by Maria Geraci
“Before nothing happens,” Luke said, giving Rusty the eye, “because we’re going to find him. Right?”
“Sure. Right!” Rusty said, finally catching on. “I’ll have the dispatcher phone this in. Every patrol car will be on the lookout for Toby. Yep. Finding the chief’s dog is our number one priority right now. Um, besides fighting crime, that is.”
“Thanks, Rusty,” Luke said wearily.
They got back in the truck, stopping at every local business and convenience store in town to give them a copy of Toby’s picture. Then they passed by The Bistro by the Beach and it occurred to him that he did know someone who might be able to help.
The Bistro was closed, but Sarah’s beat-up Honda was still in the parking lot. Luke pounded on the glass door. A couple of minutes later, she came out from the back and opened the door for them, waving them inside. Her hair was twisted up in a bun and she wore an apron smudged with flour. “Hey! What’re my favorite soccer player and his uncle up to this afternoon?” But before either he or Cameron could answer, she frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“Toby ran away,” Luke said, then he explained the situation as quickly as possible.
“I was about to make some quiches for tomorrow’s breakfast but, of course, they can wait.”
“You’ll help us?” Cameron said, sounding relieved.
“Of course. Don’t worry, kiddo, we’ll find your dog.” She met Luke’s gaze with a more serious look than her carefree words implied, but like his nephew, he instantly felt better. She rubbed her hands down her apron then locked the front door to the café. “Let’s go.”
The three of them climbed into his truck and began driving through town. They drove past Main Street and all the shops that they’d already stopped at, past the soccer fields and the nearby elementary school, but there was no sign of Toby.
“Did you check the area around the house?” Sarah asked.
“Of course,” Luke said. “We knocked on every door within a three-block radius.”
Sarah pondered this a minute. “I don’t know Toby well, but it sounds like he probably dug that hole because he was afraid. Maybe he’s still hanging out close by your house, hoping that someone will come back.”
“You think so?” Cameron asked eagerly.
“It can’t hurt to look there again.”
“I agree,” Luke said. They’d already thoroughly combed his sister’s neighborhood, but at this point, he was willing to do anything that made sense.
They drove through the streets slowly with the car windows rolled down while Cameron shouted out Toby’s name. But other than an occasional glance from a curious onlooker, it was eerily quiet. Luke glanced up at the sky. It would be dark within the next thirty minutes. If they didn’t find Toby soon, they might not find him at all.
Not an option, he thought grimly. He’d stay out all night if he had to.
“It’s past Toby’s dinner time,” Cameron said. “Do you think he’s hungry?”
Before Luke could think of how to answer that, the sound of barking caught their attention. They looked at one another with guarded hope on their faces. Sarah pointed to a side street. “I think it’s coming from over there.”
Luke swung his truck into a cul-de-sac and slowly circled the road. A beagle jumped up and down a chain link fence, barking. “That’s the Sheridans’ house,” Cameron said, deflated. He didn’t have to say it out loud. They’d all been hoping it had been Toby they’d heard.
“Let’s investigate,” Sarah said. “He’s got to be barking at something.”
Luke parked his truck on the side of the road. The beagle was still barking its head off, but at what, Luke had no idea. There was no sign of Toby or any other dog for that matter.
“To-by!” Cameron called out again. The poor kid was almost hoarse from yelling.
“Is there any place that you walk Toby that he particularly likes?” Sarah asked. “Like a park or a jogging path?”
“Not really,” Cameron said. “Sometimes we take him to the soccer field. He likes to watch us kick the ball around and it’s close by. But we already tried there.”
“Let’s try again,” she said.
They drove back to the soccer field, but it was deserted. Luke was about to suggest that they take a break and grab some food. He wasn’t hungry, and he doubted Cameron wanted to eat, but all they’d had today was snacks. He tried to think what his sister would do in this situation. Would she insist that Cameron stop to eat dinner? It might be the practical thing to do, but it smacked of giving up and no way in hell was Luke about to do that.
“I think I see something!” Sarah shielded her eyes from the setting sun as she peered into a distant clump of trees.
“Where?” Cameron asked, excited. He yelled out Toby’s name again, and this time, there was a faint bark in return.
Sarah turned to Luke. “Did you hear that?”
“Yep.” Luke took off running for the nearby wooded area with Cameron and Sarah on his heels. The barking grew louder and then out of nowhere, Toby emerged from the trees, running toward them.
“Toby!” Cameron yelled.
Toby dashed forward, barking in excitement. Cameron reached out to grab him but at the last second, the dog zipped past him.
“Toby! Come back here!” Cameron ran after the dog, but every time he got close enough Toby ran the other way.
Luke lunged for Toby, trying his best to grab him by the collar, but Toby was too quick. He continued to run, zigzagging and dodging their attempts to grab him like it was all some big game. “What the—”
“He thinks we’re playing!” Sarah said, leaning over to catch her breath. “Where’s his leash?”
“I didn’t think to bring it.” Cameron looked as if he was about to cry. “I wish I had a bone or something.”
“Oh!” Sarah glanced down at her apron. “I’d forgotten I was still wearing this. Here, this might do the trick.” She reached into her apron pocket and pulled something out, then softly called the dog’s name. Toby stared at her, his long tongue panting in excitement. His ears perked up, and then, out of the blue, he trotted toward her and gobbled up whatever it was she had offered him.
Before Toby could get away, Cameron grabbed the dog, wrapping his arms around him. “Toby! You really scared me, boy,” he sobbed into the dog’s neck. Now that Toby had allowed himself to be “caught,” he stopped playing his catch-me-if-you-can game.
Toby licked Cameron’s face, or rather slobbered all over it, but Cameron didn’t seem to mind. Boy and dog were reunited and that was all that mattered.
Luke and Sarah exchanged a relieved look. “Thank God,” Luke muttered.
“All’s well that ends well,” Sarah mused.
“Easy for you to say. You didn’t almost lose your sister’s family dog.”
“And neither did you.” She studied him a long moment. “You were really worried, weren’t you?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.” Definitely. He watched as his nephew led the now docile dog toward the truck. When he thought about the way this evening could have ended… Nope. Luke was definitely not a family man. He’d leave kids and dogs and all that mess to his brother-in-law’s more capable hands.
“What was that in your pocket anyway?” he asked Sarah.
“My secret weapon,” she said.
He raised a brow, waiting for her to continue.
Her green eyes shone with laughter as she shrugged. “What else? Bacon.”
Chapter Thirteen
“You totally cheated with that bacon trick.” Luke glanced at her from the driver’s side of the truck. The disgruntled look on his face was enough to make Sarah laugh.
“You’re just mad because you didn’t think of it first.”
“We don’t all walk around wearing aprons with bacon in the pockets.”
“And aren’t you glad I do?” She shrugged out of the apron and neatly folded it, placing it on the seat next to her. “I was in the middle of chopping some up to put in t
he quiches when I stole a piece for myself. I guess I must have put it in my pocket when you banged on the door.”
Cameron sat in the back of the truck with his arms around the dog. “Offering Toby that bacon. That was really smart of you, Sarah.” He said her name with a shy reverence that make her smile.
“Thank you, Cameron.”
She was rewarded with a big, toothy boy grin. Then he gave Toby another hug, which elicited more doggy drool to form a puddle on the truck’s backseat.
Luke noticed it too and visibly cringed.
“Relax. That’s what upholstery cleaner is for,” she said.
He rolled back his shoulders. “True.” He glanced at her again, but this time there was nothing but pure gratitude on his face. “Thank you.” The quiet way he said it made her knees feel wobbly. She thought about how worried he’d been about losing Toby and something inside her went all warm and fuzzy. Sincerity looked damned good on Luke Powers. “I’ll drive you back to The Bistro,” he said.
“Do we have to, Uncle Luke?” Cameron asked. He looked at Sarah. “We caught three big grouper today and we’re gonna filet ’em for dinner. You should eat with us.”
“Oh, that’s nice of you to ask, but—”
“Good idea. You should join us,” Luke said firmly. “You can finish the quiches later, can’t you?” When she didn’t answer right away, he added, “I promise you won’t have to do anything except sit back and enjoy a glass of wine. Cameron and I will do the rest. Right?” He glanced at his nephew in the rearview mirror for confirmation.
Cameron nodded eagerly. “Right!”
“You’re doing the cooking?” she asked Luke.
“Yep.”
“And the dishes, too?”
He made a face as if to say women. “Dishes, too.”
“Deal.”
* * *
“Where did you learn to make cheese grits?” Besides the cheese grits, he’d fried up the grouper and made the best hush puppies Sarah had eaten in a long time. Since they were a regional specialty, that was saying a lot. She leaned back in the patio chair and rubbed her full tummy. Luke was gorgeous, kind to his nephew, and had a soft spot for dogs. Plus, the man could actually cook. If she didn’t watch out, she was going to start liking him.
“A chef never tells his secrets,” Luke said.
“Oh? You’re a chef now?”
Toby barked as if agreeing with Sarah and even Cameron laughed.
“I’m beginning to feel very unappreciated here,” Luke grumbled.
“I think I can guess your secret ingredient,” Sarah said. “Gouda cheese.”
“How did you know?”
“It’s what I put in my mac and cheese that you seem to love so much.”
“The secret ingredient in my cheese grits is the same as in your macaroni and cheese?”
“Looks like it. Although I use a lot of butter and other things you don’t normally eat so your taste buds must be on overdrive when you sneak eat it.”
Cameron looked surprised. “You sneak eat, Uncle Luke?”
Luke made a grumpy man noise that made his nephew laugh.
The three of them, four if you counted Toby, sat around the backyard patio of the beach house, their empty plates evidence of a meal much enjoyed. After finding Toby in the woods, they’d gone back to Cameron’s house to pick up the fish and make sure Buttercup was taken care of. Sarah had fed Buttercup while Luke had cleaned out her litter box. Remembering the look on his face when he’d emptied it still made her giggle.
They were trying to figure out the stove when Cameron had suggested they go back to the beach house for dinner. “You promised Toby could play in the water,” Cameron had said. So, they’d packed up Cameron’s things for the night, stopped by The Bistro so Sarah could put away the quiche ingredients and get her car, then they’d headed back to Luke’s.
After dinner, at Sarah’s suggestion they’d made a small bonfire and roasted marshmallows over the flames to make s’mores. “No chocolate for Toby,” Luke warned. “It’s bad for dogs.”
“Poor dogs. I would die if I had to live without chocolate,” Sarah said, taking a not-so-delicate bite of the gooey, graham cracker delicacy. “I don’t think I’ve had a s’more in ages.”
“Me either,” Cameron said.
“I don’t think I’ve had one in a couple of decades,” Luke said, grinning.
They ate themselves silly, and now, with their bellies full and the fire dwindling, the evening was coming to an end. She sighed. The quiches would not make themselves. “I should probably hit my bed. I have an extra early morning tomorrow.”
“Aw, can’t you stay up a little while longer?” Cameron pleaded, obviously still wired up from the day’s events. “We could play cards. Or Monopoly. Or even watch a movie. You can pick.”
Luke gave his nephew a look. “Sarah gets up early, Little Man. Plus, she’s right. It’s getting late. We’ll play Monopoly tomorrow.”
“Can I at least take Toby down to the water?” he asked.
Luke craned his head to inspect the shoreline. It was past ten, but there was a full moon tonight and the lights from the beach houses along the shore provided enough illumination to be able to see well. “Okay. But just until this fire dies. Then it’s time to hit the sack.”
“Deal! C’mon, boy!” Cameron took off running for the beach with Toby following behind.
Sarah stood to get out of her Adirondack chair but Luke waved her down. “Stay a few minutes. I could use the company. Please?”
He said it quietly, in that same tone he’d used earlier, making it impossible for her to refuse. Luke could certainly be charming when he wanted to be.
“I guess a few more minutes can’t hurt.” She took another sip of her wine and watched as Luke toed off his sneakers and stretched his legs in front of him. They sat with their chairs side-by-side, keeping an eye on Cameron as he tossed a stick to Toby, who ran down the beach to retrieve it. Cameron’s laughter and Toby’s happy bark drifted back up to the patio, making everything feel warm and cozy.
“He’s a great kid,” she said. “You must be really proud of him.”
“I am.” He glanced at her. “I know I already said this, but thanks again for tonight.”
She shrugged. “You would have found Toby eventually.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” The ominous way he said it reminded her how seriously he’d taken his uncle duties today.
“You’re not such a bad guy, Luke Powers.”
“What happened to me being a selfish asshole?”
“Well, no one’s perfect all the time.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “And she’s back.”
“Seriously, if you put your mind to it, you’d probably make a decent father.”
“Nah. Today was all fun and games. Anyone can do that. The real work of parenting is the day in, day out stuff. Making sacrifices for your kids. Putting their needs before yours. It’s what Mimi and Zeke have been doing since before they could legally drink. A day of fishing and messing around? No problem. But the other stuff… I’m not cut out for that.”
The way he said it made her sad. She shook her head. It must be the wine making her melancholy. Luke was a confirmed bachelor. Not because circumstances had dictated it, but because that’s the way he wanted it. His “before they could legally drink” comment about his sister and brother-in-law made her remember something Zeke had said once about Luke being responsible for him and Mimi getting together, and she was curious. Now seemed as good a time as any to ask him about it.
“Zeke and Mimi must have gotten married pretty young to have a child ready to go off to college,” she said, hoping that would spur him to tell her the rest of the story.
Luke glanced down at his beer bottle. “Yep.” She waited for him to continue. He met her gaze, then let out a long sigh. “This isn’t my story to tell, but Mimi has never hidden the truth from anyone. She got pregnant her senior year of high school, but she never told Zeke abo
ut the baby. She didn’t tell our parents, either, until my mom figured it out herself. By then, she was about six months along.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah. I was in my sophomore year at Duke, so I was pretty much out of the loop, until I came back home for summer break.” He shuddered. “Lots of drama, lots of tears. Mostly all on my mom’s part.”
Seeing Ann Powers in action, Sarah could only imagine. “When did Zeke find out about the baby?”
“When I told him. After I punched his lights out, of course.”
“Wait. So, you told Zeke about your sister’s pregnancy?”
“I really thought the guy knew. I went to high school with him, but we weren’t close. He was a total loser back then. A brilliant athlete, and smart, too, but he cut too much class to make good grades and he was a pot head to boot. Plus, from what I’d heard about him, he was a real player. Basically, the last guy on earth I’d ever want for my sister.”
Sarah leaned forward in her chair. “This is Zeke Grant we’re talking about, right? The current chief of police of Whispering Bay?”
“Yeah, the guy really cleaned up well, didn’t he?”
“You could say that again.”
“Anyway, after I told him about the pregnancy, he made a mad dash to my parent’s house to propose to Mimi. Just in time, too.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about my parents. My mom, especially. They only wanted what was best for their daughter.”
Sarah nodded. “Of course, I can see that.”
After a few seconds, he said in a low voice, “My mom wanted Mimi to give Claire up for adoption. Had the whole thing arranged and everything. She wanted her to go to Duke and get her degree, and…”
“Live the life she was supposed to have,” Sarah finished softly. A life that probably included a sorority and grad school and a prestigious career. Not to mention a husband who made a high-six-figure income. “But, surely now that everything has turned out so well, she realizes how wrong she was.”