The Art of Wag (16 page)

Joel said, “I can pick up some dowels at the hardware store tomorrow. I have to go there anyway to get some supplies for the door.”

Mary turned to glare up at his face, but didn’t reply.

Kat said. “Looking through the boxes might be interesting. By the way, there’s a box of photographs in the bedroom closet. You might enjoy looking through those too.”

Mary turned and gave Kat a sharp look. “I certainly don’t think so.”

After Mary turned away from her, Kat crossed her eyes, contorted her face, and stuck out her tongue at Joel, who smirked in response. What the heck? “Oh-kaaay. So what do you have planned for tomorrow, Mother? I actually need to use my computer in my office because I have an article deadline coming up. I’m sorry to infringe on your space, but I really need to work on the article.”

Mary sat down at the table. “Weren’t you listening? I told you. I am going to clean out that bedroom. You can move that machine.”

Kat and Joel busied themselves chopping vegetables for dinner while Mary leafed through an old magazine that was sitting on the table. She put it down and the slick paper hit the table with a loud slap. “Do you really read about computers? How tedious. Isn’t there anything else to read here?”

Kat turned from the cutting board and leaned back on the counter. “I have some novels, but they aren’t the kind of stuff you read.”

“I certainly do not read that trash you do.”

“You could go to the library. For a small town, it’s got a great selection.”

“I don’t think so.” Mary folded her hands in her lap. “I want to talk to you. Alone. Perhaps tomorrow you could stay here instead of disappearing.”

Joel whacked the cutting board with the knife extra loudly and Kat looked at him to make sure he still had all of his digits. She said to her mother, “I’m not going anywhere, but I do have to write that article.”

After they sat down to dinner, Mary looked at the plate. “Is this Chinese food? She poked at something with her fork. “What is that loathsome-looking white thing?”

Kat paused and put down her chopsticks. “It’s just rice and veggies with tofu. I’m a vegetarian, remember?”

“Tofu? How revolting.”

“Feel free to eat around it. Tofu rarely contaminates the other parts of the meal with evil cooties.”

Mary frowned, poked at an offending block, and shoved it to the side of the plate. “Perhaps you can feed it to the dogs.”

Joel smiled. “I’m sure they’d like that. They think bean curd is great stuff.”

Mary shifted her gaze toward him. “I want to talk to you too.”

Kat picked up her chopsticks and pushed some veggies around. She knew that tone. This was going to go downhill fast. “I have ice cream for dessert if anyone wants it.”

Mary ignored Kat’s comment and turned to Joel. “How did you meet my daughter?”

Joel looked momentarily taken aback then replied evenly, “My sister Cindy was hired to walk the dogs here after Abigail died. The first time I met Kat, I was with my sister who was having trouble with her car.”

“And then you figured you could just move in here and freeload?”

Kat covered her mouth with her hand and watched as Joel’s expression shifted to what his sister termed, “Spock face.” When he was extremely annoyed he tended to take on an eerie calm instead of flying off the handle as Kat was likely to do. More than once she had been in awe of his level of control.

Joel put down his chopsticks and leaned forward slightly toward Mary and said quietly, “There was quite a bit more to it than that.”

Mary scowled. “I can only imagine.”

“I doubt you can.”

Kat stood up quickly. “Wow. This sure has been fun. Mother, maybe we could talk about this later?”

Joel grabbed his plate and left the table. “If you’ll excuse me, I have some work to do.”

After Joel went downstairs to his office, Kat turned to her mother. “You really know how to clear a room. No wonder we stopped eating together when I was growing up.”

Later, Kat had fallen asleep reading in bed when she was awakened by Joel crawling in next to her. He pushed her hair aside and nuzzled the back of her neck. She rolled over, put her arms around his neck, and kissed him. “Welcome. I guess you’re not mad anymore?”

He whispered in her ear, “I wasn’t mad at
you
.”

“You didn’t miss much. I did dishes and my mother gave me the evil eye for a while, which seemed to make her feel better.”

“Did you explain how we got together?”

“Yes. But she was not impressed with the story. She is convinced you are a scuzzy freeloader after my vast fortune.”

Joel tickled her waist with both hands. “Yup. That’s me. I’m a gold digger.”

Kat squeaked and tried to stifle her laughter as she squirmed away from him. “Cut that out! I already have cramps.”

He stopped tickling, flattened his palms against her ribs, and looked into her eyes. “Really?”

“Yes.” She hugged him. “As Maria would say, Aunt Flo has arrived at the station.”

“Maria has a way with words. I think I’ll pick up a calendar when I go to town tomorrow.”

Kat giggled and kissed him. “Good idea.”

Tracy spent the rest of her weekend doing laundry. Time with the other citizens of Alpine Grove who did not have their own laundry facilities tended to make her cranky as she reacquainted herself with the nuances of laundromat etiquette. On the other hand, Roxy had fewer places to bury her little lifeless gifts now. And having a big stack of clean underwear in her dresser drawer gave Tracy a sense of security. All was right with the world. Plus, she could stop hand-washing panties in the sink for a while.

Monday morning, Tracy arrived at the vet clinic a little early. The morning routine went more quickly when all her clothes were clean and either in the dresser or the closet. Tracy stood at the front desk and looked over the schedule to see what she’d missed. It was looking like an easy day. A few pets getting dropped off for neutering and some basic appointments for annual exams and shots. Easy-peasy. Relieved that there didn’t appear to be anything unusual ahead of her today, Tracy busied herself cleaning kennels and getting everything set up for Dr. Cassidy.

The vet arrived a few minutes later and unlocked the front door of the clinic. People started dropping off animals and the day revved up to full steam. The phone rang and Tracy ran to the front desk to answer it. “Alpine Grove Veterinary Clinic.”

A rich, deep voice on the other end of the line said, “Is this the vet?”

Why did people always ask that? “Yes, this is the Alpine Grove Veterinary Clinic. May I help you?”

“My buddy and I were out in the woods and his dog hurt himself. The dog—Max—he’s bleeding and we need to bring him in. It’s bad. Where are you?”

“We’re in downtown Alpine Grove.” Tracy gave the man directions and got Dr. C on the line, so she could give him advice about caring for the dog on the way to the clinic. After the vet hung up the phone, Tracy said, “So much for your easy morning.”

Dr. Cassidy put her hands in her lab coat pockets and sighed. “I know. ‘Tis the season for hunting-dog accidents.”

Later, two men outfitted in camouflage gear came in with a blue-tick coonhound. A huskily built man with light-brown hair was carrying the large dappled black-and-white dog, which had floppy black ears and a big bandage wrapped around a rear leg. Both the dog and the man were filthy and looked extremely distressed. The second man was taller with black hair and brilliant blue eyes that looked almost electric, set off by the dirt smudges on his face. Tracy wrinkled her nose at the stench that followed them in through the door. It was a grotesque olfactory cocktail made up of campfire smoke, male sweat, and the nasty animal urine hunters doused themselves with to confuse whatever they were hunting.

Tracy directed the group to the exam room and restrained the dog on the table while Dr. Cassidy took a look at the injury. The invisible stink cloud the men had carried into the small room with them reminded Tracy of Pig Pen in the
Peanuts
comic strip. Sure, Pig Pen was always surrounded by a dirt cloud, but neither Charlie Brown nor anyone else ever seemed to mention how Pig Pen must have
smelled
. Tracy had a pretty good idea now.

The dog whimpered as the vet carefully removed the bandage. She gave the dog a shot and looked up at the men. “So can you tell me what happened to Max here?”

At the sight of the wound, the shorter man gulped audibly. His face was pale and he looked queasy. Tracy nodded at the taller man. “Um. You might want to have Mr. Collins sit down outside.”

The tall man looked over at his friend. “C’mon, Fred. Maybe it would be good if you waited in the lobby. I’ll tell them what happened.”

“The bathroom is around the corner,” Tracy volunteered as they left the room.

Dr. C gave Tracy a knowing smile. “Good call.”

“I’m getting better at recognizing the barfers.”

“It’s a gift.”

A few minutes later, the tall man returned to the room. Now that the dog was lightly sedated, Tracy was able to relax and get a better look at the man. On the phone she’d learned that the owner’s name was Fred Collins, but she hadn’t caught this guy’s name. He did look oddly familiar though. She readjusted her hold on the dog and said, “Is your friend okay?”

“Yeah. It’s not like he faints at the sight of blood or anything.”

Tracy looked up at him over Max’s prone body. “I hope not, if you guys were out hunting.”

The man put his hands in his pockets. “Yeah. Good point. It’s just Fred loves that dog. He’s spent hours and hours training Max, ever since the dog was just a little pup. Is Max going to be okay?”

Dr. Cassidy looked up from her examination of the dog’s leg. “It looks like he landed on a tree branch. There’s a pretty serious laceration here. The puncture wound is fairly deep, so I’d like to do surgery to make sure I remove all the pieces of wood and dirt, so the leg won’t get infected. Then I can stitch Max up. He should be as good as new after he heals.”

Tracy stood up straighter and readjusted her hold on the dog to see if he was still inclined to move around. “Your friend will need to sign the surgery consent form.” With one hand still on Max’s drowsy body, Tracy reached over and grabbed a piece of paper out of a file folder. “Could you take this out to him? If he doesn’t want to come in here, just tell him what Dr. C said and get him to sign it.”

The man nodded, took the paper from her, and left. Tracy turned to Dr. Cassidy. “Do you know that guy?”

Still bent over, focused on poking at the dog’s leg, her brown curls moved from side to side. “Nope. What did he say his name is?”

“He didn’t. The owner is Fred Something-or-other. I think I’ve met the tall guy before.”

“Maybe he was a customer at the restaurant?” The vet straightened and grinned at her. “Presumably he would have been less grubby then. And smelled better.”

“It looks like Max is on the high road to sleepy-land. Should I go out and tell them to come back later? What time?”

Dr. Cassidy looked at the clock on the wall. “Yes, I’m fine here for the moment. Tell them to come back at three thirty. We’ll have to rearrange some stuff to fit Max in.”

Tracy went out to the lobby, where the men were talking to each other. They both were exuding anxiety, so Tracy went for the most reassuring smile she could muster. “Max should be fine, but surgery is going to take a while, so you guys can come back later. He should be ready to go at three thirty or so.”

Fred handed the piece of paper back to Tracy. “Here’s the form. Please, take good care of Max. I feel so bad about this. He’s such a good dog. Don’t let anything happen to him.”

“We’ll do our best. Dr. Cassidy is an excellent vet.”

The tall man put his hand on Fred’s shoulder. “Hey buddy, why don’t you go on out to the rig. I’ll meet you in a second. I think the hunting trip is over, so we should go break down camp. Maybe check into a hotel or something?”

“Yeah. I’m starving too. We missed breakfast.”

“I’ll be out in a minute.”

With a look of relief, Fred walked out of the clinic. The other man turned back to Tracy. “I’m sorry, I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself.” He held out his hand. “I’m Todd Delaney and you look really familiar. Have you lived in Alpine Grove for a while?”

Tracy shook his hand slowly. “Yes! That’s why I know you. I’m Tracy Sullivan. We went to school together. You moved away right before ninth grade. It’s so good to see you. How have you been?”

“Doing well. Okay, today wasn’t so good. But I can’t believe you still live here. You look fantastic.”

Tracy felt the color rise to her cheeks. His eyes truly were the most remarkable shade of blue. And now that she had a chance to evaluate more closely, it was obvious that under all that dirt and grime, he was incredibly good looking. “Thank you. So what have you been up to for the last however-many years?”

“The usual. School. College. Job. You know.”

Tracy laughed. “Yeah, me too.”

“Does your mom still own the gift store?”

“Yes. You should stop by and say ‘hi.’ She’d love to see you!”

“I’ll be sure to do that, but right now we need to get back to the campsite before a bear discovers that we left it alone.”