Gary stood up and the two men shook hands.
“Well, Mr. Winters, Stan came through with flying colors. I’m sure Dawn will explain anything you need to know.”
Alex mumbled his thanks, then sat on the floor next to Stan’s cage and stroked his ears.
I was pleased to see that Stan’s breathing was even and he blinked up blearily, sighing heavily.
Alex seemed overwhelmed, almost afraid to believe that Stan would make a full recovery. His large hands were so gentle when he touched his pet. It was difficult to imagine that he would use them to hit someone. But he had, and I remembered the rage I’d seen in his face. Now he was blinking hard, and I suspected that he was fighting back strong emotion.
I touched his shoulder briefly, wanting to reassure him. His skin was sun-warmed under his t-shirt, and I withdrew my hand quickly.
“Alex, he’s fine, I promise. I wouldn’t let anything happen to Stan.”
He gave me a shaky smile that almost broke my heart, so I simply patted his arm, retreating into my professional demeanor.
As I walked away, I saw him wiping his eyes while Stan snuffled at his pocket.
“We’ll be going home soon, buddy, okay? But don’t scare me like that again, you hear me?”
His voice was clear and soft, without a suggestion of a stutter.
Stan gave up on finding any treats and settled for licking Alex’s hand and sprawling more comfortably on his borrowed quilt.
After an hour, where Alex refused to leave Stan’s side, I decided that he was well enough to be taken home.
“Scrambled eggs tonight,” I reminded him as he nodded solemnly, “then something soft and easy to digest for a few days after that. He’ll be a bit wobbly—older dogs find it harder to work off the effects of even minor operations, but he’s going to be just fine.”
I watched them leave together, Stan weaving slightly as he plodded across the parking lot, Alex watching him carefully. Then he lifted Stan into his truck and drove away slowly.
“Do you think he’s gay?” Ashley asked thoughtfully.
I was startled by the suggestion. Nothing about Alex had set off my gaydar, but I could be wrong.
“I don’t know,” I said shrugging.
“I think he is,” Ashley sighed. “What a waste. Maybe I should introduce him to my cousin in Cleveland. What do you think?”
I’d met her cousin Max. He was loud and flirty and a ton of fun. But he was also the sort of guy who’d pitch a fit at getting dog hair or drool on his pants.
Ashley saw my expression and wrinkled her nose.
“No, I guess not.”
“Oh shi—sugar lumps!”
“Mom!” Katie gasped, her eyes wide and pleased. “You were going to say a bad word!”
“I wasn’t,” I lied grumpily as I climbed out of the car.
It was two days since Stan’s surgery and I hadn’t heard a word from Alex, so I assumed Stan was doing okay.
Ashley had convinced herself that Alex’s lack of interest in her was because of his sexual orientation. I didn’t want to believe that, but didn’t say anything one way or another.
Dan had stopped by to say that he was still hearing rumors about illegal dog fighting going on in the area, and asked me to keep my eyes and ears open. He didn’t comment on his interview with Alex, and I knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t tell me even if I’d asked. He was a real straight shooter, and despite the fact that we’d grown up together and were friends, he was a police officer first and foremost.
And although my thoughts had drifted to Alex more than once, and in ways that kept me awake at night, right now, I had other, more urgent concerns.
“Oh, jeez, a flat! Just what I need,” I sighed.
It was my own fault. I knew that the tires were getting a little bald, but I’d hoped they could keep going a while longer. I didn’t have a spare $500 to replace the whole set right now. Well, that plan was nixed. Just something else I’d have to put on the credit card.
My dad had made sure I knew how to replace a tire, so I dug the jack out of the trunk and worked up a sweat getting the car in the air. Then I remembered I was supposed to loosen the lug nuts before I did that, so I put it on the ground again and found the wrench.
By now, the back of my neck was burning from the noonday sun, and I was in a foul mood. But could I move those darn lug nuts? Nope, completely locked solid.
Defeated, I pulled out my phone to call for roadside assistance. Only there was no signal. I felt like swearing, but with my daughter in the car, I had to make do with furiously kicking the sagging tire.
It was a two-mile walk into town, but with Katie, it would probably take forever, and I didn’t have water in the car.
I heard the sound of a vehicle coming up behind us, and suddenly realized how vulnerable we were out by the State Game Lands. I picked up the tire wrench and half-hid behind the car.
I nearly wept with relief when I recognized Alex’s beaten-up truck.
“Alex! Oh, thank goodness! I’ve got a flat and my cell doesn’t get a signal here . . .”
Then Katie’s head poked out of the passenger window.
“Hi, Alex. How’s Stan? Mom said he had to have a tooth out. I had to have that done once. It sucked.”
“Katie! You don’t use language like that!”
“All the kids at school say it, Mom.”
“You don’t.”
Katie rolled her eyes, and as I looked at Alex, I suspected that he was trying not to laugh.
“Mom wouldn’t let me eat candy for a week,” Katie added with a woebegone expression.
Alex smiled at her and spoke softly.
“Your mom did a great job with Stan.”
Katie rolled her eyes again. “Of course she did. My mom’s really smart.”
He chuckled quietly. The relationship between Alex and my daughter was so sweet I was almost jealous. I wished he could be that relaxed with me.
When he turned back to look at me, he was smiling broadly. Yep, jealous of my eight year-old daughter.
I blinked a couple of times then pointed at the flat tire.
“I was going to change it, but I couldn’t turn the lug nuts to get it off.”
“Mom was cussing!” added Katie in a loud whisper.
I threw Katie a mom-look that silenced her.
Alex picked up the tire iron that I’d been using. The muscles across his back writhed as he strained to loosen the lug nuts, and I was very much enjoying the view.
Finally, he fixed the donut in place and shook his head.
“I know,” I said tightly. “It’s just that new tires are so expensive and . . . well, never mind.” I paused, then smiled awkwardly as Katie bounded out of the car and threw her arms around Alex’s waist, beaming up at him as if he’d just invented ice cream.
“You’re like a knight saving people, except you don’t have a horse. Or armor. Mom rides horses and I’m going to learn, too. Can you ride?”
Alex shook his head, a small smile playing on his lips as he gazed down at Katie.
“Mom can teach you. She’s really good.”
“Thank you for stopping,” I said, annoyed that I sounded flustered.
He stared at me over Katie’s head, his expression quizzical, but of course, he didn’t say anything to me. He never did.
Sighing with frustration, I watched Katie chatting easily as she climbed back into the car, waving as we drove away.
For a moment, Alex just stood there, until finally, he raised his arm and waved back.
Dawn
THIS WAS A bad idea. Or maybe not. Probably yes. Bad. Very bad. In the history of bad decisions, this could be right at the top. Or the bottom. Definitely at the bottom.
I let the cell phone slide onto the table and stalked across the kitchen to the coffee machine, irritated with myself. But I’d promised Katie in a weak moment, and I made a point of keeping my promises to her. One of her parents had to.
Refueled
with the strongest coffee I could bear, I picked up my phone for the tenth time, staring at it as if it might explode, then dialed, this time letting it ring. And ring and ring. And ring.
And ring.
I was considering it a sign not to bother, when Alex finally answered. Well, he didn’t speak, but my phone was now silent and the call hadn’t been dropped, so I assumed he was there.
“Hi, Mr. Win . . . um . . . Alex. It’s Dawn.”
There was a very long pause before I heard his voice, huskier now it was right by my ear.
“H-hi?”
“Yeah, hi! Um, look, I . . . we were wondering . . . if you’re not doing anything tomorrow, would you and Stan like to come over for lunch? I always do a roast with all the trimmings on a Sunday. Sort of a family tradition.”
I rattled out the words so rapidly, I wasn’t sure if he’d understood.
“Uh . . .”
“It was Katie’s idea,” I laughed nervously. “She . . . we wanted to thank you for helping us yesterday. God knows how long we’d have been stuck at the side of the road if you hadn’t come along, and there was no signal on my cell phone, and those lug nuts were just about glued on . . .”
His hesitation had me gripping the phone like I was choking it.
“Oh . . .”
“Great!” I said brightly, then cringed. Maybe he hadn’t been saying ‘okay’. Maybe he’d been trying to say something completely different.
“Uh, was that ‘okay’, you’ll come, or ‘okay’, you’ll think about it?”
“N-no . . .”
My heart sank and I felt sick. You couldn’t get clearer than ‘no’.
“Oh, well, that’s fine. I thought I’d ask . . .”
“Ah . . . um . . . I’m v-v-veg . . . vegetarian,” he finally managed to say.
“Oh! Oh? Oh, really? But you said you feed Stan bacon and hotdogs . . .” my words trailed off.
“Y-yes.”
“So, you’re vegetarian but you cook bacon for Stan?”
There was another pause, and I imagined him nodding into the phone.
“I can work with that,” I said. “Um, so, I’ll text you the address. Okay. Great. See you tomorrow. And Stan. Bye. Tomorrow. Yeah, bye.”
I hung up, flustered but relieved.
“I guess we’ve got a date,” I muttered to myself.
No, no, not a date. I couldn’t think like that. And for all I knew he was dating Stella. Please, please don’t be dating Stella.
When I told Katie that Alex and Stan were definitely coming for lunch, she shrieked with delight, then immediately ran to her bedroom to decide what to wear. She was so much more like Stella than like me. But now I thought about it, I had no idea what I should wear. Which outfit said friendly (but not easy), cute (but not too cute, not trying too hard), interested (but not desperate). So . . . that was a cute nun’s habit. Right.
And then, of course, I couldn’t sleep that night.
I second-guessed my decision to invite Alex for lunch. What if we were sitting there drinking coffee after coffee in awkward silence? Just because I was attracted to him, didn’t mean it was right for me to invite him into our home. Oh God! What had I done?
Anxiety made me jittery. What if he spends the whole meal mute? What if he’s already regretting it? Does he just feel sorry for me, or maybe he just said yes because he feels obliged because I’m Stan’s vet?
At 4am, I turned on my laptop and started looking up vegetarian recipes. I nearly passed out from shock when I saw how many ingredients were needed for a nut roast. I wondered if he’d think I was cheap if I just ran to the store and bought some veggie burgers. But then again, I had promised a home-cooked meal.
Finally, I found a recipe for vegetable lasagna that was near enough like the meat-based one for me to feel confident I could pull it off. Then I’d throw together a little tossed salad . . . yep, that would do it.
Then I started wondering what he’d think of our home, which was a small duplex with a tiny front yard and a larger one in the back. His home was set on nine acres of the town’s best real estate, and Spen said the cabin now looked like it belonged in a magazine.
That thought had me cleaning and tidying until a grumpy Katie traipsed down the stairs, scowling at the vacuum cleaner.
I had her straightening the throw pillows on the sofa and dusting the bookshelves before she got breakfast. Mom-style tough love.
Of course, the lasagna took longer to make than I’d anticipated, and I was running around like a chicken without its head, still getting ready when Katie yelled to tell me that they’d arrived. Five minutes early. Darn it!
I opened the front door before Alex had even rung the bell, only to find Stan with his leg cocked, watering my neighbor’s flowerbed.
“Mom! Stan’s weeing on Mr. Grimson’s roses. He’s gonna be mad!”
Alex reddened and whispered something to Stan who looked up at him with innocent eyes then bobbed his heavy head as if to say, When a guy’s gotta go . . .
I couldn’t help laughing as Katie pressed her hands over her mouth, trying to hold in a fit of giggles.
“Oh dear!” I said, smiling. “Mr. Grimson is very particular about his roses.”
“S-sorry,” Alex stuttered. “Stan, apologize to Dawn!”
Instead, Stan peered around to inspect his bottom.
“I think you’d better come in,” I said, still chuckling.
But before Alex followed me inside, he reached into the truck for what looked like a box of candy. Damn, he had a great ass, his jeans clinging to him as he stretched and bent, those long, powerful legs straining against the worn denim. But instead of his usual ratty t-shirts, he was wearing a crisp white button-down. He looked delicious.
“Mom, you’re blushing,” Katie announced in her bell-like voice.
Alex turned around and caught my deer-in-the-headlights expression as my gaze dropped from his ass to the ground. Had he guessed that I’d been checking him out? I was mortified.
He took it all in his stride, but I was sure he knew what I’d been doing. He passed me a box of Swiss chocolates, and then rendered me mute by placing a sweet kiss on my cheek.
God, he smelled good, too.
“She really likes you,” Katie said loudly. “She spent forever trying to decide what to wear.”
“Katie!” I hissed.
“And she got the fancy guest towels out, even though Mom said she was saving them for when the President visits.”
Whoosh! My cheeks flared with heat, and I threw an accusing look at Katie that said she’d be doing chores until she started drawing a pension. I snuck a look at Alex, and I was pretty certain he was trying to contain a smile, but was nice enough not to show it.
Then he gave Katie a present, too, taking the heat off of me.
“For you, Katie-kay,” he said.
He used my pet name for her, and the few defenses I had left crumbled to dust. I closed my eyes, offering up a small prayer that he wasn’t dating my sister. Or anyone else.
Katie held her book tightly, her eyes widening with happiness and surprise.
“Oh, wow! ‘Walter the Farting Dog’! Oh, look at that picture. Aw, Stan, this one looks like you.”
Alex seemed a little nervous, as if unsure how his gift would be received, and even though Katie’s pleasure was evident, I rushed to reassure him.
“That was thoughtful of you, Alex. She’ll love it. And thank you for the candy—we’ll both love that.”
He nodded and smiled, relief in his eyes.
It wasn’t a beaming smile, it wasn’t a grin, but it was a start.
I smiled back at him. “Well, come on into the house of crazy.”
He stepped into the living room, his eyes taking it all in, and I wondered how it seemed to him. It was furnished in shades of blue and cream with the throw pillows cluttering up the sofa. It looked feminine and homey. A little tired, if I was honest. All of my child support was paid into a trust fund for Katie. I refused to t
ouch my ex’s money. It was all for Katie to pay for her college one day, and except for a weekend each month or thereabouts, I thought of myself as a single parent.
Alex followed us out to the deck where I’d set a small table next to the porch swing.
Stan plodded behind, then flopped down on the cool grass and stretched out, making himself at home. Katie immediately went to sit with him and started telling him some long, convoluted story about her friends and what they got up to at school. Stan yawned and snuffled happily as Katie stroked his ears, every now and then leaning down to whisper a secret to him.
And I was left alone with Alex. He chose to sit on the porch swing, his long legs out in front of him, relaxed as he rested one ankle on top of the other, his bent knees rocking the swing slowly.
I sat on one of the chairs I’d put by the table. Sharing a swing with him seemed . . . too personal. Yes, far too date-like.
“How’s Stan been? Any problems?” I asked in a friendly but neutral voice, reminding myself that for all I knew he’d been hooking up with Stella. Please not!
“N-no. No bones yet . . .”
“I’m afraid those days are probably over, but if he wants to try it won’t do any harm either.”
He sighed and looked down at Stan.
I hated to think of him getting old, too, but the evidence was there. His muzzle had turned from gray to white in the last two months, and he seemed to have slowed down a lot.
Alex glanced up at me and I realized that I’d been caught staring at him again.
“Where did you rescue him from?” I asked quickly, hoping my cheeks weren’t as red as they felt.
“M-my brother. He was a Marine. Afghanistan. S-stan . . .”
“Oh,” I said softly. “He’s named Stan because he came from Afghanistan? That couldn’t have been easy—bringing him over here.”
He shook his head.
“You said your bother was a Marine. He’s not anymore?”
He closed his eyes as his face filled with pain. And I had my answer.
“I’m so sorry,” I said quietly.
A small piece of the puzzle fell into place.
He’d lost his brother, and all he had left of him was the dog that he’d rescued. It explained why Stan hadn’t been neutered or microchipped. It might even explain why Alex seemed so alone, although I sensed there was more to his story. Not forgetting his startling transformation which left so many questions unanswered. If this now was how he usually looked, why had he let everything go? And what had made him change his mind and stop hiding behind all that hair and long beard?
One Careful Owner: Love Me, Love My Dog Page 8