by Dylann Crush
But all of those points were way over Dolly’s little head. So Zina took her by the hand and led her back inside the front office of the warehouse in search of some dog treats.
A few minutes later, Alex came through the door and interrupted their impromptu training session with Aurora. “I think we’ve got a tentative plan. Want me to fill you in?”
“Sure.”
“Gramps, can you keep an eye on Dolly while I show Zina our plans?”
Morty took the bag of treats and waved them on.
“Thanks.” Alex held the door for her and they walked back into the warehouse. “So we’ll bring in a temporary dome. That way we’re not trying to refrigerate such a big space.”
“How big of a dome are we talking?”
“Just big enough for an ice feature and the pool.”
Zina bit back a laugh. “An ice feature?”
“Yeah. They’ll need something familiar to keep them cool. Nothing too dramatic. We’ll make some snow and—”
“This is ridiculous. You know it’s going to cost you a fortune to keep the snow from melting.”
“I don’t think it’ll be a problem,” Townsend said. “My team’s handled stuff like this before. We did a whole snow globe feature for a Christmas in July event in Dallas a few years ago.”
“Fine. So snow and ice aren’t an issue. What about this pool? Where are you going to set that up? Are we talking kiddie pool, or—”
“Salt water, of course.” Alex grinned—the kind of grin he might give a child if he were trying to explain some complicated issue.
“Of course.” Zina shook her head. “How much is all of this going to cost?”
“Don’t worry about expenses. Mr. Munyon made it perfectly clear he’s more than willing to pay for whatever it takes to give his daughter the perfect winter wonderland wedding of her dreams.”
Zina gritted her teeth to prevent from saying something she might regret. She was there for Lacey, not to try to get everyone to realize what a waste of time, money, and energy this was. How many pups could she house for the amount of money Mr. Munyon was willing to throw away to rent a dome for a couple of months? She could probably redo the whole roof for what he was spending on renting the warehouse alone. The thought made her sick to her stomach.
“I’ll work up a proposal and get it over to you by the end of the day tomorrow,” Townsend said.
“That sounds great. We’re in a time crunch so the sooner the better.” Alex shook the man’s hand again.
Zina swallowed the bubble of apprehension rising in her throat. How had Lacey and Alex talked her into this? The voice of reason had never mattered much to her friend, not when she was focused on something she thought was important. Zina agreed that something had to be done to save the economy of the town, but why did it have to be weddings? Couldn’t they have come up with something else instead? Something with less sparkle, less wasteful disregard for tossing money aside, and maybe a more altruistic goal?
A loud crash came from the front of the building, followed by the sound of someone stumbling through the door.
“Uncle Alex! Gramps fell down!” Dolly shrieked from the doorway.
eleven
Gramps lay on the floor of the office. “Dammit, help me up.”
“What happened?” Alex stopped and squatted next to the older man. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Just wanted to get a closer look at that picture over there.” He nodded toward a black-and-white photograph hanging on the wall by the door.
“You’ve got to be more careful, Gramps.”
“I know.” He took the hand Alex offered and pulled himself to a seated position. “I ever tell you I used to work out here?”
“No.” Alex shook his head as he helped his grandfather to his feet. “When was that?”
“Too long ago to remember. I was there when they took that photo though. Right around the time I married your grandmother. Wanted to see if I could find myself in it. Those were better times.”
A mixture of hopelessness and resignation laced through his grandfather’s voice. Char was right. Gramps needed a new cause, something to get him excited about the time he still had ahead of him. Right now he seemed so caught up in the past.
Alex reached up and pulled the picture from the wall. The sun had taken its toll on the faded black-and-white photo.
“Here you go. Can you find yourself?”
Gramps studied the photo for a moment, his finger slowly moving over the nameless faces who peered up from long ago. “Here I am.”
He pointed to a smiling man who stood tall and proud in the back row.
“That’s you?” Alex squinted at the man who bore little resemblance to his grandfather.
“Hey, I used to be a real catch. How else do you think I got the attention of the most beautiful woman in the world?” He glanced up, his watery eyes making Alex think he was living more in the past than the present. “I’m talking about your grandmother, you know.”
“I figured.” Alex clamped a hand to his grandfather’s shoulder. Gramps was the kind of man who needed a purpose. No wonder he’d been driving folks at the nursing home crazy. The poor man was probably bored out of his mind. “I’ve got an idea. How about helping me with this project?”
“What kind of help do you need? I don’t know anything about penguins.” Gramps handed the photo back.
“Maybe not, but you used to be pretty good with your hands. Didn’t you build the ranch house by yourself?”
“That was a long time ago, son.” Gramps hung his head.
Alex didn’t like the slump of his shoulders or the defeat in his tone. “You still have all of your tools?”
Gramps shrugged. “You’d have to ask your sister about that. For all I know she sold all my stuff when she made me move into that first home.”
Alex’s stomach twisted. Gramps had worked construction for over fifty years. His tools were his life. Would Char really get rid of the one thing that might make their grandfather feel competent in his later years? “I’ll ask her about it. If they’re gone, I’ll get you new ones.”
“Don’t bother. She did what she had to do at the time. Probably wouldn’t have any use for them anymore anyway.”
Alex cast a glance at Zina, who appeared to be studying the tips of her cowboy boots with renewed interest. “Well, I still need a hand. You in?”
Gramps lifted his shoulders in a resigned shrug. “Sure. It’s not like I have anything better to do.”
“I wanna help, too.” Dolly skipped across the office. “What can I do, Uncle Alex?”
“Hmm.” He tapped a finger against his lips. “Can you be in charge of decorating?”
“For the wedding?” Her eyes shone.
Oh hell, he better put a damper on that idea before Dolly jumped to conclusions that she’d be solely responsible for decorating the entire wedding venue. “I was thinking the penguin habitat. They’ll probably be missing home, so if you could draw some pictures of snow and stuff, it would make them more comfortable.”
“But snow is all white.” Her lower lip threatened to jut out. “How can I draw snow?”
Zina stepped in. “Maybe you could cut some snowflakes out of paper.”
“I don’t know how. Mama doesn’t let me use the scissors anymore.”
“That’s because you gave your sister a haircut in her sleep.” Alex tucked a finger under her chin. “I bet she’d let you use scissors if I helped you.”
“Do you know how to cut snowflakes?” She looked up at him, her blue eyes full of hope.
“Not exactly, but—”
“I do,” Zina volunteered. “I’ll help you cut snowflakes and we can hang them from the ceiling of the dome. How does that sound?”
“Oh yay!” Dolly clapped her hands together. “Can we make them sparkly?”
“Of course.”
“With glitter and diamonds?”
Zina laughed and met his gaze over the top of Dolly’s head. “Well, glitter for sure but we’ll have to see about the diamonds. I’m not sure Mr. Munyon’s budget, generous as it might be, will be big enough to cover that.”
Dolly took Zina’s hand. “When can we do it? Now?”
“Maybe later,” Alex said. So this was what it felt like to be a buzzkill all the time. “We’ve got to stop and check out some apartments on the way home.”
“Aw, Uncle Alex, can’t I stay and make snowflakes?” Dolly gave him her best puppy dog eyes.
He considered himself fairly immune to children but found himself melting under her pointed pout. “Not today. I’ve got an appointment with the manager at the Pecan Hollow Apartments.”
“Oh, you don’t want to stay there.” Zina’s lips pursed and she shook her head.
“Why not? The price is right.”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind sharing your apartment with cockroaches the size of rodents.”
Dolly stepped back. “Gross.”
“Fine.” Alex pulled out his phone and deleted Pecan Hollow from his list. “I’ve still got two other options.”
“Which ones?” Zina pressed.
“Doesn’t matter. I need to find somewhere by the warehouse. I’ve got to be close to the penguins and”—he lowered his voice—“that damn parrot is driving me crazy.”
Zina let out a laugh. The sound lifted his spirits just a tad. She was capable of laughter, good to know.
“There are plenty of cheap apartments over in Swynton,” she suggested.
“That’s too far. What if I have an emergency in the middle of the night?”
“A penguin emergency?”
“Yeah.”
“Like what?” She cocked her head. “One of them drowns?”
He didn’t like the attempt at humor. Not at the expense of the penguins. He had yet to meet them, but he already felt protective.
“For your information, it’s impossible for penguins to drown.” That ought to shut her down for a little while.
“What if they have a heart attack underwater?”
“Not likely.”
“I don’t get it. What kind of middle-of-the-night emergency might require you to rush in and save the flock?”
“It’s a colony or a waddle, not a flock.” If she was so insistent on mocking him, the least she could do was to get her vocabulary correct.
“Uncle Alex.” Dolly tugged at his shirt.
“Just a second, sweetie. I’m talking to Miss Zina.” He refocused his attention on the feisty woman in front of him. “I’m not worried about the penguins, I’m concerned about someone trying to break in and mess with them.”
“Oh, gotcha. Lacey said she’s got some state-of-the-art security setup around the house.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t monitor the warehouse, does it?”
“Uncle Alex?” The persistent tugging on his shirt started to get to him. He wrapped his hand around Dolly’s and gently pulled it away from his shirt. “I’d prefer to be close by. Do you have any other suggestions on where I should look?”
“I’ll have to think about it,” Zina said, a hint of a smile playing across her lips.
He focused on those lips for a moment. Full and ripe and begging to be kissed again.
“Uncle Alex?” Dolly pulled her hand away.
“What is it?” He finally looked down in time to see the toilet paper she’d wrapped herself in start to disintegrate.
“I had to go potty.” She looked up at him, tears threatening to spill over her long, full lashes.
“I’m sorry, sweetie.” His heart squeezed. To hell with it. Then he glanced to Zina. “Please tell me there’s a bathroom nearby?”
“Of course. Let’s go up to the house and get you cleaned up.” Zina held out a hand for Dolly to take.
Alex sighed. Thank God she was here. He wouldn’t know what to do with Dolly if he’d been on his own. He’d had plenty of experience around animals and their offspring, just not much experience around human kids.
“You coming?” Zina looked back at him over her shoulder. She moved toward the door, Dolly shuffling along beside her, leaving him no choice but to follow.
They crossed the drive and trekked toward the house. The Victorian-style three-story towered above them. They climbed the steps to the wraparound porch, their feet thumping on the wooden stairs. Alex paused, waiting for Gramps to catch up.
“Y’all go ahead inside and I’ll wait for Gramps.” He gestured toward the door, hoping that Zina would have time to take care of Dolly’s issue before Gramps made his way across the drive and the lawn to the house.
Zina rolled her eyes as she fit the key into the lock on the door and pushed it open. “Come on, Dolly. There’s a bathroom on the second floor where we can get you cleaned up.”
Dolly cast a glance back at Alex before letting Zina lead her into the house. Poor kid. She’d be in safe hands with Zina though. All he’d do was make it worse. He’d never had to help a kid with a wet pants issue before. Never even changed a diaper except on a penguin who’d had a debilitating case of diarrhea. Served it right for digging through his bag and downing all of the chocolate bars one of the Swiss scientists had brought back from a recent trip home.
He held out a hand to help Gramps up the stairs but the old man brushed it away.
“I remember coming here back in the day.”
“Oh yeah?” Alex humored his grandfather.
“The parties they’d throw here.” Gramps settled into a wicker chair on the porch, his face lighting up. “Your grandmother and I met at one of those parties.”
“Really?” He hadn’t heard much in the way of family history over the years. He’d never been interested, and by the time he realized he ought to pay attention, his mom had taken off, his dad had passed away, and he figured the info was lost for good. Char had the family pictures and photo albums, but he’d never wanted to pore over them the way she had when they were little. Now he wished he had. It would be nice to have some sort of sense of history.
“Your grandmother came down those steps like an angel.” Gramps lifted a shaky finger to point to the grand staircase just inside the front door. “It was love at first sight.”
Alex followed his gaze to the steps, where Zina came down, followed by Dolly, who was dressed in some sort of flowy wrap. The two of them giggled at something, giving the impression they’d just become the best of friends.
“Everything better?” Alex asked. Dolly had been a sight to behold in sparkles and toilet paper. But now she seemed to be wearing a towel or a sheet of some sort.
“We found a short robe to put on her, but I think she’ll probably want to go home and change, especially if you’re dead set on apartment hunting this afternoon.”
Alex reached for Dolly’s hand. “Thanks for your help. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Oh, I bet you could. You seem like the kind of guy who can step up when necessary.” Her eyes held a glint of humor, but he could read between the lines enough to know that she was telling him not to fuck this up. Like he needed any added pressure from her. He was already feeling the overcommitment closing in on him from all sides.
He held Dolly’s hand and gestured to Gramps. “Let’s go. We’ve still got a lot to do today.”
Zina dangled a plastic bag from her finger. “Here are Dolly’s wet things. I suppose I’ll see you over here again tomorrow?”
He snatched the bag and held it out in front of him. “Yep, see you tomorrow.” Tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that. And on and on until he made it through the wedding and got Gramps settled. He’d been handing out promises like they were pieces of candy, making more commitments in the past three
days than he had in the past three years.
There was something about being home again that made him want to step up. He’d better figure out what it was before he found himself promising more than he’d ever be able to deliver.
twelve
“Hello?” Zina let herself in through the front door of Lacey and Bodie’s house.
“We’re back here on the porch,” Lacey called.
“Want to tell me why you’ve got a hearse parked in your driveway?” Zina helped herself to a cup of coffee before heading out to the four-season porch. “And why aren’t you in bed?”
Kirby stood as Zina stepped out onto the porch. “Good afternoon, Ms. Zina.”
“Hey, Kirby. Is that your new set of wheels out front?” Kirby was eccentric, but relatively harmless. His ancestors had made a fortune on oil back in the day, so he’d never had to hold down a job.
“Sure is.” He beamed and glanced to Lacey. “I was just talking to Mayor Cherish here about starting up my own business.”
Zina lifted a brow and glanced to Lacey. Her eyes had taken on that shiny glazed look—the one Zina knew all too well. She’d seen it the day before when Alex committed them to moving up the date of the wedding, which meant Kirby was up to something.
“Is that right?” Zina took a seat on one of the cushioned chairs. “Are you putting in a new funeral home?”
“No, ma’am. I’m startin’ a limo business.” He nodded as he resumed his perch on the edge of his seat. “Weddings need limos, now don’t they?”
Lacey turned the shiny eyes on Zina. “I was trying to explain to Kirby that a limo business typically offers limos, not hearses, as a mode of transportation.”
“The hearse is just the first step.” His mouth screwed into a frown. “I plan on expanding my fleet.”
“Where did you get a hearse?” Zina asked.