The Art of Wag

by Susan C. Daffron

  “I’m not sure. I don’t keep very good track of these things.”

  “You don’t know? Don’t you have a calendar or something?”

  Kat sniffed again and wiped her nose on her sleeve. Crying was so gross. “Do you remember what you were doing twenty-eight days ago?”

  He shook his head.

  “Me neither! We’ve been so careful. I probably just lost track. Or I’m late. But what if I am pregnant? I have no idea how you even feel about kids. I don’t know how I feel about kids!”

  Joel tucked a strand of tousled dark hair back behind her ear. “To be honest, I’m not sure. I’ve never really put much thought into it, since it was never an issue. It was one of those “maybe someday” things. But if I were going to have children with anyone, I’d want it to be you.”

  Kat wrapped her arms around him and sobbed uncontrollably into his chest. He put his arm around her and stroked her hair until she was completely cried out. All the stress and crying left Kat feeling drained, shaky, and headachy. She slowly lifted her head and looked into his eyes again. “Wow, I’m so sorry about that. I think I’m done now. Thanks for being, well, you. I love you.”

  He ran his fingertips behind her ear and through her hair, pushing it out of her face and behind her shoulder. “I love you back. Do you feel better? You know, you’re going to have to rescue Roxy from your mother at some point.”

  Kat jerked back away from him. “I totally forgot! I hope they haven’t killed each other. Two strong-willed, opinionated alpha females together. This could be bad.”

  Joel stood up and stretched his arms over his head. “So are you ready to go home?”

  “Okay.” She sniffed and wiped her eyes one last time. “By the way, now you know why I was here. Why were you here? I thought you went to town.”

  He grinned. “Dropping off the chain saw didn’t take long. You’re not the only one who wanted to get away from your mother.”

  Kat laughed weakly. “She has that effect on people. I think she scared Tracy. I felt a little bad for her.”

  “Your mother is kind of scary.”

  “I know. Maybe we could come back here again. Every time I’ve been to The Shack, it was because someone was staying here. I’ve never even seen the loft.”

  “That’s the bedroom.”

  Kat hugged him again. “I know.”

  “I guess you are feeling better.” He bent down to give her a kiss and then looked into her eyes. “It will be okay, you know.”

  “I know.”

  Kat followed Joel back to the house and parked her Toyota next to his truck. She got out of the car and Joel walked over and stood next to her. They looked up at the house, which was shrouded in a heavy drizzly cloud. The mist clung to their skin like a clammy veil. Kat turned to face him. “Could it possibly be any more dreary today?”

  “You haven’t lived here in the spring yet, have you?” Joel ran his fingertip along her jaw and cupped her chin with his hand, tilting her head up to look at him. “So you’re going to tell me if you do another test or your situation changes, right?”

  “Yes. I think I’ve successfully proved that bottling up my emotions and keeping things from you leads to a meltdown of epic proportions.”

  “I think it’s better if I stay in the loop.” He kissed her and looked at her questioningly. “So are you ready to go inside? I’m starting to feel like a mushroom out here.”

  “If we have to.”

  He took her hand and they walked up the steps together. Kat opened the door and was greeted by the sound of outraged barking. She looked at Joel. “I think the furry crew is miffed at us.”

  Kat started down the stairs and recognized another noise beyond the hysterical barking. She stopped in the doorway to her office. Mary had neatly stacked all of Kat’s books on one side of the desk and placed a sewing machine on the other side. Roxy was sitting on the bed, surrounded by a wall of pillows that had apparently been collected from multiple locations throughout the house. The dog actually looked quite content in her cushy enclosure and wagged happily at Kat.

  Mary paused in her sewing and turned in the chair. “Hello. You’re back. That was certainly longer than an hour. What happened to you? You look terrible.”

  “Thank you.” Kat sat on the bed and reached over the pillow wall to pet Roxy. “My hair doesn’t appreciate this misty weather. What are you doing?”

  “Finishing these quilts.” Mary pulled the cloth out of the sewing machine and held up a blue-and-white star quilt. “Isn’t it lovely? The whole thing is pieced, and even quilted already. All it needs is the edges to be finished. I found it in that little room across the hall.”

  “Wow, you have been busy. I haven’t been able to face that pile of boxes yet. Cleaning out these two downstairs bedrooms wore me out. When I got here, they both looked like that storage room. It was scary. Was the sewing machine in the room too?”

  “Yes! And it works wonderfully. I plugged it in and just started sewing. It all functions perfectly.”

  Kat examined the ancient black Singer. “I think I remember Abigail using this. It sounds exactly the same as it did then.”

  Mary turned back to the machine. “So where were you?”

  “I had to go somewhere. I’m going to take the dogs for a walk now. Thanks for keeping an eye on Roxy. I think she likes your pillow fort.”

  “Well, I certainly couldn’t sew with a dog attached to me.” A corner of Mary’s mouth turned up. “She is being a very good girl.”

  “Yeah, watch out. That’s right when she turns into the Evil Demon Dachshund.”

  Mary paused in her fabric ministrations. “Oh, your loud friend called. She wants you to call her back.”

  “You mean Maria?”

  “Yes. The loud woman. She sounds a bit put out with you. I think the words she used were ‘you’d better’ call her back. But she included an unflattering expletive about you as well, which I won’t repeat because I don’t think words like that should be used in polite company.”

  “I can imagine.” Kat picked up the dog and put her down on the floor. “Come on Roxy, it’s time to go walkies.”

  The dogs all crowded together in the hall as Kat put Tessa’s backpack on her and attached the dog’s leash to Linus. She had discovered that the only way to successfully walk Tessa and tire her out was to weigh her down with a pack and attach her to Linus, so the big dog could do the walking. He outweighed Kat by almost a hundred pounds and could keep the hyperactive golden retriever from running off. The arrangement worked out well for everyone. Tessa and Linus wagged happily, excited about going for their walk. Kat leashed up Chelsey and held her leash along with Roxy’s.

  Joel stepped out of his office, leaned on the doorjamb, and surveyed the commotion. “It looks like the convoy is ready to roll.”

  “Wanna come?”

  He glanced toward Kat’s office, where the sound of the sewing machine was winding back up to full motorized-power whirring. “Sure.”

  Kat opened the back door and all of the dogs shot out toward the forest trail. Tessa and Linus ran out first and Lady and Lori followed, playing and chasing each other through the trees. Roxy and Chelsey strolled alongside Kat and Joel as they walked through the sodden brown leaves and pine needles that coated the ground. The vibrant green of the pine trees was muted by a cloak of cold fog that hovered over the forest.

  Kat reached out to take his hand. “So how’s your arm?”

  Joel looked down at his free hand as he flexed his fingers and then made a fist. “Much better. It doesn’t hurt when I move my hand anymore. Now it’s just my forearm that has a dull ache.”

  “Does that mean you can do things like use tools?”

  “Among other things.”

  Kat squeezed his hand. “I’m glad you’re just about fully functional again. It’s getting cold and I’m hoping you’ll have time to fix up the door of the Tessa Hut before Swoosie and Rosa get here.” The Tessa Hut was a somewhat dilapidated outbuilding
that had a chain-link enclosure inside, but only a marginally functional door. Although it had been used to house Tessa and other dogs, it probably wasn’t usable in the winter without significant improvements to the door.

  “Yeah, it’s on my list. I should be able to get started on that soon.”

  Kat stopped and waited for Roxy to complete a complicated sniffing ritual near a particularly interesting shrub. “There’s one other thing.”

  “Did something else fall apart while I was gone?”

  “Other than me, no. But I was thinking that it might be good if you maybe cut your hair.” At the expression on his face, she raised both of her hands in front of her. “I know. I wasn’t lying when I said I like the long hair. And the beard. There’s a lot to be said for no razor stubble. I really do enjoy the softer-faced you. And your hair is so wavy and sexy. I wish my hair was that good. Men always have such great hair.”

  Joel grinned. “I suppose. Until they have no hair. Is there a point here?”

  “Would you be willing to shave and get a haircut? I think it might help matters with my mom. She’s sort of prickly about stuff like that.”

  “Prickly?”

  “Um. Critical? Nasty? Mean? You know how I’m kind of insecure about what I look like? Well, now you know why.”

  Joel nodded. “Okay. I get it. If you think it would help, I’ll go over to Joe’s barber shop after we get back. Maybe your mother will like the clean-cut me better.”

  “Probably not, but it couldn’t hurt. And if nothing else, Tracy won’t be worried about you going native for a while.”

  “Hey, I told you. I’ve still got all my real teeth. And I even floss regularly!”

  Kat wrapped her arms around him. “I’m sure your dentist is very proud of you.”

  Traffic was good and Tracy got to Shelby’s apartment without any more unfortunate stalling incidents. It was a relief to park The Turd at the curb and slam the tin-can-like door in disgusted finality. She had plenty of time before Rob got there to make herself look like a professional, instead of a hick who had just rolled down off the mountain.

  The interview suit was easily the nicest article of clothing Tracy had ever purchased. It was a gorgeous blue that matched her eyes and fit her perfectly. She put her blonde hair up in a French twist and spent far more time on her makeup than usual.

  Billy Bob decided to hang out in the bathroom with her and supervise. He sat on the toilet until he fell asleep and rolled off with an ungraceful thud onto the tile. Sometimes it wasn’t easy being an oversize cat. He stood up, looked around, and sauntered off, trying to pretend nothing mortifying had just happened.

  Later, Tracy stood in front of the full-length mirror, stretched out a leg, turned her ankle, and admired her handiwork. Thanks to her matching blue pumps, her legs looked fantastic. Realistically, she didn’t ever look much better than this. Rob couldn’t accuse her of not trying to look the part, anyway. Perhaps today she’d adopt the persona of Annette, a fabulous artiste from a chi-chi LA neighborhood who lived in a loft with huge windows that let in perfect light so she could create important paintings that gallery owners fell all over themselves to sell. What would Annette say about the design of the Alpine Grove web site?

  Tracy was interrupted from her artistic fantasies by a knock at the door. She sashayed over, opened the door, and leaned seductively on the entrance with her arm coiling up the side of the doorway. “Hi, Rob.”

  Rob’s eyes widened as he took in the view. “Uh, eh, wow. Hi.”

  Tracy giggled, put her arm down, and waved him inside. “Come on in. Try not to drool on the floor. Shelby wouldn’t appreciate that.”

  Rob walked by her, put down his briefcase, and turned to face her. “You look...fantastic. I mean really, really good.”

  “Thank you. And I hope you’re going to be more eloquent at this meeting.” She bent to grab her bag off the sofa, noting his admiring glance. Men were so predictable. But it was nice to know he appreciated her efforts. She held up the bag. “I brought a whole lot of photographs. I hadn’t looked at them too closely in a long time, since they’ve been hanging in my mom’s store forever. But it turns out my father was a fairly good amateur photographer. Even though I’ve seen these places a million times, some of the photos are really gorgeous.”

  Rob covered his mouth with his fist and coughed. “That’s great. I knew you’d have some pictures.” He sucked discreetly on a lozenge. “It’s such a beautiful area—you’d just have to take photographs.”

  “I suppose.” Tracy tilted her head. “Are you feeling okay? You’re not sick, are you?”

  “No. Not really. I think I just have the beginnings of a cold. It’s no big deal. Probably just the smog getting to me.”

  “Before we head out to lunch, can I make a suggestion?”

  Rob swished the lozenge around in his mouth and nodded. “What?”

  “How about we do something about your hair? It’s sort of, well, everywhere. Did you comb it?”

  He looked a little irked as he ran his fingers through his wavy brown hair. “Yes. I always do. Every morning. But this week, I didn’t have time to get around to getting a haircut. When my hair gets past a certain point, it starts to have a mind of its own.”

  Tracy studied him. “That’s obvious.” It looked like Shaggy had been zapped with a stun gun. She said evenly, “I have some hair junk that might help calm it down.”

  “I’m not going to smell like a girl, am I?”

  “No. It’s supposed to be unscented. The scented stuff tends to be too interesting to animals, which can be a problem if you’re a vet tech.”

  “You’re a vet tech? You never told me that.”

  “Well, I’m a veterinary assistant, actually. I’m not certified. Now you know that I’m a woman of mystery and intrigue who also spends a lot of time covered with dog hair.” She took his hand. “Come with me.”

  He followed her into the bathroom, sat as directed on the dainty wire chair in front of the makeup mirror, and took off his glasses. Tracy squirted some gel onto her hands and ran it through his hair. Even if his hair was out of control, at least it was soft. He managed to sigh only once as she worked over his hair. Tracy turned to the sink and washed her hands. “There. All better.”

  Rob leaned closer to the mirror and touched his hair. “Well, I guess it looks better. But yuck, I can’t wait to wash my hair.”

  “It’s one afternoon. Do you think I like wearing these heels?”

  “No.” He looked down at her legs and then back up at her face and grinned. “But they make you look hot.”

  She tapped him lightly on the shoulder with her index finger. “Oh pshaw. You’ll give me a swelled head. Let’s go eat, so you can show me all those geeky diagrams.”

  Rob smiled at her reflection in the mirror. “You’re gonna love it. This site could be so cool!”

  “Whatever. Let’s go.”

  After lunch and going over Rob’s web site diagrams, which he referred to as “wire frames,” Tracy was more than ready to get the meeting over and done with. It was time to earn her five hundred bucks and get back to her real life.

  On the way to the meeting, Tracy determined that she was completely in love with Rob’s car. It was a newer Honda Prelude with every possible option. Power everything. And even a moon roof. The seats were plush, the stereo worked, and it didn’t stall out in intersections. There really was something to be said for modern technology.

  Tracy snuggled up to the upholstery. Maybe he wouldn’t mind if she just hung out in his car for a while after the meeting. As she watched him shift gears, she so wanted to drive the car. Really fast down a winding road out in the country somewhere. With the moon roof open and the wind in her hair. In Alpine Grove, the Farm to Market Road would be just the place to really open it up.

  She laughed and Rob took his eyes away from the road to glance at her. “What’s so funny?”

  “This car is wonderful. Can’t we just drive around instead of going to th
e meeting?”

  He patted the steering wheel. “Yeah, I got it not too long ago. It’s not one of the brand-new ones, but I like this body style better and it was more affordable. But no. We’re going to the meeting.”

  Tracy crossed her arms in front of her and made a pouty face. “Okay, fine. It was worth a shot.”

  Rob parked and got out of the car. Tracy ran her hand across the sleek lines of the Honda’s roof. “I love this car. I want this car.”

  Rob bent down to grab his briefcase from behind the seat. He stood and looked over the roof of the car at her. “I’m sure she loves you too. Are you ready?” He pointed to a tall steel-and-glass building. “The office is over there in the Walsh Building.”

  “I think the car would love me more if I got to drive it.

  “Let’s just get through this meeting first. Then we’ll talk.”

  Tracy and Rob took the elevator up to the eleventh floor. They were directed to a conference room that had floor-to-ceiling glass windows that looked out over the street. An easel with a pad of oversize paper sheets was in the corner.

  Tracy sat down and fiddled with the handle of her bag. The huge gleaming mahogany conference table was intimidating. It probably cost more than everything she owned combined. Rob sat next to her and started lining up his charts and pencils, much as he had done in class. He certainly was organized. Good thing he didn’t know about the level of disarray in her apartment. The poor guy would probably have a coronary.

  A tall gray-haired man with a crew-cut and military bearing walked into the room. Tracy and Rob stood up. Rob shook his hand and introduced Tracy to Ben Walsh, the owner of the firm. The older man smiled at her politely. “You look somewhat familiar. Have we met before?”

  Tracy gave him her most dazzling smile and said she didn’t think so; however, she was pretty sure she’d seated him at the Italian restaurant. It would be seriously embarrassing if he figured that out. Maybe because he was seeing her out of context, he wouldn’t remember that in her real life she was a hostess. Or had been before she was fired.