by Emerson Rose
“Yeah, it’s freezing out here, we can’t leave him.”
I stand up and pat my leg. “Ollie, come on, boy. Do you wanna come inside?”
Ollie stands up slowly and follows me to the door looking at Gage and Adley every few seconds like he’s checking to see if this is a trap.
“He’s scared. Can I give him something to eat?” Adley asks.
“Sure, grab a hot dog but let Clover give it to him.”
“Wow, thanks, Superman. What if he has rabies, and he bites me?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to, but hot dogs are too much like lunch meat. I don’t touch them just in case.”
“Oh, okay. I’ll go grab it, stay here, Adley.” I feel like an ass. I should have known he wouldn’t delegate something like that without a reason.
When I return with the hot dog, Adley has coaxed Ollie to the door with her charm or perhaps Ollie is just cold and wants to come inside. Either way, the hot dog does the trick, and he is inside in seconds.
He isn’t rambunctious at all. He heads straight for the fire where he jumps up onto the hearth like he belongs there and curls up to get warm.
“Well, would you look at that? He acts like he’s lived here his whole life,” Gage says crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the couch.
I approach Ollie and look him over in the light. “He needs a bath if he’s staying in here.”
“Agreed. I wonder where he came from?” Gage says looking at him hard as if Ollie might tell us his address.
“How did he get into your garage is what I want to know. And how many other critters can do the same?”
“I used to have a door that opened from the garage to the side of the house. The woodshed used to be there instead of out front. I didn’t like that I couldn’t see that door, and I got tired of going through the garage for wood, so I blocked it off, but somehow, a raccoon got in that way a while back. Maybe that’s how he got in, too. I’ll have to secure it. Are you two okay in here with him? I wasn’t quite done outside, and now I need to check that door.”
“Yeah, he seems to be pretty tame. When he’s warmed up, we will give him a bath and feed him something.”
“All right. I’ll be back in a few.”
He heads back outside, and I turn my attention back on the Ollie and Adley. She’s sitting on the floor watching him sleep. “He sure made himself at home, huh?” I ask her.
“Yeah. I hope we getta keep him. I always wanted a dog.”
“How come you don’t have one? Seems like a pretty good idea up here on a mountain.”
“Daddy said he didn’t want anything to happen to one in the woods. He said he couldn’t stand to see me cry if a wolf ate my dog.”
“Oh, wow, that’s a graphic visual,” I say, and she nods.
“How about you run upstairs and get your red paint while I keep an eye on him? When you get back, you can keep an eye on him while I go get the cardboard from the garage?”
“Okay,” she says jumping up to go upstairs. Ollie opens his eyes and watches her go without so much as lifting his head. I wonder how long he was in the garage. It’s been zero or below for days. How long can an animal survive in temps like that with no food or water?
Water. I should get him a bowl. He’s probably thirsty. In the kitchen, I find a plastic cool whip container Gage uses for leftovers and fill it with water. I put it in front of Ollie, and he looks at it, too tired to even get up. I lift it to his face, and he takes a long drink and wags his raggedy tail.
“Got it.” Adley enters the room and sets a jumbo-size plastic bottle of red paint on the coffee table before going straight back to Ollie. The safety project has taken a back seat to the excitement of having a dog as often happens with homeschooling, I’m finding out.
“I’ll go get the cardboard.”
“Okay, it’s on the bench.”
“I remember, thanks. And uh, don’t pet him too much until we give him a bath, okay? We don’t know where he’s been or what he’s been rolling in.”
“Like poop?”
“Among other things, yes.”
“Eww, I’m not touchin’ him.”
I find the cardboard right away, and while I’m out there, I look for the door that Gage was talking about. He did a good job of disguising it with wood and a shelf, but I find it easily.
I don’t see a breach in the door or the surrounding areas. Everything looks boarded up tight. I try to think, have we gone into the garage recently and left the door open? Not that I can remember, but maybe Gage did. I’ll have to ask him.
I head back inside with the cardboard, and we spend the next hour making a very realistic-looking giant match. Gage makes two trips in with enough wood to last us the rest of the day and evening, and we practice the fire safety song with the giant match prop three times all the way through until we have it down pat.
“You’re a good singer, Clover,” Adley says putting her match away.
“Not compared to your daddy.” She wrinkles up her nose.
“You’re a girl, it’s different. Daddy’s hard and low, and you’re soft and high.”
“That’s a very good way to describe our voices, baby.” Gage tussles her hair. “Somebody needs a bath and her hair washed.”
“Ollie?” she asks innocently.
“Well, yes, Ollie does, too, but I was talking about you. The water should be warm by now. Why don’t you run up and shower and get dressed? Maybe the power will come back on tonight, and we can record your project so you can hand it in tomorrow.”
Adley pops up off the couch and makes her way upstairs to shower.
“Am I making an appearance in this video?” I ask. “Because if I am, I need a shower, too.”
I haven’t had time, and part of me doesn’t want to wash last night off my skin in case it doesn’t happen again. Having sex with a child in the house is proving to be a lot more difficult than I ever thought.
“Yep, you’re a background give-it-to-me singer.”
“Then I’m going up to shower. Maybe I can take the dog with me and get it all done at once?”
“Yeah, that sounds good, and I’ll help.”
“You’ll help? How’s that going to work with Adley?”
“She’s taking a shower in her bathroom. We’re taking one in mine.”
“Okay, but I don’t want Ollie to see any funny business.”
He holds up his hands in surrender. “No funny business. But I can’t guarantee what will happen when the dog is clean and out of the bathroom.”
I don’t think about the possibility of a shower encounter with Gage. There is no way there will be any water left over after all of us to shower and wash the dog, anyway. I don’t like the idea of messing around with Adley awake in the next room.
“Yeah, yeah, come on frisky, grab Fido, and let’s get to washing.”
He chuckles as he takes a towel from the downstairs bathroom for the smelly dog and carries him upstairs.
I hear the shower going in Adley’s bathroom. “Are you sure we should shower at the same time? Won’t we freeze her out?”
“No, the house has two water heaters, we will be fine.”
Crap. I was hoping to put this on hold.
In the bathroom, Gage sets Ollie on the floor and starts the water. It’s a walk-in shower with two stone benches and a glass wall. I’m not sure how he is going to handle all of this, so I stand back and wait while he prepares the bathroom.
Ollie watches, too, until Gage stops and looks at me expectantly. “Well?”
“Well, what?” I ask.
“Are you going to give him a shower, or am I?”
“Oh,” I say jumping into action. “I’ll do it. Come on, Ollie, let’s see what you look like under all that dirt.” I remove his collar and hand it to Gage who puts it on the vanity.
“The shampoo in the white bottle is for kids, use that so it won’t burn his eyes.”
“Okay.” I pull my sweatshirt and cami over my hea
d and step out of my sweatpants instantly shivering without the extra layers. In my panties and bra, I kneel down in the shower and wash Ollie while Gage watches from the other side of the glass.
“Can you hand me the showerhead?” I ask when I have Ollie all lathered up.
Gage reaches in and disconnects the showerhead from its cradle and hands it to me. I start to rinse Ollie and gasp. “He’s white! Like, all white.”
“Wow, I would have never guessed.” Gage rounds the end of the glass and crouches down next to me to get a closer look at the cleaner version of our new friend, Ollie. “I think he’s a white shepherd,” he says reaching out to keep some suds from going into Ollie’s eyes.
“Isn’t that a purebred dog?” I say continuing to rinse the brown dirt from his coat.
“Yes, which makes it even stranger that he’s up here wandering around breaking into my garage.”
“Maybe he wasn’t breaking in, maybe somebody put him in there?”
“On purpose? Why would anyone do that?”
“I don’t know, just a random thought. It’s just so strange, that’s all.”
“There’s a lot of strange going on around here the last day or so, Ollie is the least of it.” I look down to hide the guilt in my eyes. “Stop, it’s not your fault, that’s not what I meant.” His voice is full of warning.
Ollie whimpers when I allow the water to spray on one spot too long bringing my full attention back to him.
“We will get you all cleaned up and take you into town when the snowstorm is over, Ollie. I know you have an owner somewhere who is probably worried sick about you.” Ollie licks my face in appreciation like he understands what I’m saying.
“Hey, that’s my girl you’re kissing there, Ollie. Watch yourself.”
His girl. He’s never referred to me possessively before, but then again, we don’t go out in public, so he hasn’t exactly had the opportunity to do so.
Ollie gives a quick bark of understanding and shakes, spraying water everywhere. We yelp, and I fall back spraying Gage in the face by accident. He holds up his hands to protect his face and sputters before removing the showerhead from my hand. “I’ll finish, you shower.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to get you in the face like that.”
“It’s just water, no big deal.” He smiles and squirts Ollie with more shampoo. I watch him scrub and rinse him again while I strip out of my wet panties and bra.
When Gage is done with the dog, they move out of the shower, and he dries him with a towel. I go about my shower shampooing and conditioning my hair. As I rinse, I feel like I’m being watched. There is no longer any movement in the bathroom, and I open my eyes to find Gage leaning his shoulder against the shower wall watching me just as I had suspected.
“Enjoying the show?”
“Absolutely.”
“Where’s Ollie?”
“I let him out. And I locked the door.”
Guilt stabs me in the chest, and I look away quickly. “What’s wrong?” He approaches and turns me away from him running his hands down my arms. I can feel his warm breath on the side of my neck and his erection pressing against my ass.
“Last night, when Adley woke up…” It’s hard to concentrate with him monopolizing my space in the shower.
“Last night when Adley woke up, what?”
“She was cold, so she came looking for me in my bed. When she couldn’t find me, she got scared and went to your room, but the door was locked. I told her we wanted to talk in private so we locked the door and left her downstairs because she was sleeping soundly. I told her we fell asleep and forgot to unlock the door, and I promised we wouldn’t do it again.”
I hadn’t planned on telling him, but he needs to know that locking the doors to get private time with me might not be the best idea. I do not, under any circumstances, want to be the cause of a rift between those two.
“She was scared?”
“Uh huh.”
“And alone,” he says in a flat tone. He’s putting it all together.
I don’t answer. He kisses my neck and slides his hands around to my flat belly resting his chin on my shoulder. “I was going to pick up where we left off last night for a few minutes, but now I think I should go talk to my daughter first.”
“I understand,” I whisper, and he’s gone.
13
Gage
I swore my child would never feel scared and alone again after being abandoned in the hospital at birth. I have failed her.
I exit my bedroom at the same time Adley does hers. “Hey, look who’s white,” I say pointing down at a very different looking Ollie.
She shrieks, and Ollie hides behind my legs. “He’s so pretty, Daddy!”
“Careful, you’ll make him pee on the carpet,” I chuckle, and she drops to her knees to coax him out from behind me.
“You’re so pretty, Ollie. Why didn’t you tell me you had white fur under all that dirt?” she asks the dog while scratching behind his ears. He has instantly forgotten about her loud shriek, and they are once again best friends. “Do dogs know what they look like?” she asks looking up at me.
“That’s a good question. I would imagine they don’t unless someone shows them their reflection in the mirror.”
“Ollie needs to see how handsome he is. Can we find a mirror?”
“Maybe later, I need to talk to you about something for a minute. Let’s go downstairs.”
“Am I in trouble? I don’t remember doing anything, Daddy. I swear.”
“No baby, you’re not in trouble at all. I just want to talk, come on.”
I take her hand, and we go to the living room where I notice that the snow has slowed to a light dusting powder instead of the giant cotton ball flakes that have been falling for over twenty-four hours.
I sit on the couch and guide Adley to the coffee table in front of me. I pat the table, and she sits down still looking warily at me.
“I hear you got cold and frightened and came looking for Clover and me last night.”
“Uh huh.” She nods.
“I wanted to tell you that I am very sorry I didn’t put you to bed. And, I’m also sorry you couldn’t get into my room.”
“It’s okay, Clover said you guys forgot to unlock the door.”
“I did, but I should have put you to bed like I always do. I never want you to feel alone or afraid, baby. We have a new policy in this house. No locked doors. I promise that you will always be able to get to me no matter what, just remember to knock first, please.”
“You and Clover were kissing, weren’t you?”
“Yes, we were. I like her very much, but you are my number one priority in life, do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Good. My door is always open for you when you need me.”
“Just knock,” she says with a smile.
“Yes, just knock. Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For not being too upset about last night. It was freezing in here, and you must have been very scared.”
“I was a little. I was mostly sad because I thought Clover left us.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, she wasn’t in her bed. I thought you got mad at her ‘bout that picture man, and she went back home to her friend.”
“No, she would never leave without saying goodbye.”
“You don’t want her to leave, do you?” She looks panicked.
“No, of course not. I don’t ever want Clover to leave us. I hope she stays with us forever.”
“Me, too.” She slides off the coffee table and wraps her arms around my neck.
“Did I hear my name?” Clover says, coming down the stairs.
“Yes!” Adley says dropping me to skip to Clover’s side. Clover is dressed in a red cable knit sweater and fitted jeans that Adley calls skinny jeans. She looks adorable for her age, and I wonder if she’s figured out how old I am yet.
“I hope you were saying good things.” She chuckle
s sitting down on the third step from the floor.
“Daddy wants you to stay here forever,” she blurts out, and for the first time in years, I think I may be embarrassed.
“Oh, he does, does he?” Shit, she never was much for being subtle.
“We’ve been chatting about last night. She thought you left us when she couldn’t find you.” I see the wheels turning in her mind. She thinks I’m backing out of the forever offer, but I’m not.
“I see, and you decided I should stay forever?” she asks.
“Yes, if you’ll have us.” I feel like I’ve just proposed marriage. The words are delivered light and casual, but my heart wants them to be heavy and serious.
“Well, I guess I’m here forever then. Majority rules, right?” She throws up her hands in pretend defeat, and I wait for Adley to ask what majority rules means. Right on cue, she does just that, and Clover answers her question.
“It’s when everybody takes a vote and whoever has the most votes is the majority, and they win. I was kidding, though,” she says when Adley’s face clouds with confusion. “I want to stay. I don’t need a majority to vote for me, although I’m glad to know you both want me to stay.”
“Forever,” Adley adds quickly.
“Forever,” Clover says with a smile.
“Well, now that we have that settled, why don’t you go hop online and see what you’ve missed so far at school today?”
“Aww, can’t it be a snow day? Look at all that snow.” She points out the window at the snow-saturated mountain.
“If the internet is working, you’re going to school. You don’t get snow days, you only get no Wi-Fi days.”
“But…”
I interrupt before she can go any further. “No buts. Go to school.”
She walks to the desk that sits at the end of the bank of windows and switches on the computer. I see Miss Kitty’s face appear and hear Adley begin to tell the students in her class about the snow and Ollie with excitement.
“Another cup of coffee?” Clover asks quietly from where she is now standing by the stairs.
“Sure.”
I watch her pour two cups and think about the upcoming weekend. She’s going home to visit Freda and her friends. I wish I could take her out to dinner at a nice restaurant and show her how much I appreciate her. Maybe I should just do it. Break out of this secret life and see what happens. Worst-case scenario the music industry would sue me for losses, and my mother and fans would hate me. I can deal with that as long as I have Adley and Clover by my side.