Page 40 of A Furever Home (Gaynor Beach Animal Rescue #8)
ARTHUR
“I’m sick of this!” Cheyenne kicked the kitchen chair, and it fell over with a bang. Out in the family room, Sadie yelped. Cheyenne looked stricken. She called, “Oh God, sorry, baby. I’m so stupid. I can’t do anything right.” She knelt, scrabbling at the chair to get it upright.
“Hey, hey.” Brooklyn came back from the front door, where he’d been returning an adorable pair of Corgis to their owner. “What’s wrong?”
“Everything.” Cheyenne rubbed her eyes. “I feel like a prisoner. Harvey’s out there, somewhere, doing God knows what. And in a week, the judge might send me back to my parents.”
I tried to be optimistic for the girl who was starting to feel like my own little sister.
“There’s been no sign of Harvey for two days.
The cops have his license number now, and he’s wanted for attempted kidnapping by every law enforcement group in California.
Surely he’s just washed his hands of you and headed back to his safe zone in New York? ”
Brooklyn and Cheyenne were both shaking their heads before I was done. “If Dad had sent Denver, then yes,” Brooklyn said. “He’d write her off, same as they wrote me off, not worth the trouble. But Harvey’s different.”
“He holds a grudge,” Cheyenne noted.
“Yeah, and he can’t stand losing.” Brooklyn forced a smile.
“We’d have been better off to let you hit him on the head with your cane.
That he maybe could accept. Instead, he lost to a ten-pound dog, a teen girl, and an elderly lady with a cell phone.
I don’t think he’ll leave until he wipes out that memory.
” He glanced at Cheyenne. “Which is why you can’t go anywhere without one of us. ”
“I understand why, I just hate it. I’m going stir-crazy and there’s only so many times I can scrub the kitchen floor.”
Xandra wandered in and twined around Cheyenne’s ankles. She picked up the cat and hid her face in soft, cream-colored fur. I eyed her hunched shoulders, thinking about how often I’d done the same, losing myself in the comfort of a purring cat. Didn’t make the world go away, though.
How long will this go on? “Harvey has a job and kids, you said? He can’t just hang out here forever.”
Brooklyn shrugged. “No, but…one thing that community’s good for is mutual support. He probably has his mom watching the kids, and his job will wait for him.”
“Maybe you and Cheyenne should go away for a while. Stay with someone else till he has to give up.”
“Stay with whom? I don’t have the friends you do. Anyhow, I can’t take time off from my business. My regulars need care daily. If they have to do daycare somewhere else, even for a week, they might not come back.”
I wanted to offer to run the business while he was away, but the shelter was stretched too thin for me to do both. My phone rang. Neil. Speaking of the shelter. I answered, “Yeah, what’s up?”
“The insurance adjuster’s here with the plumber, looking at where we had that water leak. He has some questions for you, and if you can’t do it now, he says it’ll be a couple of weeks before he’s back this way.”
“Crap. All right. Tell him I’ll be there in twenty. Maybe twenty-five. I’ll need to call for a ride.”
“You got it. Sorry to drag you back in when you just left.” Neil cut the call.
“I can drive you,” Brooklyn offered. “Except no, that leaves Cheyenne home alone.” He hadn’t driven me anywhere since the encounter with Harvey. “Maybe she could drive you and hang out at the shelter, and bring you back.”
“Yeah!” She perked up, setting Xandra on the floor. “I haven’t seen the shelter. That would be cool.”
“You could come too,” I suggested to Brooklyn. “Show her around while I do the boring insurance and plumbing.”
“Sure.”
Cheyenne grinned at him, then her smile slipped. “Can we leave all the babies alone here? What if Harvey comes and tries to kidnap Sadie as a hostage.”
Brooklyn and I glanced at each other. Is Harvey that crazy? I raised an eyebrow and Brooklyn gave me a tiny nod. Well, crap. I suggested, “Ask Roger to keep an eye out?”
“Oh, good thought.”
Brooklyn and I had both liked his other-side-from-Mrs. Bollinger neighbor when Roger came to introduce himself yesterday.
He’d apologized for not being around when we’d needed him.
He was ex-military, about forty, and he’d heard about the Harvey mess from someone he knew in the sheriff’s department.
He’d promised he was keeping an eye out, and swore that Harvey wouldn’t tangle with him.
Roger’s air of competence made that sound like more of a fact than a boast.
I said, “We can stop by his place as we head out.”
“Ooh, yeah,” Cheyenne agreed. “Can we go now?”
“Jeans?” I suggested, looking at her bare legs in shorts. “If you want to play with the dogs.”
“Two minutes!” She dashed out of the kitchen, Xandra scampering behind and swatting at Cheyenne’s bare heels in fun.
Brooklyn’s sigh was heavy, and I pulled him into a hug. “You okay? Don’t want to come?”
“No, I do, just not sleeping well.”
Tell me something I don’t know. He’d had nightmares both nights since Harvey’s appearance, ones he didn’t want to recount. I hugged him tighter.
“And I hate that we can’t just settle into living our lives, that Cheyenne still has to be looking over her shoulder. At least when I left home, I was out. I didn’t worry about being dragged back to Dad.”
I kissed his silky hair, since I had no reassurance to offer that wouldn’t sound banal.
Cheyenne skidded back into the kitchen. “Hey, I thought we were in a hurry.”
Reluctantly, I let go of Brooklyn. “Going now.”
“Can we take Eb? You said he used to wander round the shelter with you. I bet he misses it.”
I’d noticed that as much as Cheyenne adored Sadie, she liked to keep Ebony close to her. Even though he was a marshmallow, there was no doubt some comfort in having ninety pounds of dog at her side. “I suppose so. If you’ll watch him while I’m busy.”
“Yay!” She ran to get his headcollar and leash. “Come on Eb! An adventure.”
Before we hit the road, Brooklyn pulled the SUV into Roger’s driveway and jogged up to his door. The man answered, and seeing his alert air and broad-shouldered stability was reassuring. As Brooklyn spoke, Roger turned toward the house and nodded.
“He’ll keep an eye out,” Brooklyn reported as he swung back into his seat. “Okay, shelter.”
I had Brooklyn park along the side and coded us in at the employee door. Cheyenne bounced on the balls of her feet, Eb’s leash wrapped around her hand. “This is so cool. How many pets are in here?”
“We have fourteen dogs and nineteen cats right now,” I told her. “And two rabbits.”
“Rabbits? Like, for pets?”
“Yep.”
“Can I see them?”
“Just keep Eb at a distance. He wants to slobber on them, and it makes them nervous.” I saw Neil approaching down the hallway and gestured.
“Brooklyn, you know where everything is. You can show her the evening-walks routine. Yasmin and Mario should be back there. If she wants to meet any dogs, or give them a quick playtime outside, only let her near the ones with the green stickers, and put Eb in a kennel first.”
“Got it.” Brooklyn touched my shoulder. “Go deal with your plumbing .”
I liked the sparkle in his eye and the way he looked less worried here. Neil was waiting, but I paused to watch the rear view of Brooklyn walking away. Someday, we’d both be healthy and unworried and I could properly savor the little zing that looking at Brooklyn always gave me.
Neil cleared his throat, and I turned to him. “Right. Lead on.”
The water damage, caused by an in-wall leak from a section of pipe that should’ve been replaced, was worse than I expected.
The plumber put his finger right through a decent-looking bit of drywall with an apologetic glance, showing where it was waterlogged on the inside.
The insurance guy, of course, wanted it patched, not replaced. Discussion ensued.
Forty minutes later, we had the estimate hashed out. Naturally, not signed off on. The adjuster would take it back to the office to run some numbers. But I had a hope we could get started on fixing things.
Activity in the shelter had died down while we were working.
We’d closed to the public a while ago and, looking at the time, I knew the last feedings and walks should be almost finished.
Somewhere outside, someone called a goodbye and a car started.
I showed the adjuster and plumber out the front, and relocked the door.
Neil came into the lobby, slipping on his jacket. “All done?”
“Yeah. I think we’re fully covered, but it’s always a fight. Excuse me, a discussion.”
He snorted. “Better you than me. I’m heading out unless you need me. Sawyer has plans for us.” He grinned.
“Go get your man.” I waved. “Just lock up. I’ll set the alarm when we leave.”
When he was gone, shutting off the front lights on his way out, I looked around.
In the mellow evening light slanting in the big windows, the front of my shelter sparkled, marble tiles gleaming, little flecks of gold reflecting off the chandeliers.
The luxury fittings were ridiculous, but I’d come to love every inch of them.
The unique feel, the high open ceiling and polished charm, all said that the fur-babies who called this place home mattered.
That they were gifts to win, not strays begging for scraps.
Illusion, since we were perennially short of funds, but a state of mind I encouraged.
I heard Brooklyn’s voice somewhere in back, and Cheyenne’s laugh, and warmth filled me.
This was the life I’d always wanted. Back when I was the shy, quiet kid, trying to be so good that someone would notice and value me, this was what I’d have dreamed of, if I’d had the imagination.
A place like this to bring help to so many innocent pets.
A man who took care of me and let me take care of him.
A family who needed me, even in the form of a borrowed little sister and a furry pack.