The Art of Wag

by Susan C. Daffron

  “It’s a gift.”

  A few minutes later, the tall man returned to the room. Now that the dog was lightly sedated, Tracy was able to relax and get a better look at the man. On the phone she’d learned that the owner’s name was Fred Collins, but she hadn’t caught this guy’s name. He did look oddly familiar though. She readjusted her hold on the dog and said, “Is your friend okay?”

  “Yeah. It’s not like he faints at the sight of blood or anything.”

  Tracy looked up at him over Max’s prone body. “I hope not, if you guys were out hunting.”

  The man put his hands in his pockets. “Yeah. Good point. It’s just Fred loves that dog. He’s spent hours and hours training Max, ever since the dog was just a little pup. Is Max going to be okay?”

  Dr. Cassidy looked up from her examination of the dog’s leg. “It looks like he landed on a tree branch. There’s a pretty serious laceration here. The puncture wound is fairly deep, so I’d like to do surgery to make sure I remove all the pieces of wood and dirt, so the leg won’t get infected. Then I can stitch Max up. He should be as good as new after he heals.”

  Tracy stood up straighter and readjusted her hold on the dog to see if he was still inclined to move around. “Your friend will need to sign the surgery consent form.” With one hand still on Max’s drowsy body, Tracy reached over and grabbed a piece of paper out of a file folder. “Could you take this out to him? If he doesn’t want to come in here, just tell him what Dr. C said and get him to sign it.”

  The man nodded, took the paper from her, and left. Tracy turned to Dr. Cassidy. “Do you know that guy?”

  Still bent over, focused on poking at the dog’s leg, her brown curls moved from side to side. “Nope. What did he say his name is?”

  “He didn’t. The owner is Fred Something-or-other. I think I’ve met the tall guy before.”

  “Maybe he was a customer at the restaurant?” The vet straightened and grinned at her. “Presumably he would have been less grubby then. And smelled better.”

  “It looks like Max is on the high road to sleepy-land. Should I go out and tell them to come back later? What time?”

  Dr. Cassidy looked at the clock on the wall. “Yes, I’m fine here for the moment. Tell them to come back at three thirty. We’ll have to rearrange some stuff to fit Max in.”

  Tracy went out to the lobby, where the men were talking to each other. They both were exuding anxiety, so Tracy went for the most reassuring smile she could muster. “Max should be fine, but surgery is going to take a while, so you guys can come back later. He should be ready to go at three thirty or so.”

  Fred handed the piece of paper back to Tracy. “Here’s the form. Please, take good care of Max. I feel so bad about this. He’s such a good dog. Don’t let anything happen to him.”

  “We’ll do our best. Dr. Cassidy is an excellent vet.”

  The tall man put his hand on Fred’s shoulder. “Hey buddy, why don’t you go on out to the rig. I’ll meet you in a second. I think the hunting trip is over, so we should go break down camp. Maybe check into a hotel or something?”

  “Yeah. I’m starving too. We missed breakfast.”

  “I’ll be out in a minute.”

  With a look of relief, Fred walked out of the clinic. The other man turned back to Tracy. “I’m sorry, I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself.” He held out his hand. “I’m Todd Delaney and you look really familiar. Have you lived in Alpine Grove for a while?”

  Tracy shook his hand slowly. “Yes! That’s why I know you. I’m Tracy Sullivan. We went to school together. You moved away right before ninth grade. It’s so good to see you. How have you been?”

  “Doing well. Okay, today wasn’t so good. But I can’t believe you still live here. You look fantastic.”

  Tracy felt the color rise to her cheeks. His eyes truly were the most remarkable shade of blue. And now that she had a chance to evaluate more closely, it was obvious that under all that dirt and grime, he was incredibly good looking. “Thank you. So what have you been up to for the last however-many years?”

  “The usual. School. College. Job. You know.”

  Tracy laughed. “Yeah, me too.”

  “Does your mom still own the gift store?”

  “Yes. You should stop by and say ‘hi.’ She’d love to see you!”

  “I’ll be sure to do that, but right now we need to get back to the campsite before a bear discovers that we left it alone.”

  “Okay. See you later.”

  He grinned. “I’m looking forward to it.”

  As Tracy watched him leave the building, her heart rate started to settle back down to normal. Todd Delaney! She’d had such a crush on him and had probably drawn a thousand little hearts that said T.S. + T.D. on her junior high school notebooks. He was even her first kiss. Chaste and kind of icky in a dorky junior-high kind of way, but still. When she’d found out his family was moving away, she’d cried for hours.

  Max made it through surgery and by the time the afternoon rolled around, he was starting to howl about being stuck in his stainless-steel prison. Tracy couldn’t wait for three thirty to arrive. An unhappy coonhound could make a powerful amount of noise when he set his mind to it.

  Fred and Todd walked through the door at precisely three thirty. They both obviously had spent some serious time hosing themselves down and Tracy tried not to gasp when she saw Todd. Grubby he was sort of attractive, but when he was all squeaky clean, he was downright gorgeous. If it wouldn’t have been humiliating, she would have fanned herself with her hands. The cute, but kind of gawky ninth-grader had evolved into a complete hottie. He had the whole dark Irish thing going for him, along with an incredible build and those astonishing blue eyes.

  Tracy walked over to the desk. “Hi Todd. Hi Frank. Max is going to be mighty glad to see you.” A howl arose from the back room to emphasize her point. “See what I mean?”

  Frank leaned on the desk. “It sounds like he’s feeling better. God, that’s such a relief.” His eyes misted. “When he was bleeding, well, I just thought...”

  Tracy put her hand over his. “It’s okay. He’s fine. Let me go get him.”

  Dr. Cassidy followed Tracy and Max out of the surgery area. The vet was holding a large semi-circular piece of plastic. “Hi guys. Max is doing great, but you’ll need to be really careful about him trying to rip out his stitches. At this point, he still might be a little groggy, but once he’s back to himself and the wound starts to bother him, he’s going to want to lick and chew on it.” She curved the plastic into a circle. “This is an Elizabethan collar or E-collar.” She handed it to Frank. “You just connect it together with the little tabs and put it over Max’s head. If he’s like every other dog in the world, he will hate it and give you dirty looks. But it’s necessary. We really don’t want infection to set in. I’ve put a little drain in his leg, which you should check regularly. Make sure to wipe it a few times a day, and if the area around the tube starts to look red or angry, call us. I’ve also given you some pain medication for him, which will help take the edge off. And this bottle has antibiotics. Make sure you give him all of them as directed, even if it seems like he’s feeling better.”

  Tracy handed Max’s leash to Frank, who paled again at the sight of the huge bandage and the tube sticking out of the dog’s leg. “Okay. I’ll make sure he behaves himself. It’s gonna be a more low-key vacation now anyway, since we can’t go hunting. We’ll probably spend a lot of time hanging out and watching football.”

  Dr. Cassidy smiled sympathetically. “I’m sure he’ll like that.”

  Frank handed the leash to Todd. “Keep an eye on him while I pay.” Todd took the leash, sat down in one of the chairs, and stroked the smooth fur on Max’s head.

  After settling the bill, the two men left. Todd hadn’t said much of anything to Tracy, which was disappointing. After his dazzling smile earlier, she’d had some rather enjoyable fantasies about seeing him again. What had he been doing all these years? He wa
s well-dressed, so he probably had some high-paying job. And he was living somewhere other than Alpine Grove. Maybe that’s why he didn’t say anything. Because she obviously hadn’t gone anywhere. Why would he want to go out with a lowly vet assistant who never made it out of Alpine Grove? In an effort to not dwell on that whole depressing train of thought, she sat at the desk and busied herself with the final accounting for the day.

  She was startled from her calculations when the bells on the front door jingled again. Todd walked in and flashed her a dazzling smile. “Hi again. Frank’s waiting for me, but I wanted to come back here and see if you’d let me take you to dinner tonight. I know it’s last-minute, and you probably have plans already. But I thought I’d give it a shot, anyway. I’d love to catch up.”

  Tracy wondered if he could hear her heart pounding in her chest. “Yes...yes. That would be great. I’d love to!”

  “Okay. It looks like there’s a nice Italian restaurant on the main drag. You want to meet me there? Would seven work?”

  “Sure. That would be great.” It was so annoying that there were no other decent places to eat in this town. Dining at the place she’d been fired from was likely to be unpleasant and possibly mortifying in any number of ways. But there weren’t any other options. Maybe, with any luck, Jerry would be gone for the night. He usually didn’t do Mondays. That was something, anyway. And she might have a chance to say ‘hi’ to Lou. She missed the gruff old chef. Plus, he made the most fantastic lasagna in the known universe. She missed that too.

  Todd left again and Tracy was left to her thoughts. He hadn’t asked if she was involved. She could be married with six children, for all he knew. Okay maybe not six, unless she had really been an over-achiever on the parenting front. But why did he assume she wasn’t involved? She looked down at her hand. If she were married, she would be wearing a ring. Little did he know that there was no way she’d subject a fine diamond to all the cleaning chemicals and potentially disgusting things she had to clean up here.

  She gathered the papers together and said goodbye to Dr. C. She had to get home quickly and deal with Roxy before her big date. Unbelievable! An actual date with a gorgeous guy who had all his teeth. Yippee!

  Chapter 8

  Trout

  Tracy walked into the Italian restaurant and found Todd leaning on the podium chatting with the new hostess, who appeared to be a recent Cedar County High graduate. Apparently Jerry had found himself a younger, cuter hostess. Nice. “Hi Todd.”

  He turned to her. “You look pretty tonight. Sherry says our table is ready.”

  Tracy nodded at the hostess. “Thanks. Aren’t you Glen Harris’s daughter?”

  Sherry turned to look behind her as she walked them to a table. “Yes, my dad knows Jerry. That’s how I got the job. I’m still trying to figure stuff out though.”

  Tracy sat down in a chair “You spell your name with a ‘y’ don’t you?”

  “Yeah, like the liquor, but Jerry wants me to change it, so it ends with an i.” She leaned over to Tracy to hand her a menu and whispered confidentially. “Isn’t that a little weird?”

  Tracy took the menu gently and said under her breath, “Get used to it.”

  Todd tipped his menu toward Tracy. “Did you work here in high school or something?”

  “Not in high school. I worked at the marina in the summers. It was a blast hanging out with the summer people and I got a great tan.”

  Todd leaned forward. “You sure seem to know everyone.”

  “You would too, if you had stayed here in town. Eventually, you know everybody.” And they all knew you too, whether you want them to or not. Time to change the subject. “So did you and Fred find a place to stay?”

  “Fred is out at the Enchanted Moose. They take pets, but they only had one room available. There’s no way I’m staying in the same room with that guy. He snores like a freight train. Camping is okay, since I bring my own tent. But cooped up with him in a little room would not be much of a vacation. So I’m at the H12 here in town.”

  “It has a convenient location.” That was its primary selling point. Probably its only selling point.

  A waitress walked up to the table. “My name is Jenny and I’ll be your waitress. Hello Tracy.” The woman smirked in her typical snide way. “Long time, no see.”

  Tracy plastered a fake smile on her face for Todd’s benefit. “Hi Jenny. Why don’t you tell us what the specials are tonight?”

  Jenny looked momentarily flustered and reached into her smock for her pad. She read off the list from her pad. “What would you like?”

  “I’d like the lasagna. With a side salad and balsamic vinegar dressing on the side.”

  Jenny sneered at her. “Nice choice. And you, sir?”

  Todd ordered and Jenny stalked off to the kitchen. He turned back to Tracy. “I guess you know her too? And you aren’t best friends.”

  “Yes. And no, definitely not.” Not in this lifetime.

  Todd looked around the room. “So do you know everyone in this restaurant?”

  Tracy unfolded her napkin and put it in her lap. “Well, quite a few of them. The summer people are mostly gone, so it’s just locals.”

  Todd glanced over at a thin man in a brown suit. “Okay, who is that guy?”

  “That’s Larry Lowell. He’s a lawyer. You might have met his parents, since they own the hardware store in town.” As Tracy had predicted, Larry had returned. Look out, Sherry.

  “Who is the sad guy in the corner?”

  “That’s Ron.” Tracy fidgeted with her napkin. “His wife just had gall bladder surgery and she’s in the hospital recuperating. She’s fine, but she probably told him to go get a decent meal. She’s a little bossy like that.”

  “How about that couple?”

  Tracy peered beyond Todd’s shoulder to a table behind him. “That’s the guy who cheated on the librarian. I forget his name, but he doesn’t live here. The blonde woman is the daughter of some rich guy who owns a manufacturing company and has a vacation house south of here.”

  Todd opened his mouth to say something, when an older woman ran up to the table. “Tracy, it’s so good to see you!”

  “Hi Mrs. Zelenski. How is Martin doing?”

  The woman gave Tracy a hug around her shoulders and kissed her cheek. “That enema Dr. Cassidy gave him worked just great and he’s pooping like a champ!”

  “That’s good news.” Tracy could feel the flush rising on her face. “Give Martin a pat for me.”

  “I made an appointment for his shots, so see I’ll you soon my dear. Have a lovely dinner!”

  Todd chuckled. “I really hope Martin is a dog.”

  Tracy giggled. “Yes, Martin had a little digestive problem. But it’s better now.”

  “So I gathered.”

  Tracy had an enjoyable time reminiscing with Todd about being a kid in Alpine Grove. They both had spent summers at the lake and had a number of the same teachers in school.

  Todd tilted his wine glass at her. “So whatever happened to Mr. Lewis? He had more hair gel than any other man I’ve ever seen. And those huge horn-rimmed glasses.” He laughed conspiratorially and said, “Remember the huge wad of keys with the retractable key chain?”

  Tracy grinned. “Yeah. He was Mr. Word Problem. You buy six bushels of apples and the trains are going two-hundred miles an hour, blah, blah, blah. I’m thinking put the apples on the track and let the train run over them. Problem solved. I think he got a teaching job somewhere else. You have to figure there are opportunities to teach Algebra in the big city too.”

  “I suppose.”

  “So tell me about life after Alpine Grove. I heard you moved to Los Angeles. I was just there visiting my friend Shelby and taking a class. What area did you live in?”

  Todd looked down into his glass as he swirled the burgundy liquid around. “I went to high school in the Valley.”

  “So you were a Valley Guy? Like, totally, you know, wow.”

  Irritation flashed
in his blue eyes, but he smiled. “Yes, I suppose.”

  Oops. Maybe he didn’t like LA. New topic. “So what do you do now when you’re not out hunting with Fred?”

  “I work for an oil company. So I travel a lot to Alaska and Texas.”

  “That sounds interesting. I’d like to be able to do more traveling.” A better automobile would certainly help. “I’ve heard Alaska is beautiful. I’d love to see the glaciers.”

  He frowned at his wine glass. “I don’t get to do much sightseeing. I do a lot of maintenance and troubleshooting of hydraulic systems. I spend a lot of time on the rigs.”

  Tracy twisted the napkin in her lap. “Well, to me it all sounds like an exciting adventure far away from here.”

  “It pays the bills.”

  The mood of the conversation deteriorated to the point that Tracy started to wish her imaginary electronic “shut-up zapper” really existed. She couldn’t say anything right and she got the distinct impression that Todd didn’t want to talk about his current life. Tracy wrung her napkin in her lap and made another effort to move back to safer subjects. “So did you get a chance to say ‘hi’ to my mom?”

  His expression brightened. “Yes. She remembered me! And the store looks almost exactly the same. She’s probably selling different stuff I guess, but it still seems the same, you know?”

  Tracy gestured toward the street. “Yeah, that’s my mom. She loves everybody, so the store always has a ‘come on in and look around a while’ feel to it.”

  By the time dinner was over, Tracy had run out of Alpine Grove anecdotes. Todd paid the bill and they went outside, where the wind had picked up and a flurry of leaves were cavorting along the sidewalk. He put his arm around her shoulders to shield her from the wind. “I’m kind of glad I’m not out in the woods right now. It’s getting cold!”

  She looked up into his deep blue eyes. “Do you want to go somewhere else? The same dive bars still lurk down the street if you want to get a glimpse of some more local color.”

  Todd smiled. “No thanks. Do you want to come back to my room for a drink?”