By the time they released each other, they were both breathing heavily. He cupped her jaw in his palm and smiled. “I gotta tell you, I don’t think that’s a mistake.”
She leaned her head against his hand and closed her eyes, enjoying the caress of his fingers threading through her hair. “You might be right. Nice might not be the best word to describe you.”
He ran a fingertip around the edge of her ear. “So how do you feel?”
She opened her eyes again. “Good. Too good. Way, way too good.”
“So does that mean we’re more than just friends?”
“I don’t know that I can come out here and see you every day and not think about kissing you.” At the look in his eyes, she put her hand against his chest. “But if we do this, we need to go really slowly.”
“As slow as you want. I’m like a turtle.”
Brigid giggled. “I thought you were Gumby.”
“I’m going to kill Tammy Jo for saying that.”
She tapped his chest playfully with her fingertips. “Hey, don’t call her Tammy Jo.”
Brigid drove home in a daze. After giving Gypsy some affection, she grabbed a sandwich and then went up to bed. She stared at the ceiling unable to sleep, reliving the feel of Clay’s body wrapped around hers. One kiss and she’d completely caved. Okay sure, it was a mind-blowing kiss, but what were the odds that she wouldn’t mess this up? He was going to regret ever meeting her. With a sigh, she rolled over and squeezed her eyes shut in an effort to empty her mind. Some things were better not to think about.
The next morning, Brigid went to the station to pick up Nugget. The flyers had netted zero interest so far, and he was still there waiting for the owners he’d probably never see again. Brigid continued to hold out a tiny hope that she’d get a message on her new answering machine one day from a family desperate to have him returned to them. But until then or until he found a new home, Nugget would be a guest of the V Bar H ranch.
At the station, she waved to Jake and went out to the kennels. In addition to Nugget, a new dog was dancing around frantically in a kennel. It was a young dog that looked like some type of schnauzer. She’d checked her answering machine. When had this dog shown up? It appeared Nugget’s excursion was going to have to wait a few minutes.
The new dog was yapping like crazy, which Nugget did not seem to appreciate. He was curled up in the corner of his cage looking sad. “Sorry sweetie. Let me walk this wild thing, then I’ll take you out to the ranch. Judge is kind of a goof, but at least he’s usually quieter than this dog.”
When Brigid walked the schnauzer, it became apparent that the dog had not spent much time on a leash before. The dog zigged and zagged attempting to drag Brigid every which way. When she brought the little dog back to the cage, she discovered to her dismay that the space needed to be cleaned. Although the fact that the dog was cute was a big point in her favor, the fact that she wasn’t housebroken was not going help her get adopted.
Brigid sighed and put the dog in different kennel, then busied herself cleaning the first one. As she got down on her knees, she was reminded of an Eric Clapton song. She glanced over at the dog’s inquisitive expression. “What do you think of Layla?” The dog jumped around looking pleased and Brigid sat back on her heels. “Okay. If it works for you, it works for me.” Brigid laughed as Layla ran around in a happy circle, seemingly thrilled with her new moniker.
Brigid leashed up Nugget, who in his quiet way seemed to understand that he was leaving the yappy schnauzer behind. They walked through the station and Brigid stopped at Jake’s office. “I’m taking Nugget. Do you have the forms for me to sign?”
Jake rummaged through the piles of folders on his desk and yanked one out. “Here you go.”
Nugget stood quietly next to Brigid while she signed her name. She looked up at Jake. “When did the schnauzer show up?”
“Early this morning we got a call. It was chasing a cat in town. The dog treed the cat and was barking its head off, waking up half the neighborhood. No one could catch it, so they called us. Officer Davidson is pretty cranky about the whole thing.”
“I’ll be back later to walk her. Unfortunately, she doesn’t seem to be housebroken, so if you see her looking anxious, please take her out.”
“Now that you’re coming by, I don’t go back there.”
Brigid clenched the leash in her hand more tightly. “Maybe you could check just this once? I’ll be back later, as usual.”
“All right. I guess I can.”
Brigid walked Nugget through the building and out to her car. She opened the back door of the Honda and the dog gave her a disconsolate look, as if he didn’t know what to do. Brigid said, “Come on, get in. Load up. Let’s go!” in a happy, perky voice as she gestured toward the car. Nugget stood motionless, staring at her as if she’d lost her mind.
Brigid’s shoulders slumped. “Really? You’ve never ridden in a car before? How did they get you here?” The dog was skinny, but tall. She tried wrapping her arms around Nugget’s torso and putting his front paws on the floor of the back of the car. Nugget stood motionless and turned his head to gaze at her incredulously. “Oh come on, Nugget. The back feet too.” She lifted the dog’s hind end into the car. With a small grunt, Nugget scuttled forward and she closed the door.
Brigid got into the driver’s seat and found Nugget’s long nose next to her ear. She pushed it gently. “Nugget, you need to back up.” He turned and hopped up on the back-seat. Brigid looked in the rear-view mirror and saw nothing except an expanse of black fur.
Using her side mirrors, she backed out of the parking space and headed north toward the ranch. Nugget perched on the back seat, wobbling precariously every time she slowed down. Naturally, the one traffic light in Alpine Grove was red, and he fell off the seat onto the floor when she stopped. She turned to look over her shoulder at him. “Sorry.” Nugget glared at her and hopped back up onto the seat. “This would all be so much better if you would just lie down, you know.” Nugget wasn’t buying into the idea and continued his precarious vigil.
By the time they reached the highway, Nugget was drooling profusely. Brigid opened a back window for him, but all it seemed to do was cause dog slobber to fly around the car. She wiped a slimy glob off her cheek and rubbed her hand on her jeans.
At the turn to the ranch, Nugget lost his balance again and fell off the seat. He then made some ghastly retching sounds before spewing the contents of his stomach all over the back of the Honda.
Brigid turned to looked over her shoulder and found Nugget’s nose next to her head again. He heaved up the last of his breakfast onto her shoulder, shirt, and pants. It was quite a performance in projectile vomiting. “Gross, Nugget! What is in that food you have been eating at the station? That is the worst smell, ever. Ugh.”
Brigid pulled up next to the barn, where Judge was barking gleefully within. She looked around to see who was here. Clay was in the arena with a shiny black horse doing something, although it was impossible to tell what. Outside the fence, TJ was sitting on Hank, leaning forward, and resting her elbows on the saddle, watching him.
Brigid turned back to the car and saw that Nugget had spewed used dog food all over the back of the front seat as well as the floor of the car. Nice. A piece of well-digested kibble caught her eye and she brushed it off her shoulder. She probably smelled like the interior of Nugget’s stomach now. Yuck.
After gathering the leash from the front seat, she unloaded Nugget from the car. Unlike getting into the car, getting out was no problem for the dog. But now he was disgusting and reeked of vomit. As did she. There was no way she could put him in the cage like this. She needed to hose him off, but the tiny laundry sink near the tack room wasn’t going to cut it. A hose had to be around somewhere, since they wouldn’t use that sink to fill the huge horse troughs, much less to wash horses.
She walked with the dog around to the side of the barn and the arena came into view. Nugget let out a sharp bark, followed by a
spate of hysterical howling, growling, whining, and shrieky err-howling, rrring, rowling and other bizarre alien barking noises that were totally uncharacteristic and alarming. Startled, Brigid struggled to hold the whirling dog, dragging him back around the building toward the entrance.
Up until this point, Nugget had never uttered a peep in Brigid’s presence. Once he was back in front of the building, he calmed down and Brigid let out the breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding.
TJ walked around the side of the barn and gestured toward the arena. “What in heaven’s name are you doing with that dog? Didn’t you see the Arabian over there?”
“Maybe Nugget doesn’t like horses. I’ve never seen him behave this way. I’ve never even heard him make a sound before.”
“Well, clearly he knows how. You need to deal with this dog and keep him away from the horses—especially the Arabian.”
“Do you know if there’s a hose somewhere around here?”
TJ gestured toward the other side of the building. “On the outside. Over there.” She stomped back around the barn, grumbling under her breath.
Brigid flicked a piece of well-masticated dog food off Nugget’s back. “I don’t think she’s your biggest fan.” Nugget just stared at her with his big round dark-brown eyes. “It’s okay, sweetie. I don’t think she likes me much either.”
Brigid walked around the other side of the barn and found an old green hose with the end dangling into a large galvanized metal water trough. She readjusted her hold on the leash and bent down to turn the water on. Nugget barked sharply in her ear and she leaped away from the spigot.
The dog had turned to face Clay, who was leaning casually on the building. She glared at him and twisted the leash in her hands. “I think I’m deaf in one ear now.”
He raised his eyebrows and said in a voice that was almost a whisper. “You’re not looking or smelling your best either. Is that dog food on your shirt?”
Brigid looked down. Yuck. “Nugget got carsick. I’m not sure my Honda will ever be the same.”
“You might want to lower your voice. It’s clear you’ve had a rough morning, but the dog is picking up the fact you’re mad about it. You’re upsetting him, and I think he’s upset enough just being here as it is.”
Nugget was standing motionless looking at them, his eyes wide. Brigid said, “He likes me, but I’m not so sure he likes you. Jake said he’s not fond of men. And I really don’t think he likes horses at all. He lost his marbles when he saw that black horse.”
“I know. My darling big sister is all over my case again. That woman has a nasty tongue on her and the last thing I need is another lecture.” He moved away from the wall putting his hands behind his back and stepping slowly around Brigid. She turned her head because she could barely hear him. The words he was saying didn’t match how he was saying them. He had to be just as furious with her as TJ was, but he said softly, “I told you about that Arabian, Brigid. He’s reactive and just about as green as a horse can be. You need to be careful.”
“I didn’t get near him! We were way over here. I can’t help it if Nugget barked.”
“Look at him.” Clay inclined his head slightly toward Nugget. “His pupils are so big, his eyes are practically black, and his tail is glued underneath his legs touching his belly.”
“Well, at least he’s being quiet now, even though you’re still here. Maybe Jake was wrong about his attitude toward men.”
“But, look at him. He’s not happy. Not happy at all. He’s afraid and uncertain because of all the new smells everywhere. And he’s probably got a sore tummy, but he’s still hungry too, since his breakfast is all over your car. And you.”
Clay had moved slowly so that he was now standing alongside Nugget, who sniffed at him a few times but was otherwise unconcerned. Somehow, Clay had made himself seem smaller. Brigid couldn’t tell what he’d done. Maybe he was hunching his shoulders.
He was so quiet that Brigid wasn’t sure when Clay first touched the dog, but now he was doing something with his fingertips on Nugget’s back. The dog pulled his lips back as if he were going to snarl, but no sound came out. Brigid clenched her hands, tightening up on the leash, and both Clay and Nugget looked at her at the same time.
Clay continued what he was doing and said, “Stop messing with the leash. He can feel that.”
“Look at him. He’s showing his teeth. Be careful! I think he’s about to bite you.”
“No he’s not.” Clay put his other hand on the dog, his fingers running down Nugget’s back in long strokes, and Brigid realized he was doing some type of dog massage.
He glanced up at her. “When I was on the road, I met a guy with a couple Borzois. I think we were in Omaha at the time. Have you ever seen those dogs? Russian wolfhounds? They’re huge and if you’re not paying attention, they can vacuum food off a kitchen counter in thirty seconds flat without even having to stretch. But they’re the sweetest dogs you’ll ever meet. Greyhounds and Borzois are both sight hounds. I found out that these dogs don’t just run like the wind. They smile too. It’s a sign of submission, not aggression.”
Brigid looked more closely at Nugget. His pupils had returned to normal and his head and tail had both dropped. The dog’s body language did seem to indicate that he was more relaxed. “I had no idea.”
With one hand still on the dog, Clay reached into a back pocket and pulled out a red bandanna, which he held out to Nugget. He whispered something to the dog, who looked concerned about the cloth, but took a few tentative sniffs.
“What are you doing?” Brigid said.
“Letting him get to know what that Arabian smells like. They aren’t going to get near each other, but he’s going to smell that horse living here, so he needs to get used to it.”
“What did you do? Rub that all over the horse?”
Clay straightened slightly and handed the bandanna to Brigid. “I’ll have you know that this isn’t just any bandanna. This is a very scary horse-eating bandanna.”
Brigid laughed. “There certainly are a lot of horse-eating things around here.”
“Horse-eating things could be anywhere. You just never know.” Clay started rubbing Nugget in a slightly different way. He nodded at Brigid. “Why don’t you dunk that in the trough and clean him up a little. The water in the trough isn’t as cold. If you point that hose at him, I promise you, he won’t appreciate the temperature of what comes up from the well.”
Brigid wiped down the dog as best she could while Clay whispered to Nugget about the bed he’d made for him and how he had a friendly but kind of dopey roommate to keep him company. Brigid felt like a little piece of her heart melted as Clay continued to massage the dog while she cleaned him. Clay was literally whispering sweet nothings in the greyhound’s ear and Nugget seemed to enjoy all the endearments and attention.
When Brigid was done, Clay stood up straight and stretched his arms out in front of him. “My thrashed-out back is likely to let me know about this tonight.”
They walked Nugget around the barn area to help him acclimate a little more. TJ must have put the Arabian away somewhere and the horses grazing off on the other end of the field didn’t seem to worry Nugget. Finally, they walked back to the barn, where Judge barked a few times to express his excitement about the canine visitor. Brigid reassured him that his walk was next on the agenda.
Nugget strolled inside his new enclosure and immediately went to the platform bed in the back, which sported an old blanket much like the one in Judge’s kennel. Nugget moaned in satisfaction and grunted a few times as he curled up and settled in.
Brigid put her hand on Clay’s arm. “After you were hurt, you still made another dog bed. Look at how Nugget loves it. Thank you.”
“Well, I wasn’t so doped-up and stupid that I couldn’t still use a hammer.”
Brigid went to Judge’s kennel and put on his leash for his walk. Clay stood quietly and followed them out of the barn. They walked together down the driveway while Judg
e busied himself with his morning routine. Brigid leaned on the pasture fence waiting for Judge. “So were you massaging Nugget?”
“Sort of, but it’s a little different than a regular massage. It’s a horse thing called TTouch. The woman who invented it is one of the nicest ladies you ever want to meet, and I talked to her at a couple horse clinics. The idea with TTouch is that it helps calm animals that are experiencing stress.”
“Interesting. Whatever you did certainly seemed to work on Nugget.”
With a sly half-smile, he said, “Maybe I’ll try it on you sometime.”
Chapter 6
Stinks & Storms
Driving home in the Honda was unpleasant, even with all the windows down. While Nugget was getting his massage, the residue of the dog’s digestive disturbance had ample time to seep deep into the car upholstery and carpet. Having the smell on her clothes as well just increased the overpowering and incredibly noxious aroma swirling around as Brigid drove back to town.
She walked into her house feeling windblown and stinky. After a largely futile attempt to clean the Honda and a quick shower, she set to work calling potential volunteers on the list she’d gotten from Tracy at the vet clinic. She spent far too much time talking to answering machines, which was frustrating. Didn’t anyone ever pick up the phone? Clearly, it was time to reassess the plan of attack. If she was going to have to leave messages, maybe the easiest thing would be to invite everyone to a meeting at her house. It probably would be a good idea to create an invitation and put it at the vet clinic and other places around town as well.
During the cold-calling festival, Brigid did manage to get through to a couple of women who sounded interested and said they would come. One woman named Judith was on the board of some other nonprofit. She seemed a little bossy, but basically nice. Another woman named Sonia had retired in Alpine Grove and admitted she was looking for something to do. She was extremely cordial and polite, but didn’t want to chat. Little did the woman know how very many things Brigid could give her to do.
The Good, the Bad, and the Pugly (An Alpine Grove Romantic Comedy Book 7) Page 14
