She went back to the beach again the next day, to follow Chase’s suggestion about the stray, and she had brought some signs with her and a staple gun to put them up on lampposts. She walked for an hour in the rain and didn’t find him, and she hoped nothing had happened to him, and felt guiltier than ever. Now she had abandoned a dog too, not just the man she loved in Nashville. “You are seriously messed up,” she said to herself as she walked back to her car in the parking lot. It was the only one there, other than an old wreck with no tires or windows, and as she opened her car door to leave, she saw a flash of movement behind her, as the same stray dog leaped out of the rusted old car and stood barking at her. His fur was plastered to his head in the rain, and she had never seen a dog look so pathetic, or so ugly. He was no beauty, but he was lively. And his blond matted hair that looked like a toupee made her laugh at him, and stoop to pet him.
“Well, hi, there. I’ve been looking for you.” He’d cleverly used the abandoned car for shelter. “You are a mess.” She could almost hear him saying she didn’t look so great herself, and she stood there in the rain trying to decide what to do, and left her car door open. With one glance at her, he jumped into the car, sat on the front passenger seat, and barked at her, as though to tell her to get in and let’s go home. She took the posters she’d made out of the car then, walked to three lampposts in the parking lot and attached them with the staple gun, and went back to where the dog was waiting on the front seat of her car. “Okay, you win,” she said to him, and with that he lay down on the front seat and went to sleep as she smiled at him.
She stopped at the supermarket on the way home, and bought some dog food, and a collar and leash in the pet section, and she called the SPCA from her car phone, and described him. They said they had no missing dogs listed with that description but the man she talked to listened carefully when she described him as a miniature Appaloosa, dachshund, Chihuahua, maybe Yorkie mix.
“I’m not so sure of that,” the man at the SPCA said after she’d described him. “He sounds more like a rare pedigree breed, they’re called Hairless Chinese Crested. Their bodies are hairless and kind of brindle and spotted, with ears, head, and tail with what looks like a wig with a bad blond dye job. And they do look a little like a Chihuahua, only slightly bigger, right?”
“Exactly.”
“They’re rare and expensive. Someone will call us,” he assured her. And in the meantime, she made a bed for him in the kitchen, he slept a lot, and he was happy to see her whenever she walked into the kitchen. She told Chase about him, and he said the dog sounded ridiculous.
“I thought he’s a mutt,” she told Chase the first night. “But he isn’t, he’s some rare breed called Hairless Chinese Crested. He’s the silliest thing I’ve ever seen, and he’s really sweet.” She sent him a photo of the dog, with her cell phone, and Chase called her back laughing.
“Are you kidding? That’s not a dog, he looks like he’s wearing a wig. We should get him a job in Vegas.” They both laughed about it. But by the end of a week no one had claimed him. She’d even left a notice with Pets Unlimited, which had an adoption center, but no one called. She sat looking at him in the kitchen a week after she’d found him and shook her head. She had debated about giving him to the SPCA to find a home for, but he was so cute and funny, she didn’t want to give him up.
“Looks like it’s you and me, kid. But you’ve got to stop wearing that bad toupee. You just look silly.” He barked at her as though he thought so too, and his middle section looked naked and even more absurd with the spots. “I think you need a good haircut and a sweater.” She took him to a pet shop that morning and bought him a red sweater and red collar and leash, and the pet shop owner recognized the breed immediately and told her how rare they were.
“I’ve always wanted one, but they’re too expensive and look kind of delicate to me.” He wasn’t though, and had survived his homeless life on the beach, and when she took him to a vet, they told her he was about a year old, very healthy, and slightly small for the breed. They gave him his shots in case he’d never had them, and asked Stephanie his name. She stared at the dog blankly.
“I don’t know. He didn’t tell me.” The dog barked and looked more like a normal Chihuahua in the red sweater, and she couldn’t think of any Chinese names. “Pedro. Pedro Gonzales,” she said with a straight face as though she’d just remembered, and they wrote it down and opened a file for him under Pedro Gonzales Adams. She had a dog. She called Chase as soon as they left the vet, and she sounded elated.
“I’m keeping him. No one called for him. His name is Pedro.”
“I wish you sounded that excited about keeping me. I can’t wait to meet him,” Chase said with a loving tone.
“The vet says he’s about a year old, very healthy, and a little small. And he is that Hairless Chinese Crested breed. He really looks weird.” He had seen that from the picture from her cell phone.
“My vet says I’m forty-eight, and very healthy too, and, listen, if you’re into blond wigs like that, I’ll wear one.” But he was happy she had company. She had been sounding so down and lonely, and he felt that way too. Sometimes he was frustrated by her search for herself, which was keeping them apart, but he tried to be patient about it, so as not to upset her further, and slow things down. He hoped she’d come to some positive conclusions for them soon. She had been doing volunteer work for the homeless shelter again when they needed her, and her kids were coming home for Thanksgiving in a few days. But she still had no answers and she was no closer to coming back to Nashville than she had been before she left. Chase was going to Memphis for Thanksgiving with his son, and Michael had invited Sandy to San Francisco for Thanksgiving, and she was coming. Her girls were in an uproar over it, but Stephanie supported Michael’s decision to bring her.
“Mom, it’s our first Thanksgiving without Dad. He can’t bring her.” Charlotte had objected, and Louise was incensed.
“Yes, he can. It will be good for all of us to have someone new here.” She didn’t want them crying all day. It was going to be hard enough as it was. And she saved Pedro as a surprise.
Charlotte and Louise flew home from New York together and arrived on Wednesday afternoon, and Michael and Sandy landed two hours later. By Wednesday evening, Stephanie had her whole family at the house, and was facing the weekend with trepidation. The girls knew she had left Nashville three weeks before, and they were hoping that her romance with Chase was on the rocks, but no one asked. And she didn’t know the answer to that herself. She and Chase still spoke to each other, sometimes several times a day, and were in love, but Stephanie couldn’t figure out how to be part of his life without feeling she had given up her life and everything she was. And she felt that there was no way to do it by half measures. She was either in or out, as far as she was concerned, and for now she didn’t know which. And Chase was so miserable he was writing songs about her every night. He said it was one of those extreme times when the only outlet for his sadness was in the creative process, which made her feel even more guilty. She was still in some kind of downward spiral, and the only thing that cheered her up was Pedro, and the calls from Chase.
The girls were the first to arrive, and Charlotte went out to the kitchen to get a drink, and Pedro was standing in the middle of the room in his red sweater, staring at her, and she screamed as her mother and sister walked into the kitchen.
“Oh my God, what is that?” Charlotte said, laughing at him. “He looks like a rat in a wig.”
“Don’t listen to her,” Stephanie instructed him. “His name is Pedro, and he happens to be a very fancy breed called a Hairless Chinese Crested.”
“Where did you get him?” Louise asked with interest, and even she looked amused. He was so funny looking, even in his fancy red sweater. And his name seemed to suit him.
“We met on the beach.” She picked him up as she said it, and he licked her face. He was affectionate and very well behaved, and rarely left her side. She couldn�
��t imagine how his previous owners had lost him. And she had sent away for his dog license and ordered ID tags. She’d even had a chip put in his shoulder with her name, address, and phone number on it in case he got lost again. She had fallen in love with the funny-looking dog, and both girls liked him.
Charlotte and Louise were more pleasant to her than they’d been in a while, and Louise was the first to ask her, with a hopeful look, “So is it over with your rock star?”
“No, it isn’t. We’re trying to work things out, or I am.”
“It must be a pretty uncivilized life in that business. He looks a little rough around the edges on YouTube.” Stephanie didn’t like the remark.
“He’s not,” Stephanie said quietly, “other than long hair and tattoos. He’s a gentleman, and a lovely person. I’m the problem, he’s not.” She hadn’t liked the tone of what her daughter had said. Louise was all too willing to think and say bad things about him, and about her mother too. And even Sandy, whom she’d never met.
“I hope you’re going to be nice to Sandy,” she said to both of them, but she considered it unlikely, and she thought Michael was courageous to bring her, but he wanted to be with her for Thanksgiving. And Stephanie could only imagine what it would have been like if she had tried to include Chase. They would have been extremely rude, and she didn’t want him subjected to their abuse. He was a good man, and she loved him, and he deserved a lot better than that.
The girls went to their rooms, and Stephanie came downstairs the moment she heard Michael and Sandy arrive, and Stephanie gave her a big hug. Sandy looked thrilled to see her. And as they were hugging, Pedro came out of the kitchen to check them out. Michael burst out laughing as soon as he saw him.
“What on earth is that?”
“His name is Pedro, and he lives here,” she said with a broad grin, as Sandy hugged her again, and Michael picked the dog up.
“I’ve never seen a sillier dog in my life. Or is he some kind of hamster?” She told him about the breed, and they both laughed as Michael set him down and Pedro began dancing around in circles and barking. He looked like a wind-up dog on the sidewalk, the kind street vendors try to sell to children. It seemed to be some kind of trick he had been taught, and Stephanie had never seen him do it.
“How’s Chase?” she asked Sandy softly as they walked upstairs to Michael’s room with her bags, and her face grew serious immediately.
“He’s very sad, and he looks awful. All he does is stay up all night and write songs about you.” What she said and her expression when she said it nearly tore Stephanie’s heart out.
“I really miss him,” she said to Sandy as they walked into Michael’s room and she set her bags down. Sandy was wearing jeans, a white V-neck sweater, and a leather jacket with her blond hair loose down her back. She seemed like any other girl her age, and she was wearing very little makeup. She only wore heavy makeup and sexy clothes when she was on stage. A moment later Charlotte walked into her brother’s room, and the two girls looked each other over. Stephanie couldn’t help thinking they were like two dogs circling each other. Charlotte was curious and cool, and Sandy seemed nervous and held Michael’s hand. Stephanie was letting them share the room. There was no point pretending they weren’t sleeping with each other. She would have done the same for the girls, although Bill would never have allowed it for any of them. Things had changed. They were Stephanie’s rules now, and Michael had thanked her for it, and added that he would never have brought Sandy home if his father were alive. Stephanie had always been more practical and more relaxed, and Bill more puritanical for their children.
And Louise walked in a moment later, glared down her nose at Sandy, shook her hand, and left the room. It was what Michael and his mother had expected of her.
They all had dinner in the kitchen that night, and afterward they all went out to meet up with friends who were home for Thanksgiving. Sandy hung back for a few minutes before they left and thanked Stephanie for letting her come, said they had a beautiful house, and told her how much she missed her in Nashville.
“I miss you too,” Stephanie said sadly. And a few minutes later they all went out separately to meet up with their own friends. She heard them come in after midnight, but didn’t get up to see them, but the next morning they all had breakfast together.
Charlotte and Sandy helped her set the Thanksgiving table, and Louise went to her room without saying a word to Sandy, and Michael appeared to make sure that Charlotte wasn’t being rude to her. But much to Stephanie’s surprise, the two girls got along really well and discovered that they liked the same music. And Sandy got excited when she saw they had a piano. She went over and played a few chords, and then sat down for a minute, and sang a few lines of a song, as Charlotte came over and watched her.
“Do you sing?” Sandy asked her.
“A little.” Charlotte looked suddenly shy.
Sandy asked her about a song they both liked, and she started to play it, and they sang it together. They had a good time and sang together for a while, and Michael joined in, and Stephanie even joined them for a few minutes. It was fun and Sandy looked happy, and then they went to finish setting the table, and at six o’clock they sat down to Thanksgiving together. Stephanie had called Chase in Memphis, and told him how much she loved him, and how happy she was to have Sandy with them. He sounded tired and lonely, just as Sandy had described, but as always he was gracious to her. He never complained about the torture she was putting him through, or put her down for her need to find herself. He was hoping that if he let her do what she needed to do, she’d come back to him, but it didn’t look promising at the moment.
Stephanie said grace before they started the meal, and said a blessing for Bill, and the girls’ eyes filled with tears, and then they all started eating. The conversation was lively, particularly between Charlotte and Sandy, who seemed to like each other, and Louise was more restrained and said very little to anyone, especially her mother. And Michael hovered over Sandy, trying to make sure that everyone was nice to her, she felt comfortable, and Louise didn’t attack her. He was relieved that his youngest sister liked her. And when they needed a neutral topic of conversation, they talked about Pedro, who was sound asleep, lying on his back and snoring softly. They all agreed that he was the weirdest dog they had ever seen, but very sweet. And Stephanie loved him.
And much to Stephanie’s relief, they managed to stay off the subject of Chase until almost the end of dinner. And as she sliced the apple, mince, and pumpkin pies and put scoops of whipped cream on them, Louise couldn’t control herself any longer and turned to Sandy.
“What do you and Chase usually have for Thanksgiving, Sandy? Grits? Or spare ribs?” She couldn’t seem to help herself, and Stephanie looked horrified. Michael glared at her as though he wanted to kill her.
“No, we have turkey,” Sandy said pleasantly. “We even eat it with a knife and fork.” She was unfailingly polite, but Louise had gotten the message to back off.
“That was unnecessary and just plain rude,” Stephanie said to Louise as they cleared the table and set the plates down in the kitchen. “Why would you be rude to our guest?”
“Why would Michael bring her here the year Daddy died? You might as well just have invited Chase here.”
“Rest assured, if we stay together, next year I will,” Stephanie said sternly, and Louise looked as though she were about to scream as Michael walked into the kitchen.
“If you ever say something like that to her again, I swear, Louise, I’ll hit you.”
“Don’t threaten me. You shouldn’t have brought her.”
“Why? Because you can’t control your mouth? You may get away with being a bitch to Mom, but don’t try to pull that shit with me, or Sandy.”
“Oh, poor little thing, does she need you to defend her?” Louise asked, sounding just plain nasty. Stephanie hated to see that side of her take over her personality as it had for the past year. She sounded bitter and angry. But as she said it, t
hey heard a clear strong voice behind her.
“No, I don’t need Michael to defend me,” Sandy said in a drawl that was pure Nashville. “I can kick your ass all by myself, Louise, but I figured it would be rude to your mom if I did. So why don’t we just make an effort to be polite for her sake?” Sandy turned and stared Louise right in the eye. Louise was taller and stronger, but Sandy looked as though she meant it, and Charlotte burst out laughing, as Michael smiled.
“Don’t mind my sister,” Charlotte said easily. “She’s rude to us all the time. It’s kind of her trademark.” And as she said it, everyone in the kitchen relaxed, and Louise stormed out of the room and went upstairs.
“I’m sorry, Sandy,” Stephanie apologized to her, and put an arm around her and gave her a hug.
“I’m sorry I said I’d kick her ass,” Sandy said, appearing genuinely contrite. “I just figured that if I didn’t say it, she’d be baiting me all weekend, and I knew no one would like it, and it would upset Michael.”
“I’d like to see you kick her ass,” Charlotte said with a grin. “She always kicked mine when we were little.”
“I think she’s just really sad about your daddy, and she doesn’t know how else to express it,” Sandy said wisely. “And I guess she’s upset about your mom and Chase.”
“I kind of have been too,” Charlotte admitted. “We don’t want her to go out with anyone yet.”
“You’d like him,” Sandy said simply. “He’s a really great guy. And he loves Michael…and your mama. He wrote a song about her, and it’s number one.” Charlotte started to look upset and then relaxed. She didn’t admit it, but she liked Sandy, and she was willing to concede that maybe Chase was a good guy. They went to play the piano together after that, and sang duets. Charlotte had a pretty voice, and combined with Sandy’s powerful one, they sounded terrific. Stephanie smiled as she listened to them while she cleaned up the kitchen and Michael helped her.
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