But Rose continued. “He clearly abandoned you, Neely Kate. If you feel like you’re ready to date again, then you should.”
“What about you?” I asked. “You weren’t even married. You could date if you wanted to.”
She was quiet for a moment, then said softly, “I still love Mason.”
I put my hand over hers and patted it. “I know.”
She turned to look at me. “But sometimes I wonder if I should date anyway. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much if I dated someone else. But I worry about jumping into a new relationship too soon, like I did with Mason.”
“Do you know what I think?” I asked.
She searched my face, waiting.
“I think you’ll know when the time’s right. I think we both will. Until then, we’ll just live in your house with Muffy, and all three of us can become spinsters together.”
Rose laughed and Muffy barked her approval.
And I couldn’t help thinking that might not be so bad.
So why did I feel a huge hole in my heart?
Part Three
8
Rose
Neely Kate called the animal shelter as I drove toward town, but Hugo hadn’t shown up.
“You told Dr. Romano that his paw prints disappeared in the field,” Neely Kate said. “Did you see where they might have headed?”
“No,” I said. “The prints were in mud, but I lost them in a section that was covered with leaves. If I had to guess, I think he might have been headed toward the woods.” I cast a glance toward her. “But they might not have even been Hugo’s paw prints. Maybe we should give up. For all we know, he’ll come home on his own.”
“But it’s a case!” Neely Kate protested. “And I know it’s a small one, but the more solved cases we have under our belts, the better for our résumé.” When I hesitated, she added, “Heidi Joy would have called us if he’d turned up, and just think about those disappointed boys. Do you really want to quit now?”
I groaned. “No, but it feels like we’re looking for a needle in a haystack.”
“Let’s go check out the woods. If we don’t find him there, we’ll figure out our next steps.”
Neely Kate studied the GPS on her phone, giving me directions to a section of trees on the east side of the farm that was close to a county road. When we reached the spot she’d found, I parked the truck and glanced down at Neely Kate’s feet.
“I guess you’ll have to stay by the truck.”
She gave me an apologetic look. “I’ll make sure Hugo doesn’t get away if he comes out.”
I laughed. “I’m not sure there’s enough stain remover in all of Arkansas to get muddy dog stains out of those pants.”
“Hey,” Neely Kate said indignantly. “I need to do my part.”
I pulled her in for a hug. “You do your part and more. I’m not sure how I would have survived these last few months without you.”
She leaned back and pushed me away. “Go find Hugo. I’m hungry.”
I’d been hungry before our visit to the vet, but our conversation about dating had stolen my appetite. I hadn’t thought about dating. Part of me had hoped Mason would move back to Henryetta, although I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Maeve had hinted that he loved his new job in the state attorney’s office.
He was moving on, and I needed to do the same.
I forced a smile. “Just a warning—skunks are black and white too, but Hugo’s more white and black. Kind of like that pig.”
She stuck out her tongue. “Very funny. Just for that, if you get lost in the woods, I’m not ruining my sparkly new shoes to come find you.”
That was a lie, and we both knew it.
I slipped into the woods and headed toward the farm, calling out Hugo’s name every few steps. After I’d gone about twenty feet, I heard whimpering. I followed the sound and was surprised to see a white and black furball, covered in mud, stuck in something close to a tree.
“Hugo?” I called out as I moved closer.
The dog lifted his head and tried to run toward me—but he didn’t get very far. As I got closer, I realized he was snagged in some sort of netting that was stuck to the bark on a tree.
“Hey, buddy,” I said, rubbing his head to help settle him down. He was wet and shaking, either from fear or from being wet. Probably both. “Got stuck, huh?”
I started feeling his feet to figure out how he’d gotten stuck. The net had wrapped around his left front paw. At first I tried to untangle him, but then I simply jerked the net from the tree. I scooped him up and held him to my side as rain began to fall again.
When I emerged from the woods, Neely Kate was standing next to the truck, holding an umbrella over her head. Her eyes widened when she saw me.
“You found him?”
“Yeah, but he’s got something wrapped around his leg. He was caught on a tree. I think there’s a pocket knife in the glove compartment. Can you get it?”
“Yeah,” she said, already rounding the front of the truck. She was back with the blade within seconds.
I held Hugo close as she cut the netting from his leg.
“Is his leg okay?” I asked. “Do we need to take him back to the vet?”
Neely Kate laughed. “So you decided to give Dr. Romano a shot?”
“No!” I said, getting irritated, although I had no idea why. “I’m worried about Hugo.”
“Well, I think he’s fine, but we can always run back to the vet’s office if you want a second opinion.”
I shot her an exasperated look. “If his leg looks fine, then we should take him home. Unless you want to take him in.” I lifted my eyebrows to get my point across.
But Neely Kate seemed unfazed. She just chuckled and said, “Then let’s get this little guy home.”
There was no denying that Hugo was a muddy mess, and so was I, but I didn’t feel like riding in the back again, and I wasn’t about to let Hugo loose in the cab of my truck. We decided that I’d sit on the passenger seat and hold Hugo while Neely Kate drove; then we’d clean off the vinyl seat when we got home. I wondered how Muffy would take this arrangement, but she whimpered as she sniffed Hugo’s head and even licked his face a few times.
“Looks like one of us is ready to start dating,” Neely Kate laughed. “One less spinster at the Gardner farm.”
Heidi Joy’s front door opened as soon as we pulled up to the curb, and four little boys spilled out, nearly tripping each other. Hugo caught sight of them as soon as the door opened, and he started squirming and whining until I opened the truck door. I hadn’t planned to put him down—I didn’t want him running off again—but he wiggled out of my hold and landed on his feet. He took off running, but this time he headed straight for the boys.
They threw their arms around him, all four shouting Hugo’s name and telling him how much they’d missed him.
Heidi Joy made her way outside, with her youngest boy clinging to her legs and her baby on her hip, and looked up at us in amazement. “You found him.”
“We did,” Neely Kate said, grinning from ear to ear.
“How?” Heidi Joy asked.
“We thought we found his tracks,” I said. “So I followed them onto the McManus farm, but then we lost them. After Neely Kate pulled up a map of the area, we checked the woods next to the farm and found the spot where it connects to the farm. Poor little guy was caught in what looked like a fishing net, although I have no idea how a fishing net got out there. I got him loose, and Neely Kate said his leg looked okay, but you might want to check it out after you give him a bath.”
“He was stuck?” Heidi Joy asked, wiping a tear from her eye. “You two saved him. I know the woods on the east side of the farm. The Whites own it, and they rarely go out there. We never would have found him.”
“Well, he’s safe now, and the boys are happy,” I said. “We’re just happy to have helped.”
Heidi Joy wrung her hands, still distraught. “Is there anything I can do to repay you?”
/> Neely Kate shook her head. “We were happy to do it. If you want, you can tell your friends we’re good at solving cases.”
I shot Neely Kate a look and shook my head in bemusement. She was bound and determined to make us investigators.
“I will,” Heidi Joy said, then looked down at her boys. “Andy Jr., bring Hugo inside and let’s get him cleaned up.”
“Oh,” I said. “You might call Dr. Romano to let him know Hugo’s safe.”
Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You called Dr. Romano? How’d you know he was our vet?”
“Well . . .” Neely Kate drawled. “We happened to stop by about something else and mentioned Hugo was missing. He said he’d keep an eye out.”
“I’ll call him right away,” Heidi Joy said. “Thanks again.”
Neely Kate and I got into the truck, and I told her to head home. “I’ll just track mud into the office, and it’s close to quitting time anyway. I say we go home.”
“We can watch a movie,” Neely Kate said, “although I think we’ve seen every chick flick on Netflix rated four stars or higher. Maybe it’s time both of us started working on a social life.”
“We can start a social life tomorrow,” I said. “I have my usual Tuesday night plans.”
She shot me her usual questioning look, but she didn’t ask; I didn’t offer.
After we got to the farmhouse, I took a long shower. When I headed downstairs, the smell of Italian spices hit my nose.
“Are you cooking?” I asked.
“Nothing fancy, just some spaghetti with homemade sauce and some garlic bread I found in the freezer,” Neely Kate said, scooping some onto two plates. “And we’re eating at the table—with napkins even. After our talk at the vet’s, I’ve decided it’s time for both of us to stop moping around.”
“We haven’t been moping around,” I countered, taking the plate she held out. I grabbed a piece of bread from the cookie sheet on the stovetop.
“Okay, maybe we’ve moved past moping, but there’s no denying we’re stuck in a rut.”
I couldn’t argue with her there.
“So . . .” she said, giving me a sly look. “Your standing date. You plan to tell me what you’re doin’?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m pretty sure you’ve figured out what I’m doin’.”
“So why the big secret?”
“He thinks it’s better this way. He’s trying to protect me.”
“And how exactly does he go about protecting you?”
I groaned at the insinuation in her voice. “We’re just friends, Neely Kate.”
“What do you guys do?”
“You know what we do. We talk.”
She was dying to know more, but she let it go.
By the time we finished cleaning up the kitchen, it was later than I’d realized. I was about to grab my purse when Neely Kate’s phone rang. She looked at the screen and her face paled.
“Who is that?” I asked, worried.
She shook her head and stuffed her phone into her pocket. “Granny.”
“Why did you look so startled, then?”
“I wasn’t startled. I was terrified. She wants me to take her to bingo.”
“I thought Dolly Parton was taking her to bingo these days.”
“She must have had something come up.”
“Can’t you get out of it?”
“I’ll take care of it.” Neely Kate’s phone dinged with a text, but she left it in her pocket.
“Aren’t you going to check your message?”
Her upper lip curled with annoyance. “No. They’re just tryin’ to guilt me into takin’ her.” She set the dishrag in the sink. “You better get goin’. You don’t want to be late.”
I gave her a long look, then headed out the front door.
I spent most of my fifteen-minute drive wondering who had really texted her and why she’d lied.
9
Joe
I sat on my front porch drinking my third beer of the day. I knew it wouldn’t solve anything, but it helped numb my newest pain.
I was too late.
A car drove down the lane, and I sat up to get a better view, but a wave of disappointment washed over me as the car stopped and Maeve got out.
“You could make an old woman paranoid with that look,” she said with a laugh. She was carrying a basket, and I could already smell the food inside it.
“Sorry, Maeve. You know I love seeing you—even if you didn’t bring me food.”
She grinned as she climbed the steps. “So you’re saying you don’t want me to bring you food?”
My mouth twitched into a grin. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
She set the basket on the table between our chairs, then disappeared into the house. When she came back, a plate and fork in hand, she sat in the empty chair.
“I would have gotten you a drink, but you already seem to have one.”
She thought I drank too much, though she was kind enough not to say so outright. I knew it was true, but this one felt warranted. “It’s been a rough day.” Then I added, “Rose came by this afternoon.”
She paused before she said, “Oh.” She turned to face me. “Joe, I respected your request. I didn’t tell her.”
I shrugged and took a swig of my beer. “She found out from someone in town.”
“I see.” She pulled a container out of the basket and scooped a heaping serving of some sort of delicious-looking casserole onto the plate, then handed it to me. “And how did your visit go?”
“It’s Rose. How do you think it went?” I grinned. “A mixture of sweetness and irritation. She yelled. I got mad.” Maeve looked worried, but I shook my head. “No, it’s good. She told me things that I needed to hear, even if a few of them hurt.”
“So does that mean you’re ready to go back to work?”
I scowled.
She handed me the plate full of food. “The house looks like it’s coming along.”
“It’s amazing how much I can get done with so much time on my hands.”
“So you’re thinking about becoming a carpenter?”
“Would that be so bad?”
“Does it give you purpose?”
“Aren’t you supposed to ask if it makes me happy?”
“Happiness is fleeting, Joe. Purpose is what we need.” She leaned closer. “Does this fill you with purpose? Or does law enforcement?”
“I don’t deserve to wear a badge.”
“I think this whole mess with your father has made you more deserving than most.”
I leaned my head back and groaned. “Maeve.”
“You have something to offer, Joe. You have a humbleness about you that you didn’t have before.” She took a breath and her eyes hardened slightly. “You may not want to hear this, but Mason’s demotion to Fenton County made him a better person. It changed him. Rose changed him just like she changed you. She made him see that everything isn’t black and white.”
“The law requires black and white, Maeve.”
“True, in most cases, but Mason learned to show compassion where it was deserved. The FBI showed you compassion; maybe it’s your purpose to pay it forward. Maybe you’re supposed to show compassion to someone in trouble. Someone who’s gotten caught up in something out of their control.”
I wasn’t convinced it would be that easy, but I understood what she was saying in theory.
“You’re good at what you do, Joe, but only you can decide what gives you the most purpose. I’ll support you no matter what you decide. Just don’t let fear make your choice for you.”
“How’d you get so wise?” I asked, taking a bite of her casserole. “And how’d you find time to make this? I thought you and Anna were keeping the nursery open until six, now that the weather’s nicer.”
She flashed a smile. “I’m a woman of mystery.” She stood. “And with that, I’ll be off before I spill any of my secrets.”
I laughed, but I had to wonder if Maeve had secrets. She s
eemed to be such an open book.
“Why are you so good to me?” I asked, my voice breaking.
“Joe.” Tears filled her eyes. “Someday I hope you learn to see the person I see.” Then she got into her car and left.
10
Rose
James was already there waiting, not that I was surprised. He usually beat me.
As soon as I pulled up behind the Sinclair station, he got out of his car and waited for me to climb out.
I offered him a smile, and we walked silently to the back of my truck and put the tailgate down.
“What’s with all the mud?” he asked. “Were you carting around plants when the storm hit?”
“No, I carted a pig to the vet.”
He gave me a long look. “Do I want to know?”
I laughed. “Probably not.” Then I hopped up onto the tailgate.
He lifted a shoulder into a shrug and pulled his flask out of his back pocket before he sat down next me.
I grabbed it from him, unscrewed the cap, then took a swig.
He took it from me and downed his own swig.
We were silent for nearly a minute, staring at the red and pink sky.
“We’re going to have to start meeting later if we’re going to keep watching the sunset,” I said.
“Hey,” he said defensively. “The sunset was your idea.”
“Yeah,” I countered, turning to face him. “Because you said you’d never sat and watched one. I had to remedy that.”
“And now I’ve seen one. I’ve seen several.”
I put my hands behind me and braced myself with stiffened arms. “And you need to see more. You always seem less stressed when you leave.”
He smirked. “And you think it’s the sunsets that do that?”
I sat up and shoved my shoulder into his arm. “And maybe the company.”
Sins of the Father: Rose Gardner Mystery Novella 9.5 Page 7