights. If she hadn’t been in such a funk about the identity fraud and worrying about how she was going to tell Jenna about Tony, she would have noticed straight away.
“It looks amazing,” she said. “Wow! After all this time you’ve taken the plunge. I can’t believe it.” Serena herself had started experimenting with her hair color as soon as she’d been able to afford to buy a home coloring kit. She’d done streaks, gone red, gone blond, even a purple streak at one stage. Now she’d settled on her own color as the one that best suited her.
“You like it? Tony paid for it. He wants me to go blond, but I thought I’d take it a step at a time.”
Serena’s heart sank somewhere below the level of the cafe’s floorboards. If Jenna thought she’d be impressed by Tony’s generosity, she was way off the mark. She noticed Jenna was wearing another new outfit, rather flashier than she usually chose. Tony’s taste again?
“That was nice of him,” she said in as neutral a voice as she could muster. “Uh, how are things going?”
Jenna’s eyes shone. “With Tony? Perfect. He is so great, I can’t believe it.”
“I’m so glad for you.” It was difficult for Serena to force enthusiasm.
“He’s the one, Serena. This time I think I’ve finally got it right.” Serena swallowed a retort. How could she burst her friend’s bubble?
“Are you enjoying the new apartment?”
Jenna shrugged. “It’s okay. A touch on the small side. But it’s a start. Tony is very happy there.”
“I wondered about the kitchen.”
Jenna frowned. “What’s wrong with the kitchen?”
“Nothing. I just thought it seemed small to be doing all your baking.”
Jenna’s frown lifted. “It’s fine. You just have to be organized.”
“That’s good to hear. I’m glad it’s worked out.”
“The apartment’s fine for now. Who knows? We might need something bigger before too long.”
Serena froze with a spoonful of granola halfway to her mouth. “Jenna. You’re not—”
Jenna smiled. “Not yet. As you know, I’ve never been that excited about the whole baby thing. But Tony wants a son . . .”
And if Tony wanted a son, Jenna would darn well give him one if it meant hanging on to him.
“That . . . that’s a surprise.”
Jenna’s face tightened. “That a man wants to have a child with me?”
When would she learn how easily Jenna took offense? “That’s not what I meant. Of course it isn’t. I was just . . . surprised. You haven’t known Tony that long and—”
Jenna pushed her empty coffee cup away from her across the table. “You don’t like Tony, do you?”
“No. I mean yes. Of course I like him. He’s very handsome and—”
“Don’t lie, Serena.You’ve never liked my boyfriends. And I don’t care for yours. I never thought much of Dave and I made no bones about it at the time.”
“No. You didn’t. And you were proved right, of course.”
How could she let her know about Tony without revealing just how she had discovered his criminal record?
“I don’t know Nick yet so I’m keeping an open mind about him,” said Jenna. “He seems okay. Maybe we can double date or something sometime.”
“Uh, yeah, that would be fun.”
Not.
Jenna looked down at her watch. “Look, hon. It’s been great to catch up but time’s up. The doggy cafe down the road has run right out of carob cookies and they’re waiting on a delivery.”
Serena’s heart thudded. It would be easy to say good-bye without saying anything, but she could not let her friend go without warning her that she might be in danger. Nick had said Tony’s r
ecord included convictions for assault.
She put her hand on Jenna’s arm. “Jenna, before you go. I have to ask you something. How . . . how well do you know Tony? I mean, if you’re planning on having a child with him. I’m just wondering . . .”
How else could she say this without revealing Nick’s part in an investigation that was totally secret?
Jenna’s eyes narrowed. “Have you been Googling Tony or something?”
“No. I just, well, you haven’t known him for that long and . . .”
“You’ve never been a good liar, Serena. Even when we were kids.” She lowered her voice so Serena had to lean closer over the table to hear her. “Tony told me all about his time in jail not long after I met him.”
Serena nearly spluttered into her coffee. “You . . . you know?”
“Yes, I know all about it. I love and admire him all the more for him wanting to overcome his past.”
Criminal trespass. Assault. Trafficking stolen property.
Had Tony confessed to all of that?
“Th-that’s very . . . admirable of you,” Serena stuttered.
“There’s nothing admirable about it. He’s done some bad things, I grant you, but he’s paid his debt to society. I love him and I accept him the way he is. I met him on campus, you know. He’s gone back to school, doing everything he can to make a new start.”
Jenna was always like this at the start of a relationship. Infatuated and totally blind to any flaws in her lover. But she’d been with Tony for nearly a year. Perhaps this was the real thing for her.
Maybe Serena was wrong about Tony. Maybe she should share in her friend’s joy. Make happy noises for her. But the fact remained: nothing Jenna said could make Serena like Tony. Even before she’d learned about his past, Tony gave her the creeps.
“What about his new job?” she asked. “Uh, what exactly is his new job?”
“Sales. He can fit his studies around it.”
“Does his employer know about . . . about . . . ?”
“His new employer knows everything about his past and is prepared to trust him and give him a break.”
“Okay . . .” Serena honestly did not know what more to say.
Jenna took some bills out of her purse and laid them down on the table. “Serena, I know you’re concerned about me and I appreciate it. But I love Tony, and you’d better get used to him being in my life.”
The “or else” hung unspoken in the air between them.
Fond as she was of Jenna, Serena doubted that their friendship would survive if Jenna stayed with Tony. But that could very well be a moot point. The more she heard about Tony, the more convinced she was that he could be the Paws-A-While link to the identity frauds. If she was proved correct, then when it all blew up she would be around for Jenna to help pick up the pieces.
“Are you still coming around for the inaugural Paws-A-While Halloween party?” Serena asked.
“You betcha.” Jenna grinned. “Tony has picked me out a really good costume. And he looks hunky as hell in his.”
Serena bit back a retort. “I’m sure he does. I’m looking forward to seeing you in yours.”
They both stood up from the table, and Serena hugged Jenna. She pulled back from her friend so she could look her directly in the face. “I know you don’t want to hear this, Jenna, but be careful.”
A look flashed across her friend’s eyes that Serena could not interpret. But her first thought was that Jenna wasn’t as free of doubt about Tony as she said. Serena hugged her friend again.
She had never been able to understand how a woman as smart as Jenna could stay with a man who hurt her. She hoped against hope that her friend hadn’t got herself in above her head with Tony Cross. But she’d done her best to try to protect her.
As she walked back to Paws-A-While she found herself longing for Nick’s return. Her boyfriend.
Maybe that was a label she could get used to.
Nineteen
It was nearly lunchtime and Serena was grooming one of her favorite Paws-A-While dogs, the darling old golden Labrador Freya, when her cell phone rang.
Her heart did that skip-a-beat thing when caller ID showed Nick’s name. She realized that she hadn’t heard his voice on the phone since the day he first called to book Bessie into day care.Those gravelly tones seemed to hum testosterone down the phone lines.
“Hey, I was getting worried I hadn’t heard from you,” she said. “How’s it going in San Diego?”
“I’m not in San Diego anymore. Now I’m in Carmel. Adam and I got an early flight and drove straight here from the airport.”
Serena was so shocked she nearly dropped the phone. “Carmel? What the heck—?” She completely forgot that she wanted to tell him about her breakfast with Jenna.
“Eric Kessler is not our guy,” Nick said bluntly.
Serena felt a plummeting pang of disappointment. She hadn’t realized just how much she was counting on Nick coming back with the identity fraud solved. “But Eric Kessler put that black collar on Mack. He was spying on us.” She kept her voice very low, aware that it could carry to the next cubicle where Heather was grooming another dog.
“He claims his ex-wife put the collar on Mack and he knows nothing whatsoever about any camera.”
“And you believed him?” Freya made a whimper of protest that Serena had stopped brushing her so Serena switched the cell phone to her left hand and used her right hand to brush the Lab with a special, soft-bristled brush. Freya was so frail that Serena had to be extra gentle over the bumps and ridges of her bones.
“Yeah. I did. He’s not a nice guy but he wasn’t lying. He seemed to think it was hilarious his wife had put a spy cam on his dog.”
“If she did. Did he say why he never came back for Mack?”
Nick was silent. Serena could hear him take a short, deep breath.
“He told me Mack was his wife’s dog. They’d adopted him together, but as far as he was concerned, Mack belonged to Claire Kessler.”
“That makes sense,” said Serena. “Remember I told you how I thought he must have been owned by a woman the way he acts like such a baby with me?”
“Yeah, the big galoot,” said Nick. His voice was underscored with a real affection for the dog that warmed Serena’s heart.
“But it doesn’t make sense that a woman Mack loved that much doesn’t have her dog with her. She must be heartbroken.”
“Kessler paints the ex-wife in a pretty bad light. Says she took off to live in Carmel, abandoning both him and Mack.”
Once more Serena strained to remember her impressions of Eric Kessler. He’d seemed a pleasant enough kind of guy but so ordinary he’d scarcely registered. “Okay, so they split. That doesn’t explain why he didn’t come back for his dog.”
“Kessler told me he put Mack in Paws-A-While and then told his ex where to go to get her dog. He said he paid a week up front.”
“True. He did. But I’ll swear he never said anything about going to live in San Diego. Or that he had a wife.”
“According to him, he told his wife he couldn’t take Mack to San Diego and she had to come get him and take him to wherever she was living.”
“But she never showed . . .”
“And he never checked to see if she did?”
“I definitely never heard from him again.” Serena paused. “Mack was loved by a woman. Maybe that woman. I find it hard to comprehend she could do that to him.”
“It looks that way. According to Kessler.”
Serena could not help the catch in her voice. “So if he’s to be believed, Mack was abandoned by both of them, the poor baby.”
She was so overcome with sadness on Mack’s behalf, she brushed Freya around her face and behind her ears with extra special attention. The elderly Lab stayed very still, and the expression in her milky old eyes was one of bliss.
“You are the best, best girl,” Serena crooned.
“Did you just call me the best girl?” Nick’s gravelly voic
e, warm with amusement, came through her cell.
“Of course not. You know you’re the best boy,” she murmured back. My God, could there ever be a more masculine guy? Little shivers of awareness ran through her, fired just by the sound of his voice. “I’m grooming Freya.”
As she held the phone with one hand and brushed Freya with the other, Serena thought about how loved Freya was by her guardians, Joe and Rosemary. Though it obviously went against the grain for them to accept charity from her, they’d swallowed their pride so their beloved dog got the best care. Whereas poor darling Mack had been abandoned by both his awful owners. And before that by some other unknown jerk, which was why he’d ended up at the shelter where the Kesslers found him.
Mack would never, ever be abandoned again. Not while she had breath in her body—and she felt sure Nick felt the same. She wished she had the resources to help all abandoned dogs. When Paws-A-While was in the black, she vowed to give a good percentage of her profits to animal rescue.
“How is the poor old girl?” asked Nick.
“She’s not a poor old girl; she’s a lucky old girl,” said Serena, giving the Lab a final brushing. The last stage of Freya’s grooming was a wipe-down with a slightly damp cloth and she couldn’t easily do that with one hand.
“Can you please hold for a moment, Nick?” she said. She quickly found Heather and asked her to take over Freya for her.
She scratched behind Freya’s ears, then took her cell to her office and closed the door. Now she felt she could talk to Nick more freely without worrying about being overheard.
“So if Eric Kessler denies knowing anything about the spy camera and says his wife must have put it there, where does that put us? If she didn’t know Eric had booked Mack into Paws-A-While, then the camera might have nothing whatsoever to do with the identity fraud.”
“Unless they’re working together on a scam. That’s a real possibility. I believed him when he said he didn’t put the collar on Mack; that doesn’t mean he didn’t know his ex did. That’s what I’m in Carmel to find out.”
Serena knuckled her hand and brought it to her mouth. “Nick, be careful.”
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