Good Guys Love Dogs

by Inglath Cooper

  Until that point, Colby had no idea that hurt could run so deep. It stabbed to the core of her and then spread outward in a white-hot spasm of pain. “Lena, you’re not even dating yet.”

  “I will be soon. And if it weren’t for your ridiculous rules, I already would be.”

  “Who are you taking these for, Lena?”

  Lena turned around and looked her straight in the eye. “Luke McKinley. And don’t worry, Mom. I know all about sex and what happens when you mess up. I don’t intend to make your mistakes.”

  Colby stared at her daughter, feeling as if she were talking to a stranger. She didn’t know this child. Only she wasn’t a child, but a young woman who had decided that it was time for her to have sex. She’d seen a doctor on her own, without consulting Colby.

  None of this would have happened if Ian McKinley and his son had never come to Keeling Creek. Colby dropped the pills on the couch and left the room.

  43

  It was the last place on earth she wanted to be. With her hands shoved in her coat pockets, Colby stood outside of Ian’s newly painted door. Her breath made little puffs of smoke in the cold night air. Righteous indignation simmered inside her. The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became that she was right. Ian McKinley, with his city-wise ways, had wreaked havoc with her life. Now his son was doing the same to Lena’s.

  She’d started to call instead of coming over, but hadn’t wanted to take a chance on Lena overhearing the conversation. She would only stay long enough to say what she had to say, and then she’d be on her way. Drawing in a deep breath, she knocked on the door and reminded herself that she could handle this situation with decorum even if she had acted like a sex-starved nymphet in the front seat of the man’s car. Even if the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department was probably still chuckling about Colby Williams being caught parking with an unavailable man. She would just have to get past that. She—

  The door opened, and suddenly she looked up at him. Despite the forty-degree temperature, she broke out in a sweat. “I need to talk to you, Ian. Do you have a few minutes?”

  “Sure. Come in,” he said, looking surprised to see her. He pointed toward the half-painted living room just down the hallway and followed her inside, closing the French doors behind them. “Sorry about the mess. I’m still under construction here.”

  Her anger did wonders for subduing the awkwardness she would have otherwise felt at seeing him again. “I won’t stay long.”

  “Colby, you can look at me. I won’t bite. Really.”

  She met his gaze and realized why she’d been avoiding doing so. His eyes. They got her every time. Focusing on her anger, she said, “I’m here about Lena and Luke. I accidentally discovered a packet of birth control pills in Lena’s backpack today. Apparently, they’re seeing one another.”

  “They are?” he asked, obviously surprised.

  “I think she just started taking them. I don’t know that they’ve. . .I think she was planning ahead.”

  “Oh,” he said. “Oh. I’m sorry, Colby. I don’t know what to say.”

  “Until your son came to town, Lena wasn’t even interested in boys,” she said, an edge to her voice.

  Ian looked at her for a moment. “Are you saying Luke somehow coerced her into—”

  “It’s obvious that he’s more worldly than she is.”

  “Worldly?”

  “You know what I mean,” she said quickly.

  “You think he’s corrupted her?” Ian asked, looking incredulous.

  Ignoring the voice inside her that questioned her fairness, she said, “Sex was never an issue until she met him. Lena isn’t supposed to date until she’s sixteen, which is a couple of months from now. I’m going to stand by that. I’d appreciate it if you talked to Luke and asked him not to see Lena outside of school until then.”

  “You know that if it’s what they really want to do, we’re not going to stop them. It’s the Romeo and Juliet thing.”

  “Please back me up on this,” she said, her voice remarkably cool now for all the turmoil inside her.

  “Colby, I don’t think. . .”

  “Just do it, okay?” And without looking at him again, she left.

  44

  Ian went after her, started to call her back, then stopped when another set of headlights arced across the driveway.

  He let out a deep sigh and dropped down on the porch steps, watching Colby’s taillights disappear around the bend as the cool fall air quickly seeped through his shirtsleeves. He stared up at the clear, star-sprinkled sky he had grown to appreciate so much since moving here. Colby’s angry accusations had thrown him. He hadn’t seen her since the night of the dance, and as often as he imagined what he would say to her when he did, he never envisioned this scenario.

  Luke might be more experienced than Lena, but Ian knew the boy wouldn’t try to talk her into doing anything she didn’t want to do. He’d had the distinct feeling that Colby was thinking as much about the two of them as about their son and daughter.

  The car stopped in the driveway and Luke got out of the passenger side. No time like the present to talk to him about the situation. He hadn’t been surprised to hear that Luke might be having sex. He was like any other parent who hoped his child saw the wisdom in waiting until reason held some measure of control over hormones. Luke was seventeen, though, and reason had a few years to go. But the girl in question was Colby’s fifteen-year-old daughter.

  The car turned around and headed back down the drive. Luke strolled across the yard and stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

  “How was the movie?” Ian asked.

  “The special effects were good. What are you doing out here?”

  “Thinking.”

  “Aren’t you cold?”

  “Not too bad. Can you sit down for a minute?”

  Luke dropped his book bag onto the brick walkway and sat down on the step beside him. “Was that Dr. Williams leaving just now?”

  “Yeah, it was. She found some birth control pills in Lena’s backpack.” So much for a lead-in.

  Luke’s eyes widened. A few seconds passed before he said, “And?”

  “Lena said she started taking them for you.”

  When Luke didn’t say anything, Ian felt compelled to fill the silence. “We’ve talked about this before, son. Pregnancy isn’t the worst thing that can happen to sexually active kids today.”

  Luke sighed. “Dad, you already gave me the lecture on safe sex.”

  “I’m not giving you one now. I just—”

  “I don’t know why she told her mom that,” Luke interrupted, throwing up his hands. “We’re not seeing each other anymore.”

  “But you were?”

  Luke shrugged and nodded.

  “What happened?”

  Another silence followed the question, but Ian sensed Luke would answer him when he was ready. “I trusted her. I told her about what happened in New York, about me getting into trouble. She said she wouldn’t tell anybody, and then, all of a sudden, I’ve got two jerks in my face wanting to know if I’m connected.”

  “And you think she told them?”

  “It had to be her. Nobody else knew.”

  Ian put a hand on his son’s shoulder and squeezed. He heard the pain in the boy’s voice and wanted only to take it away. Even though Luke had resisted coming here initially, Ian somehow knew that he would like to put the past behind him, that something here had touched a chord inside him, too. “Did you ask her about it?”

  Luke shook his head. “What’s the point? She lied. Apparently, she’s pretty good at that.”

  “Lena’s having a tough time.”

  “You mean because of her dad?”

  Ian nodded. “Her mom doesn’t want her to date until she’s sixteen. Maybe what she needs most right now is a good friend.”

  Luke considered that for a moment, then reached for his book bag and got up. “I’ll think about it.” At the top of the steps, he turned. “Is t
hat all you and Dr. Williams are? Good friends?”

  The question caught Ian by surprise. “I’m not sure how to answer that, Luke.”

  “You know, I ought to be the one giving you the lecture.”

  Ian raised an eyebrow. “How do you figure?”

  “I saw you with her at the homecoming dance. I’ve never seen you look at Rachel the way you were looking at her.”

  “Luke—”

  “It’s because of Mom, isn’t it?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I might be a kid, but I’m smart enough to know you’ve never let yourself love anybody since Mom. Loving somebody means you’ll have to hurt if you lose them. You don’t love Rachel like that, do you?”

  Stunned, Ian said, “Luke, I don’t know what to say. I—”

  “What if we stayed here, Dad? What if we didn’t go back to the city?”

  Ian leaned against a post, the question more than surprising him. “You mean permanently?”

  Luke shrugged, his posture and tone nonchalant. But something told Ian the boy had been thinking about this a lot.

  “You know I’ve intended to go back all along.”

  Luke shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. “I know. But I just like the way things are here better. With us and everything.”

  A stunner of a statement. Ian had no idea how to respond to it. Before he could say anything, Luke said, “You’re different since you met her, Dad. That ought to tell you something.” He turned and went inside the house.

  More than amazed, Ian sat on the steps, staring after him. Since the moment he’d dropped Colby off at the high school on Saturday night, he’d been miserable. For the past few days, he’d done little more than mope around the house. When Mabel finally asked him what on earth was bothering him, he’d waved away her concern, not wanting to talk about it. Apparently, Luke had been doing some observing of his own.

  The truth? He couldn’t stop thinking about the dance and what almost happened between Colby and him. Or the reasons behind it. He had always prided himself on being honorable. What was honorable about infidelity? Even if he hadn’t been unfaithful to Rachel in the complete physical sense, the breech felt complete. At some point, he began to feel that the real relationship in his life was with Colby.

  He’d never intended for it to happen. They’d started out as friends. He wasn’t sure when that changed. But it had.

  Colby had helped him rediscover a missing piece of himself. The part of him that finally remembered that life had more to offer than work. The part of him that had finally begun to build a bridge back to his son.

  He felt good with her. Alive. Like a man living his life rather than just racing his way through it.

  Sitting under the stars of a clear autumn night, he let himself admit that his son was right. For the first time in seventeen years, his heart ruled his head. His confusion over Colby had nothing to do with Rachel. As much as it should have, it didn’t.

  Colby terrified him. With her, he felt things he’d been determined never to feel again. Ashamed as he was to admit it, Rachel made things easy for him. With her, there had never been any threat of putting his soul on the line.

  But Colby left him defenseless. She made him want to do exactly what his son suggested a few minutes ago. Through her, he rediscovered some vital and critical links to who he was and what he wanted his future to be. She made him yearn for things he never knew he wanted. Little things that had nothing to do with money or status. Quiet moments and days filled with laughter and silliness. She had shown him that some of life’s best pleasures were found in the simple things. In watching a baby calf be brought into the world. In bathing a dog in tomato juice. In learning the two-step on a crowded dance floor.

  He realized then that it would be wrong to marry Rachel. On some level, maybe he had known that for a long time.

  He didn’t know what the future held for Colby and him—or if it held anything at all. She wasn’t even speaking to him now. But he wasn’t the same person he’d been when he arrived in Keeling Creek. He’d come here to change his son and ended up changing himself. With inexplicable conviction, he knew there was no going back.

  45

  The next morning Colby waited at the breakfast table for Lena to come down. Her stomach jangled with nerves, and she debated about the best way to handle this situation. She wasn’t anywhere close to reaching a conclusion when Lena came in, went straight to the refrigerator and poured herself some juice.

  With her back to her, Lena said, “I wasn’t completely honest with you last night, Mom.”

  Colby leaned forward in her chair. “About what?” Lena turned around, clasping her glass in both hands and not quite meeting Colby’s gaze. “I got the pills because of Luke, but we’re not. . .we haven’t. . . .”

  “I see. Are you talking about it?”

  Lena shrugged. “Not exactly.”

  “Then why did you say they were for him?”

  “That’s the only way a girl can get a guy!” Lena’s eyes filled with tears, and Colby had to force herself not to go to her.

  “Why do you think that, Lena?”

  “It’s true. That’s all guys care about.”

  “Did he say that?”

  “No. But he took Melanie Cundiff to the homecoming dance, and everybody knows she puts out.”

  “Oh, Lena. I think you and Luke need to have a talk. I’d be willing to bet things aren’t what you think they are.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because he seems like a nice boy,” she said, meaning it. She’d flown off the handle last night. In the light of day, she would admit that she’d been lashing out at Ian in frustration over what was going on between them as much as she had been over Luke’s part in Lena’s sudden interest in sex. And that was grossly unfair.

  Lena didn’t say anything for a few moments. “I’m sorry for what I said last night. About not turning out like you. I didn’t mean that,” she said at last.

  Some of the sadness inside her lifted with Lena’s apology. “Thank you. I needed to hear that.”

  From the uncomfortable look on Lena’s face, Colby knew she was aware of how deeply she hurt her.

  “Since we’re clearing the air, Mom, have you talked to my father?”

  Colby blinked, surprised by the question. “Lena, I—”

  “You got in touch with him, didn’t you?”

  “Lena—” Colby began again.

  “Mom, just tell me the truth. Until now, I’ve been too scared to ask you. But I’m a big girl. I can take it.”

  For a moment, Colby considered not telling her daughter the truth, but she didn’t want any more lies between them. “He wanted some time to think.”

  “He hasn’t called back, has he?” The question held a mixture of pride and fear, giving Colby a glimpse of the little girl she had once been, and in many ways, still was.

  “No, honey, he hasn’t,” she said, aching for her. Above all else, this particular chapter of their lives would have to be closed before the two of them could really begin to mend their relationship. Colby wanted that so much. That meant Lena had to have some kind of resolution with her father, whether he wanted it or not.

  Lena looked down at the floor. “He doesn’t want anything to do with me, does he?”

  Colby pressed her lips together, wishing to take the pain away from her, suffer through it herself. “It’s not that. It’s—”

  “It is that, Mom. Just admit it. There’s something wrong with me!”

  Wheeling around, she tore out the back door before Colby could stop her.

  That was it. Colby decided she wouldn’t wait another minute for that asinine—

  She grabbed the phone and punched in the number she had memorized so Lena wouldn’t find it. Three rings, and the housekeeper picked up, telling her that the Jamisons were on vacation.

  Colby slammed down the phone so hard her arm tingled. She stood at the sink and stared out the window, wishing only to ge
t her hands around Doug’s selfish, self-centered neck.

  46

  On Friday night, Colby and Lena headed for Blue Mountain Lake. Colby received a mysterious phone call from Frank on Monday inviting Lena and her to a surprise party for Phoebe. She’d wanted to ask him if this was about guilt, but curbed her tongue. He made her promise not to breathe a word to Phoebe, and she could only hope that whatever problems the two of them had been having were no longer cause for concern.

  “Whose house is this?” Lena asked as they pulled into the driveway of the address Frank gave them.

  “I don’t know,” Colby admitted. It was the first thing Lena had said during the entire drive. She’d been quiet and withdrawn over the past few days, staying in her room when she wasn’t in school. Colby wanted to ask her if she’d talked with Luke, but she’d refrained from doing so, hoping Lena would discuss it with her when she was ready.

  Colby’s own spirits had been pretty low, too, but she’d tried not to let it show. She didn’t have a right to feel bad, anyway. Ian had never been available in the first place, so it wasn’t as if she’d really lost anything.

  But it sure felt that way.

  She marveled at the house as she and Lena got out of the car. Sprawled across an enormous lot, it looked like a beach bungalow, bright and cheerful, with a white fence enclosing the perimeter. Obviously brand-new, the yard was still covered in straw, bits and pieces of building paraphernalia scattered here and there.

  At the front door hung a sign that read:

  Welcome Everyone!

  Please go in and make yourselves at home. The bartender will be happy to get you something to drink. Food’s set up in the kitchen and living room.

  I’ll be arriving with Phoebe around seven. Please take this sign down about ten minutes before. Knock her socks off with a big “Surprise!”

  Frank

  Inside, Colby smiled and said hello to the familiar faces. Parents and teenage children all but filled the living room and kitchen. Lena wound her way toward Millie, who stood in the kitchen next to a bowl of chips. Colby soon discovered that she and Lena weren’t the only ones in the dark about the party. No one seemed to know who owned the house.