“Hold it.” Lars stepped out of the SUV, pausing long enough to unhook Daisy and grab her hand. “We’ll go in with you.”
Jess shook her head. “That’s okay. We can handle it.”
“We’re going in.” Lars gave her a level look. “You’re not walking into that cabin alone.”
For a moment, she looked uncertain, licking her lips nervously. Then she shrugged. “Okay. It shouldn’t take long.”
It didn’t. The cabin seemed empty, but he checked the closets and the garage just to be sure. In the backyard, Sweetie whined piteously, scratching his paws against the back door to be let in.
Daisy gave him her best Hallmark Child imitation. “Can I stay with Sweetie? He’s lonesome.”
“He’s hungry,” Lars corrected. “And he has Jack and Mrs. Carroll to keep him company.”
“But Mrs. Carroll can’t stay with him.” Daisy stuck out her lower lip.
He stopped for a moment, glancing back at Jess. “I hadn’t thought of that before. ‘Mrs. Carroll’? You weren’t Mrs. Moreland?”
She shrugged. “It’s my maiden name. I didn’t feel like using Moreland after Barry died.”
Daisy was clearly uninterested in the details of Jess Carroll’s life. “But Daddy…”
“No, Daisy, we’re going home.”
Lars recognized the signs. Daisy’s lower lip was thrust forward, her hands resting on her hips, a dangerous glint in her eyes. Hurricane Daisy was picking up steam.
“Hey, sweetheart.” He reached for her hand. “We need to get out from under Mrs. Carroll’s…ah…feet.” His ever-active subconscious had obligingly provided him with a quick picture of what it might be like to be under Jess Carroll in the right circumstances. Lars swallowed hard.
Not appropriate, Toleffson.
He glanced back as they reached the doorway. “Look, Jess. Pete actually told me you and Jack should stay with him and Janie. I said I’d ask you. Any chance?”
Jess shook her head. “The guest cabin’s rented tonight with another couple coming in for the weekend. I need to be here. We’ll be fine. Honest. People will be around. And I’ll keep Sweetie in the back yard tonight.”
“Sweetie?” Daisy’s voice rose as she remembered her primary complaint.
Lars lifted her quickly for a hug. “C’mon, Dais, you can have a hamburger for supper. We’ll go out.”
Daisy’s lip trembled as she considered the offer. Then she sniffed. “Can we bring some to Sweetie?”
“Maybe.” Lars started moving for the door. “We’ll see.”
The last thing he glimpsed was Jess Carroll’s grin as she closed the door behind them.
Daisy wasn’t too happy with him when he took her to the Coffee Corral instead of McDonald’s, but the owner’s wife fussed over her enough to make up for it. Lars wasn’t even surprised when Cal and Docia came in a few minutes later and joined them at their table.
“Okay.” Docia leaned forward, elbows on the table. “Janie’s wheedling the whole story out of Pete even as we speak. Cal doesn’t know the whole story, so I can’t wheedle. I’m at a disadvantage here. Your turn.”
Lars thought about saying it wasn’t his story to tell, but he didn’t think that would stop Docia. And the more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that a lot of people needed to be aware of what was going on at the Lone Oak B and B. Maybe it would help them head off the Moreland family.
He put Daisy at the next table with a placemat to color, and gave them the best summary he could of the story he’d now heard twice.
Docia wasn’t nearly as objective as Pete. “They got her tossed out of her house?” Her voice began to rise dangerously. “They tried to take her baby?”
People at the next table turned to look. Cal put his hand on her arm. “Keep it down, Red, I doubt Jess wants this all over town just yet.”
Docia lowered her voice, but her eyes flashed dangerously. “What the hell kind of people are these Morelands, anyway?”
Lars rubbed the back of his neck. “I haven’t even gotten to the really troubling part yet. The Konigsburg part.”
“Oh god,” Docia groaned. “Of course, there’s more.”
She stayed quiet while he ran through the rest of it, her brows drawing together into a ferocious scowl. When he’d finished, she spread her fingers on the table in front of her. “Goddamn. Goddamn it all to hell!”
Daisy looked up at her, blinking.
“Go on coloring, sweetheart,” Docia muttered. “Your Aunt Docia’s just a little bummed.”
Cal shook his head. “She shouldn’t be out there by herself. That blue tick’s a game little pup, but he’s not enough to keep out someone who’s determined to break in.”
“Jess says she needs to stay so she can manage the B and B. Pete and I both tried to get her to move to town, but she wouldn’t budge.”
“We’ve got to do something.” Docia’s voice shook. “We can’t let this…
thing
happen.” She glanced at Daisy, who was coloring something with a lot of bright green.
“We’re working on it.” Lars sighed. “For now, I think the best we can do is just keep an eye on things. Look out for suspicious characters. Particularly Lorne Haggedorn.”
“Lars, honey, it’s the Christmas shopping season,” Docia cracked. “The whole freakin’ town is full of suspicious characters.”
“Yeah, well, until Jess changes her mind, that’s the best we can do. At least Erik said he’d try to make sure the patrol cars swing by more often to keep track of things.”
Cal shook his head. “There are times when I still can’t feature Erik as a cop. Did you know he’s dating Dahlia?”
“Dahlia? The barmaid?” Lars blew out a breath. “Okay, that’s it. One too many news flashes for the day. Daisy, have you finished your hamburger?”
“Yes, sir.” Daisy added one more scrape of green to the upper right corner of her placemat so that the entire surface looked like bad lime sherbet.
“Let’s go home.” Lars stood. “Daddy’s got a lot of work to catch up on, not to mention sleep.”
Chapter Twelve
Jess was dragging by nine o’clock, struggling to keep her eyes open. She did manage to check all the windows and the front and back doors before she staggered off to bed. She also made sure Sweetie had food and water in the backyard. The dog gave her a mournful look and even managed a tiny shiver, but the temperature hovered in the fifties and Jess wasn’t impressed.
She considered sleeping in her own room, but in the end she couldn’t do it. She needed to be close to Jack. Besides, she was so tired she knew she’d fall asleep no matter where she was, even if it was a foam rubber pad that managed to squash down to nothing on the nursery floor.
The next morning a cardinal’s chirp woke her, and she checked her watch. Seven. At least she’d managed to get a full nine hours of sleep.
Miraculously, Jack was still sleeping himself. Jess rolled up the sleeping bag as quietly as she could and slipped out the door to the hall.
Sunlight poured through the dining room window. The cardinal still cheeped in one of the backyard trees.
Jess leaned a little further out, checking the backyard. Sweetie lay fast asleep next to his food and water. Otherwise, the yard seemed empty and quiet.
Behind her, she heard Jack mutter some morning sounds. “Okay, kid,” she called, “I’m on my way.”
Fifteen minutes later, Jack was in his high chair, daintily picking up individual Cheerios. Jess filled his sippy cup with apple juice and glanced out the window again.
Sweetie hadn’t moved.
Jess stood very still for a moment, then placed the sippy cup on Jack’s tray. “Here, lovie, drink up and try not to toss it too far. Mama’s got to check on something.”
She slipped through the kitchen to the utility room with its blocked backdoor window, telling herself there was no problem. The door banged behind her as she threw it open.
Sweetie raised his head slowly, squinting in Jess’s direction, then dropped back again.
Jess knelt beside him. She could see vomit in the grass near the dog’s feet, and flecks of it still dotted his mouth. “Damn,” she whispered. “Damn, damn, damn. Sorry, Sweetie, I should have seen this coming.”
Back in the house she pulled her cell phone out of her purse. She had no idea what time the clinic opened, but surely they had an emergency number. She grabbed the card Cal Toleffson had given her and dialed.
A man’s voice answered. “Rankin Animal Hospital.” He sounded slightly sleepy.
“My name is Jess Carroll,” she blurted. “I adopted a dog a couple of days ago, and I think he ate something bad during the night. He’s been vomiting and he’s lying down.”
Immediately, the voice wasn’t sleepy anymore. “Can you bring him in, ma’am? The sooner the better.”
“Right.” Jess looked around for the crate they’d borrowed from Cal. “I’ll be there as soon as I can get him in the car.”
She grabbed the crate and headed to the back yard. Behind her, she heard Jack begin to fuss. She knew he was picking up on her own anxiety, but she couldn’t do anything about that right now.
Sweetie raised his head again as Jess hurried toward him. “C’mon Sweetie,” she murmured. “Let’s get you some help.” She gathered the largely limp puppy into her arms and placed him in the crate, then closed the lid.
Back in the kitchen, Jack had moved from fussing to full-blown distress. Jess set the crate next to the door, and pulled Jack from his high chair. She wrapped him in a blanket and carried him outside to the car, rubbing his back.
“Please, Jack, don’t make more trouble for Mama,” she begged. “Things are tough enough already.”
Jack stared at her curiously, then smiled as she put him into his car seat.
Oh good
, he seemed to say,
we’re going for a ride!
At least he was easily amused.
Jess ran back to the house and swung the crate into her arms, locking the door behind her. As she placed it on the back seat, she heard a car turn down the drive.
Lars’s SUV pulled into view as Jess hurried around to the driver’s side. She heard his car door slam. “Jess?” he called. “Trouble?”
She paused, turning. “Sweetie’s…sick. I’m taking him to the clinic.”
She heard Daisy’s wail of distress from Lars’s car, followed by Jack’s wail from her own.
Terrific. Dueling babies.
“We’ll follow you,” Lars called, as she closed her door.
The parking lot at the clinic was almost empty, so Jess could park at the front. She started unbuckling Jack as Lars pulled in beside her. “I’ll take the kids,” he called. “You get Sweetie inside. I called Cal on the way here.”
Jess grabbed the crate handles and ran toward the entrance. A dark-haired man in scrubs held the door open for her. “You’re the one who called, right? Come on—let’s get him set up. Dr. T’s on his way.”
Cal walked in five minutes later, after the aide, Armando, had already lifted Sweetie out of his crate and onto the examination table.
Cal ran his hands over the dog’s body, watching Sweetie wince. “Oh man, pup, you definitely ate something.” He turned to Jess. “Any idea what?”
Jess shook her head. “I found him when I got up, lying out in the backyard. He’d been vomiting. The only food I gave him was a bowl of the kibble I bought here.”
Cal nodded absently, checking Sweetie’s mouth then the rest of his body. “If I had to guess, I’d say something like acetaminophen. It can be toxic to dogs. I don’t suppose you gave him any?”
Jess shook her head again, more vehemently this time. “No, absolutely not. He was healthy when I went to bed last night.”
“Okay. I’ll send a blood sample to be tested, but I’m going to go with acetaminophen. We’ll need to give him some medications and rehydrate him with intravenous fluid. And he’ll need to stay here, probably for a few days.”
“Will he be all right?” Jess thought of Daisy’s anguished face.
Cal nodded. “Probably. Looks like you got him here fast, and that’s the most important thing.”
He turned back to Armando, giving him a series of instructions that might as well have been in Urdu as far as Jess was concerned. Armando gathered Sweetie up gently, carrying him through a door in the back of the examination room.
All of a sudden, Jess found herself collapsing into a chair behind her, as if her legs could no longer bear her weight. She pressed a hand to her mouth, fighting back sobs that made her throat ache.
Cal knelt in front of her, handing her a paper cup of water as he patted her shoulder. “Drink this. Take it easy. It’s going to be okay now.”
No it isn’t.
Jess swallowed a gulp of water. “He was supposed to protect us, but I didn’t protect him. He was poisoned, wasn’t he?”
Cal nodded. “I’d guess so. When he recovers you can train him not to take food from strangers. Think of this experience as sort of like aversion therapy.”
“I shouldn’t have put him outside.” Jess stared at the paper cup in her hand. “I should have left him in the house. It was just…we thought it would keep people out of the backyard.”
“Obviously, somebody else thought so too.” Cal watched her for a moment, then took the cup out of her limp fingers. “Jess, you should think about staying in town with one of us. It’s not safe out there. And you’ve got Jack to think about too. Docia and I have a spare bedroom you’d be welcome to.”
Jess took another in a series of deep breaths. “Thank you. I know it’s getting dangerous. I’ll try to figure something out.”
“If you change your mind, call me. Or Docia. Hell, now that I think of it, you could even stay at Docia’s father’s place back in the hills. He’s got enough security to throw James Bond for a loop.”
Jess stood, trying hard to smile. “Do you have a tissue? I think I need to wipe my face before I see Daisy.”
“Right. She’s liable to assume the worst, infant drama queen that she is.” Cal handed her a box of tissues, then opened the door to the waiting room after she’d given her face a quick scrub.
Daisy stood beside her father’s chair, her eyes the size of quarters. The moment she saw Jess, her lower lip began to tremble. “Where’s Sweetie?” she whimpered.
“Sweetie’s getting some medicine,” Jess said briskly. “Your Uncle Cal helped him, but he needs to stay here in the hospital until he feels okay again.”
Tears began to slide down Daisy’s cheeks. “Is he gonna die?”
“Nope.” Cal picked her up and kissed her on the forehead. “He’s sick right now, but we’ll fix him up, Dais. Have you had any breakfast?”
Daisy nodded, sticking out her lower lip.
Lars turned toward Jess. “Have you?”
Had she?
Jess tried to remember. “Maybe not. Too many things happened at once. I’ll fix myself something when I get back home.”
There was a moment of silence as Cal and Lars both stared at her.
“We’ll be all right.” Jess swallowed. “Although I’ll understand if you don’t want Daisy to be out there.”
“Goddamn it, Jess!” Lars snapped. “It isn’t safe for you or Jack either.”
Daisy stared up at her father, eyes back to quarter size again. Jess wondered if she’d ever heard Lars swear before. She’d be willing to bet not, or at least not since the divorce. “I’ll think of something, Lars.”
He rubbed a hand across his jaw, then sighed. “Okay. You take Daisy back with you. See if you can find whatever it was Sweetie ate. And by the way, you’re having guests for dinner, which I’ll supply.”
Jess frowned. “The guests or the dinner?”
“Both.” Lars headed for the parking lot, shaking his head.
Lars spent the morning clearing work off his desk and trying not to think about Jessamyn Carroll Moreland. She was either the bravest woman he’d ever met or the dumbest. The jury was still out on which.
He also called his brothers and his sisters-in-law to let them know what had happened. All his brothers, including Erik.
The news about Sweetie had already traveled. Even Erik knew, although Lars wasn’t sure exactly how he’d found out.
“I’m on night duty tonight,” he explained. “I’ll drop by after I get on, say around seven or so. You think you’ll still be there?”
“I can almost guarantee it,” Lars muttered through clenched teeth.
Erik chuckled. “Okay, then. Any chance you can talk Ms. Carroll into moving back into town?”
Lars’s shoulders tightened. “That I can’t guarantee, but I’m working on it.”
He called the Coffee Corral late in the afternoon and ordered a box of fried chicken with all the fixings. Al Brosius, the cook, promised him French fries, green beans and some passable apple pie. Lars wondered if he’d have to force-feed Jess.
She was looking a little thin. Hell, she was beginning to look almost transparent. Probably because she didn’t sleep more than a couple of hours a night and kept forgetting to eat when she was awake. He needed to do something about that.
At five he closed down his computer and said goodnight to Mrs. Suarez, then swung by the Corral and picked up the box of food. He was tempted to grab a six-pack at the Stop and Go, but he wasn’t sure Jess drank.
He wasn’t sure of much about her, he realized. At the moment, he also wasn’t sure what he was going to say. Maybe a calm, reasoned discussion of all the reasons she needed to get the hell out of that house as soon as possible.
And if she didn’t buy it, maybe he’d just throw her over his shoulder and toss her in the SUV. A move that would be complicated by the fact he’d have to also put Daisy and Jack into their car seats.
Kids were hell on romance.
Romance?
He only half-raised an eyebrow this time.
Yeah. Romance. Deal with it.
His interest in Jess Carroll had stopped being platonic a long time ago.
Lars pulled down the drive to the cabin and stopped. A row of cars was parked in front. Cal’s SUV sat next to Pete’s Acura near Jess’s Accord. Rounding out the line-up was a Konigsburg patrol car.
Well, crap.
Kids weren’t the only thing that was hell on romance. Lars pulled in beside Cal’s car, grabbed his box of food, and walked into the cabin.
He shouldn’t have bothered with the fried chicken, that much was obvious. Jess was putting a large bowl of soup on the table, while Docia and Janie finished setting up a tray of cold cuts and Kaiser rolls. He could smell something delectable from the kitchen, which probably meant somebody had taken the time to swing by Allie Maldonado’s bakery, praise the lord.
“Oh good, you’re here.” Docia gestured toward the box of chicken. “Give me that and I’ll get a plate for it.”
“Where’s Daisy?”
“She and Jack are out back with your brothers. I’m not sure what they’re doing, but I haven’t heard any squeals, so I assume they’re okay.”
Jess gave him a somewhat tight-lipped smile.
Not my fault, ma’am. I didn’t invite them—I swear.
In the backyard, three Toleffson males prowled around the edge of the fence, two of them—Cal and Pete—with children propped on their shoulders.
Daisy squealed a hello and then went back to pounding on Cal’s head. Lars figured it served him right. “What exactly is everybody doing here?”
Cal shrugged as much as he could with Daisy sitting on his shoulders. “Showing our interest and support?” He waggled his eyebrows beneath Daisy’s assault.
“Butting in,” Lars muttered between his teeth. “Meddling.”
“That too. Docia and Janie decided on a pre-emptive strike. Also dinner. They think Jess needs a break.”
“She does.” Lars sighed. “This isn’t it.”
He wandered across the yard toward Erik. “So what are
you
doing?”
Erik glanced up. “Looking for whatever poisoned the dog.”
Lars checked Daisy. He didn’t think she’d heard.
“Guys?” Pete called.
Erik ambled in his direction, with Lars right behind him. Pete nodded toward something in the grass beside his foot, and Erik leaned down.
A dried-out hamburger patty. With a couple of bites out of one side.
“Smart dog,” Erik rumbled. “He didn’t eat much.”
“Lucky dog.” Cal walked up behind them. “You can still see the Tylenol tablets.”
Erik and Lars knelt on either side. Sure enough, he could see white flecks throughout the reddish-brown meat.
“Probably tasted like crap.” Cal shrugged Daisy to his other shoulder. “But he only had to eat a little to get sick.”