Like getting a dog.
Steve sighed and opened the door to his bungalow. The dog bounded through, sprang up onto the couch, and curled herself into a tight red ball of fur.
“No, dog!” Steve said firmly. “Down! Get off the couch!” When she just looked at him, he took her by the collar and led her to the huge pillow he’d bought for her to lay on, well aware that she despised the cushion and never used it when he wasn’t here to insist.
Kelly’s sister, Lisa, raised Irish setters, and this pup, while still very beautiful to Steve’s untrained eye, did not measure up to show dog standards. She was, in fact, considered something of a runt. Consequently she had not been sold, but had lived in the kennels, waiting for adoption as a pet. Lisa had hit upon the idea that a dog would be just the thing for Steve to surprise his daughter with when she came for her first visit, and at the time, Steve had thought that she might be right. He had never considered though, just how difficult having a half-trained pup could be! Or how expensive: Food, beds, toys, medical bills, and now this fence! Dogs, he suspected, might be more expensive to raise than children!
But if this dog brought a smile to Gracie’s face, he supposed it would all be worth it. It was to be her dog, and so he had put off naming her so far, simply calling her “dog” or “lady” or “you - mutt” as his opinion of her changed from day to day. It was kind of awkward not having a proper name to call her, but again, Kelly had said that Gracie would love the opportunity to name her pet.
Steve opened a bottle of water and walked back outside again, the dog close at his heels. His thoughts drifted from the troublesome setter to his red haired, green eyed girl. His heart did a series of jumping jacks in his chest as he pictured her. In the two months since Alyssa’s accident, they had been together whenever their busy schedules would allow. He was amazed at how right their relationship felt – as if they had been friends for years.
Everything in his heart confirmed that Kelly McGuire was the girl that the Lord had planned for him to find. He would never forget Sarah, but his memories of her were more and more ones of their happier times. He no longer dwelled on the hurt and the guilt that had overwhelmed his life after the accident. With God’s help, he had finally forgiven himself and was ready to begin a new life, raising Gracie and, perhaps in time, with Kelly as his wife. But first, the big hurdle: would Gracie like Kelly as much as he did? Steve felt his future was very much wrapped up in the outcome of this long awaited week.
The cell phone on his belt chirped, and Steve took a deep breath as he flipped the phone open, nervous and excited to finally see his daughter again. “Hello?”
“Daddy!” Gracie’s voice was shrill with excitement as well. “Daddy, where are you?”
Steve laughed. “I’m right here, where are you?”
“Pastor Graham says we are at campsite 3, do you know where that is?”
Steve smiled, his heart filling with affection for this child of his. “Yeah, sweetie, I think that I can find it. I’ll be right there. Love you!”
“Love you too, Daddy!”
Steve shut the phone. He ran his fingers through his hair and brushed down his t-shirt and jeans. He looked over at the dog, who was watching him intently. “So, do you want to come with me?” He asked her mildly.
At his words, the dog exploded past him into a red streak of yelping joy, racing around the yard so fast that Steve was almost dizzy watching her. Moments later she was back at his feet prancing and begging in anticipation.
Steve scratched her head. “Well, go get your leash!” He commanded her, walking toward the back door. The pup raced ahead of him bursting through the new electronically activated dog door before he could reach the steps. She was back again moments later, bearing the new green leash in her teeth.
Steve snapped on the leash, petting her head in admiration. “You are a smart girl, aren’t you?” He told her. He took a deep breath. “It’s show time, girl. Let’s go meet Gracie.” He opened the gate in the fence and the pup shot through, nearly yanking the leash from Steve’s hand.
Two minutes later, Steve pulled up in front of campsite 3, nearly as excited as the dog, who sat quivering and erect on the bench seat beside Steve. He shifted into park, rolled the window down a few inches to keep the puppy cool, and turned off the motor. He scratched her ears for a moment in apology. “You wait here a minute. I’ll bring Gracie right back,” he promised her. Ignoring the dog’s disappointed eyes, he shut the door on her and headed to the huge motor coach that the Graham’s had used last summer when they had been the park’s host and hostess.
Before he could reach the front steps, the woods exploded with a flash of color and shrieks of happiness. “Dadddddyyyyyyyy!” Gracie practically leapt into his arms. Steve wrapped his arms around her small body to hold her tight against his chest, and inhaled the little girl smell of her as she hugged him just as tightly.
“I have sooooo missed you!” He exclaimed, planting a half dozen kisses on the top of her dark hair.
“Me too!” Gracie replied, planting her own series of sticky kisses on Steve’s cheek and neck. A moment later, Pastor Graham appeared on the site from the same path that Gracie had erupted from moments before. Steve managed to loosen one hand and shook Robert Graham’s hand heartily.
“You’ve made good time!” Steve commented. “Did the munchkin behave herself?”
Hester Graham stepped out of the motor coach, a familiar box of tablecloths and string lights under her arm. “A perfect angel,” she told Steve, a warm smile of welcome on her face.
Plaintive whines and yelps of misery from Steve’s truck caught Gracie’s attention. “Whose dog is that?” She asked, eyeing the nearly grown Irish setter uncertainly.
“Well,” Steve began slowly, carrying his daughter to the truck. “She’s a gift from a friend of mine, who thought that you might like a girlfriend to hang out with whenever you come here to visit me.”
“A girl dog?” Gracie asked, instantly warming to the idea. “She‘s ours?”
“Only if you like her: Steve replied quickly. It suddenly occurred to him that he did not even know if she liked dogs. What if she was allergic to them? Or was frightened by animals?
Gracie tentatively reached her hand up to the window and the pup stuck her snout out as far as she could, her warm red tongue licking Gracie’s fingers. Gracie giggled. “Can we let her out?” she asked Steve.
“Sure, but she’s kind of big, even though she is still mostly a puppy. Will you be scared if she jumps around?” By now Gracie’s hand was through the window and stroking the mahogany fur. “Course not” Gracie answered firmly.
Steve set Gracie on the ground and opened the door just enough to wrap his hand around the dog’s collar. The pup leapt to the ground, her body wriggling with happiness as Steve led her to stand in front of Gracie.
Totally unafraid, Gracie ran her hands over the dog’s head. She dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around the dog’s neck. “She’s beautiful,” she breathed, burying her nose in the soft puppy fur. “What’s her name?”
“She hasn’t got a name yet,” Steve told her. “I’ve been waiting for you to come visit to see if you would like her. Do you want to pick a name for her?”
Gracie sat back on her heels and took the dog’s head between her small hands. She cocked her head to one side, studying the puppy’s face. Dog and girl seemed to smile at each other. “Her name is Fiona,” Gracie announced.
“Fiona?” Steve repeated the name aloud, thoroughly puzzled. But the dog turned her head toward Steve and wagged her tail, as if she already recognized and approved of the name. Steve was baffled. “Why Fiona?” He asked her.
“From Shrek,” Gracie replied in a tone that told Steve that the answer should have been perfectly obvious to him. “After the princess. She has red hair too.”
“Fiona?” Steve repeated again, uncertainly. Again the pup wagged her tail in answer to the word. “All right,” he conceded. “Fiona it is.” Fiona thu
mped her tail on the ground in agreement.
Steve knelt beside Gracie and rubbed the red coat “Hello, Fiona,” he told the dog. “Welcome to the family.”
Ch 39
Meetings All Around
The week flew by faster than Steve could have imagined. Gracie and he spent hours together. When he was off duty, they went shopping, hiking, canoeing, or spent hours just lazing around in the warm afternoon sunshine by the lake. When he was at work, Gracie suddenly acquired an entourage of aunts and uncles, who escorted her all over the park, as well as roller skating and out to the movies. Aunt Debbie and Aunt Jill, Uncle Pete and Uncle Chuck all took turns keeping the little girl occupied. Soon she was racing around the nearly empty park campgrounds with Fiona close on her heels, completely at home with staff and campers alike.
On Friday afternoon, a minivan pulled into one of the sites, and Steve and Gracie drove over to register the new campers. Gracie had accompanied her dad several times now when he had gone to register a new camper, and she saw instantly that there was something different about this one. To begin with, her dad started acting weird as soon as he saw the minivan pull around the circle. He got kind of fidgety and combed his fingers through his wavy black hair three times before they ever got to the site. As soon as he saw the lady getting out of the van, he got a goofy sort of smile on his face that made Gracie giggle a little. Steve glanced at his daughter and flushed, but the silly smile remained.
They got out of the truck and walked toward a lady, who had long hair pulled back in a pony tail. Gracie noticed that her hair was the same color as Fiona’s mahogany fur. Usually when they stopped to register a camper, her dad shook hands with the people, took some money and filled out a card for them to post at their campsite. Today was different. As the lady walked toward them with a smile on her face, her dad stopped in his tracks and just smiled his goofy smile. Suddenly, Gracie realized that the lady had also stopped and had the same goofy smile on her face.
Gracie frowned. For the first time at Hanging Rock, she felt out of place. She stopped at the edge of the campsite and considered turning around and running back to the Graham’s trailer, but Fiona was acting funny too. She dashed past Gracie with a happy little yelp of greeting and planted her two front paws on the woman’s shoulders. The woman stumbled back a few steps and her dad had to grab the lady’s arm to keep her from losing her balance.
“Fiona! Bad dog! Get down!” Steve barked angrily. But the lady only laughed and scratched the sweet spot behind the pup’s right ear. Fiona closed her eyes in doggie bliss.
“Hello, Fiona! Did you miss me?” The red haired lady said to the dog.
Gracie’s dad rolled his eyes. “I’ve been trying to break her of that habit, Kelly, and here you are rewarding her for it!”
“I suppose,” she replied, “but she always had such a sweet disposition, I never could get mad at her for it.” Gently, she dislodged Fiona’s front paws from her shoulders and brushed off her t-shirt. “How are she and Gracie getting along?”
Gracie looked up in surprise! How did this lady know her name, and her dog’s?
Her dad laughed happily and waved for Gracie to come closer, which she did reluctantly.
“See for yourself!” He commented. “Wherever Gracie is, Fiona is right there with her.” He placed his strong hands on her shoulders and made introductions.
“Sarah Grace Williams, may I introduce Miss Kelly McGuire, the lady who helped to train Fiona, and convinced me that you would love to have her for your own dog.”
Gracie smiled shyly, not really sure what to say. The lady, though, was not shy at all. She dropped down to Gracie’s height and held out a hand. Gracie took the hand and shook it solemnly. “Please! Call me Kelly, or Miss Kelly, if you would like. Your dad was so excited to have you visit him this week. Have you had a good time so far?”
Almost against her will, Gracie found herself smiling back into Miss Kelly’s green eyes. “Yes,” she replied with a shy smile.
“And Fiona, you like her too?” Gracie nodded vigorously.
Miss Kelly smiled. “Good, she was in need of somebody to love her. I’m glad she has you.”
Gracie was ready to go. She ground her toe into the dirt, wondering how long she needed to be on nice behavior, as her grandmother called it. She cast around in her head for something to say. “Are you going to stay very long?” She asked at last.
Kelly shook her head. “Just tonight I think,” she replied. I understand there’s going to be a sing-a-long at the amphitheater.”
Gracie grinned, excited again. “Uncle Chuck plays a guitar and Uncle Pete plays a banjo! They’re really good!”
“Why don’t you go find Miss Hester, and tell her to set an extra plate for dinner tonight?” Her dad suggested. “Then come back and we will all walk down to the cascades together, okay?”
Gracie nodded. “Sure, but where are you going?” She asked curiously.
Her dad got that silly grin on his face again. “Nowhere, sweetie. I’m just going to help Miss Kelly get her tent set up. It’s become something of a tradition.”
Grace was happy for a reason to escape. Miss Kelly seemed nice enough, but she wasn’t quite comfortable with the silly way her dad acted around her. “Come on, Fiona!” She called to the dog, who immediately rose to her feet, stretched luxuriously, and bounded after her little girl.
As Gracie and Fiona disappeared down the road, Kelly took Steve’s hand and exhaled in relief. “Wheww! I’m glad we’re past that moment. She didn’t seem hate me, at least.”
Steve pulled her into a hug and sighed with contentment. “Don’t be silly,” he told her, kissing her on the forehead. “Who could hate you?”
“No fraternizing with the guests while you’re on duty!” Kelly scolded him playfully. Steve sighed. “But you’re so darn cute, how can I resist?” He kissed her on the neck.
“Incorrigible,” she declared, turning and standing on tiptoe to kiss his lips. “Come on, you told Gracie that you were going to help me set up the tent, and I’m going to hold you to that promise,” she told him dragging him by the hand to the back of her van. Then she paused uncertainly. “Unless you still have some duties to attend to before the end of your shift?” She questioned him.
“Actually,” he confessed, “I was off work an hour ago. I was just hanging around waiting for you to get here.”
Kelly smiled. “Good! Now I don’t feel the least bit guilty for having you help set up my tent.”
Steve pulled her back into his arms. “Then it stands to reason that you won’t mind giving me another kiss?” He asked.
But Kelly sidestepped him and shook her head. “Not while you’re still in uniform, what would the neighbors think?”
Steve held up his hands and looked around. “What neighbors? The park is two thirds empty!”
Kelly hefted the tent bag and shoved it into Steve’s hands. “Sorry, but I don’t think Gracie should see us kissing until she decides if she likes me. She strikes me as being a little jealous of her dad’s company, and I don’t blame her!”
Steve looked at the tent bag in his arms and felt slightly deflated. “Right,” he sighed, knowing that Kelly had a point. They set to work.
They soon had the tent set up and Kelly’s sleeping bag and gear stowed safely inside. Steve checked his watch and then stood near the road to scan the circle for signs of his daughter, thinking that she should have been back by now.
Finally he headed for the truck. “Come on,” he said. “Let's drive over to the Graham's campsite. She’s probably eating ice cream with Hester and Robert. They spoil her like she was their own granddaughter.”
In less than a minute they pulled in near the Graham’s huge coach. He frowned at the black Dodge Viper parked outside the coach and felt a sense of foreboding course through him. It couldn’t be…
Before he could knock on the screen door, Hester opened it, a strained smile on her face. “We have a surprise visitor, Steve. Please come in and say
hello to Gracie’s Uncle David.”
Steve froze on the top step, staring at Hester in disbelief. “He stopped on his way back to Charlotte to see Gracie. Wasn’t that a nice surprise?” There was a glint of warning in Hester’s eyes that Kelly couldn’t miss. Steve seemed to take a moment to brace himself for the encounter. He glanced at Kelly for just a moment, and she could have sworn that there was an undercurrent of worry in the look. “Act like you barely know me,” he said under his breath. Then he took a deep breath and walked into the motor coach.
Mystified by everyone’s behavior, Kelly followed him in. The coach, of course, was long, with jut outs in the living and dining areas that made the otherwise narrow bus quite roomy. An older man sat on the couch, watching Gracie, who was sitting on a man’s lap at the dinette, eating ice cream just as Steve had predicted. Kelly was absolutely certain that the only person at ease in the coach was Gracie, who seemed oblivious to the tension around her.
Steve greeted Pastor Graham and exchanged a silent nod with Gracie’s Uncle. Kelly studied this Uncle David for a moment, wondering what it was about him that seemed to have everyone in the room on edge. There was no doubt that he was a handsome man. He was strongly built and strongly muscled, but with a hard look in his eyes that disturbed her. It disturbed her even more when he returned her glance with an admiring one of his own. Kelly shivered slightly. She got the impression he was less interested in her than in what she might be able to provide him with.
Far Country Page 33
