by Chris Cannon
“Before they’re neutered, males spray to mark their territory. Once the cats are fixed they have free run of the two front rooms. Deena, the lady who owns this place, says it’s better than leaving them in cages all day.” I rubbed a tortoise-shell Persian’s chin and she purred like a car engine.
A tabby cat hopped on Bryce’s lap. He recoiled like she was a skunk.
I laughed. “She won’t bite. Pet her.”
He held his hand out, and the cat ducked under his fingers. Once he understood what was expected, he stroked her head. After ten minutes of petting, I filled the cats’ food bowls and then retrieved the bags from the pet store and tossed out a dozen catnip mice. Within minutes, the cats were dive-bombing the mice and each other.
“Come on. Let’s go feed the dogs.”
“I could stay here with the cats.”
I grabbed his hand and tugged.
“Fine.” He followed me out the back door.
“Watch this.” I put fingers to my lips and whistled. A herd of dogs emerged from the barn and charged.
Bryce tensed and backed up a step.
“They won’t hurt you.” I walked toward the barn. After filling their food dispensers with kibble, I headed to the back porch. Bryce followed along.
By the time we made it to the porch several dogs had finished eating.
“Are they related to your brothers?” Bryce asked.
I laughed and grabbed the bag of Nylabones, tossing one to Caesar, the Doberman. He shook it violently, chomped down to make sure it was dead, and then trotted off.
I plopped down in a lawn chair and handed out the rest of the Nylabones as the dogs came to ask for them, keeping a dozen in reserve.
“What are these things made of?” Bryce examined a pink bone. “Plastic?”
“It’s all edible. It’s made to last a long time. I used to give them rawhide chews, but they ate through them so fast and they were disappointed when I didn’t have more. It was sad. These bones will last a week or so.”
A small mutt named Jake trotted up to me and put his front legs on my shins. “Come here.” I picked him up and settled him on my lap. I scratched Jake’s ears, and he sighed in contentment. “If I ever win the lottery, I’m adopting all of you. Yes, I am.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bryce looking at me like I was crazy. What he didn’t see was Leo, a shih tzu mix sneaking up on him from the side. The dog lifted one small black paw and tapped Bryce’s shoe.
Bryce took one look at the dog and shook his head. “No way.”
Leo whimpered and head butted Bryce’s ankle.
“Go on. Pick him up. They all had baths last weekend.”
Leo moaned like he was moments from death.
“Fine.” Bryce picked the dog up and set him on his lap. Leo turned in a tight circle, curled up, and closed his eyes.
“He has to be someone’s pet,” I said. “He’s such a lap dog.”
Bryce frowned. “How’d he end up here?”
“Someone found him in a used-car lot. We put an ad in the paper, but no one’s claimed him.”
…
Bryce
I looked at the small dog shedding on my pants. My father would not approve of the mess or the animal. Anything that wasn’t productive, which didn’t produce some sort of payoff, was useless.
When I was younger, I had believed everyone felt this way. Now I could see my father for the selfish man he was. He would never consider donating time or money to an animal shelter unless it was for publicity or a tax write-off. Everything he did was calculated. Including marrying my mother. I’d figured out, over the last couple of years, that he’d only dated my mother because of her family’s wealth. After they’d married, he used her family money to build his business empire. Love hadn’t seemed to be part of the equation, at least not on his side.
Haley sat next to me, baby-talking the dog on her lap. That was a bit overboard, but I was impressed she took the time to work here.
“How did you start volunteering at the shelter?”
“When I was ten, a mama cat moved into one of our greenhouses. She had six kittens. We couldn’t keep all of them, so I brought them here. I volunteered to help with adoption days and fund-raisers and it kind of snowballed from there.”
“So you want to work with animals?”
“Yes. I want to be a vet. And I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I like animals more than I like most people. They don’t judge you. They’re always happy to see you, and they act like you’re the most wonderful person in the world. Does that make sense?”
Her face lit up when she talked about animals. She was smiling at me, and I found myself smiling back. “It’s cool that you know what you want to do.”
“What about you?”
“According to my father’s plan, I’ll go to school for a business degree and join his firm.”
“Is that what you want to do?”
I laughed. “What I want isn’t necessarily part of the plan.”
“Say that it was. If you could be anything you want to be when you grow up, what would you choose?”
My father had preached business school to me since I’d been old enough to understand what it was. “I’ve never really thought about it since I don’t have an option.”
“It’s your life,” Haley said. “Pretend your father isn’t involved. What would you do? What makes you happy?”
“Golf.” I laughed, and then it hit me. “I’ve been giving lessons to this kid who is in a wheelchair. He has adaptive golf clubs. They’re good, but I think I could design better ones.”
“So, you’d be an adaptive-golf-club engineer?”
“I wonder what college offers that major? But it’s not realistic, anyway.” And my father would never let it happen. “For now it’s best to follow my father’s plan to keep the peace at home. When we argue, my mother has to deal with the fallout.”
“What’s that mean?”
“My father has a way of freezing people out when he doesn’t get his way.”
“I’d rather be ignored than be yelled at.”
“If someone is yelling, at least you know they care.” Why am I sharing this with her? I never talked about my home life. Not even with Nathan.
“Then my family must care about each other a lot.” Haley laughed.
I’d met her brothers and her father. “What are your parents like together?”
“What do you mean?”
How could I say this? “Do they spend a lot of time together?”
“Sure. They still go on dates, which is something I’d rather not think about. What about your parents?”
“You have to practically schedule an appointment with my father to see him. They go to charity events and the country club together, but I wouldn’t say they go on dates.”
Sometimes it seemed like my father took my mother out to show her off, like he would any of his other possessions.
“I told you how I ended up volunteering here. Tell me about the golf-a-thon you organize every year.”
“My grandfather died of lung cancer even though he never smoked.” The memory still made me angry. “He used to hang out at the country-club bar with his friends before the club went nonsmoking. Inhaling all that secondhand smoke over the years did him in.”
“I’m sorry.”
I nodded. “Thanks. I started the golf-a-thon to raise money for cancer research. It doesn’t raise a ton of money. I know that. My family donates money to different causes, but I wanted to do something on my own. Does that make sense?”
“Yes.”
Chapter Seven
Haley
That night I called Jane from the relative privacy of my bedroom and filled her in on my exciting afternoon.
“So, he momentarily fell under Brittney’s spell, but gave you money for the shelter and held a dog on his lap and actually talked to you about something real in his life. Hmmm, I think he’ll receive two-thirds of a cupcake tomorrow.”
“That’s not a bad idea.”
“How long do you plan on baking Nathan cupcakes?” I worried Jane might be setting herself up for a fall. Nathan was nice to her, but he wasn’t exactly flirting or showing a lot of interest.
“I don’t know. I kind of hoped he’d ask me to go on a date with you and Bryce this weekend.”
“There’s one major problem with that scenario. Bryce hasn’t asked me to go on a date, and I don’t know if he will.”
Sure he’d opened up to me at the shelter but this was still a fake relationship.
“You have to go on one date with him because he promised a double date for me and Nathan.”
I flopped onto my bed and stared out the skylight. “He promised we’d go on a double date, but he didn’t say when. He has three weeks to live up to his word. That doesn’t mean he’ll want to do something this weekend.”
“But I want to see the Pirates on the Run movie and I know we can go on our own, but it would be a great date movie.”
“We need a plan. Maybe if we talk about it in front of them, they’ll take the hint. ” I saw the skirt we’d bought at Goodwill. It was shorter than I was comfortable with, but maybe that was the point. If I wanted Bryce to want to be with me, I needed him to think of me as desirable. On most days I was cute, but desirable was different. “What do you think I should wear with that skirt we bought?”
…
I woke at five thirty the next morning twisted in the sheets and covered in a cold sweat. My dream, or rather my nightmare, was fresh in my mind. Bryce called an assembly to tell the entire school our relationship was based on blackmail. He said it would be better to take a beating from Denny than to spend one more moment with me. Denny decided not to beat up Bryce because he figured that the time Bryce spent with me was punishment enough. By the end of the nightmare, Bryce was making out with Brittney in the cafeteria while everyone pelted me with disgusting substandard cafeteria burritos. Jane sat next to me, holding an umbrella over her head, feeding cupcakes to Nathan, and ignoring me completely.
What the hell?
I checked the clock. Crap. My alarm was set to go off in five minutes, so I dragged myself out of bed, took a shower, and dressed. The reflection in the mirror made me grin. I’d always thought Jane was the only one who could pull off a short skirt, but my legs looked pretty good. To keep from freezing, I’d worn a black sweater and black lace tights with boots. And the look actually worked.
My brothers were seated at the kitchen table eating Pop-Tarts when I went downstairs. I grabbed a cup of instant oatmeal, added water, and put it into the microwave. As a rule, we weren’t a chatty family in the morning.
“I heard Bryce was with Brittney yesterday,” Matt said.
This promised to be a fun conversation. “He wasn’t with her; she snuck up on him.”
“Right.” Charlie shoved half a Pop-Tart in his mouth. “Can we beat him up now?”
“Rule number one, don’t talk with your mouth full. Rule number two, no hitting Bryce unless I make a direct request.”
“I’m not good with rules.” Matt finished his breakfast, leaving his wrapper on the table as he headed out the door. Charlie did the same thing. I glared after them and then at the mess they’d left behind. I grabbed the wrappers and tossed them in the trash can under the sink.
The microwave dinged. Oatmeal in hand, I went out to eat on the porch swing. Since I’d been little it was my favorite place to sit. Something about the swinging motion was soothing. I pushed off with one foot and took a bite.
Five minutes later, my dad joined me wearing his mud-splattered coveralls and blew on his steaming cup of coffee. “You don’t look happy.”
Really? I didn’t feel unhappy. “I had weird dreams last night.”
“My granny always said strange dreams meant things in your life were out of order. Anything I should know about?” He gave me the I-already-know-what-you’re-going-to-say look.
Damn my brothers. They needed to stay out of my business. “Did Charlie and Matt make some sort of family announcement?”
“No. Last night I overheard them talking about you catching Bryce with another girl.” He sipped his coffee and waited.
My head hurt. I didn’t know if it was due to my weird dream, or the ridiculous reality of my life. “It’s not that simple.” I explained about Brittany and then about Bryce giving me the pet-store gift card as an apology.
My dad stared off into the distance. “With the type of money his family has, that wasn’t hard for him to do.”
“True.” Still it was a nice thing to do.
“I’m not thrilled with this Bryce guy. He’s too sure of himself. But I do know one thing. I’ll never say you can’t see a guy. Hell, that’s how your mom ended up with me.”
“What?”
“I had a reputation about the same as your brothers. Hotheaded. Quick to fight. Your grandfather said I’d end up in jail before I was twenty-five. Forbade your mom from seeing me. We were inseparable after that.” He finished off his coffee. “So, I’ll never say you can’t see a boy. Just make sure whoever you pick is worth the trouble.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes. I realized I needed to play my part as Bryce’s girlfriend. “I’m not sure if Bryce is worth it yet, but I’m not ready to give up on him.” Not that I thought anything romantic would happen between us, but he was still my potential route to a real boyfriend.
He stood and brushed dirt off his shirt. “If he gives you any trouble, tell him I own a backhoe. It digs nice deep trenches. Be easy to hide a body with one of those.”
…
Bryce
I glared at Nathan as he laughed at my expense. “It’s not funny.”
“Please.” He leaned back against his locker. “Her brothers threatened to feed you through a wood chipper, feet first. They should be awarded bonus points for most unique threat.”
It had felt like more than a threat. When I’d seen her brothers waiting for me in the parking lot, I had expected grief. I hadn’t expected homicidal tendencies.
“How did you leave things with Haley last night?” Nathan asked.
“That’s just it. I don’t know why she’d complain to them. She seemed happy when I dropped her off.” We’d talked about real things, which I’d never done with any of the girls I dated before…because they wouldn’t have cared.
He pointed down the hall. “Here she comes. You can ask her.”
Haley came down the hall laughing and talking with Jane. And guys were checking her out. The reason was obvious. She was wearing a skirt. One of those short skirts girls wear with tights like the tights covered everything up. I never understood that logic. Not that I was complaining, but all guys see is a girl not wearing pants. On Haley, it was a good look.
She came to a stop in front of me and grinned.
I reached for her hand and she laced her fingers through mine. Funny how natural that felt this morning. “If you’re happy, why did your brothers give me a graphic description of your father’s wood chipper?”
Her mouth dropped open, and then she laughed.
“You think that’s funny?”
“I do.” She reached for my other hand. “Sorry, I told them to leave you alone. My brothers must’ve heard about the incident with Boobzilla. I mean Brittney.”
Nathan held up his hand like he was in class. “Did you say, Boobzilla?”
Jane nodded. “It’s our pet name for Brittney.”
Nathan laughed. I ignored him and focused on Haley, pulling her a little closer. “Why didn’t you tell your brothers you weren’t mad at me?”
“Sorry, I didn’t think they’d resort to the wood chipper. Though it’s annoying, it is nice.”
“Nice?”
“I meant nice that my brothers look out for me, not that they threatened you.”
Her grin grew wid
er and then she laughed.
“What?”
“My dad said to tell you he has a backhoe that digs trenches ideal for hiding a body.”
“Your family is psychotic.”
“No. They’re over-protective which is why we started this whole dating thing in the first place.” The corners of her mouth turned up more. “It’s a little funny.”
Haley’s face was flushed from laughing and her lips were shining and she’d done something to make her eyes stand out and in that skirt she still looked like the girl next door, but hotter. It would be easy to pull her closer, just a little tug and she’d be pressed up against me, in the perfect position for me to lean down and kiss her. I shouldn’t do that, but I did it, anyway.
Haley’s breath caught like she knew what I was thinking. Her gaze drifted to my mouth. I leaned in, and the bell rang, making her jump away from me. She gave a nervous laugh. “We should go.”
I walked her down the hall to her homeroom with my hand on her lower back. Nathan and Jane followed behind us.
“How can you not want to see the new Pirates on the Run movie?” Jane asked.
“There are several reasons.” Nathan ticked items off on his fingers. “One. I’m male and not attracted to guys wearing eyeliner. Two.” He stopped to think for a moment. “No, I think reason one is enough.”
“It’s about more than guys in eyeliner,” Jane said, “There are sword fights and dragons.”
…
Haley
“Do you like to go the movies?” I asked Bryce, hoping he’d take the hint that I wanted to go. We had to go on one date. This would be an easy way to make it happen.
He shrugged. “Depends on the movie.”
Okay…apparently he was a bit dense. Didn’t matter, Jane and I would go to the show by ourselves.
In history class, Jane slid into the desk behind mine with a frown on her face. “I can’t believe they didn’t ask us to the movies.”
“We’ll go together and split the giant tub of popcorn.”
“I’d rather have a pretzel.”
At lunch Bryce and Nathan behaved like everything was normal. They walked us to class after lunch and then…nothing. Idiots.