"Oh, Lucy's working out in one of the paddocks," she informed me. "Just walk through that door, and follow the cement path. She's right over the back."
Dutifully, I followed her instructions past lots of empty cages and stopped at a larger, grassed area towards the back.
I looked around for Lucy and realized the girl was correct. Standing in the middle of one of the paddocks was a lady with her back to me, bent at the waist, clipping a leash onto one sad-looking Dalmatian. From the back she looked to be quite a bit older than me with a mop of frizzy, greying hair, a lot on the plump side, and she wore the same jeans and blue T-shirt the young girl at the counter wore. As I stepped closer a man wearing the same uniform called out to her.
"Lucy, do you think you can give me a hand when you are finished with Max?" he asked. She lifted her head and nodded.
"Yeah, I won't be long. I just have to take Max inside. Allie is going to give him a bath," she said, scratching the Dalmatian behind the ears.
"Thanks," he called. He waved and turned away from her.
I was about to approach her and call her name, but as she turned towards me I stopped dead in my tracks. Without a shadow of a doubt, this was the woman I'd seen tied up at Brody's house. I felt my breath catch as confusion filled my brain.
What had Lucy been doing at Brody's? Why would the exact, same lady I was supposed to give Theo to be at Brody's, tied to a chair? The information Betty had given me suggested she didn't actually know Lucy, other than the phone call she had made regarding Theo. So why would Lucy have been there? I mean, surely they didn't go around chasing up dogs that didn't get handed in.
As Lucy started to walk towards the gate to step out of the paddock, I had to make a fast decision about what I should do. Should I confront her alone? Or should I go home, get Isaac and Brody, and come back? I mean, if she'd been an innocent party to what had happened then surely she would have reported it to the police? But the police had never turned up at Brody's house, which is definitely something they would have done. If she wasn't an innocent party, then was she the one Isaac had seen in the house when Brody wasn't home? What was she looking for, and who tied her up?
I felt my pulse kick up a notch as Lucy pulled on the dog's leash and stepped onto the path. The prickly feeling running down my spine told me I should turn and get the hell out of there before she saw me and only come back when I had figured it out. And had Brody as back up.
I didn't have time to walk away though, so I did the only thing I could do. I stepped up to the nearest paddock, turned my back to her, and started talking to the lonely crossbreed that wandered over. I held my breath as she walked up to me.
"Is there anything I can help you with?" she asked. I could barely hear her over the pounding of my heart in my ears, but I managed to control my wobbly voice as I squeaked a reply.
"No. I'm fine, thank you."
"That's Bentley," she said. "He's fairly new, but so far he seems to have a pretty good temperament." Bentley was very cute and had the ability to suck me in, but adopting another dog was definitely not on my To Do list.
"Oh, I'm just browsing, thank you," I mumbled. I could only imagine she would have had a very quizzical look on her face, but there was no way I was lifting my head to check. I did not need her to recognize me whilst I was all alone and vulnerable. Eventually, she took the hint and moved on.
"Well, if there's anything I can do, just ask for me at the front counter. I'm Lucy," she offered.
"Will do!" I silently prayed she would hurry the hell up. Bentley had stuck his adorable, little snout through the fence and was licking my outstretched fingers. As she walked away, I discreetly looked at her retreating back and pulled my hand away from him. Thankfully, a family walked towards me, the kids all calling loudly to their mother. Bentley decided he probably had more chance of being adopted if he sucked up to them instead, turned his back to me, and trotted away.
As I walked back towards the reception area, I hoped to reach the safety of my car without running into Lucy again. As I quietly entered the room, I overheard a conversation between the clown girl at the counter and an unknown person standing out of my line of vision.
"Lucy, you've been popular today. You had a visitor earlier. I sent her out the back looking for you? Did you catch up with her?"
"No. I didn't find anyone looking for me. What did she look like?" I heard the voice call back.
I quickly hid behind a display of collars and leashes and hoped the young girl hadn't spotted me. I did not need an introduction to the exact person I was trying to avoid.
"Tall, thin." Oh wow, it was always nice when someone described you as thin. Tall was probably a stretch of the imagination though.
"Grey hair." I reached up and touched my head, alarm bells ringing. Feeling a bit indignant, I strained to hear the rest of the conversation, since the girl had stepped into a room behind the counter.
"Old," I heard her say. Now that I took offence to. Yes, clown girl looked about twenty, but may I remind you that thirty is not old by any stretch of the imagination. I stepped out from behind the display, ready to defend myself, when I remembered why I was hiding. Damn!
I saw the girl step back out of the doorway, and I quickly ducked back into my hiding spot.
"If I had to take a guess, I'd say she was about seventy. She was asking about a dog called Theo." Oh. Well. She wasn't talking about me then. Hang on a minute—that sounded a lot like Betty. Why would Betty be back here asking for Lucy and Theo?
"Really?" I heard the agitation in Lucy's voice and wondered about it. "Well, she never found me. Is she still here? Is she coming back?" asked Lucy hurriedly.
I never got to hear the rest of the conversation though as my phone rang, alerting Lucy and company to my hiding position. I decided the best way to deal with the situation was to pull my hoodie up and walk out the door, very fast. I felt their eyes on me as I almost jogged past. Only once I had unlocked my car, and was safely sitting inside, did I answer my phone.
"What?" I snapped, pulling my hoodie back down.
"Well, hello to you too, Miss Cranky Pants," replied Isaac.
"Sorry," I said, letting out a big breath. "I'm just having a bit of a stressful morning."
"So now is probably not a good time to tell you your ex-boyfriend Jack is knocking on your front door?"
"There's never a good time to tell me that!" I snapped. "What the hell does he want?" I asked.
"Chloe, I am a lot of things, but a mind reader is not among them. I don't know what he wants. You need to come home and talk to him yourself."
"I can't. I'm busy," I said, chewing my thumbnail. "Do you remember the woman who was tied up at Brody's?"
"Of course I remember. I don't think I'm likely to ever forget," he replied.
"Well, I'm at the animal shelter and she's here." I heard the appropriate gasp at the other end of the phone.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. I'm pretty sure, and it turns out she's the same woman Betty told me to give Theo to." I could almost hear the cogs in Isaac's brain turning.
"But what would she be doing tied up at Brody's?"
"I don't know. Maybe it's just a coincidence. I'll call Brody and see if he can meet me here. Maybe if he sees her, he might recognize her."
"He's home now. I'll pop over there and drive him to you. Sit tight!"
As I hung up the phone, I thought about how Isaac was pretty quick with his offer to collect Brody.
CHAPTER NINE
We had come up with a plan. Brody was to walk into the shelter and ask for Lucy on the pretense he was looking for a dog. We also decided that Isaac and I shouldn't be seen, so I left Brody my car and got a lift into town with Isaac. We thought the Bar and Grill was as good a place as any to wait, but waiting felt like forever. I watched in silence as Isaac plucked a hair from his eyebrow and pushed it up his nose. Only when he was satisfied it could go no further did he pluck the next one.
"What are you doing?" I asked
, curious to see what his answer would be. He stopped mid-pluck and looked at me puzzled.
"What?"
"The eyebrow plucking thing. Why are you shoving it up your nose?"
"I'm not shoving anything up my nose," he answered, looking at me as if I was strange.
"Yes, you are. You're doing this really weird plucking and shoving routine. I've never seen you do that before. Is it new?"
"Chloe, you're a lovely girl, but really? You are very strange."
I let out a snort of laughter. "I'm the strange one?"
"Yes, you are."
We were just getting into a "you areno, you are" scenario, when Brody sauntered over to our table and sat down on my side of the booth, his leg coming to rest only inches away from mine. Suddenly I didn't care if Isaac thought I was strange.
"What are you?" asked Brody, looking at me.
"She's strange," answered Isaac. I looked at him and glared.
Choosing to ignore any further comments, I turned back to Brody.
"Well? Did you see Lucy?"
"Yep, and Bentley. I have to say, you were right. He's a pretty cute dog. In fact, I might even adopt him." He smiled.
"Don't joke about things like that, Brody," I scolded, thinking about poor Bentley. I mean, I knew how I would feel if Brody were sitting in front of me debating if he was going to take me home or not.
"What about Lucy?" asked Isaac. "Had you seen her before?"
Brody turned his attention to Isaac and not a second too soon. I could feel the heat rising from my toes, heading upwards.
"No. Never," said Brody, shaking his head. "Are you positive it was the same woman?" he asked, looking back at me.
"Well, it's not like I asked her or anything," I answered irritably. Brody's leg was a little bit too close for comfort.
"I guess we could go to a Weight Watchers meeting and see if she turns up. We've still got the pedometer we could hand in as an excuse," suggested Brody, ignoring my snappiness.
"I think Chloe needs to eat," said Isaac. "She gets snippy when her sugar levels drop," he explained.
I snatched the menu Isaac held out in my direction and flipped it open. Reading it made me realize I hadn't actually eaten since last night, when I'd made myself toast after Brody left. No wonder I was feeling snippy.
However, low blood sugar made decision-making difficult. Eventually Isaac lost patience, took the menu, and ordered for me. Brody stood and walked to the bar, his jeans molding his sexy backside to perfection, and brought me back a Coke. I was mesmerized as I gazed at his long fingers holding the glass and watched him pour the liquid into it. Not for the first time, I noticed his big hands and how fluid his movements were. He passed me the drink, and I looked up into his face. A jolt of electricity filled the air between us. As I reached to take it from him, the tenderness in his eyes took my breath away. My stomach went into free fall. I clenched the glass, our fingers touched, and suddenly it felt like we were the only two people in the room—until my ringtone dragged me back to reality.
"Damn," I mumbled, breaking eye contact with him. I lifted my bag onto the table and nearly knocked the glass over in the process. I found my phone and looked at the caller display, my heart skipping a beat as I did so. "Ahh!" I yelled, throwing my phone down like it had herpes. There in big, capital letters, vibrating as it bounced around, was the word Jack.
Brody grabbed my phone just in time before it vibrated right off the table. I saw his eyes as he read the display, silently handing it back to me.
I took the phone and pressed reject. It was quite easy really. Jack was one person I didn't want back in my life—in any context. There had been a time I thought I'd be able to forgive him and take him back, if he'd apologized, of course. But the more I realized that there were men like Brody in the world, the more I never wanted to see or hear from Jack again. I felt all eyes on me as I pushed the phone back into my bag.
"What? I don't have to talk to him if I don't want to," I sulked, glaring at Isaac. Not only was the moment with Brody broken, but now I had to answer to Isaac as to why I wouldn't talk to Jack. "Anyway, you can't talk. You still aren't talking to Adam. You're just lucky he's on the other side of the country at the moment."
"This isn't about me, and we both know I will talk to Adam once he apologizes." Thankfully, our buzzer vibrated indicating our food was ready. Saved by the steak sandwich, I thought.
* * *
I felt a lot more stable after I'd eaten, but my improved mood didn't last long. As soon as I looked up and locked eyes with Jack standing at the bar, my bad mood returned.
"What the…?" I mumbled, dropping my head back down. Isaac stopped what he was saying mid-sentence, and both he and Brody turned to look at me.
"Pardon?" asked Isaac, frowning.
"It's Jack," I whispered. "At the bar. Don't turn around! I'm hoping he didn't see me."
"Well, if he's the one in the black jacket walking towards us, I think it's too late," said Brody.
"Shit."
"Chloe! I thought it was you," said Jack, stopping at our table. He smiled as he looked around at our ensemble.
I begrudgingly looked up at him and noticed how dark he was around the eyes. Standing at just under six feet tall, Jack had really brilliant, violet-colored eyes. In fact, they were one of the things that attracted me to him in the first place. Well, that and the incredibly nice backside he had. Today he looked tired. His usually tanned complexion was pale, and his blond hair was messy and too long. Not like Jack at all. Whatever was happening in his life obviously did not suit him very well. Oh well, as they say, Karma's a bitch.
"What the hell are you doing here, Jack?" I snapped.
"Would you believe I was actually looking for you?" He looked down at me and gave me that slow, sexy smile of his. Too bad I was immune to it now. "You're never home, and you're not answering my calls. I remembered how you always liked to come here when we were together, and I had my fingers crossed I'd find you." He smiled as I noticed how he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, obviously uncomfortable. He looked at Brody and then at Isaac. "Hi, Isaac, how've you been?"
"Hello, Jack. I'd like to say you're looking well, but that would be a lie," said Isaac. Trust Isaac to say it how it was. Jack chose to ignore Isaac's comment and turned his attention to Brody. I noticed Brody looking around our group, obviously trying to gauge how everybody interacted. I watched as his eyes came to rest on Jack and his jaw clenched slightly.
"Hi, I'm Jack."
Brody, ever the gentleman, reached out and accepted the handshake Jack offered. "Brody."
"Well, now that we all know each other, what do you want?" As much as I wanted him to quickly leave, there was a small part of me that wondered why he had dumped me the way he did.
"Do you mind if I sit down?" asked Jack.
"Yes, I do mind."
Isaac kicked me under the table. He wanted me to talk to Jack so I could put him behind me properly and move on with my life. Little did he know that, in the last few weeks of knowing Brody, I felt like I was moving on.
"Whatever," I sighed, indicating for Jack to sit next to Isaac. "Just hurry up and say what you want to say, then get the hell out of my life." I saw Jack gulp and look shiftily around the table.
"I've missed you, Chloe. The times we used to have here…they were fun."
"Liar," I mumbled. It was good to hear, though. I had lain awake many nights wishing he would come back begging just so I could kick him to the curb.
I watched Jack shift uneasily in his seat. "Why don't I buy us all a drink?" he suggested, jumping back up. "What would you like, Brody? Beer? Isaac, what about you? I know you'll have a Midori, Chloe."
"I don't drink Midori anymore," I lied. "I'll have a Cock Sucking Cowboy, please." I had absolutely no idea what that cocktail was, but the look on Jack's face was priceless.
"Me too, please," added Isaac with a smile. I heard the chuckle low in Brody's throat as he looked at Jack.
"I'll
just have a beer," he added.
Once Jack was out of earshot, Brody turned to me. "Want to fill me in on what his story is?"
No, I really didn't, but I suppose he deserved an explanation.
I gave him the Reader's Digest version of the story.
"I think he wants you back," said Isaac.
"Yeah, well, that's not happening. I had always hoped that one day he would come crawling back, and I could make him regret dumping me. Of course, in that fantasy I would actually be dating a gorgeous, sexy man and not living alone with my dog." I sighed. "Like I said, it's a fantasy."
Jack walked back towards us carrying a tray of drinks. As he sat down, Brody leaned back in the booth and put his arm around my back. I felt the butterflies in my stomach swoop. What was he up to?
I saw a look of uncertainty cross Jack's face as he handed us our drinks. I took mine and leaned backwards, resting my head on Brody's arm. I got the impression Brody was playing along with my fantasy. Bless his heart.
"I'm not sure I'm the gorgeous, sexy guy you had in mind, but I'm here, so I hope I'll do," whispered Brody in my ear, causing goose bumps to break out all over me.
I turned to him and smiled. He would more than do.
I watched as Brody leaned forward and extended his hand for Jack to shake once more. "I just wanted to thank you," he said.
"It's only a beer," replied Jack, a puzzled look on his face.
"I'm not talking about the beer. I'm thanking you for being such a jerk. If you weren't, I may never have met Chloe." Brody smiled.
I nearly choked on my drink. That was far better than anything I'd ever imagined. Jack limply shook Brody's hand
"So you two are together then?" he asked.
"Yeah, it's been a couple of months already. I can't believe how fast the time has gone," said Brody, as he pulled me in close and kissed my forehead.
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