Project Valentine (A Homespun Romance) (2 page)

"Married," she muttered to herself, "Taken.
Out of bounds. Not available."

Her mind refused to accept it.

Jessica looked at Karl Wagner again.
It was amazing the way he'd appeared out of nowhere when she needed help. What was even more amazing was the fact that though she always insisted on absolute independence she'd enjoyed every moment of her rescue.

`Oh!'

The squeak and the ice cold feeling on her foot accompanied the sighting of its cause.

Jessica's left sneaker supported the double scoop of strawberry ice cream that had so lately been in Molly's cone.
The girl stared in dismay at the tilted cone in her hands. Fear held center stage on her face as she looked at Jessica. Tears waited in the wings. She stammered. "I'm sorry. I...It just happened by itself."

"Don't worry," Jessica reassured instantly.
She had a lifetime of experience with things that happened by themselves. "I can clean it up."

There was a slight problem.
If she tried walking, the scoop was going to slide off her shoe and make a bigger mess on the floor of the shopping mall. She looked around for something to remove it with.

"Molly, let's go...." Karl Wagner's voice trailed away as his glance raced from Molly's empty cone to Jessica's foot.

Jessica barely opened her mouth before he swung into action. Taking the napkin out of Molly's hand he lifted the ice cream off her shoe, disposing of it in a nearby dustbin. Pulling a large man-size handkerchief from his pocket, he wet it at the fountain and then went down on his knees in front of her, scrubbing at the stain on her shoe.

"Stand still."
The order came on the heels of her attempt to move her foot away. The words that she could take it from here died on her lips as one large hand cupped her calf to ensure she didn't move again.

The point of contact transmitted strange impulses to Jessica's brain.
Her calf was really compacted oatmeal. Strange quivers radiated from this point to the rest of her body, making her feel like a volcano about to erupt.

She wasn't used to men kneeling in front of her.
Or cleaning her shoe. Her stampeding senses were making her feel faint.

Get a grip on yourself.
You're a twenty three year old woman, not some heroine in a Gothic romance.

Modern men hated helpless females.
And so far she'd been nothing else. Digging deep down, for her Patton tank look, Jessica fixed it on her face.

"I can do that."
Unfortunately her voice didn't match her expression. Melted marshmallow was firmer. Karl Wagner kept on scrubbing as if she hadn't spoken. Molly stood by watching the procedure.

Kneeling, the top of his head almost reached her chest.
Jessica looked down at it. Thick, curly, black hair. Inviting touching. Inviting rumpling.

She blinked as he looked up.
His gaze slammed into her at sixty miles an hour. Every single thought in her head was exposed to it.

"Is your foot sticky?"

A picture of her shoe being removed, her foot being cleaned by those powerful hands caused ten foot high waves in her imagination. Storm strength.

"No.
It's not."

Pressing her foot to the floor, Jessica put all her weight on it.
Not that seventy five pounds would stop a man who could lift two heavier youths as if they were ten pound bags of Idaho potatoes.

"There you go."
He stood, looked at her. "Does that look alright?"

"That's fine," she mumbled.
Who cared about the silly stain anyway? She watched as he threw his handkerchief into the trash can.

"Molly and I would like to buy you a pair of sneakers to replace the pair you have on."
His arm around his daughter's shoulders told the child accidents happened to everyone. He didn't blame her for this one.

Jessica blinked again.
"They're machine washable." At five dollars a pair they were also expendable. Unlike the fine monogrammed handkerchief he'd just thrown away.

"I'm sorry I dropped my ice cream on your shoe."
Molly meant every word of the apology.

Consideration and caring wasn't something this man would ever have to teach his family.
They would grow up making it an integral part of their lives....just like he did.

Jessica smiled at the girl.
"That's perfectly all right," she said gently. Extending the smile in the direction of the man's chin she added, "Thank you for cleaning my shoe, and coming to my rescue."

As she walked away Jessica wondered why she'd avoided one last look at the rocky mountain eyes.

"Uncle Karl, we'll be late for the movie."
Molly tugged at her uncle's sleeve. Why on earth was he standing still as a statue? She looked in the direction Jessica had taken. "What did that lady mean about you rescuing her? Was she in trouble?"

Karl Wagner stared down at his niece.
"She's only about sixteen," he said gently. It was strange that Molly who was so perceptive should mistake Jessica Woods for an adult. "And, yes, someone was bothering her."

Molly's mind was on the film they were to see.
It promised to be bloody, scary, and incredible. All an eight year old could ask for. It wasn't till the part where the dinosaur swallowed the Empire State building that she remembered something.

Uncle Karl was funny.
He'd said that person was sixteen, but she wasn't. She was a grown up. Couldn't Uncle Karl tell?

Fixing her mind on why she was here today, Jessica decided, might help coax it back to its normal even keel.

It had all started four weeks ago.

The article in a Sunday edition of the Los Angeles Times had caught Jessica's eye.
The humane society in an effort to find new homes for some of their abandoned animals had come up with a novel plan. The animals would be on show in Clearview Plaza, a popular shopping mall in the city of Clearview, part of Los Angeles County, two weeks before Valentine's Day. Volunteers were needed to work with the animals on a one on one basis in the mall. What was expected of them wasn't difficult. Show the animals, share the background knowledge that was available, and try to match prospective owners with the right pet. Officers from the humane society would be in charge overall but the volunteers, would do the actual `selling.' Jessica's decision had been made by the time she finished reading the article. Ten minutes later she was at the humane society.

"The odds are against him."

The enclosure was barely big enough for the Great Dane lying in it.
Tawny with a black face, he had a white patch on his chest. His lack of interest in her didn't surprise her. He'd been through too much lately to trust another human quickly.

The expression in his eyes tugged at Jessica's heart.
Anguish over being deserted by his owners lurked there, mingling with sadness that a lifetime of love and devotion had been rewarded with abandonment. It all added up to raw pain.

And it was up to her to do something about it.

"Why did they leave him? He's beautiful."

The officer who was showing her around said.
"It isn't easy to take a dog along when moving, especially one as big as this. There could be other reasons. See that white mark on his chest?" Jessica nodded. "Well, that's not desirable. It's like a disqualification in a dog show and lessens his value."

They'd left him, just because he had a mark on his chest?
The other reason made her sick. It hadn't been convenient to take him along. She wondered if anyone had loved the Great Dane or if he had been just another status symbol in a world of people that devoted their time to impressing others. The lump of anger in her throat made Jessica blink. Rage always produced tears. Crying wouldn't help anyone.

She'd taken a deep breath.
"I want to show this dog at the mall."

"What's the use of backing a lame horse at the races?"
Jose Garcia had asked reasonably, hitching his pants up over a belly that stretched the buttons of his shirt to a popping point. "I like this dog too, but that doesn't change the facts. Very few people want an animal this size. Showing him would be a waste of your time."

I know best.
A little thing like you should listen to me. It was all there in his voice, in his manner. The indulgence, the condescension. To Jessica it was like a red flag to a bull.

Eyes narrowed she'd fairly spit her next words out, "When I called the humane society regarding Project Valentine I was assured I could pick the animal I wanted to show, providing that animal would make a good prospective pet.
Is this dog vicious?"

"No."

"Sickly?"

"No."

"Too old?"

"No."

The matter, as far as Jessica was concerned, was settled.
Closing the distance between them, she'd tilted her head and given Jose Garcia her fight-unto-death look. "Then I'm going to show him. He has as much right to another chance as any other dog in this shelter."

The officer had looked at her face, made a snap judgment about indomitable fighters and sighed.
With an expression on his face that would have cheered Job up, he'd said, "Let's go into the office and take care of the details. You can show him, but don't blame me if no one wants him."

Bleeding hearts, he thought to himself, always look for things to make them bleed.

Now Jessica surveyed the scene in front of her.
A central area in the lower floor of the mall had been roped off. The volunteers, each with an animal on a leash formed an oval, facing outwards. In the middle, a folding table held all the necessary paperwork for releasing the pets to their new owners. Officials in blue and grey made sure everything was under control, talked to the public, spelled volunteers for breaks.

The Project Valentine banner attracted a great deal of attention with
its heart shaped, pink and white balloons. The theme, `Take home a real sweetheart for Valentine's day,' had worked wonders so far. Fifteen dogs and three cats had already found homes.

Just not Arthur.

Something about his look of patient suffering wrapped in regality had inspired the name on Jessica's third visit to the shelter.
By then, he'd begun to know her and greet her by wagging his tail.

"I'm back," Jessica announced, re-pinning her name badge under the Project Valentine one.
A quick glance at her watch revealed her adventures hadn't exceeded the thirty minute break she'd been allotted. "Anyone stop by?"

Jose Garcia looked at her cautiously as he handed her Arthur's leash.
Behind her optimism he sensed the wall of fear. Stomping on her hopes made him uncomfortable. He knew her heart ruled her head and he was almost afraid for her.

"No one."
He tried to keep his voice noncommittal.

One long moment passed before she lifted her head and looked at him.
On a scale of one to ten her smile barely got a one for joy. For bravery it merited a twelve.

"Well, it's still early," she said.
"Thanks for standing in for me, Jose."

After he was gone, her imagination opened the door, let the doubts pour in.
What if he'd been right all along? If no one adopted Arthur today? The next instant, Jessica told herself not to be negative. The right person hadn't come along yet. When that person did appear, it would be a case of love at first sight and happily ever after for Arthur.

She had to hold on to that thought.

There was a pattern to the day that kept repeating itself with frightening monotony.
People looked at Arthur in wonder, stopped to find out what he ate, how much he weighed, if they could touch him. No one evinced the slightest interest in taking him home.

By two, Jessica's face ached with the effort to keep a smile pinned on.
Her heart ached with the weight of presentiment.

The odds are against him.

Recalling the remark fanned the coals of her determination.

"I don't care how much experience Jose Garcia has, he has no right to make that remark about you," Jessica told the Great Dane rebelliously, "I know all about odds.
I've faced them all my life. Impossible is just a state of mind. We'll find you a home yet."

A couple stopped, looked at Arthur and then moved on to the next dog without saying a word.
Leash looped around her wrist Jessica patted Arthur. Squeals of joy pierced the air as a little girl and her brother exclaimed over a terrier mix. The happy, newly adopted dog, licked their faces in reciprocal joy. Jessica's throat tightened. She wanted a wedge of the same kind of happiness for Arthur.

"Success lies in fighting for what one believes in, not letting someone else tell you what you can and can't do."
Lifting her right foot Jessica rubbed it against the calf of her left leg to ease the cramp there. "I'm going to prove it by finding you a new owner today, a better owner." Her soliloquy tapered off as a couple stopped in front of them.