by Dixie Cash
Her attention came back to him. “I’m not afraid of anything and I’m not afraid of you. I don’t know if Waffle was your dog—past tense, Mr. Conway, past tense. You haven’t proved it. If he was, maybe you should’ve kept a closer watch on him. I found him when he was in terrible condition and nearly starved, eating in alleys and out of dumpsters. He had been living on the streets for weeks. He was lucky to be alive. I nursed him back to health and I’ve given him a home where he has good food, regular veterinary care and he’s safe.”
Nick reined in his temper, feeling sheepish and a little guilty. He had no explanation for why Buster had run off from him in the first place, but he knew one thing. In this environment and under these circumstances, venting his anger would get him nowhere. “Ma’am, you said your goal—”
“Please do not call me ma’am. I suspect I’m younger than you are.”
“Ma’am, I was taught me the polite thing to do was call women ma’am. It has nothing to do with your age. As I started to say, you said your intent is to find good homes for the animals you rescue. I’m here to tell you Buster did have and will have a good home with me. Always.”
“Finding homes for the animals I rescue is my intent, but Waffle’s different from the other dogs I’ve taken in,” Sandi replied. “I love him and he loves me. I’m not going to just give him to you. I’m willing to give you one or even both of my other large dogs, Ricky and Fred. I’m looking for homes for them. They’re—”
Nick stopped her. “Ma’am,” he said as softly as he could manage, given his state of mind. He hadn’t expected her to be so honest. “That just won’t work. I’ve had Buster since he was only days old. We’re friends. We’ve relied on each other for several years. Having him around helped me through a rough time. I’ve trained him to be a cattle dog. You’ve seen that he knows me. He wants to be with me.”
Her eyes began to glisten. “He and I are friends too.”
Tears? Shit. His memory flew backward to the evening he had bought her a hamburger after she had delivered the parrot to her aunt and the bawling episode all through the meal and how much difficulty she had seemed to have with placing an order for food. The last thing he wanted was a replay.
Suddenly, she squared her shoulders and looked him in the eye, the tears gone, eyes sparking with anger. “You know what? You should go.”
The Chihuahua began to growl and bare his teeth. She muzzled him with her hand. The one named Adolph began to bark again. “Adolph, no!” She squatted and began to pet him and talk to him softly. “Mama said no. Behave now. You have nothing to be upset about.”
She got to her feet, still hanging onto the snarling Chihuahua. “This is too much commotion. It’s upsetting to Pablo and Adolph. And this is my aunt and her partner’s business. They don’t want to be a part of this.”
“Then you shouldn’t have run down here like a coward and involved them.”
“Your insults mean nothing to me. I’ll be going back to Midland tomorrow. We can talk there. You can come to my store.”
Nick had never been so frustrated. He was accomplishing nothing. He didn’t know what to do. He lifted his hands and let them drop. “Okay, dammit, I’m gonna go. But I can’t be back in Midland tomorrow to talk about this. I still have a job to do here. It’ll be the weekend before I get back up there. But don’t think I’m gonna forget about it, Miz Walker. And you’re gonna be wasting a lot of gasoline if you need to run down here to Salt Lick every time you think I’m anywhere near.”
He stalked out the door and slammed it so hard the glass panes in the upper half rattled.
***
Sandi waited anxiously for the panes to fall out of the door. She, her Aunt Ed and Debbie Sue all stared after Nick. No one said a word.
Finally, Aunt Ed spoke. “Lordy, Lordy, niece-of-mine. Something tells me there’s more going on than you missing ol’ Jake the Mouth. What’s this about?”
Sandi broke into tears. “Oh, Aunt Ed...”
Her aunt came over and put an arm around her shoulder, drew her against her. “Now, now. You can tell your dear ol’ auntie, hon. I’m not a pinch-mouth like your mother. I don’t judge. Were you and Nick lovers? Is that why you’re both claiming the same dog? Is it one of those custody things?”
Sandi raised her head and stepped back, her eyes suddenly dry. “Aunt Ed! Nick Conway a lover? Not in this lifetime.”
Her aunt gave her the goggle-eye. “You could do worse. Hell, you’ve already done worse.”
“He’s trying to steal my dog, Aunt Ed!”
“But he says it’s his dog,” Debbie Sue said. “And he looked and sounded believable to me.”
From the corner of her eye, Sandi angled a look toward her aunt’s partner. She wasn’t one hundred percent sure she could trust Debbie Sue, even if she was Aunt Ed’s friend.
Sandi sank into a styling chair. Amidst tears and sniffles, she told Waffle’s story.
At the end of it, her aunt said, “So Waffle’s just another stray. It seems like this particular dog is real important to Nick.”
“Waffle is important to me, too, Aunt Ed.”
“Hell, Sandi, you’ve got access to dozens of dogs. Like he said, why not let him have Waffle and you take the puppy he offered you. I mean, it's just a dog, right?”
“Ed! Bite your tongue!” Debbie Sue said. “What if I felt that way about Jim, Jack and Jose? Or Rocket Man?”
Jimjack and Jose? Rocket Man? “Those are dogs’ names?” Sandi asked, incredulous.
“Jim Beam, Jack Daniel’s and Jose Cuervo. I got them back in my partying days before I remarried Buddy.”
“Rocket Man’s a horse,” Aunt Edwina put in. “An old horse she used to ride when she was a champion barrel racer in ProRodeo. He’s so old, once when he was sick, I knitted an afghan to throw over his rump.”
Sandi shook her head, trying to clear away the cobwebs. Her aunt hadn’t told her much about her partner. It sounded as if Debbie Sue had lived a busy lifetime in just two sentences.
“All I know, Aunt Ed, is I don’t want to lose Waffle. And I’m never going to be bullied by a man again.”
Debbie Sue loomed over her. “So is this uproar about the dog? Or is it about you?”
Sandi raised her gaze to Debbie Sue. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t see that he’s bullying you. He just wants his dog back. I don’t understand why it’s such an obsession for you.”
Sandi could stop the tears that rushed to her eyes. “I can’t help it. It’s hard to explain. After two husbands left me for other women, I was so lost. My self-esteem was so beaten down. My mother says I have terrible judgement when it comes to men.”
Aunt Ed patted Sandi’s shoulders with a comforting hand. “That’s all right, darlin’. Don’t listen to your mother. Her brain cavity has always been a little small.”
Sandi looked up at her aunt in shock. “Aunt Ed! Why do you say mean things about my mother? She’s your sister!”
Her aunt lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “Can I help it the way she is?”
“So you’re projecting,” Debbie Sue said.
“What the hell does that mean, Debbie Sue?” Aunt Ed said. “Whose side are you on?”
“I’m just saying, Sandi, that maybe you’re projecting your need for some guy to love you onto Waffle. That’s why you’re afraid to let him go.”
“Maybe that’s true,” Sandi replied. “When Waffle came along, maybe I needed something to love that loved me back.”
She plucked a Kleenex out of a box on her aunt’s station and blew her nose. “I have so much love to give, but I can’t seem to find a human who wants it. Only animals. And most of them only want to be fed and housed. Waffle’s different. He has a personality and he gives back.”
“I have to believe that you know he really is Nick’s dog,” Debbie Sue Said.
“There’s somebody out there for you, Sandi,” Aunt Ed said. “You just haven’t found the right one. Sometimes it takes a while.” She dre
w a big sniff. “Just look at your ol’ auntie. It took me four tries to get a good one.”
Sandy clamped her jaw tight. She had no intention of ever having four husbands. One more time was all she was willing to give to an attempt at marriage. If the third time didn’t prove to be a charm, she would give up love and romance with the human male altogether and become a cat lady. She was already well on her way.
She gave her aunt an arch look. “No offense, Aunt Ed, but two ex-husbands are enough. I don’t want three. I might never get married again, but if I do, it’ll be for good.”
Chapter 14
During the long, silent drive to the Flying C, Nick’s thoughts and emotions churned. Those women were never going to give Buster up. It was time to take control of the situation. He knew where the aunt lived. He would have no trouble coaxing the dog to come to him. He turned his truck around and headed back to Salt Lick.
Driving by Edwina and Vic Martin’s mobile home, he concluded no one was at home. He studied the mobile and the yard around it. Neatly kept, large lot, fenced back yard with a gate into an alley and an open fenced pasture beyond. All he had to do was wait for the right opportunity. He parked at the end of the alley behind a large mesquite tree, hoping he was concealed, and waited.
Twilight came and still no one was at home. Those women probably all went to eat supper somewhere or maybe they went out for a night on the town. But what town? Salt Lick had no night life. If they went out, they would have to go to another town. And would they take Sandi’s dogs with them or leave them locked up in the beauty shop? Neither scenario sounded logical.
He shifted in his seat, hoping they showed up soon. His back ached, his butt ached and he was starting to feel tingles in his feet. The consequences of old football injuries plagued him every day. He’d had concussions, sprains, broken bones and a back injury. He’d had surgeries on his back and both knees.
Added to that, since those days, he had spent many of his waking hours on horseback in all kinds of weather. That probably hadn’t done his body a lot of good either, but he had always been a cowboy and it was the profession he had chosen for his adult life. He couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
He stepped out of his truck and walked around it, hung onto the tailgate and did a few squats, then climbed back inside.
Soon after dark, lights came on in the mobile home. The back door opened and Sandi and Buster came out into the back yard. Buster’s head turned toward him, his nose in the air. He began to bark. Shit! The dog had his scent.
He made sure his truck’s automatic headlights were off, then fired the engine, backed out of the alley and made his way to one of the two gas stations in Salt Lick. There, he ate a hot dog and visited the men’s room.
He soon returned to his vigil. Sandi Walker sneaked into his mind. She was an interesting woman. Good-looking, great body, obviously smart and loyal. Though they had clashed over Buster, he suspected she was honest to a fault. They had some things in common and she would make a good companion.
He couldn’t recall the last time he’d had those thoughts about his female acquaintances. The fact was, for a long time, he hadn’t looked for anything in women other than the obvious. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t enjoy having the right one to go home to after a long day. He did get lonesome.
The mobile home lights went out, halting his mental meandering. He checked his watch. 11:30 p.m. No Buster. That meant a long night ahead. He stepped down from behind the wheel, climbed into the backseat and was soon asleep.
He awoke to a sky just turning pink with daylight. Oh, hell. Had he missed Buster coming outside? Feeling as if he were paralyzed from the waist down, he creaked to a sitting position one limb at a time. His feet longed to be freed from the boots he had been wearing since yesterday morning.
Daylight and a night’s sleep, even a fitful sleep, brought clearer thinking. Was he out of his mind, planning to sneak Buster out of somebody’s back yard? This was behavior that conflicted with every bit of common sense he had. Last night, when he had conjured up this plan, he had definitely been acting out of anger. He should just go home.
Before he finished thinking the worst about himself and what he was doing, the back door opened and Buster came out of the house alone. Neither Sandi nor her aunt were anywhere in sight. Nick looked around the back yard, saw no sign of a human being. Buster trotted toward the back of the yard, began to sniff around the gate. Bingo! Temptation raised its head. In a matter of a second, it overcame Nick’s cleared thinking and common sense.
Ten minutes later, he had his dog in the passenger and he was headed for the Flying C.
The drive to the ranch gave him time to get his wits together and regret acting out a juvenile impulse. He had to explain the situation to his boss before anybody else got to him first. Thus, when he arrived at the ranch, his first stop was at Harley’s house.
Harley and C.J. were up and C.J. was fixing breakfast and lunches for their kids. He apologized for appearing so early in the morning and interrupting their routine.
Harley, a gracious man who was always a gentleman, invited him into his office and listened attentively. At the end of Nick’s story, Harley said, “I’m sympathetic, but I’d just as soon stay out of it. My wife and Debbie Sue Overstreet are good friends. Have been their whole lives. And I consider her husband Buddy a friend.”
“I understand, Harley. I’m just giving you a heads up because I expect to hear from one or all three of those women. Fact is, I suspect you’ll hear from them.”
Harley chuckled. “Edwina and Debbie Sue do have a way of getting everyone’s attention. But don’t worry about it. We’ll handle it.”
“The whole thing is kinda silly. This woman, Sandi. She collects unwanted animals. It should be a relief for me to take a dog off her hands, especially when he was my dog in the first place.”
***
“Oh, Sandi, I am so sorry,” Aunt Ed whined, looking out over the huge, empty pasture that spread behind her mobile home. “I didn’t know he would run off.”
Sandi gave her aunt a bug-eyed look. “Aunt Ed, you didn’t go outside with Waffle?”
“Lord, no. I’ve never had a dog I had to hold his paw while he peed. There’s a high cyclone fence out there. I thought he would go potty, then come back to the back door.”
Sandi had thought so, too, though she hadn’t been entirely certain. Waffle hadn’t been exposed to the wide open spaces since he had come to live with her. And he had run off from somewhere before, hadn’t he? Maybe this was a pattern with him. Not knowing what he had been like before she got him was a disadvantage.
“Let’s go on in to the beauty shop,” Aunt Ed continued. “Maybe Debbie Sue will have some ideas.”
“Are you going to leave Jake home alone today?”
“Oh, no. Wouldn’t hear of it. When Vic’s not home, he goes to the shop with me.”
They dressed and put on makeup hurriedly. When they were ready to leave, Aunt Ed went to Jake’s room and came back with him sitting on her arm. Under his feet, she was wearing a glove that looked like a gauntlet.
“What is that, Aunt Ed?”
“It’s a hard leather glove. His toe nails cut into my skin.”
Jake made a sneezing noise. “Too much spray net.”
“Is he talking about your hair?”
“Hell if I know. After all of the years I’ve been in the beauty shop business, I’m a little psychic, but even I can’t read a parrot’s mind. I think spray net is something new for him.”
Sandi walked over to the parrot. “Good morning, Jake.”
“Hello, pretty lady. Wanna fuck?”
Aunt Ed rolled her eyes and Sandy found a laugh. “He hasn’t changed. I hate to say it, but it was a huge relief you taking him off my hands.”
“I’ll just bet it was,” Aunt Ed said, placing Jake into his carrying cage.
“Stop! Stop! Call nine-one-one,” Jake screeched.
Sandi put Pablo and Adolph in their carrier
and they trundled to the Styling Station in Aunt Ed’s Mustang with Sandi in the passenger seat of the two-seated car, buried under both Jake’s and Pablo and Adolph’s carriers.
As Aunt Ed drove, she angled a look at Sandi’s position under the carrying cases. “Exactly how many dogs do you have?”
“Just five.”
“And you’ve got other animals besides dogs?”
“A few. They come and go. It’s hard for me to say no, knowing they’ll likely be euthanized. Right now, besides the dogs, I have six cats, some chickens and a gerbil. I’ll probably have them forever. They’re animals no one wants. They’ve all got something wrong with them. The shelter tried to get me to take some goats the other day, but I don’t have a place for goats to live.”
“Lord, girl, do you have time for a social life?”
“Not much. Fortunately, Richard works all the time, so he doesn’t seem to notice how often I’m tied up with something related to the animal shelter or the SPCA. Of course, he complains about the animals I have at home.”
“Sounds to me like you’ll have to eventually make a choice between him and them.”
Sandi had not let herself think that far ahead. It didn’t matter anyway because she had never been able to visualize a future with Richard. “As you say, maybe I’ll have to make a choice.”
“Well, that’s a definite maybe. If that’s how you feel about him, why on earth are you wasting your time with him?”
The question was a good one, but Sandi simply didn’t let herself think about the answer. And she sure couldn’t think about it today. At the moment, all she could think about was Waffle and where he could be. They rode in silence as she pondered.
Aunt Ed finally spoke. “If you’re looking for a new man, that Nick Conway is sure a good-looking sucker and he’s single. I hear he’s the salt of the earth. Got those gorgeous blue eyes. Women would kill to have those eyelashes. Hell, I know a few women who would kill to have the rest of him, too.”
