Since You've Been Gone

by Samantha Chase

  “That would definitely be cool,” he agreed. “I heard my aunt has been helping out with some fundraising.” Pausing, he shook his head. “I thought Ed was joking when he told me, but then my mom and brother confirmed it. I can’t even imagine how that happened.”

  “Oh, she’s been incredible,” Emma gushed. “I get that she’s not the warm and fuzzy type, but she certainly knows how to get things done to raise money.”

  “Yup. Aunt Georgia’s always been motivated where money’s concerned,” he murmured.

  If Emma caught on to the sarcasm, she chose to say nothing. “Anyway, she’s been a huge help to us. We’ve gotten some attention from the fundraisers and have been featured on the news and in the papers, so it’s fair to say we’ve come a long way since you’ve been gone.”

  “Then I definitely want to come by and see it.” He paused and tried to stop himself from coming off as too pushy. “Do you think it would be okay for me to come by tomorrow afternoon? I’ve got plans with my family for most of the weekend, but I have some time tomorrow if you think that would work.”

  “My tutoring session ends at 4:30,” she said and then stopped herself. “I mean, you don’t need me there to go over. Mom and Ed would be thrilled to see you no matter when you went over.”

  “Is Ed still working from home?”

  She nodded. “He is. For the life of me, I still don’t understand everything he does or how he’s able to manage it all from home, but his laptop is never far from his side. Every once in a while, I’ll find him in the barn with the dogs and he’ll have his laptop with him and his headset on, talking to a client. It’s amazing to watch.”

  “He’s a good man, for sure.”

  Their waitress returned and put their drinks and pizza down and for the next several minutes, the conversation focused on their dinner and what other places Garrett wanted to eat at while he was home for the weekend.

  Beyond that, there was never a lull, and even though it seemed like Emma kept directing them to neutral topics–mutual friends, places they were both familiar with–she seemed to shy away from anything overly personal. As much as Garrett wanted to ask more about her life–especially since her divorce–he knew he could bide his time. His plan was for them to finish their dinner and go back to the grocery store where they’d go their separate ways.

  It was getting late and his mother was expecting him to show up sooner rather than later and as much as he hated to cut short this opportunity that landed in his lap, he wanted to be able to spend time with Emma without watching the clock.

  But tomorrow, he hoped to show up at the barn and spend some time with her parents and then–somehow–get them to convince her to go out for a real dinner with him.

  Like a date.

  And it had nothing to do with his brother or their bet and everything to do with wanting more time with Emmaline Ryan before he had to head back to Virginia.

  3

  “I think he likes me, Miss Emma!” Callie said with a big smile the following afternoon. They had just finished reading to Opie, a small terrier who was happily trying to lick her face.

  “I do too, Callie! And he’s giving you kisses to say good job!”

  “Yay!”

  When Emma stood up, she noticed her mom talking with Mrs. Wells and…Garrett.

  For a moment, she froze and wanted to quickly run and fix herself up a little, but…there was no way to do it without drawing way too much attention to herself. Instead, she smiled and gave a small wave before picking up Opie. “Your mom’s here, Callie. Let’s go tell her how much you read today!”

  Taking the girl’s hand, they walked over to join everyone, and as soon as they did, Callie started talking about how much fun she had reading to Opie. Emma caught Garrett’s eye and smiled and immediately felt herself blush.

  “Emma, we can’t thank you enough,” Mrs. Wells said. “I think this was a great session for Callie and maybe we can do it again next week?”

  “Um…” She looked to her mother to see if that was okay, and Christine nodded. “That sounds great.”

  “Tell you what,” Christine interrupted, “why don’t you and Callie come into the office with me and we’ll look at the schedule together. Emma, why don’t you show Garrett around? Ed won’t be back for about an hour and he mentioned wanting to visit with him too.”

  “Oh, uh…sure. Great!” It wasn’t until she and Garrett were alone that she spoke again. “So…um…you came.”

  His laugh was low and just a little gruff. “I told you I was going to.”

  It was true. After they’d finished dinner and walked back to the Publix so Emma could do her shopping, Garrett had said he’d see her tomorrow.

  She just didn’t think they’d be here at the barn at the same time for some reason.

  “Who’s this little guy?” he asked as he gently scratched the pup’s ear.

  “This is Opie. We rescued him from a hoarder last month.” She gently scratched the dog’s belly as she spoke. “He’s very mellow and really good with kids. We’re hoping he gets adopted at our next event.”

  “When’s that going to be?”

  “It was supposed to be next month, but we pushed it up to next weekend. Hopefully, we’ll get a good turnout.” Emma let out a wistful sigh. “I wish we’d find homes for all these little guys.”

  She instantly regretted her words because the last thing she wanted to do was ask him for his help. If her mother wanted to do it, then fine, but Emma was not about to put that kind of pressure on him.

  Although…if she did happen to ask him, they could do a video right now, and…he’d have to take his shirt off, so maybe…

  No! Bad Emma!

  “How’d your session go?” he asked, breaking into her thoughts.

  “Session? Oh, you mean with Callie?”

  He nodded.

  “It went really well. She was much more relaxed when she put her attention on Opie rather than worrying about me.”

  “Have you thought about offering this option to more of your students?”

  “Not everyone needs this kind of thing.”

  Gently, he took the dog from her arms and snuggled with him–effectively making her ovaries want to explode. “Oh, come on, Em. Every kid could use this kind of thing.” He nuzzled the little dog and was rewarded with puppy kisses. “And this is a great reward!”

  She’d never been so jealous of an animal in her entire life.

  Bad, bad Emma!

  “It’s something to think about, I guess.”

  He placed the puppy down and watched him scamper off. “So let’s see all the new stuff,” he said excitedly. “I already see how the barn’s been expanded and rehabbed, and I noticed a couple of new buildings scattered around.”

  They walked out of the barn and Emma pointed out the new supply shed which was for the mowers and tools to maintain the grounds, and how the building beside it was for supplies for the animals. “We get a lot of donations from all over. Sometimes people don’t want to send money, so they buy food and bowls and all kinds of supplies for us. It’s amazing.” She pointed to several areas with picnic tables and a few fenced-off areas where they held meet and greets for dogs and potential owners or foster families.

  “They’ve done so much,” he commented as they continued to walk. “What are those?”

  Emma let out a small laugh. “Those are dog houses that have been donated by Scarlett Bishop. I don’t know if you knew about these, but…”

  Garrett stopped in his tracks. “I’ve only met her a handful of times, but…this is wild! How…I mean…when…” He walked over to them and inspected them. “These look like they’re handmade!”

  “They are! Scarlett’s really talented. She’s been making them and donating them to us for years!” She paused. “I don’t remember you ever talking about Mason being your cousin back when we were in school. Were you guys close?”

  He shrugged and continued to inspect the houses. “We were kind of the black sheep
of the family. My Aunt Georgia never missed an opportunity to tell us how we didn’t belong since my father wasn’t around anymore.” He made a sound of derision. “She’s seriously the worst.”

  “Oh, um…I d…don’t think sh…she’s that bad,” Emma stammered and mentally cursed herself. Garrett straightened and looked at her before she blurted out, “She’s been handling all the fundraising for Happy Tails and has been a total blessing!”

  All he did was arch one dark brow at her before moving away from the dog houses. He followed a gravel path that led back toward the fenced part of the property. Emma had to jog to catch up, and when they got to the gate, he paused and looked at her. “Anything back here?”

  Nodding, Emma reached over and opened the gate. “Ed created some walking paths back here where we can work on training the dogs with leashes.” They stepped through and she closed the gate behind them. “And there’s another barn back here that isn’t quite finished yet.”

  “What’s it for?”

  “Eventually, he’d like to have a complete clinic on site. It’s a long way off, so for now, I think–once it’s finished–they’ll use it either for extra storage or office space. It’s a bit far from the house and everything else, but he didn’t want to take away from the open area the dogs use now. This is all out of the way so the construction didn’t scare any of the animals.”

  “Damn, the man thinks of everything,” he murmured.

  “Except how to manage it all when he can’t.” The words were out before she even realized it, and Garrett stopped in his tracks beside her.

  “What do you mean?”

  “What? Oh, it’s nothing,” she replied quickly. “Look, there’s the barn! I’m hoping they set up a loft in it. I think it would be awesome to be able to look down on everything and see what’s going on, don’t you?”

  “Emmaline…?”

  Ugh…she knew when he used her full name that he wasn’t buying what she saying.

  Drat.

  With a sigh, she turned to face him. “Okay, here it is–Ed has to have back surgery. He’s put it off for as long as he could and now…now it has to be done and my mother is freaking out because she doesn’t know how she’ll handle everything. We have volunteers, but…it’s going to be rough.”

  “And you’re blaming Ed for this?” he asked incredulously.

  “No! That’s not what I meant at all. I just…” She sighed loudly. “Actually, I blame both him and my mom because they knew he was going to need the surgery, and…maybe doing all this stuff back here could have waited! Why take on more projects and expansion when they knew he was going to need like…six months to fully recover?”

  “Oh, damn, Em, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…”

  But she wasn’t paying attention. “Don’t get me wrong, this is all going to be great down the road, but right now, it’s just extra stuff to stress everyone out! I can’t help out as much as they need because I’m already working all day with the schools and then tutoring four days a week just to keep my head above water! My siblings are too young to be of much help, and all the fundraising isn’t going to put people here to take care of it all!”

  Her breathing was ragged and Garrett stepped in to hug her and she let him.

  And immediately regretted her little outburst.

  Strong arms gently wrapped around her and she placed her head against his shoulder. “Sorry.”

  “You have nothing to apologize for. It sounds to me like you’re dealing with a lot.”

  “Still, that was crappy of me to just spew all that at you.”

  He laughed softly, resting his head against hers. “What can I do to help?”

  There was her opening.

  It wouldn’t be wrong if he was offering, right? She didn’t have to feel bad about it if he was the one to put it out there. It was perfect. All she had to do was tell him what she was thinking, and at least some of her prayers would be answered.

  Pulling back, Emma looked up at him and…

  “You are very sweet for asking, but…it’s all going to be okay.”

  Coward.

  “Em, come on. There has to be something.”

  You could take off your shirt and promote Happy Tails and help us go viral…

  “I appreciate that you want to help, Garrett. But you’re only here for the weekend, and you’ve got enough on your own plate with your job search.” She stepped out of his arms. “I think Ed is going to be thrilled that you cared enough to stop by and see him.” Glancing toward the new barn, she smiled. “Come on. Let me show you the new space and then you can talk to him about it. He’ll love that. Trust me.” And before he could answer, she was walking away.

  And kicking herself the entire time because she blew her chance.

  Luckily Garrett didn’t push, and they walked around the new barn as she yammered on about how she envisioned it while he patiently listened. If he heard the stutters or the stammers, he said nothing. And on the walk back to the main part of the property, he asked about the dogs and her favorite part of helping out. She was just about to answer when Axel came running toward her and leaped into her arms like they were going to do the lift from Dirty Dancing.

  “There’s my best boy!” she crooned as she snuggled him in close. “Were you good today?” His tail was going a mile a minute as he licked her face. “I know. I know, sweet boy. I missed you too!”

  “Who is this little guy?” Garrett asked, moving in close and scratching Axel’s head right before the dog let out a small, menacing growl.

  “Oh, sorry. He’s not great with new people,” she said softly, doing her best to distract Axel. “He was just returned for the third time and it breaks my heart. I seem to be the only one he’s bonded with.”

  “So why don’t you adopt him?”

  “My place doesn’t allow pets, so…”

  “That’s too bad.” Rather than ignore Axel or heed the dog’s warning, Garrett continued to study him and carefully held out a hand to him to sniff. When the growling stopped and the sniffing started, Garrett started to talk to Axel in soothing tones until–much to Emma’s amazement–he squirmed to get out of her arms and into Garrett’s!

  Traitor…

  Garrett’s smile was a mix of surprise and pleasure as he happily accepted the squirming dog. “Hey, buddy! See? I’m just here to hang out with a pretty girl, too.”

  And just like she’d been doing since running into him the night before, she blushed.

  “Um…I see Ed’s car in the driveway,” she said, hoping to distract him from looking at her.

  “What about…?”

  “We can bring Axel with us. They’re used to him being with me.”

  They had only walked half of the way to the house when Ed stepped outside and spotted them. His smile was wide as he jogged over and shook Garrett’s hand. “Hey, Christine told me you were here and I couldn’t believe it! How are you?”

  “I’m doing great,” Garrett replied. “I’m in town for the weekend and wanted to stop over and say hello and see all the improvements you’ve been telling me about. Everything looks great! Emma’s been showing me around.”

  “Do you have dinner plans?” Ed asked. “We’d love it if you could stay.”

  “Oh, um…” He glanced at Emma and she had no idea what to say or if he was looking at her for approval or to help him leave.

  “You’re staying too, aren’t you, Em?” Ed asked. “Your mom made her famous chicken enchilada casserole and there’s enough there to feed an army.”

  Dammit, that was one of her favorites. She smiled up at Garrett. “If you enjoy Mexican food, you’ll love it. But if you have plans with your family…”

  “I’m going to be with them all day tomorrow,” he interrupted. “And I’d love to join you for dinner.”

  Okay, this wasn’t quite what Garrett had in mind for his Friday night with Emma, but…there was still time to salvage it.

  They were in the house and Emma had gone to help her sisters with
their homework while he and Ed were in the living room catching up.

  “So I hear you’re finally going to have the back surgery.”

  Ed groaned as he leaned back in his recliner. “I put it off as long as I could. The timing sucks but that’s no one’s fault but my own.”

  “I don’t think anyone really wants to have surgery of any kind. No one blames you for putting it off as long as you could.”

  “Yeah, but…it seems like everything’s hitting the fan at once, and, honestly, I don’t know how we’re going to manage it all.”

  There was clearly more to this than what Emma let on, and Garrett wasn’t sure how much he should pry, but…the curiosity was killing him. “It’s going to be a long recovery, sure, but the new barn can wait. That’s not too big of a deal.”

  “I wish it were just the barn,” Ed murmured, scrubbing a hand over his face.

  “Ed, what’s going on?”

  The older man let out a long breath. “We have more dogs on the property than we ever have before. Normally that sort of thing wouldn’t bother me because that just means we’ve rescued more and that’s what we’re all about. But Doc MacEntyre is retiring and doesn’t have anyone to take over his practice.” Pausing, he shook his head. “We’ve reached out to other vets in the area and none of them are interested in working with us the way Doc does. There’s no way we can handle transporting the animals back and forth to new clinics–especially not while I’m laid up recovering. I’m telling you, it’s just a bit of a mess.”

  “Damn, Ed. I don’t even know what to say.”

  But a thousand thoughts began swirling in his head.

  What if he talked to some of the vets? Or what if he talked to Doc MacEntyre? What if he didn’t go to Delaware or to the other places he was supposed to over the next month?

  As much as his heart was saying yes, Garrett hated to let all those other clinics down. Even if he didn’t accept the permanent position in Delaware, every place else was relying on him to come in and help them over the next several weeks. How would it look if he simply backed down?

  “Bah, don’t listen to me,” Ed said after a moment. “I know it’s all going to work out. It always does. The community has always supported us and sometimes help comes from the strangest places…”