Love Gone to the Dogs

by Margaret Daley

  "That was what frightened them—when you said the next time. You were just lucky you didn't kill yourself, or anyone else."

  "I know what I'm doing, girl. I'm seventy-five, and I've been experimenting all my life."

  "You must have one powerful guardian angel."

  He smiled, a twinkle in his blue gaze. "Yes, I do. You."

  Leah rolled her eyes heavenward. "I am not your guardian angel."

  "You took me in when the rest of the family wanted to put me in a nursing home. You saved my bony ass, and you darn well kept the wolves at bay."

  Closing her eyes, she took several deep breaths. Her grandfather's language had improved over the four years he had been living with them, but it was still a long way from G-rated. Patience, she told herself for the millionth time.

  "No one else in the family understands me, except you. Leah, you're a regular saint."

  "No, I'm not. Your money allowed Sam, Joey, and me to have a roof over our heads right after my divorce. We helped each other." She took her last sip of coffee. "Don't forget your medicine, which reminds me that we need to find a doctor."

  Everyone at the table screwed their faces into a frown. "A doctor. The only good one is a—"

  "Gramps! Please, the children," Leah said, rising to take her dishes over to the sink.

  She heard him mutter something under his breath, and knew she didn't want to know what he had said. He had had more than his fill of doctors poking and prodding him in the past few years. His diabetes was a curse he had learned to live with, if grudgingly. It certainly hadn't been a good enough reason to put him in a nursing home, as far as Leah was concerned.

  Her grandfather placed his plate in the sink. "Well, today I'm working in the garage. I think it will make an excellent lab. It's not even attached to the house, so you have nothing to worry about."

  "That's supposed to comfort me?" Leah clenched her teeth and inhaled deeply. "Please be careful. The last time the neighborhood had to be evacuated because of the smell."

  "I know what I did wrong in that incident, too. I always learn from my mistakes. Trust me, it won't happen again." He started for the back door, whistling, a spring to his step.

  "Mom, do we have to help with the unpacking today?" Joey asked, following his great-grandfather's departure with longing.

  "What do you want to do?"

  "Gramps needs me. I'm his assistant."

  "What's he working on now?" If it sounded remotely dangerous, she wouldn't let her youngest get within ten feet of the garage. Which meant she would probably have to spend most of the day standing guard over the entrance into her grandfather's new lab instead of unpacking.

  "Nothing hazardous, I promise. He's working on a machine to move objects from one place to another, sorta like in Star Trek. I've been reading up on it, and I think he's on to something."

  "Are there chemicals involved?" she asked, remembering that awful smell that had led to the last town "encouraging" them to move on. People could make it very difficult for a family they didn't want living in their town. And Leah didn't want to be any place she wasn't wanted.

  Joey shook his head. "I think Gramps learned his lesson. I turned him on to computers, and he can't get enough of them. Most of his work will be done with computers."

  "I wondered about all that equipment delivered yesterday."

  "State-of-the-art," Joey assured her as he turned to head for the back door. "He's finally decided to join the twenty first century."

  "I'll help you, Mom," Sam said as he cleared the table of all the rest of the dishes.

  "I know you've been dying to meet some of the kids on the block. Aren't they playing a baseball game down at the park this morning?"

  Sam nodded, his eyes bright with eagerness.

  "I can do the rest by myself, honey. You need to make some friends. School will be starting in a few weeks."

  "Are you sure?"

  "Positive." She watched as her eldest raced from the kitchen with all the speed and agility he was known for. Sam was her sports fanatic.

  Her two children were so different it had been rumored that Leah had adopted them—and raised them on her own. But their father was out there somewhere, having abandoned them all four years ago for a younger woman. What was so funny about the situation, now that Leah could laugh about it, was that she was only thirty years old herself. But Mary Ann, the bimbo, had been eighteen, and easily manipulated. And of course, the added attraction for Leah's ex-husband was that if he left his family there would be no children to take care of, especially one as smart as Joey. That had been all the encouragement Roger had needed to get out and never look back.

  After quickly cleaning the kitchen Leah put Arnold outside in the backyard, where he wouldn't be underfoot or get into trouble. She then made her way toward the living room and the stack of boxes still to be emptied. Looking at the evidence of her mobile existence of the past four years, she longed for a permanent home. She wanted roots, a place she knew would be her very own, year after year.

  With a sigh, she started with the box nearest to her, pushing the longing to the deep recesses of her mind where she had learned to store secret wishes. She and Sam already had a bet on how long they would last in Shady Oaks. Between Joey and Gramps, with occasional assistance from Arnold, they had never lived more than a year in any one town.

  Maybe her grandfather was right Scanning the boxes, Leah considered storing them in the basement It sure would save her time later when they would have to move. Perhaps they should live in a big city where people didn't care what their neighbors did. She shuddered, thinking about that possibility. Was there a small town that could accept an eccentric old man who lived on the edge of sanity, and a small six-year-old genius who knew more than most adults?

  "Mom! Mom! Come quick! I think Gramps' eyebrows and hair are gone.

  Chapter Two

  "This is just a temporary setback." Leah's grandfather sat on an examination table holding a handkerchief to his head, where most of his thinning hair was singed, if not charred.

  "Temporary! A setback! You could have gotten yourself killed." How many times had she said that? Leah paced the small patient room of a clinic not three blocks away from her house.

  "Joey and I can fix this."

  "No, that won't happen." She halted her pacing and whirled to face her grandfather, her fists resting on her hips. "You told me it was safe. Joey is not going to help you. I've had it."

  "Leah, I couldn't help it if that pipe was leaking and I was standing in water when I juiced up the machine."

  Leah threw up her arms. "You should have known better. Look at you." She waved her hands. "You never think. You theorize."

  Harold Trenton Smith had started to answer his granddaughter when the door opened and a stylish woman in her sixties entered. She wore a white coat, and a stethoscope hung around her neck. Her smile was kind, the look in her dark eyes reassuring.

  "Hello. I'm Dr. O'Grady."

  "O'Grady?" Leah asked, tensing at the mention of the name.

  The doctor crossed to her grandfather and began examining him. "Yes. That's right. You must be new in town."

  "You wouldn't be related to a Shane O'Grady, by any chance?"

  The woman laughed. "My son. Have you met him?"

  "I've seen him around," Leah managed to answer while her stomach knotted into a tight fist.

  "How did this happen, Mr. Smith?"

  Leah sent her grandfather a look that told him not to say too much or they might not survive a week in Shady Oaks.

  "An accident. I was plugging in something while standing in water. Forgot to wear my rubber shoes," he said, grinning and winking at the lady doctor.

  "You received quite a jolt, but luckily you're here to tell us about it"

  "Then he'll be all right?" Leah began to chew on her broken acrylic nail, a reminder of her meeting earlier with this woman's son.

  "I believe so. I want to take a closer look at him, though, just to make sure.
You can wait in the reception area. There's some coffee and magazines. This will take a while." Dr. O'Grady smiled at Leah, warmth emanating from her that put Leah at ease. "This injury looks worse than it is."

  "Speak for yourself, woman. This hurts like h—Hades," her grandfather mumbled.

  Leah left the examination room and headed for that coffee. She could use a cup of something hot even if it was caffeinated. She had driven straight here, with her grandfather moaning and Joey trying to explain the phenomenon behind what had happened to Gramps. She hadn't even registered the doctor's name on the clinic sign when she had brought her grandfather inside. She just might have kept on driving clear to the next town if she had noticed the name O'Grady.

  Assured that Joey was entertaining himself with reading a National Geographic magazine, she walked to the picture window and looked out at the clinic sign while taking a sip of the coffee. There, in bold black letters, were the names Margaret O'Grady and Shane O'Grady. Yep, she would have probably passed the place by, even with her grandfather's moaning.

  "Alice, Billy will be fine in a few days. Make sure he gets plenty of rest and lots of liquid."

  Leah stiffened at the sound of Shane's voice. Maybe if she didn't move he wouldn't notice her. At least she was wearing more than a large T-shirt, and her hair was combed.

  "Are you through exercising your voice, Mrs. Taylor?"

  No such luck, she thought and sipped at her coffee, wishing the man would disappear. This was not a very good day for her. If she had found the time to read her horoscope, she was sure it would have warned her not even to get out of bed this morning.

  She knew Dr. Shane O'Grady was still behind her even though she hadn't replied; she could feel his presence with a tingle down her spine. She also knew she had to say something. Whether she liked it or not, he was the town mayor.

  Slowly she faced the man. "You heard that comment."

  "I think half the neighbors did."

  She blushed. "That was what I was afraid of."

  His gaze traveled down the length of her before resting again on her face. She found herself lifting the coffee to her lips to shield herself from his probing look, much as she had tried to use her front door earlier. Luckily, before her grandfather's mishap, she had hurriedly scrubbed her face of all old makeup, combed her hair, and thrown on jeans and a blouse. That was all she had been able to do in the way of making herself presentable. Now she was afraid that her third impression wasn't much better than her first two.

  "Is something wrong with you?"

  She shook her head.

  "Someone in your family?"

  "My grandfather had an accident. Your mother is taking care of him."

  "What happened?"

  "He and electricity don't get along."

  "Home repairs? I know a good electrician if you need a name in Shady Oaks."

  "Thank you. I would appreciate that." There was no way she would begin to tell him the whole story. Her grandfather's inventiveness had gotten them all in enough trouble.

  "Well, I'd better get back to work. I have more patients to see. I'll get you that name, and one of a plumber, too. That house you live in is old."

  Leah nodded her thanks and sat to finish her coffee while she watched Shane O'Grady walk to the door that led into the back. For some reason her legs were shaky, and her hands were trembling.

  * * *

  Shane felt Leah's gaze on him as he left her in the reception area. He headed for his office to make a few notes concerning his last patient before he saw his next one, but as he sat behind his desk he couldn't concentrate on what he should be writing down. He kept thinking about his new neighbor's pixie looks and dimpled cheeks. The fire in her blue eyes that he had seen directed at him earlier that morning had sparked something he had thought was dead—an interest in a woman that went beyond friendship.

  He stared at the picture of Sarah on his desk, and for the first time didn't feel guilty that another woman intrigued him. His wife had died three years before from breast cancer, and there hadn't been a thing he could do to save her life. The day he had buried her was the day he had thought he had buried his emotions, too. He didn't want to feel that kind of pain ever again, nor the feeling of helplessness that came with having to stand by and watch a loved one die slowly. Now, as he remembered Leah's dynamite figure beneath the oversized T-shirt, he was beginning to wonder if his feelings in that direction hadn't totally disappeared.

  Well, being physically attracted to a beautiful woman was one thing. He was a living, breathing male, after all. But anything more than that reaction wasn't possible. He just wasn't ready, he thought as he bent his head and started to scribble some notes.

  A gentle knock at his door brought his head up. "Yes."

  "Got a minute, son?"

  "I have about that much time." Shane put his pen down, deciding to do his paperwork later, when he could concentrate better.

  "Are you coming to dinner tonight?"

  "It's Friday, isn't it?"

  "Yes, just checking. I wanted Greta to get some steaks."

  Shane whistled. "Steaks. What did I do to deserve that?"

  Margaret O'Grady laughed. "You're a good son. I just want to show you how much I appreciate you."

  "Mother, what are you up to?"

  "Nothing," she answered as she breezed out of her son's office. "I see that my time's up."

  Shane looked at the closed door, an uneasiness settling in the pit of his stomach. Oh, his mother was definitely up to something. She was a great doctor, but a lousy liar. Those two little patches of red that had appeared on her cheeks were a dead giveaway. He was in trouble, and tonight at dinner he would find out just how much.

  * * *

  "Gramps, I don't understand this invitation to dinner," Leah said as she came out of her bedroom, dressed in a short denim skirt and a white blouse with lace down the front and on the collar.

  "Girl, what's there to understand? A beautiful woman asked me to dinner. I may be old, but I'm not dead yet"

  "It's my invitation I don't understand."

  "As Margaret explained to me, we are new in town. She wanted to make us feel welcomed. I figure it wouldn't hurt to get to know the town doctor."

  "Yeah, just in case you have another one of your accidents," Leah muttered, digging out her car keys from the bottom of her purse.

  "I heard that, Leah. Nothing's wrong with my ears. Anyway, the accident this morning won't happen again. I promise you."

  "You've promised me a lot of things in the past, Gramps."

  "And I've kept most of those promises."

  Leah shook her head, realizing the hopelessness of arguing that point with her grandfather. "Just remember, Joey can't be your assistant anymore."

  "H—girl, that's gonna break his heart. You're cruel."

  "Well, at least he'll be alive. That's all that matters to me," she shot back, gripping the straps of her purse.

  "I'd never let anything happen to Joey."

  Hearing the hurt tone in her grandfather's voice, she walked to him and hugged him. "I know you wouldn't mean for anything bad to happen to him, but sometimes things just get out of control in your lab. Remember what happened this morning."

  "Mom, why can't Joey and I stay by ourselves? I'm too old for a babysitter." Sam stood in the doorway of the living room with a pout on his face and his arms crossed over his chest

  "Maybe in another year or two." She pulled away from her grandfather and turned toward her ten-year-old.

  Sam had started to say something else when a knock sounded at the front door. Leah went to answer it hoping the arrival of the babysitter would stop her son from arguing further. Her eldest had resented having anyone look after him since the age of eight. He thought he was the man of the house, and therefore capable of taking care of anything that arose. He watched over Joey and Gramps, often stepping in to take their side against her. Sam had already "talked" with her about Joey helping Gramps with his latest invention. She st
ruggled to make Joey's and Sam's lives as normal as possible, but it was hard at times. One was so smart that children often made fun of him, and the other had been forced to grow up faster than he should have.

  "Hi, I'm Betsy. I'm here to baby-sit," the teenager said between smacks of her gum.

  Leah opened the door wide and stood to the side, not sure if she should allow the girl with green spiked hair into her house. Leah had always prided herself on being open-minded and getting to know a person before forming an opinion. The teenager before her was testing that to the limit. Leah preferred earrings worn in the ears, not the nose or the navel. "Come in. Betsy, this is Sam, and Joey is in his room reading. The number and address where we will be is by the phone in the kitchen. We should be home by nine."

  "Don't worry. Everything will be fine. My mom's home next door if I need any help." Betsy pulled out some of her bubble gum and played with it before popping it back into her mouth.

  Betsy's mother was Madge Shiplock, the woman who had run back into her house earlier that morning, shocked by Leah's outburst. How in the world had that lady and her husband Ned raised this young one standing in front of her? Leah wondered while she reassessed the situation. She didn't know any other teenagers to call, especially on such short notice. Sam was beginning to look more mature by the second. "If you have any trouble, please call me. We are only ten minutes away."

  While blowing a huge bubble, Betsy walked to Sam and placed her hand on his shoulder. "There won't be any trouble, Mrs. Taylor."

  The girl's grin and polite tone didn't reassure Leah one bit. She was beginning to think going to dinner at Dr. Margaret O'Grady's house wasn't such a good idea, but Leah knew she needed to cultivate friends in this town, and the mother of the mayor would be a good ally. Sam was mature and capable, even if she was starting to have her doubts about Betsy.

  Her grandfather shuffled to her and grabbed her elbow. "We're gonna be late. Quit this chitchat and let's get moving."