“On the upside, you don’t have to cook dinner,” Emma added.
“A serious bonus,” Jessie said.
“All right, who is drinking what?” Sam asked. As the brewmaster of their brewery, Sam took his beer and food pairings very seriously.
Zach leaned back and watched his friends swarm Jessie. He supposed there were boundaries to be considered. Gavin Tolliver, the local veterinarian, was Jessie’s boss. She was his office manager and had gotten the position when Mackenzie Harris—Mac—who was Gavin’s girlfriend, had convinced him to give Jessie a chance.
This had been no small request given that Mac and Jessie had been longtime enemies. Zach didn’t know all of the details, because girls, drama, and who cared, but he knew that whatever had happened to mend their rift, they had become friends over the past few months ever since Emma Tolliver had married his friend Brad Jameson last spring, bringing Gavin and Mac together.
And now Emma and Brad were having a kid. Zach paused to let that sink in. He glanced at the petite blonde and his lantern-jawed buddy. They were so ridiculously good-looking, it was like they’d sprung fully formed out of the pages of a J.Crew catalog.
Jillian bustled by him, carrying a box of whoopie pies and a large bowl of salad. Jillian ran a whoopie pie shop in town called Making Whoopie, because she was clever like that. Tall and thin, with dark skin and long curly hair, Zach figured she must force herself to eat one bite of salad and one bite of whoopie pie to maintain balance and her killer figure. Sam, his longtime buddy, was right behind Jillian. Tall and sporting a close-trimmed four-day beard that Zach was pretty sure he’d had since he sprouted facial hair, Sam followed Jillian wherever she went.
Zach and the rest of the crew had been watching the poor bastard pine for the pretty baker for months. The only one who didn’t know that Sam was in love with her was Jillian. Gina DeCusati, Carly’s feisty little redheaded sister, hip checked Sam, the big doofus, bringing his attention back to her. Gina managed The Grind, the local coffee shop, and had begun to pal around with their group about the same time Carly had moved home and got tangled up with James Sinclair, a stud of a physical therapist, who lived in a lighthouse and had to be the most patient man Zach had ever met. He’d have to be to put up with Carly.
If there was a female version of Zach, Carly was it. Always good for a laugh, seriously commitment phobic—at least she had been until she met James, who had managed to clamp a ring on her finger—and quite possibly the worst dancer ever, the short curvaceous Italian was his kindred spirit. A lot of people had thought Carly and Zach were a perfect pair but there had never been a spark between them, just a deep understanding and affection.
While contemplating spark, Zach’s gaze moved back to Jessie. Now there was spark. He shook his shaggy head. No, nope, nuh-uh, he was not getting involved with his neighbor. He didn’t do relationships and hooking up with the woman next door would be beyond stupid, even for him. Besides, he liked her girls and didn’t want to have to avoid them just because he’d slept with their mother.
The girls. Zach frowned. It occurred to him that he hadn’t seen Maddie. He saw Gracie across the room sitting on the floor beside Carly and James, who were sitting on the couch. Rufus had made a beeline for the girl and was now lying on the floor with his belly in the air, demanding tummy rubs. Gracie laughed at his antics and happily obliged.
Zach grabbed the beer Sam handed him as he passed by and took a long sip before he knelt down next to Gracie. She grinned up at him and he couldn’t help but smile in return. Gracie had her mother’s serious expression but when she smiled, again like her mother, it was like the sun bursting out from behind the clouds.
“I noticed Maddie isn’t here,” he said. “Everything okay?”
Gracie gave him a look that said it was far from it. “Maddie is in her room in time-out.”
“Oh?” Zach took a sip of his beer.
“After you and Rufus left she was being very sassy,” Gracie said. “Mom told her she needed to think about her behavior for a while and that she could come out when she was ready to apologize.”
Zach nodded in understanding. Then he grinned at Gracie. “So, you think you’ll ever see her again?”
Gracie looked surprised and then she caught the teasing twinkle in his eye and she laughed. “I don’t know. Maddie can be donkey stubborn. We might not see her till she’s a grown-up.”
Zach laughed and Gracie gave him a shy smile. He reached down and rubbed Rufus’s belly.
“Maybe I can help,” he said.
Gracie gave him a look of disbelief.
“Give me ten minutes,” he said. “I’ll bet I can get her to apologize to your mother.”
“What do you need me to do?” she asked.
“Make sure your mother stays busy down here,” he said.
Gracie nodded. “I can do that.”
“Atta girl.” Zach straightened up and strolled back through the room. He tucked his beverage into a corner of the counter, pausing to assess the situation.
Jessie was standing talking with Brad and Emma. He only caught snippets of the conversation but the words “episiotomy” and “epidural” were mentioned, both of which made him a bit woozy. He scooted over to the stairs and slipped up without anyone noticing he had gone.
Jessie’s house mirrored his so he knew that the master bedroom was on the left with its own bathroom, while the two remaining bedrooms and a bath filled the rest of the floor. There was only one door that was closed with a sliver of light shining out from under it. Inside he could hear the sound of someone moving about.
He glanced back at the stairs to see if Jessie was on her way. He knew it was none of his business, but he had five little sisters and he’d been there for it all, from teething and puberty to teaching them how to drive a stick shift and how to Ben and Jerry their way through their first heartbreak.
He rapped gently on the door. The sound of movement abruptly stopped. He suspected Maddie was not going to open the door, so he leaned close and said, “Hey, champ, it’s Zach.”
The door was yanked open and there was Maddie. She was wearing about ten layers of clothing, including a bathing suit over her jeans and sweater. She had three hats on her head: a baseball hat, a knit beanie, and then a sunhat. At her feet was a backpack that looked like it was stuffed to bursting.
“Zach!” she cried. Then she threw herself at his legs and buried her face in his stomach. “I was afraid I wouldn’t get a chance to say good-bye.”
“Are you going someplace?” he asked.
“Australia,” she said.
Her face was a study in conflicted misery. He had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.
“Fond of kangaroos, are you?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never met one.”
“So, why go?” he asked.
“I need to be free,” she said. Her voice was filled with yearning and she heaved a dramatic sigh.
“Australia is pretty far from here,” he said. “How do you figure you’ll get there?”
“Stowaway,” she said. “I saw it in a movie. A dog hid on a train and a boat. He got all the way across the country like that.”
“What about your sister and your mom?” Zach asked. “Don’t you think they’ll be sad to see you go?”
“Nah, they have each other,” she said. “They’ll be happier without me.”
“Oh, I don’t think that’s true,” Zach said.
“It is,” Maddie said. “I’m always in trouble and Gracie never is and I bet they won’t even know I’m gone.”
Her chest was heaving and, judging by the quivering of her lip, tears were incoming. Zach needed to distract her.
“What about all of your stuffed animals?” he asked. “Won’t they miss you?”
Maddie gave a sad little nod.
; “Maybe you should have a family meeting with them, so you can explain to them why you have to go,” he said.
Maddie glanced at her bed, half covered in stuffed animals, and then at Zach. She gave him slow nod.
Together they arranged all of the animals in a circle. When Maddie went to get her tea set so that the animals wouldn’t be thirsty, he had to duck his head to hide his smile.
She handed Zach one of the teeny tiny teacups and pretended to fill it using a plastic pitcher. Under her watchful gaze, Zach dutifully took a sip and declared the tea the best he’d ever had. Maddie beamed at him.
“Hats,” Maddie said. “Gracie says that when you have tea, you should be wearing a hat.”
“Naturally,” Zach agreed. Maddie plopped a purple pirate’s hat with a large feathered plume on his head while she distributed the many hats she had onto her stuffies, keeping a bright pink fedora with a dazzling amount of rhinestones on it for herself.
She took a moment to give each of the stuffed animals a sip of tea and then she moved to stand beside Zach. She rested one small hand on his shoulder and leaned close to whisper in his ear.
“I don’t know what to say,” she said.
“Well, you need to tell them why you’re going to Australia,” he said. He pretended to take a sip of tea. “They’re your best friends, you need to explain so they won’t be so sad.”
“You’re right.”
She clasped her hands in front of her and gazed at the assembled creatures: big-eyed baby seals, owls, and piglets, a teddy bear in overalls, a penguin in eyeglasses, and a mama manta ray with a mini manta ray in its pouch, and those were just the ones Zach could see from this angle. She paced back and forth as if searching for just the right words. She fretted her lower lip, opened her mouth to speak and then closed it, then resumed pacing.
While she paced, Zach began to voice the conversation of the animals. He decided that the owl would be encouraging but that the baby manta ray would be a bit sassy.
Maddie watched out of the corner of her eye, while he picked them up and gave them voices.
“This is boring,” Baby Manta said.
“Be patient,” Owl said.
“You’re not the boss of me,” Baby Manta said.
“I’m older and wiser,” the owl said. “I am here to look out for you.”
“But I want what I want when I want it,” Baby Manta said.
“Settle down now,” Maddie said.
She gave the baby manta a sharp look. Zach was pretty sure Maddie had been on the receiving end of that particular look from Jessie.
Zach pretended to drink his tea, adjusted the hard plastic hat on his head, and waited for her to speak. She paced a bit in smaller and smaller circles. Finally, she threw up her hands in exasperation.
“Baby Manta has me all mixed up,” she wailed. “I know he was just being sassy. He didn’t mean it.”
“Yes, he was. How do you think he can make it better?” he asked.
“He needs to say he’s sorry and . . . so do I,” she said. Her nostrils flared and her lips pressed together in a hard line. She looked unhappy about the solution but also resolved.
Zach picked up Baby Manta and turned him to face Maddie. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. I’ll try to be nicer.”
“You are forgiven,” Maddie said, and she hugged the stuffie to her chest.
“See how easy that was?” Zach asked. “Now, why don’t you wait here and I’ll send your mom up so you can say the same to her.”
“Okay,” she said.
He rose from his spot on the floor and handed her back her tiny teacup. Then he squeezed her shoulder and said, “I’m proud of you, kiddo.”
Zach slipped out into the dark hallway, softly closing the door behind him. Now how to get Jessie up here to hear what Maddie had to say?
He moved toward the stairs when a voice broke the quiet. “Have a nice tea party, did you?”
Chapter 6
Zach let out a small yelp and spun around. Standing there with her arms crossed over her chest, and looking every bit as stubborn as her five-year-old daughter, was Jessie.
“I can explain,” he said.
She gave him a hard stare and Zach felt himself squirm as if he were the one who’d been sassy before.
“I’m listening,” Jessie said.
“She just looked so sad,” he said.
Jessie rolled her eyes. “So, you thought you’d have a tea party with her? That sort of defeats the purpose of a time-out, doesn’t it?”
“But we talked and I think she understands that her behavior was unacceptable,” he said. “She wants to apologize, really, she does. And she came to the conclusion all by herself.”
Jessie continued to stare at him.
“It is very difficult to take you seriously when you’re wearing a purple pirate hat with a plume,” she said.
“Really?” Zach asked. He struck his best pirate’s pose with his chest out and his hands on his hips. “Avast, me hearty, don’t make fun of me pirate’s hat or I’ll be forced to make you walk the plank.”
“That sounds pervy,” she said.
Zach leaned close and wiggled his eyebrows at her, letting her know he’d intended it to be, and she laughed. She had a surprisingly robust laugh; it came up from her belly and transformed her face from one that was overly pensive to a sparkly-eyed, openmouthed burst of joy. He liked it. He liked her. And he had the sudden crazy notion that he’d like to kiss her.
“Momma.” Maddie appeared in the hallway behind them. She held her fingers clasped in front of her and her head was bowed ever so slightly. Zach got the feeling that apologizing didn’t come easily to her. “I am really, really sorry.”
Jessie turned away from Zach and crouched down so that she was eye level with Maddie.
“What exactly are you sorry for, Madster?” she asked.
Maddie braced herself with a huff of breath. She lifted her face and met her mother’s gaze. “I was very sassy. We were wrong to leave the house and make you worry, and I’ll never ever ever do it again.”
Jessie opened her arms wide and Maddie fell into them. “Thank you for that. I really appreciate you taking responsibility for your actions. You are forgiven.”
Zach felt another pang in his chest as he watched the mother and daughter. Either he had heartburn or these women were beginning to get to him.
Maddie glanced over her mother’s shoulder at him and sent him an impish grin with a roguish wink and a thumbs-up. Oh, brother, this one was going to be trouble. He started to wag his finger at her and give her his best scolding face but Jessie broke the hug and leaned back.
“We have company,” she said. “Do you want to come and meet everyone?”
“That depends,” Maddie said. She looked at Jessie with big eyes. “Do I smell lasagna?”
Jessie laughed and hugged her hard. “Go. Gracie is down there with Rufus.”
She didn’t have to be told twice. Maddie rushed the stairs, scampering down as if she was afraid Jessie might change her mind.
“I like that kid,” Zach said. Jessie turned to look at him, her big blue eyes full of mirth with a dab of exasperation.
“She’s my handful,” Jessie said. “She’s afraid of nothing and no one and has never met a dare she didn’t jump to accept.” She shoved both hands into her damp hair. “I can feel the gray hair sprouting at the thought of her teen years.”
Zach grinned. “She’ll be all right.”
“What if she isn’t?” Jessie asked. A crease formed in between her eyes and Zach got the feeling that this thought kept her up a lot at night. “And even if she is, what if Gracie isn’t? I mean, she’s so timid, what if she hooks up with some bully who systematically destroys her self-esteem and self-worth and then she ends up on drugs, working on the corner as a hooker to finance her crack h
abit—”
“Whoa, Jessie, whoa!” Zach grabbed her by the shoulders and stepped close so that they were eyeball to eyeball. “Breathe.”
Jessie closed her eyes, took in a shaky breath, and then slowly let it out.
“Again,” Zach said. She did it again. “Better?”
“No!” Her eyes popped open. “What if it’s Maddie who goes off the rails? How will I stop her if she gets all boy crazy and starts sneaking out of her room at night and then ends up a teen mom with a baby or triplets?”
Zach cupped her face and stared at her. “And what if she doesn’t?”
“Huh?”
“Every time you start to freak out and play the what-if-insert-horrible-outcome-here game, stop and ask yourself and what if it doesn’t?”
“Does that actually work?” she asked.
“For severe anxiety, no, probably not,” he said. “But when my sisters would start spiraling about crazy stuff when they were teenagers, I’d keep asking them ‘and what if it doesn’t’ until they got tired of hearing it. It helped that ninety-nine percent of the time, what they feared happening didn’t happen, proving that worrying about it was a waste of time and energy.”
Jessie blew out a breath and squinted at him. “And what if it doesn’t, huh?”
“Just try it,” he said. He moved his hands to her shoulders as if to hold her steady when, really, he just didn’t want to let her go.
“Okay.” She nodded. “What if Gracie hooks up with a real loser? And what if she doesn’t?” Jessie tipped her head to the side as if considering her worry from a new angle. “What if Maddie becomes a career criminal and spends her life in jail? And what if she doesn’t?”
She paused to let the words settle around her. Then she gave Zach a closed-lip smile. “You’re kind of smart.”
He realized he was still holding her shoulders and the urge to kiss her, just the corner of her mouth where her smile always began, hit him low and deep and he felt himself lean in. He dropped his hands and turned away from her.
Every Dog Has His Day Page 5