“You were,” she said with a pretend scowl. “But I took care of it. You will, however, be in charge of doing all the accounting afterward.”
“I thought I told y’all to hire an accountant.” In fact, he was sure that he did remember that part of the meeting. “Once y’all are up and running in not-so-many days, I won’t be—”
He cut himself off too late. Though he and Heather had agreed to continue seeing each other, what he’d just said must have sounded to her like he was already backing out.
Heather sat a little more stiffly than before. “I am aware of that.” Her shift in posture disturbed the dog, who woke and gave a concerned look around, then raised his head to lick Heather’s chin. She petted his head, giving her entire attention to the dog and avoiding looking at Adrian altogether.
Why was she being so touchy? Not so long ago, he’d been the one asking her to consider taking their relationship further—or at least being open to the possibility. Now she seemed pissed that he wasn’t planning to live in her back pocket. “You know that after Monday, y’all won’t need me so much at the shelter.”
She nodded, still without looking at him.
“But that doesn’t mean I won’t be coming to see you, Heather. And Charlie. I’ll still ride him a couple times a week, like I promised.”
“I’m sure you will.” She crossed her legs and started swinging her foot. “And I’ll be working full-time as of Monday morning, so I probably won’t be there.”
“I’ll still come around to the shelter and check on y’all.”
“Yep.” She spit the word out. “Once a week for a month was the deal, I believe?”
He reached over the dog and took Heather’s hand. The dog licked his arm, spreading love and saliva with liberal abandon. “And we’ll still spend time together, yeah? Maybe you’ll invite me to stay for dinner sometimes when I come over to ride Charlie? And maybe you can arrange for babysitting every now and then so we can spend time together, just the two of us?”
She smiled, but it wasn’t the kind of smile that made her cheeks go plump. “Of course we can,” she said. But it didn’t sound like she really believed it. It didn’t sound like she thought either one of them would follow through.
***
“They’re here,” Reva sang out to Georgia and Jasper when she heard the rumble of the truck’s diesel engine in the shelter’s parking lot next door. “Let’s go see the new dog.”
Ready to play, they rushed up to the closed gate between Bayside Barn and the shelter. Reva knelt to get their attention. “Listen.”
Jasper sat; Georgia didn’t. Reva knew Georgia didn’t need to be told about the new dog, but Jasper did. She sent a mental image of the way she wanted Jasper to act around the new dog: calm, respectful, friendly. She knew he’d get the last two behaviors because that was the kind of dog he was. She wasn’t so sure about the first. “Can you do that, Jasper?”
Jasper leaned forward and licked her face. That was a yes.
“Okay then.” She opened the gate. “Let’s go meet the new dog.”
Georgia and Jasper both ran to meet their new friend. Heather held his leash, and he wagged his black-tipped tail, lunging toward the other dogs. Heather gave Reva a nervous look and pulled back on the leash.
“They’ll be fine,” Reva called out. “Let them sniff each other.” Even though she had only talked to two of the dogs about what to expect and how to act, she could tell by their demeanor that everyone would get along fine. She had also given Jasper a good talking-to about cat-chasing. Otherwise, he would be on a leash right now too.
“Where’s Adrian?” Reva asked Heather.
“Gone to find Quinn so they can unload those generators and shutters.”
“Quinn should be here any minute with the tractor. He put the front-end loader attachment on yesterday.” The words were no sooner out of her mouth than the tractor’s rumble could be heard from the direction of the drive-through gate. “Let’s go inside. The new dog doesn’t much like the sound of motors.”
Inside the shelter, Heather unhooked the leash, and all three dogs began ripping and snorting. “Chill out, y’all,” Reva said. She also sent a mental image of what “chill out” might look like.
Of course, they did no such thing. A dog’s ability to hear and understand human words and thoughts didn’t necessarily create a willingness to obey. In this moment, their need to play and let off steam dominated.
“You and Adrian had fun in New Orleans?”
Heather rolled up the leash and smiled, a pretty blush staining her cheeks. “We did.”
“Good. I’m glad.” Reva let a beat or two go by. “I’m not gonna ask what y’all did, but your kids might.”
“We ate a lot of good food and did some shopping.” Heather’s blush intensified. “The usual things people do in New Orleans.”
Reva patted her friend’s shoulder. “Might want to rethink your plan not to tell anyone about you and Adrian. Your blush gives you away.”
Heather fanned her cheeks. “I’ll have it under control by the time the kids get off school.”
Reva noticed the flash of new bling on Heather’s finger. “Hmmm… Nice ring you’ve got there.” She took Heather’s hand for a closer inspection. “So y’all aren’t keeping it a secret after all?”
“Um…” Heather’s wide green eyes met hers. “I hadn’t thought anyone would wonder about that.”
Adrian walked in the door, filling the room with his aura of charming self-assurance. “Wonder about what?”
“Where Heather got this ring,” Reva supplied.
Adrian and Heather exchanged shocked glances. “Um…” they both said at once, each looking at the other to come up with a plausible story.
Reva grinned, wondering if this whole keeping-secrets thing would shake Adrian’s unshakable confidence. She made a big show of examining the ring, a beautiful antique gold-filigree design with a blue sapphire surrounded by tiny diamonds…with a small, almost invisible hinge and latch on either side of the gemstone-covered cap. “A poison ring?”
“You never know when you might need to poison someone,” Heather said with a pained expression on her face.
“How romantic,” Reva said with a puzzled glance at Adrian.
He shrugged, an easy grin lighting his almost-too-handsome face. “A fun memento of the day,” he said. “That’s all.”
“Um-hmmm.” Reva decided to drop the subject. A little light teasing was fun, but she didn’t want to make either of them feel defensive.
“Where are the dogs?” Adrian asked, about the same time the trio came skidding into the room, their nails scrabbling on the hardwood floors. He knelt down to the new dog, who came up to him and licked his face. He scratched the dog’s ears. “Hey, bud, how you liking it here so far?”
In answer, the dog pulled away and initiated another round of chase-the-leader through the shelter’s main building.
“I see you can’t bring yourself to call him Bones either,” Reva commented to Adrian.
“Nope,” he agreed, putting a casual arm around Heather before remembering their secrecy agreement and dropping it—just not quite as casually.
Reva took pity on them both. “I know y’all probably have a gazillion things to do before our meeting this afternoon…” She noted a semi-panicked look on Heather’s face and a slight dimming of Adrian’s congenial expression. “You hadn’t forgotten, had you? We’ve got a lot to do to get ready for Monday’s grand opening. I won’t keep y’all long; just want to go over our next few days’ calendar and to-do lists.”
Heather grabbed Adrian’s wrist and looked at his watch. “I’ve gotta go get the kids. I’m gonna drop them off at the house, but can I leave Jasper here? He’s having so much fun, I hate to make him leave.”
“Sure,” Reva said. “I’ll toss the ball to these three in the pool.
Might as well get started with this dog’s rehab program right away.”
Heather and Adrian made an unconscious move toward each other, then stopped themselves. Their obvious desire to touch, to kiss goodbye before Heather left, fairly sizzled between them. It was going to be fun to see how long those two lovebirds managed to keep their relationship a secret.
***
During the entire shelter meeting—in which the new dog lay under the table with his head on Adrian’s foot—Adrian could feel his phone silently pinging in his pocket. He knew it was a slew of neglected clients blowing up his phone. He hadn’t realized how much time he spent interacting with clients until he’d stopped doing it for a couple of days.
No wonder they paid him so much. He was always on call.
At least, he had been until now, and many of his clients were low-key freaking out at his unaccustomed unavailability. He was sitting too close to Reva to take his phone out and text under the table, but he promised himself that he would catch up on texts and emails once he got home tonight, no matter how late that turned out to be.
“Adrian?” Abby leaned across the conference table and waved a hand in his face. “Hello?”
He sat up straighter. “Sorry. What?”
“How many people are you inviting to come on Sunday?”
“Sunday?” The grand opening was on Monday. “What’s happening on Sunday?”
Reva let out a hoot of laughter. “I told y’all he was daydreaming.”
Quinn shook his head and sent Adrian a look of commiseration. “I wonder why.”
Abby, reading from her notebook, kindly filled him in. “As a way of apologizing for being mostly absent from all of the planning activities due to his obligations as the only veterinarian in town…”
Abby emphasized the last part of her statement by rubbing her index finger and thumb together in a gesture the gang all recognized as This is the world’s tiniest violin playing “My Heart Bleeds for You.”
“Mack is hosting a pre-grand-opening celebration for the team and any hangers-on we might like to invite, including kids and dogs. He has organized a party on the bay for us this Sunday. He is also renting motel rooms for anyone coming from out of town. He just needs a head count.”
Adrian relaxed. “I wasn’t planning to invite my folks to the grand opening, so—”
“Hold up,” Quinn interrupted. “Abby already invited them.” He made an I told you so face at her and grimaced at Adrian. “Sorry.”
“Yeah, but my parents are homebodies most of the time, though, so—”
“They said they’d come,” Abby piped up. “And since Quinn’s folks—and even mine, God help us—are coming, yours have to come too. The only real question is whether your sisters and your brother are also coming.”
“No,” Adrian was quick to say. “They are not.”
“So just your parents, then?” Abby asked with saccharine sweetness.
Adrian thought about putting his head in his hands but managed to sit still and adopt a genial and unconcerned poker face. “It’ll just be my parents. Thank you for asking.”
“Okay,” Abby chirped. “Well, that’s it then. See most of y’all tomorrow. Adrian, see you and your parents on Sunday. Mack has made reservations for y’all at the Bayside Motel from Sunday at 10:00 a.m. through Monday at…” She shuffled through her papers and then gave up with a shrug. “Monday whenever. We’ll meet y’all at the dock next to the motel Sunday morning at eleven.”
Adrian pushed his chair back, startling the dog who’d been snoozing at his feet.
“No, wait,” Reva said. “We have to come up with a name for this new dog. We can’t keep calling him New Dog forever.”
Adrian sat back down and glanced at his watch. It wasn’t but half past four, but jeez, he still had to ride Charlie before he headed home.
“He wants a real name, like a human name,” Reva said. “So not Bones or Buddy or Tripod, but a real name like James or Duke or Jake. He wants a name that embodies his personality, so first we need to think about that.”
They brainstormed traits like sweet, happy, resilient, friendly. Meanwhile, Adrian’s phone kept buzzing in his pocket. “Let’s talk about names. How about Pavarotti?”
Reva closed her eyes, then opened them and shook her head. “He says no.”
“Alan, Abel, Averil?” He paused and looked up at the ceiling. “Ben, Benny, Bevis?”
Reva crossed her arms and shot him a mean look. “Thank you for your input, Adrian. I know you’re ready to get out of here, but going through the alphabet is counterproductive.”
Abby ignored them both. “I think he does want a name that shows his resilience, so let’s choose something that gives a nod to his past but then puts a stamp on the dog he means to become: friendly, smart, uncomplicated, and…” She paused to look at the dog, then smiled. “Debonair.”
“Jack Reacher,” Quinn said. “Jack is a good guy’s name, short, uncomplicated, friendly-sounding. Reacher because he’s reaching toward his future.”
Adrian looked down at the dog, whose head had popped up at the name Jack but plopped down again. “Jack…”
The dog looked up, even sat up.
“Reacher?”
The dog looked away.
“Jack…”
The dog cocked his head, his ears perked forward.
“Skellington!” Heather yelled. The dog started jumping around, doing the Snoopy dance on his one back leg.
“The Pumpkin King,” Heather explained, when Reva looked confused. “The skeleton character from The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
The dog seemed to approve; he started hop-running around the room, while Georgia and Jasper looked on sleepily from their spots under the table.
“It’s perfect,” Heather said. “The vet tech said the dog was almost a skeleton when he got hit by that car and someone brought him to the vet. And now, for the rest of his life, he’s going to be a king. We’ll find him the perfect home, where he can be a friendly, kind, benevolent king.”
The dog stopped running and put his head in Adrian’s lap. Adrian rubbed the dog’s ears. “Jack Skellington. What do you think of that name?”
The dog barked, a happy “Yip!” of approval.
“Okay, y’all,” Abby said. “Meeting adjourned. Let’s all head home.” She and Quinn scooted out of there so fast it looked like they’d hyper-spaced.
“Hang on, Adrian.” Reva stood and gathered her notebook and pen. “I need to talk to you before you leave.”
Adrian sighed.
“Yes, I know,” Reva said, doing the tiny violin gesture. “It won’t take but a minute or two.”
Heather made kissy noises to Jasper and patted her leg. “We’re heading out. Will…um… Will you be riding Charlie today, Adrian? I know it’s later than you planned.”
“I’ll be there. Tell Erin not to feed him; I’ll do it after I’ve ridden.”
Heather nodded, and she and Jasper left.
Reva patted Adrian’s shoulder. “Come on.” She led the way down the hall. “I want you to see something.”
On the way, he remembered the semi-feral cat he’d caught. “How’s that cat doing, by the way?”
“I picked him up from the vet this morning. The neuter surgery went well, but he is not a happy camper.” She opened the door to one of the playrooms. “Here he is.”
The cat was crouched in a shoebox at the back of a medium-sized plastic crate. “He’s being pitiful. Sitting in the litter box.”
“Awww. Why haven’t you let him out into the cat room so he can go outside?”
“He’s too wild for us to set him loose in the cat room. Also, he has a scratched cornea that will require medicine and ointment twice a day for two weeks. We would have to catch him to give him the medicine, and that would make taming him harder.”
; Reva approached the crate. The cat put his ears back and narrowed his eyes—one of which was already squinted shut, the fur around it smeared with a greasy-looking ointment. “He needs to be fostered by someone he trusts so that he can be allowed out of the crate and begin to be habituated to life with humans. With his current attitude, he isn’t adoptable. And if someone doesn’t work with him, he never will be.”
Adrian dropped his chin to his chest. “Someone like me, I’m guessing.”
“Yes.” Reva picked up the cat’s crate and put it in his arms. “Someone exactly like you.”
***
Cat crouched in the tiny pebble-filled box at the very back of his prison, watching. Adrian had set the carrier on a high shelf, where Cat could see everything in the large, dusty building but also be safe from that dog who had chased him before. The funny-looking strange-eyed dog couldn’t get to Cat now. Adrian had made sure of that. But Cat growled a warning, just in case.
“Jasper won’t hurt you,” Adrian soothed.
Jasper. That bad dog had a name; why didn’t Cat have one? Adrian had called him Stinky Cat at first, but not anymore. Reva had told Adrian that he would have to come up with a better name for Cat. Something with dignity, she said. Whatever that meant.
Cat didn’t care what his name turned out to be. He only cared that someone thought enough of him to name him something, anything.
Other people came to see Cat. They were making a lot of words and calling each other by their names. Josh, Caroline, Erin, and Mom. Mom was also called Awww Mommmm and Mama.
Other words were said, words like barn, stall, clean, and water. But those were just words, not names. Cat could tell the difference because names were always said differently than those other words. The way names were said made Cat feel happy and safe. The way those other words were said didn’t make Cat feel anything at all.
Adrian led a big animal into the building by a leash. Adrian talked softly to the big animal, whose name was Charlie. Adrian said Charlie’s name with a great deal of affection. He took something off the shelf near Cat’s crate and whisked it all over Charlie’s brown coat. Charlie closed his eyes and made sounds that indicated pleasure.
Magnolia Bay Memories Page 23