The Good, the Bad, and the Pugly (An Alpine Grove Romantic Comedy Book 7)

by Susan C. Daffron

  As she navigated the overstuffed Honda up the windy road, Brigid observed a dramatic change in vegetation as she got closer to Alpine Grove. The evergreen trees became thick and lush and she opened the window to let the crisp mountain air surround her. The breeze was charged with the scents of warm pine needles and greenery as she passed by meadows filled with wildflowers and craggy granite outcroppings dotted with moss. It was a bright sunny day and Brigid enjoyed the sensation of warm sun on her skin as she drove through the park-like scenery.

  The speed limit dropped and she slowed as she approached the town of Alpine Grove itself. The sidewalks were crowded with pedestrians walking along, peering into shop windows, or chatting with one another. Pretty hanging baskets bursting with colorful flowers hung from light poles along the main street. Brigid smiled as she parallel-parked the Honda on a side street near the bookstore where she was supposed to pick up the keys to the rental house.

  She walked around the corner to the bookstore. The hand-painted sign above the door said Twice Told Tales, and the window display sported a festive spring theme with lots of books and craft items. A flyer indicated that a local author was going to do a book signing there soon. As Brigid walked in, the bells on the door jingled and an older woman with short gray curly hair looked up from her post behind an antique desk. She smiled and said, “May I help you?”

  Brigid returned the smile. “Are you Margaret Connelly? I’m here to pick up a key for a rental house over on Oak Street.”

  The woman stood up and walked around the desk. “Yes, I am! You must be Brigid. Let me get Linda’s key for you.”

  “Thank you. I’m looking forward to seeing the house. It sounds cute.”

  Margaret held up a key. “Oh it’s adorable. You’re going to love it. Linda sold her big house and just bought this one. She got rid of her old stuff and bought all brand-new furniture for this place.”

  “She didn’t tell me that.”

  “Linda isn’t very talkative.”

  “I noticed that. But if she just bought the place, why isn’t she living there?”

  Margaret gestured at the shelves. “It’s sort of my fault. While she was waiting for the house to close, she was helping me sort books and, well, I got a lot of travel books at an auction. I think she was inspired.”

  “Inspired to do what?”

  “Travel. Linda is a tremendous reader and she decided she is going to spend the summer in England and visit places related to her favorite books.”

  “What a cool idea.”

  “I think so too. She wants to see the Yorkshire moors from The Secret Garden and the Brontë books. And of course, Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon. She’s also talking about going to Agatha Christie’s house in Devon, Beatrix Potter’s Lake District cottage, and Jane Austen’s house at Chawton in Hampshire. In London, she plans to visit John Keats’s place, the only surviving London home of Charles Dickens, and of course, Sherlock Holmes’s famous flat on Baker Street. She’s also making a special point to see the Paddington railway station because she loved the Paddington Bear books.”

  “That’s going to be quite an involved trip. No wonder she’s renting the place to me for the whole summer.” Brigid grinned as she took the key from Margaret. “I can certainly understand wanting to take a vacation. That’s why I’m here. My plans are nowhere near that ambitious though.”

  “Linda told me you were here to relax and I think that’s wonderful. I think many of us tend to work too hard. Most people don’t take enough vacations—I know I certainly haven’t. But I have a trip all set up for later in the summer when my daughter will be available to take care of the store.”

  “Could you tell me where the house is?”

  “Oh, it’s just a few blocks from here.” Margaret gestured as she described the streets and landmarks. “If you enjoy walking, you can easily walk back here to the store. Do you like to read?”

  “I have some novels in the car, but I’m sort of at a crossroads in my life, you might say. I was thinking after I have settled in a little bit, I might get some books to help me figure out what I’m going to do next.”

  “Oh dear, I’m sorry. I can talk about books forever and you are probably anxious to see the house.” Margaret waved her arms in a shooing motion. “Enjoy! But please come back and I’ll show you some of my favorite self-help books.” She chuckled. “I think I have probably read them all. If you need anything at the house, just let me know.”

  Brigid clutched the key in her hand and said goodbye to Margaret. People certainly were friendly here. She couldn’t remember ever having a conversation like that with someone at a big box bookstore. It was clear that the little shop was well-loved. She’d definitely be back.

  As she strolled back to her car, Brigid looked up at the huge maple trees that lined the side street. The leaves were a brilliant spring green, creating dappled shade on the sidewalk. It was so peaceful here and so far away from her life in the city that it was like a different world. She drove the few blocks to the address and stopped in front of a small house with light-brown siding and white trim. The little bungalow was constructed in a quasi-Craftsman style with big windows and a single dormer upstairs. The tidy front porch had white painted railings and a wooden rocking chair sat next to the bright red front door, practically inviting her to sit down and relax.

  Brigid ran up the path to the door, unlocked it, and walked inside. The living room had rich dark brown wood floors, and as Margaret had said, the furniture was obviously all new. It didn’t look like anyone had ever sat on the sofa in front of the fireplace. Brigid stepped into the kitchen, which was a “U” shape with sparkling white cabinets and shiny new counter-tops. She opened a drawer and found rows of shiny silverware organized into tidy compartments. The whole place was immaculate. She went upstairs to the bedroom and walked over to the dormer window. Standing in-between the slanted ceilings, she gazed out at the street and the maple tree that shaded the front yard.

  Unable to stop grinning at having found such a happy little house, Brigid ran back downstairs and started bringing in her things from the car. She couldn’t quite believe she was going to spend the whole summer here. It stretched out ahead of her like a tranquil green oasis in the desert of her troubled life.

  After Brigid unpacked and put away her few possessions, she realized it had been quite some time since she had eaten anything. The next item on her to-do list needed to be a trip to the grocery store. It would be a relief to shop at a different store—one where she had not had an accident requiring hospitalization.

  The local Save-a-Lot in Alpine Grove was smaller, older, and far less shiny than the grocery where Brigid had been run over. At least kids wouldn’t have as much surface area to get up to ramming speed. Since the shopping cart incident, Brigid had kept a much closer eye on unsupervised children who might be “helping” their mothers shop for food.

  Brigid needed staples like milk and butter, so she went toward the refrigerated section. In front of one of the dairy cases, two women were laughing so hard they seemed to be having trouble breathing. A petite woman with long, dark wavy hair was leaning on the shopping cart and trying to catch her breath as the other woman, wearing a skin-tight red dress, burst into song, interspersed with choking laughter and some strange disco-like dance moves that would have made John Travolta weep.

  Brigid looked around. No one else seemed to be in the aisle witnessing the performance. People certainly seemed to have a lot more fun grocery shopping here than she did. As she walked toward the case, she smiled politely at the woman in the red dress and said, “Excuse me. I just need to grab some butter.”

  The woman flipped her huge mop of curly brunette hair, yelped, “Butter!” and pointed at the other woman. “If you’re not gonna let me make cookies out of a tube, I need that, right?”

  The other woman giggled and nodded. “And sugar. Oh, and brown sugar too.”

  Brigid stood and waited as the curly-haired woman launched into
a medley of songs related to sugar, including Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones and Sugar, Sugar by the Archies. Brigid groaned mentally. Now that stupid song was going to be stuck in her head all afternoon. Maybe the rental house had a stereo, so she could purge the Archies from her brain.

  The other woman moved her shopping cart and said, “Maria, you need to get out of the way.”

  Maria stopped singing, apparently realizing that she was blocking access to the shelves. “I’m sorry!” She turned and pointed at a package of biscuit dough that appeared to have exploded out of the end of the tube, leaving a pale cylinder of dough drooping off the shelf of the refrigerator case. “But look at that.”

  Brigid smiled slightly and tried to repress a giggle. It looked like the Pillsbury Dough-boy had some kind of unfortunate dysfunction going on.

  Maria shook her finger at Brigid. “See there, I can tell by your face. I know exactly what you’re thinking! It’s not just me. My friend Kat here says that I have a dirty mind. But I’m sorry—that is a very sad limp situation and I just don’t like to see that because it reminds me of a few extremely disappointing evenings.”

  Kat leaned on the shopping cart and wiped a tear of laughter from her eye with her fingertip. “Please, please don’t sing Tube Snake Boogie again. I’m begging you.”

  Maria put her hand on her hip. “It was totally appropriate and you know it.”

  Brigid pointed at the refrigerator case, “I just need to get some butter.”

  “Don’t touch the tube snake. You don’t know where it’s been.” Maria said.

  “Or who it’s been with,” Kat said.

  “This is the dairy case.” Brigid said, “Maybe it’s got the jack.”

  “And who knows what else!” Maria whooped and pointed at Brigid. “I like you! You just gotta love a woman who can intersperse obscure AC/DC lyrics with her cheese.”

  Brigid transferred a box of butter to her cart and said, “I guess now that we’ve shared dirty song lyrics, I should introduce myself. My name is Brigid and I’m renting a house here for the summer.”

  Kat held out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Kat and this is Maria.”

  “I haven’t lived here long either,” Maria said. “But Kat believes that by this point, I should see if my oven is functional. And I believe that cookies are the only reason anyone would ever want to turn on an oven. So now we are discussing the merits of prefabricated cookie dough in a tube versus the old-fashioned hard way.”

  “It’s not hard!” Kat said. “The recipe is right there on the bag of chocolate chips.”

  Brigid nodded. “They are so good when you make them from scratch.”

  Maria rolled her eyes melodramatically. “Cooking from scratch is not something I have any desire to do. Why would they bother to put things in pretty packages if you’re not supposed to eat what’s inside?”

  Kat held up a tube of cookie dough. “See that? Artificial flavor. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with avoiding artificial stuff.”

  “The engineer is turning you into a health nut, isn’t he?” Maria said.

  Kat put the tube back in the case. “No. I was a vegetarian before I met Joel, remember?”

  “That doesn’t make you a health nut. Potato chips are vegetarian. You cook now and you know it.” Maria pulled the cookie dough back out of the case. “I refuse to yield to that level of domesticity.”

  Kat took the tube and put it back. “All right! I’ll make the cookies for you. Just to prove to you how easy it is.”

  “I knew you’d cave.” Maria smiled smugly. “Now that we’ve settled that issue, we need to look at new toys for my possessed cat.”

  “Your cat is not possessed.” Kat said.

  Maria gestured toward the pet aisle. “She’s hiding the seven thousand toys I bought somewhere, so I’ll keep buying more. You don’t live with Scarlett, so you don’t understand. I think you need to board her at your place to be sure she’s not actually the devil’s spawn.”

  “How many times do I have to tell you? I don’t board cats.” Kat rolled the cart forward out of the way of another shopper. “Get a dog. There’s a really cute one at the vet that needs a home.”

  Maria turned to Brigid. “How do you feel about cats versus dogs?”

  Brigid shrugged. “I love both really. We had dogs and cats when I was growing up, but it’s been years since I’ve had any pet at all.”

  Maria pointed at Kat. “She is opening a boarding kennel, but she’s discriminating against felines.”

  Kat sighed. “That’s because it’s going to be a dog boarding kennel.”

  Brigid said, “Hanging out with dogs all day sounds like it would be fun.”

  “It depends on the dogs, but usually yes, I enjoy it.” Kat said. “Everything will be a lot easier when we finish building the kennels.”

  “So far, everyone who boards their dog there ends up getting a date, which I think is not fair to the cat ladies of the world. Particularly me, because I seriously need some action.” Maria waved toward the canned biscuits. “You know the situation is getting dire when even limp biscuits can bring back memories.”

  “Get a dog.” Kat repeated. “The little dog at the vet is there because her owner died. It’s so sad.”

  “Why is it at the vet?” Brigid looked at Kat’s blue eyes. They were a pretty cornflower color. It was unusual to look eye-to-eye at another person, since most people weren’t as short as she was. “Is the dog hurt or sick or something?” She couldn’t stand the idea that the dog had lost its family and was also in pain.

  “No. The dog is fine. Just homeless. They’re trying to find someone to adopt her, but right now, she’s just stuck in a cage at the clinic. I’m not sure what kind of dog she is, but she’s adorable. Her name is Gypsy. I would love to take her, but I think Joel would kill me.”

  Maria snickered. “Yeah, the engineer draws the line at five dogs and five cats, I guess.”

  Brigid said, “That’s a lot of pets. How did you end up with so many?”

  “It’s a long story,” Kat said. “You seem like a dog lover. Why don’t you adopt Gypsy? I’ll give you a free weekend of boarding if you do. She’s so sweet. The vet is just down the road. Tell them I sent you.”

  “I don’t know.” Brigid shook her head. “It’s probably not a good idea for me to adopt a dog right now.”

  “Just go look at Gypsy. I think she’d be perfect for you.” Kat looked at her watch and then at Maria. “I’ve got to get back. Let’s get the rest of the cookie ingredients and get out of here.”

  Maria pushed a clump of curly hair away from her face. “Okay, but first we need to stop by the kitty toys.” She gave Brigid a knowing smile. “Adopt the dog and then board it out at Kat’s place. You won’t be sorry.”

  “Spending so much time in the advertising business is turning you into quite the promoter,” Kat said to Maria. Turning to Brigid, she said, “It was nice to meet you.”

  Brigid said goodbye to the women and rolled her cart toward the milk case. As she grabbed a carton, she stopped and turned to look back at them. Given the peals of laughter, they’d found something funny in the pet aisle too.

  Maybe they were right. Why shouldn’t she adopt a dog? The house she had rented allowed pets. Although she wasn’t sure what would happen after the summer, one thing she did know for sure was that she wouldn’t be moving overseas again or dealing with complicated rules and quarantines. Now that she thought about it, the truth was that she missed having animals around. She loved hanging out with the dogs she’d had when she was a kid. And dogs were always glad to see you. That would be a novel change after so much time alone. If nothing else, maybe she could stop by and visit Gypsy. The poor little dog was probably lonely. Brigid could sympathize, since she certainly had a lot of experience with that emotion.

  Brigid put away her groceries, and looked at the clock. The veterinarian’s office probably wasn’t closed yet. Maybe she could just stop by for a short visit. She
looked up the address in the thin Alpine Grove phone book, grabbed her keys, and got in the Honda.

  She parked in front of the building, which seemed to be a rather popular place. A woman with curly reddish hair walked out with a rotund Labrador retriever who looked delighted to be exiting the veterinary clinic.

  If they were really busy, maybe this was a bad idea. But it seemed silly to have driven over for nothing. And little Gypsy was probably still lonely. Brigid got out of her car and went inside. The receptionist looked up at her and smiled. “May I help you?”

  Brigid looked around at the various people waiting. “I’m sorry, it looks like you’re really busy, but I met a woman named Kat who said you have a little dog here that is lonely.”

  The woman nodded her head vigorously and leaped up, her straight blonde hair sweeping her face. “We do! Come with me.” As she walked away, she turned her head and smiled. “I’m Tracy, by the way.”

  Brigid followed Tracy into another room that had rows of metal cages with various animals in them. Some appeared to be asleep and others were very, very awake. A hound began baying as Tracy approached. She crouched down in front of the cage. “Oh Roscoe, it’s okay. Your dad will be here soon.”

  Brigid peered into a cage with a card attached to it that said Gypsy. In the back, a small, furry caramel-colored dog was curled up on a little bed. “Oh my gosh, she’s so cute!”

  Tracy stood up. “She’s a little shy, probably because it’s so noisy here. I can tell you for sure, she’s not too fond of Roscoe’s barking. He has a little trouble shutting up. It’s a hound-dog thing.”

  “I just wanted to visit her for a little while. Kat said she’s lonely.”

  Tracy gestured at the cage. “Do you want to hold her? There’s an office over there where you can spend some time getting to know each other. Dr. Cassidy is busy with appointments, so she’s not using it right now.”

  “Could I?”

  Tracy opened the cage and the dog stood up, stretched, and yawned. “C’mon Gypsy. You have a visitor.” She pulled a leash out of her pocket, clipped it onto the dog’s collar, and handed Gypsy to Brigid. “Actually, she hasn’t been out in a while and I’ve got to get back out front. Could you take her out? It’s just through that door. Then you can visit in the office for a while.”