The boxer ran up the steps and stood panting by the back door, his impatience showing by the way he pranced and danced around the porch as Josie fumbled with the key. She watched for a minute as both dogs tussled on the kitchen floor, their delight in one another a joy to experience. “This,” she muttered, “must be true love.
“Hey, Rosie, it’s me. You know, me. Your owner. I’m the one who feeds and walks you and makes sure you don’t get fleas.” The little dog tilted her head, barked twice, her tail swishing furiously. “Okay, if that’s all the greeting I get, I guess it’s okay. Go on. Keep on doing whatever it is you were doing. I let this guy in, you know.”
She was down to her skimpy, lacy underwear when the phone in the kitchen rang. She padded over to the counter and picked up the phone. “He’s here. He was waiting on the back porch. Right now he’s under my kitchen table. You were already out of the driveway when I found him.”
“How did you know it was me on the phone?” Paul asked, a smile in his voice.
“I don’t know anyone else who would call me at one o’clock in the morning. Let’s just say it was an educated guess. It’s okay if he stays. You can pick him up in the morning.”
“He knows how to open the French doors. I didn’t know that until this evening. He’s never done anything like that before. It’s amazing that he found his way to your house and that he’s safe and sound. I guess I’ll have to crate him from now on when I leave. I hate doing that to him. I wouldn’t want to be put in a cage, would you?”
“No, I wouldn’t. He’s fine. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“You’re a good sport, Josie. Thank you.”
Good sport. No kiss good night. Stuffy-banker attitude. “You’re welcome.”
“I’ll make sure the beignets are fresh this time. See you in the morning. Thanks again for agreeing to keep Zip.”
The clock on the nightstand shrilled to life. Josie cracked an eyelid. She groaned. No one should have to get up at five-thirty in the morning. Absolutely no one. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and groaned again. The boxer rose to his feet and stretched. Rosie did the same thing. “Time to go out, huh? Okay, let’s go and let’s make it quick. We have company coming for breakfast.” She leaned over the boxer. “Your owner is coming for you.” The dog stared at her for a long minute before he dropped to his belly and squirmed his way under her bed.
Rosie yipped her disapproval by peering under the bed; Josie dropped to the floor. “Look, Zip. Maybe I’m wrong and your owner isn’t coming. Maybe it’s wishful thinking on my part. I’m going to pick up your girlfriend and take her outside. If you pee under my bed, you will never be allowed up here again. I know you understand everything I’m saying, so let’s hop to it.” The huge dog dropped his head between his paws and stared at her. It was obvious he had no intention of moving.
Josie whirled around to grab Rosie before she could belly under the bed to join Zip. They were back in the house in under ten minutes. Zip was still under the bed. “If you’re under there for the long haul, we’re going to have a problem,” Josie said as she headed for the bathroom.
It was six forty-five when Josie exited the bathroom dressed in a swirling lavender skirt with matching blouse. “Let’s go downstairs where I’ll have some café noir and you get some kibble. That’s an order, Rosie.” She wasn’t the least bit surprised when neither dog followed her down the stairs and out to the kitchen. Rosie was always ahead of her and would jump up on one of the chairs to wait expectantly for either a treat or some real food. The sudden urge to cry was so strong, she bit down on her lower lip. Damn, her well-ordered life was suddenly upside down. “I wish you were here, Mom. Something’s happening to me, and I’m not sure how I should deal with it. If you were here, you’d know exactly what to say to me. It’s really strange, Mom, that Rosie would choose the chair you always used to sit on when we had our café noir. You always said our early-morning coffee was the best. I put chicory in it just like you used to do. Rosie is like a person. She really is. Damn it, I just want to cry.”
“Then goddamn it, cry!” Kitty said from the open doorway. “You talking to Mom again? I talked to her myself last night. You know, to apologize for running buck-ass naked through the rain, slurping on a mango. Just in case she could, you know, kind of see. Why do you want to cry?”
“Because Rosie doesn’t need me anymore. All she wants is Zip. They’re both under my bed, and Zip won’t come out because I told him Paul was coming for him. When I got home last night he was waiting on the back porch. Paul said he knows how to open the French doors. He came here. He must have been here for hours. I felt sorry for him, so I let him stay. Paul’s bringing beignets, and I just made coffee. Tell me, what was it like?”
“You mean being naked in the rain or the part about the mango or the details on how it felt being chased by Harry? Mangos are so juicy, especially if they’re ripe. Harry loved licking the juice off my body. In a word, spectacular ! That’s with a capital S.”
“I see now why you were talking to Mom.” Josie laughed. “Set the table.”
“Paper plates okay?”
“Sure. I’m too busy today to do any cleanup. The ladies are coming to help. This little luncheon we’re catering and the dinner party will be a good way for them to dive in and see how it all works. I hope for all our sakes that it works out.”
“Me too. If it does, we might be able to take that ski trip in December. All we do is work, Josie. I didn’t realize how tired I was until last night when I let it all hang out. I really didn’t want to get dressed and come here this morning. I’m going to be such a good wife to Harry.”
“The best,” Josie said with a catch in her voice. Everyone was leaving her. First her mother and dad, then Rosie, and now Kitty. She would be alone with a lovesick dog.
“I can’t wait to get married and have kids. Lots and lots of kids. I wonder if I’ll have twins. That would be so wonderful. Harry told me last night he might get transferred to Atlanta. I didn’t want to tell you, but you need to know.”
“Georgia! When?”
“Six weeks. I’m not going to go with him. I’ll finish out the year and move after we get married. Harry said he would come back every weekend. I don’t know how that’s going to work out since our busiest times are the weekends.”
“You love him very much, don’t you, Kitty?”
“With all my heart and soul.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about. Everything will work out just fine. I know you’re worried about me, and that’s not good. I’ll be fine. The worst-case scenario is we sell off the business and I go back to Baton Rouge. Trust me when I tell you it will not be a punishment. I love Baton Rouge.”
“I hear a car.”
“That means our breakfast is here.”
“Do you want me to leave?”
“Absolutely not. Sit down. I’ll get the door. Don’t ask him any questions,” she hissed over her shoulder.
“Okay,” Kitty hissed back.
“Beautiful day, isn’t it?” Paul said as he handed over a bakery box and followed Josie back to the breakfast nook. “Where’s Zip?” he asked, looking around.
He looked so good. He smelled even better. She thought about the suit he’d been wearing the previous night and wondered if it was salvageable. She shrugged. “He’s under my bed with Rosie, and he won’t come out. I made the mistake of telling him you were coming to get him. I’m sorry. He simply won’t come out.”
“You need to be stern. There’s a certain tone of voice you have to use. You have to show animals you’re their superior, their boss, if you will. Special treats or people food usually work. If none of that works, then you have to trick them. Do you have any ham or cheese?”
Josie opened the refrigerator and cut off a chunk of cheese. “It’s not going to work. I think you’re going to have to take the bed apart.”
“That’s rather extreme, don’t you think? By the way, I have to go to New York today. I�
��m going to drop Zip off at a dog spa. He’s been there before, and he actually likes it. Can I give them your name in case anything goes awry? Just in case he gets sick, which I don’t think he will. He’s healthy as a horse and has had all his shots. A friend of mine used to look in on him when I boarded him, but he’s in Europe.”
No. I’m not a dog-sitter. I’m going to be busy. I think I’m starting to get your schtick, Mr. Brouillette. A dog is a responsibility, and if you aren’t willing to take that responsibility, then you don’t deserve to have that dog. I’m not agreeing to any such thing. Find some other sucker.
“I’ll only be gone a week. Ten days at the most.”
“You’re leaving your dog for ten whole days!”
“I don’t have any other choice. Can I give them your phone number?”
“Yes.” Fool, her mind shrieked. Josie looked up to see her sister clamp her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing.
“Okay, boy, let’s go. Time to come out. Don’t make me come in there after you,” Paul said as he crouched down to peer under the bed.
Rosie’s little head poked out. She snarled and lunged at Paul’s hand. He snatched it back so quickly that Josie burst out laughing. “I think she’s trying to tell you not to mess with her man.”
“Now, Zip. I’m going to count to three! One! Two! Three!”
“No one seems to be moving.” Josie giggled again.
“I see that. All right, we’ll take the mattress and box spring off. How’d he get under there anyway?”
“He crawled on his belly.”
“I’ll take this end. You and your sister take the other end. That way, we’ll just have to tilt the box spring.”
Five minutes later, just as they all moved in sync to lift the box spring, Zip and Rosie hopped over the frame and raced for the hall and the stairs.
“Damn it, I have a plane to catch. Can they get out?”
“I don’t think so,” Josie said, straightening the box spring with Kitty’s help. They gave the mattress a shove. It landed squarely on top of the box spring. Both girls dusted their hands dramatically.
“This is just a wild thought, but five will get you ten you end up taking care of that dog,” Kitty said. “Sounds like a war going on down there. Maybe we should check it out.”
“Maybe we should,” Josie said, eyeing the wrinkled sheets that had come untucked. “I haven’t even had my coffee yet.”
“You’re in love with him, aren’t you?” Kitty said, taking her sister’s arm and pulling her around to face her. “It’s okay if you are, Josie. Remember how Mom set eyes on Dad and they were married three weeks later? It happens like that sometime. Roll with it.”
“I don’t know about the love part, but I do feel a very strong attraction to him. He’s so different from the men I’ve dated. He didn’t even kiss me last night. There’s something out of whack about him. One minute he’s up and the next he closes up. I’m starting to think maybe I said the wrong thing, gave off bad vibes. You know me.”
Kitty wrapped her arm around her sister’s shoulders. “What will be will be. Enjoy whatever it is you have right now. Open up, Josie.”
Josie nodded. “Let’s go downstairs and see if he’s made any progress.”
“You a bettin’ woman, Josie?”
“Nope. Hey, let’s slide down the banister.”
Kitty hiked up her long skirt and whooped her pleasure as she slid down the polished teak wood banister.
“Ninety miles an hour—isn’t that what Dad said? Wow, when was the last time we did that?”
“The day after . . . after the funeral. It was stupid then, and it’s stupid now. We thought it would make us feel better. It didn’t.”
“Oh. How could I have forgotten that?”
“The same way I did until this moment. You block it out.”
Josie walked into the sunny kitchen. Her gaze swept past Paul’s helpless expression to the snarling dogs under the table. It was a losing battle—one she wasn’t going to win either. She sighed. “It’s okay, Rosie. He can stay.”
The relief on Paul’s face brought a smile to Josie’s. A long time ago her mother had said there was nothing in the world she wouldn’t do to bring a smile to her father’s face. Maybe she was like her mother after all.
“If you leave now, he’ll know he’s staying. Tell him.”
Paul dropped to his haunches. “Okay, big guy, you can stay with Rosie. We’re going to talk about this when I get back.” Zip bellied out from under the table to lick his master’s face. Rosie did a wild dance around the kitchen before Josie opened the back door. Both dogs hit the open doorway at a dead run.
“I don’t know how to thank you, Josie. I’m sorry about last night. I had no idea Zip could get out. I’m going to do some hard thinking where he’s concerned. I’m sorry about breakfast, too. It was nice seeing you again, Kitty. When I get back I’d like to take you both to Brennan’s for breakfast. This is the key to my house in case you need to go there for any of Zip’s things. Here’s a number where you can reach me if you have to. I’ll call to check on him if that’s okay with you.”
“No problem,” Josie said coolly. “You don’t have to call. We’ll all be just fine. Your dog is having the time of his life,” she said, pointing to the backyard, where both dogs were running in circles. “You better hurry or you’ll miss your flight.” Her voice turned downright frosty.
“The bed . . .”
“We fixed it,” Kitty chirped. “Women can do anything men can do.”
Paul’s eyebrows shot upward. It looked like he was about to say something, but changed his mind.
“You don’t want to go there, Mr. Brouillette,” Josie said.
“Now you’re angry with me. You aren’t going to take it out on my dog, are you?”
Josie opened the door and motioned him to leave. “Your dog will be just fine.”
“That was kind of bitchy wasn’t it?” Kitty said quietly.
“Yes, I guess it was,” Josie said, her eyes on the dogs in the yard. How happy they were. She could almost forgive Rosie’s defection. Wasn’t love about making the other person happy? That’s what her mother had told both her and Kitty when they were seventeen.
Suck it up, Josie. He’s just a guy. Another fish in the ocean. A guy with a ponytail. A guy with dark laughing eyes and an engaging smile who just happens to have a rogue dog who just happens to be in love with your dog.
Kitty watched as her sister picked up the bakery box by the string and dropped it into the trash compactor. Damn, her tongue was hanging out for one of the warm, sugary beignets.
“How about some coffee, Kitty?”
“No time. I have too much to do in the kitchen. What time do we have to have the food at the Andreponts’?”
“Twelve sharp. Mrs. Andrepont has a wonderful kitchen with lots of room. Everything will go off on schedule. Tonight is going to be tight and close. As soon as I finish my coffee, I’m off to pick up the ladies. I’ll be back inside of an hour.”
“He seems like a nice guy, Josie. Cut him some slack. Don’t let this dog business throw you. I don’t want you getting all pissy on me now. Think this through. Hey, the guy gave you the key to his house. He didn’t have to do that. You’d kill me if I ever gave Harry a key to this house. Think about that.”
Josie turned her back so her sister she wouldn’t see the tears that were about to flood her eyes. Why was she crying anyway? That would be the day when she cried over some man. The tears were because of Rosie. God, how she loved that little dog. “Traitor,” she muttered.
Five
Paul Brouillette leaned back in his custom-made chair for a better view of the stack of financial reports in front of him. A deep frown etched his brow. He wished he could make the reports disappear. He’d been in the office since six o’clock trying to make that very thing happen. It was eight o’clock now, and his secretary was making coffee. He could smell it, but he knew it wouldn’t be half as good as the New Orleans
coffee he loved.
He jolted forward and reached for the folder with the red tab; that folder had information about the company his mother managed. It was so far in the red nothing could save it. He’d been subsidizing it for years, and it was like pouring money down an open manhole. The dinner meeting he’d had last night with the accountants had given him a king-size headache that was still with him. The accountant’s final words were still ringing in his ears. “Shut it down now!” How was he going to do that to his mother? It was all she had left. What about all the cousins and relatives and their families that worked for the company? A severance package meant only months, not years, of security. What would happen to all of them when the severance money ran out? Somehow or other he should have made her listen. Instead, he’d gotten angry when she refused to accept new methods, new advertising, and new packaging. Why wasn’t he able to set aside the old hurts? Why did he keep opening up old wounds? Business was business. Family was family. The two couldn’t work in harmony for some reason.
The headache continued to hammer at the base of his neck. He needed to work it out. A good long run in Central Park might be the answer. Before he could change his mind, he headed for the lavatory, where he changed into running gear. The phone rang just as he was about to leave the office. He grabbed it on the run and barked into the phone. “Jack! When did you get in? Dinner? Can’t make it tonight. You headed for home? Listen, do me a favor. I had to leave Zip with a . . . a friend. She wasn’t crazy about taking him. I kind of needled her into it. If you can see your way clear to taking him to my house, I’d appreciate it. I’ll call her later and tell her you’ll be by to pick him up. Zip knows and likes you. You’ll be doing me a hell of a favor, buddy. You’ll do it! Great! I owe you, Jack.” He listened to the boisterous voice on the other end of the line for a moment. Why was everyone in the world happy but him?
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