After giving Mona a short walk around the yard, Kat led the dog inside the house and put the envelope on the entryway bench. She removed her coat and Mona sat quietly, looking on with interest as the human shook snow off her outerwear. Kat grabbed a towel from a hook on the wall and rubbed the melting snow off Mona, which the dog enjoyed immensely. She writhed and wagged madly, delighting in the free massage.
Kat grabbed the envelope and brought the dog through the kitchen into the living area, where Joel was sitting on the sofa. Even after months of living together, she never failed to appreciate his quiet, loving presence in her life. He had his feet on the coffee table and was flipping through a magazine with one hand and rubbing the side of his leg with the other. Looking up at Kat, he said, “I guess Mona made it here after all.”
Kat sat down next to him and Mona settled onto the rug in front of her. “This doesn’t seem like the scared, freaky dog Becca described. She talks really fast though, so maybe I missed something. I did look up how to deal with shy dogs in my books again and Mona isn’t acting skittish or nervous like they said. In fact, she loved being toweled off. It was so cute.” Kat leaned over and picked up the manila envelope. “So far, Mona seems really sweet. Not to mention relaxed.”
Joel looked down at the dog, who had already settled in for a nap. “She certainly seems a lot easier to deal with than Swoosie the spaz dog or the dachshund with the warped sense of humor. Is she going to be okay with the other dogs?”
Kat scanned the vet records and the neatly typed information sheet Becca had provided. “I think so. When we talked about it, Becca said Mona has never met a dog she didn’t like. It looks like she’s got a million notes about Mona’s behavior on this piece of paper. But there’s nothing about problems with dogs or cats. It sounds like they aren’t a big deal for her. I’m thinking we can introduce Mona to the gang in here instead of going outside into the freezing cold again.”
“You just don’t want to go outside.”
“True. Did I mention it’s cold out there? Would you go open the gate and let Linus upstairs? I thought we could start by just letting him up. Some dogs seem to find him a little intimidating at first, until they discover he’s just a big marshmallow.” She gazed intently into Joel’s dark green eyes. “By the way, is there something wrong with your leg?” Sometimes he wasn’t exactly forthcoming with information, so it was best to inquire.
“It’s sore. I probably shouldn’t have gone running with Swoosie.”
Kat gestured toward the windows. “Well, unless you have ice cleats, I think your fitness program is over for the year. It’s really snowing hard out there. Big fat clumps of snow. It looks like a holiday movie where they use those plastic-looking soap flakes for the fake snow.”
Joel frowned. “I hope Cindy will be okay. She was already whining about coming ‘all the way out here.’”
“Apparently to your sister, your world-class stuffing is worth the trip over the river and through the woods to our house. A few hours with her won’t kill you.” She looked down at Mona. “Okay little dog, are you ready to meet everyone?”
Joel got up, stumbled on the rug, and grabbed the bookshelf to keep from falling. “I’ll be right back.”
“Are you sure nothing is wrong?” Kat scowled. What was going on with him?
He darted a glance at her. “It’s cold and I was outside for hours moving that firewood under cover. I’m just sore. You’re not going to worry about the fact I tripped, are you?”
Kat crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I am a worrier. It’s what I do. But I’ll shut up about it.” For now.
“Okay. Watch out for thundering canines.”
Kat narrowed her eyes as Joel left the room. Was he limping? He had been out working out in the forest for ages dealing with firewood. Maybe he hurt himself. It would be like him to not say anything about it. The gate opened downstairs and the sharp clattering sound of claws hitting the stairs broke the silence. Mona shot straight up from her nap and was back on all four paws, looking alarmed. Kat held the leash and said softly, “It’s okay Mona. Sorry about the noise. Linus is a big guy and he can’t help himself.”
A huge brown hairy dog ran into the living room and skidded onto the rug, which slid in front of Kat toward Mona. Kat reached out her hand to pet his head. “Hi Linus. Meet Mona.”
Mona’s eyes were wide and she looked startled, but she wagged her tail tentatively at the larger dog. After engaging in some reciprocal sniffing, the two dogs seemed to determine that all was right in the canine universe. Kat relaxed her hold on the leash. That was a relief. One down. Four to go.
The gate creaked open again and the rest of the dogs thundered up the stairs. At the noise, Mona jerked the leash and Kat got up off the couch as the remaining four dogs came into the living room. She pointed at them. “Okay, you guys, be nice to Mona.” A golden retriever, border collie, collie mix, and an Australian shepherd mix joined Linus in a friendly group wag.
Kat led Mona over to the dogs, who continued to wag merrily at the visitor. Mona’s tail waved back and forth in response. “So are we all cool?” More wagging and sociable sniffing ensued and Kat walked back over to the sofa and sat down again. Mona settled back in on the rug in front of her. Kat reached down to pet her back. “You’re being so good, Mona. I think Becca was too hard on you. Maybe you just don’t like loud noises. I can relate to that.”
Joel returned to the living room, picked up his magazine, and sat down. “That seemed to go okay.”
“You’re limping.” She had paid more attention as he walked toward her, and she definitely wasn’t imagining it.
“Sorry.”
Kat reached out and touched his arm. “Did you hurt yourself and neglect to mention it to me?”
“Not lately.”
She tapped his arm more playfully. “Yeah, I know. You’re probably still annoyed about hurting your arm. But the dachshund won’t be back for a while. At least Mona is bigger, so it’s less likely I’ll lose her.”
“We can only hope.”
Suddenly, all of the dogs leaped up and ran for the door, barking hysterically. Mona stood at the end of her leash, looking confused. Kat stood up and smiled at Joel’s expression. “I think your sister has arrived.”
Joel sighed heavily and pushed himself up off the sofa again. “Great.”
The repetitive pounding on the door was incredibly annoying and Mona was obviously not happy about it. Kat stroked the dog’s head. Cindy’s visit wasn’t likely to be easy on anyone. “I’m sorry, Mona.”
At last, Joel shoved aside the pack of dogs and opened the door. A small boy ran by Joel, screaming his way through the kitchen and into the living room. The dogs looked on in interest. Kat was holding Mona’s leash, trying to prevent her from ducking under the sofa. The blonde child crashed into Kat’s knees. She bent and grabbed his shoulders. “Ow, that hurt!” At least, the impact caused him to stop screaming for the moment.
“I’m a fire engine!” he shrieked.
Kat sat down on the sofa and faced the boy. “Johnny, remember how Joel talked to you about using your ‘inside voice’ when you’re here? It’s really important now because we have a dog here that doesn’t like loud noises.”
“No! I have a voice. I can be loud whenever I want to. I don’t have to listen to you. Mommy says you’re strange. And my name is not Johnny. I changed it.”
“Okay, whatever your name is, I might be strange, but it’s my house. When you’re inside my house, you need to talk quietly.” She pointed down at Mona, who was lying at her feet with her eyes wide. “See how you scared the dog? You need to be careful not to scare dogs. They don’t like it and it’s mean.”
“It wasn’t mean!”
“Say that more quietly and maybe I’ll believe you. Try whispering.” The kid had been here twenty seconds and he was already trying her patience. It was going to be a long evening.
Johnny whispered melodramatically. “It was not mean!”
; Kat pointed at Mona again. “See how she looks more relaxed now? That’s because you were nicer and respected her feelings.”
Johnny ran back into the kitchen and wrapped his arms around Cindy’s legs. “Mommy, it wasn’t mean. I wasn’t mean!”
Cindy looked over at Kat. “What did he do?”
“Nothing,” Kat said. “We just have a dog here that doesn’t like loud noises. I tried to explain that to him.” Whether he understood was another story.
“Good luck.” Cindy turned to Joel, who was placing a grocery bag on the counter. “I don’t see why you couldn’t come to my place and make the stuffing there.”
Joel pulled a bunch of celery out of the bag and put it on the counter. “I refuse to make anything in your kitchen. You have no decent pots, pans, or knives. I don’t know how you cook anything.”
“You are such a cooking snob.” Cindy squinted at Joel appraisingly. “What’s wrong with you?”
Joel looked up. “Nothing.” He held a bunch of carrots and flopped the green tops toward Johnny, who was systematically opening and closing the lower kitchen cabinet doors. “You might want to keep an eye on him. Did you bring any games or anything?”
Cindy grabbed Johnny’s hand. “Why don’t we sit down at the table over here?”
The small child pulled away. “I want to go outside in the snow. I want to build a snowman!”
“No honey, we need to stay inside for a while. There’s not enough snow for a snowman. It’s just supposed to be flurries today. You’ll get to build a snowman soon though—I promise.” Cindy pulled out a chair and lifted him onto it. “I brought your coloring books.”
“I don’t want to color.”
Cindy pulled books and crayons from her bag and put them on the table. “You love to color, Johnny.”
“I’m not Johnny, I’m Sparky the Fireman.”
Cindy pulled out a big picture book and laid it on the table. “I brought that book too. We can read it later.”
“I want to play with Smokey and Snozzle and Squirty!”
“I know. Why don’t you color first?” Opening the coloring book to a page with a fire hydrant on it, Cindy said, “I have to help Uncle Joel with the food for the party tomorrow. Remember we talked about that?”
“I know.” Johnny picked up a red crayon and waved it. “Fire hydrants are red!”
Kat led the resident dogs downstairs, closed the gate, and returned to the kitchen. She said to Cindy, “All of our dogs are secured, so I can help Joel chop up the veggies. I can keep an eye on Mona if you want to keep an eye on Sparky over there. Do you want something to drink?”
Cindy shrugged. “What I really want is about six glasses of wine, but I still have to drive home. So I’ll settle for water.”
“Okay. Have a seat.”
Cindy walked over to the table and bent over Johnny, who was looking industrious, coloring hard. “That’s really nice. I thought you said fire hydrants were red.”
“I changed my mind. This one is in outer space.” He put his finger on a squiggle. “That’s a space man.”
Kat gave Cindy her water, then went to the counter and grabbed a knife. She turned to Joel, “So what are we chopping?”
He handed her the carrots. “Start with these.”
She went to the sink and said over her shoulder, “I think Mona likes Chelsey. Maybe it’s a shy-dog thing, but I think they are bonding.”
Joel whacked a pile of celery. “They’re probably comparing notes.”
Cindy leaned back in her chair. “There is something wrong with you.”
Kat turned to look at her. “Sparky tells me you think I’m strange.”
Cindy blushed slightly. “I’m sure I didn’t say that. He has an active imagination. I wasn’t talking to you anyway. Joel, what’s going on with your leg? You’re standing funny.”
He turned around and aimed the knife blade toward the great outdoors. “Nothing. I went running with a dog. It’s just sore.”
Cindy thumped her glass down on the table. “You idiot. Why would you do that?”
Kat turned to face the living room. What was going on here? Although Cindy could pick a fight with Joel in thirty seconds flat, this was a new tactic. “We had a dog stay here that needed a little extra exercise. I’m not a big fan of running or exercise in general, so Joel ran with her a few times.”
“You know you’re not supposed to do that!” Cindy said. “Your days on the track team are long over.”
Joel put down the knife. “It’s not a big deal.”
“Yes it is! You know what they said.”
Kat turned to Joel. “What who said?”
Cindy threw up her hands in exasperation. “You didn’t tell her? Do you guys ever actually talk to each other?”
“Tell me what? What are you talking about?” Kat said. It was like they were speaking some bizarre foreign sibling language.
“I broke my leg a long time ago,” Joel said. “I told you I broke a bone. But it’s not a big deal.”
Cindy got up and walked into the kitchen. “Yes, it was a big deal, you idiot. You had what, eight surgeries? Nine? It’s a miracle you can even walk!”
Joel leaned toward his sister. “I’m fine. Could you just drop this? I don’t want to talk about it.”
“You are such a pain. I hate it when you do this, Mr. Clam-Up-And-Never-Say-Anything.” Cindy looked out the kitchen window. “Oh crap! Look at the snow. It’s a white-out! I can’t even see my car out there.” Her shoulders slumped. “Poor little Myrtle is buried. It was supposed to be flurries.”
Kat peered out the window at the small Mazda hatchback that Cindy referred to as Myrtle. It looked like an igloo rising up from an expanse of frozen tundra. She turned to Cindy. “I think the snow had other ideas.”
Cindy crossed her arms across her chest. “I’ll take that glass of wine now. Clearly, I’m not going anywhere.”
“I can plow everything out in the morning,” Joel said. “By then the snow will have stopped and you can just go home and get ready for your party.”
Kat walked toward the pantry to get the wine. It was going to be very a long night. Maybe she’d pour a glass for herself too.
Kat returned to chopping carrots as Johnny yammered on about outer space and Cindy sipped wine. Periodically, Cindy offered advice or commentary on the cooking process, which Joel studiously ignored. The phone rang and Johnny leaped up out of his chair. “It’s the space men calling. I knew it! They’re making contact!”
Fortunately, Johnny was too short to reach the wall phone and Kat answered it. She smiled at the sound of her friend Maria’s voice.
“What is going on there, girlfriend?” Maria said. “What’s with all the screaming? Are you and the engineer doing something kinky?”
“No. Joel’s nephew has decided to be a fire engine again. Hold on for a second. I need to switch to another phone.” She waved at Joel and indicated that he should hang up the extension after she got downstairs.
Kat ran down to her office and picked up the receiver. “You can hang up now, Joel.”
The line clicked and Maria said, “You know, I never thought about it before, but the engineer has a sexy phone voice. He sounds different than in person. Maybe it’s just that he has to say something, so you don’t think the line went dead and hang up on him.”
“Oh give me a break. He speaks all the time and you know it.” Kat picked up one of the books on her desk and put it in a pile. If Johnny and Cindy were going to stay here in her office, it might be a good idea to tidy up a little. “So hey, what’s up? Happy Thanksgiving! Did you find a job yet? I thought you were going to go see your family this weekend.”
“No. Gas is expensive and my personal financial situation is what you might call precarious at the moment. It’s hard to believe that with as many people as there are in this city, that it would be so hard to find a job. My landlord also has no sense of humor when it comes to tardiness on my rent payments.”
Kat paused in her
book-relocation program. “I didn’t know it was that bad. Do you need a loan?”
“No. I have decided to return to my former profession, since it seems that my secretarial and organizational skills are not in high demand at this particular point in my career.”
“You mean bartending? I thought you said you never wanted to do that again. I believe you made some disparaging comments about the men who tend to frequent those establishments.” Disparaging was a polite way to put it.
“These are desperate times, girlfriend. I went back to the fern bar.”
“The creepy Fern Oasis? With the disgusting Lemon Drop drinks and aggressive plant life?” The place even smelled weird.
“You know it. The bartender there still thinks I’m cute and we had a discussion about part-time work after I showed him my mad mixing skills. I made him a killer Queen’s Part Swizzle and dazzled him with my technique. If you’re really good, you can mix the drink and not lose the stripey effect, you know.”
“I don’t know what that is, but I’ll take your word for it.” Kat threw another book on the stack, which was dangerously close to toppling over. How did her office always turn into such a disaster area? It was like books procreated in here.
“The bar environment isn’t as bad as it used to be. The fern place is progressive. They are seeing the writing on the wall and just went non-smoking, since they’re gonna have to at some point here pretty soon anyway. I’m thinking the cleaner air might improve the clientele—it might upgrade them from cigarette-stained beer guzzlers to clean-cut yuppie fancy-cocktail types. Those guys might tip better.”
“It’s probably better for the ferns too.”
“Not to mention me. When I was bartending in Vegas, I thought I was gonna die of lung cancer right there on the spot. They’d do an autopsy and find big, black holes in my organs.”
“Eww.” That was not an image Kat wanted to dwell upon.
“Yeah, but I’m sure my lungs are all pink again after years of plying the secretarial trade. The good thing is that working at night means I can still continue the quest for a new job during the day. If I ever get an interview, I’ll be at the ready.”
Snow Furries (An Alpine Grove Romantic Comedy Book 4) Page 2