Page 41 of Vanish From Sight

She got up and headed back to her desk.

Lena began sorting through her notes, tidbits of information she’d gleaned from research online about dog thefts, when her phone rang. She scooped it up and saw it was Aiden on the caller ID.

“Hey sweetheart. How’s the battle going?” he asked.

“Busy,” she replied. “How did it go this morning?”

Aiden had taken Ethan to his weekend self-defense class paid for by Noah.

“Brutal. Not exactly turn the other cheek but hey, he seemed to enjoy himself. Look, I was thinking I would cook dinner tonight. Figured I would show you what you are in store for long term,” he said. He was trying, maybe a little too hard, to impress her.

“Ugh.”

“You’re working?”

“Something’s come up. I…”

Lena heard him sigh. “We’ll do it another time. That’s not a problem. We only have the rest of our lives,” he said.

“Right,” she answered. If she was honest, she’d been having second thoughts about getting married. It wasn’t him per se, or even the return of Noah to the region, she just wasn’t sure she was ready to give that kind of commitment. Something about that marriage paper changed things.

Aiden was quick to change the topic. “Oh. I should mention something. On the way back we stopped at that ice cream parlor Ethan likes. Well, he saw a flyer on the wall for golden retriever pups for sale from some breeder in the area.”

“He wants one, doesn’t he?”

It wasn’t a mystery. Since his time with Axel, Ethan had been biting at the bit to get his own dog. He’d brought it up several times in conversation but adding another member to the family only brought with it more responsibility and cost, and she knew Ethan didn’t understand that, and after what she’d just heard from Maggie, she wasn’t sure if she was going to be employed in the next few months.

“Can we, Mom?” she heard him shout in the background.

“Put him on.”

“Be my guest,” Aiden said, handing the phone over.

“Hey,” Ethan said excitedly. “I saw a flyer today for dogs. They’re really cheap. Can we get one?”

“You remember what I told you.”

“I’ll look after it.”

“Famous last words,” she said.

“I will.”

“We’ll see, Ethan,” Lena replied. “These dogs, how much are they?” Ethan reeled off a number. It wasn’t cheap but compared to some of the prices she’d seen for purebred dogs fromreputable breeders, it was enticing. Then again, most of the reputable breeders didn’t need to advertise in ice cream stores as they were usually registered with their breed associations and received enough buyers that way. “Do you have the number?”

“Yeah, I ripped one off.”

She took out a pen and scribbled it down.

“Ethan. Go easy on Aiden. Okay? No more talk about getting a pup. Let me look into it.”

“All right.”

“Where’s your sister?”

“On the phone.”

“All right. I’ll see you this evening.”