“They’re…” Yours. She couldn’t say it. They weren’t anyone’s but hers.
“We rushed home as soon as we found out where they were.”
“How…who…”
The man stood, bringing Jack with him, tucking the dog into his chest. “But you don’t have Sugar, their mother? They were all stolen at the same time.”
“They were stolen?”
“Please?” The woman held her hands out for Gertie again. “She was my favorite from the moment she was born.”
Reluctantly, Grace handed over the dog.
“There’s my little Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup!” she cooed. “I missed you, baby girl.”
Trying to turn her resentment into resignation, Grace pushed the wooden door wider and gestured for them to come in. She knew what had to be done, but not without a little due diligence first.
An aching wave of need for Alex hit so hard, it nearly knocked her over.
“I’m Grace Donovan,” she said. “And you are?”
“Mark and Jennifer Sanderson,” the man said. “We’ve been in Phoenix, then Dallas, then Nashville at competitions, and Jennifer lost her phone.”
“And someone forgot to bring his.”
“The point is, we had no idea Sugar and the puppies were stolen, even before we—I—lost my phone, because our caretaker was too afraid to tell us, certain he could find them just by looking.”
“But of course he didn’t,” the woman said. “I knew he was incompetent when you hired him, Mark.”
“But affordable,” Mark said. “It wasn’t until we ran into a breeder in Charlotte who’d seen the puppies on the lost-dog sites and wondered if they could be ours.”
“Whoa, whoa.” Grace held up her hand, as lost with this avalanche of new information as she had been yesterday. “Are you breeders? Competitors?”
“Both,” Jennifer said. “We breed specialty mixes for working-dog competitions and show our best all over the country. It’s just the two of us, so when we leave town, we put a caretaker in charge. We hired a new one, a total mess, and Sugar and the puppies were stolen right from under his nose. They’re valuable, you know, so when he finally came clean, we put a reward out. A week or so later, our friend saw the puppies online and put two and two together.”
Her husband stepped forward. “How did you get them, ma’am?”
“They were abandoned on the property,” Grace said. “A few weeks ago. We had a local rescuer post the information, hoping to find their mother.”
“Well, we still don’t have their mother,” the man said, still petting Jack with genuine affection.
“Might never have her,” Jennifer added bitterly.
“But we’ll still pay you the reward,” he said.
“Oh, no.” Grace shook her head. “I don’t want a reward. But I will need proof of ownership.” She felt a little silly even asking it, but Garrett had urged her to be thorough if anyone showed up.
“We have papers, pictures, and all the proof you need,” Mark said, lowering Jack to the ground next to Bitsy. “Look at that dot, Jenn,” he said, patting the spot on her back as she turned in a circle that could be described only as happiness before he picked her up. “That’s why we called her Dottie.”
“I call her Bitsy, and she’s…” Wild. Wonderful. Mine. “Really sweet.”
He smiled, then put her down, but Bitsy barked and licked his leg, clearly familiar with the man. Gertie was lathering love on the woman’s neck, the way she did when she utterly trusted someone.
“Here are their papers.” Mark pulled an envelope from his jacket pocket, sliding out some folded documents. “Proof that they were born on September nineteenth at our home in Asheville.” He opened the papers, each one with a picture of a puppy printed on it. “These are signed by a local vet, and we’ve already filed these with the United States Dog Agility Association, so they’ll back us up with copies. I’ve been involved with the organization for thirty-five years. We’ve filed a report with the Asheville Police regarding the theft, too, and can get them on the phone to verify who we are.”
As he talked, Grace flipped through the papers, the proof of their ownership more obvious by the minute. Then Jennifer pulled out her phone and tapped on a picture of her husband holding all three of the puppies in a small crate…with a purple checked blanket at the bottom.
“Oh.” That left no doubt at all, and her heart fell. “These are your puppies.”
“Of course they are!” Jennifer crooned, lifting Bitsy. “My little orphans.”
The word hit hard. “You have no idea where their mother might be?” Grace asked.
She shook her head, sadness in her blue eyes. “She might show up on the competition circuit, but she’d have a new name and trainer, and we’d have a hell of a legal battle to prove she’s ours.”
“Was she chipped?”
“Of course,” Mark said.
“Here’s a picture.” Jennifer flipped to another shot, showing a dark brown Lab with white markings. “Shug-Shug has won her last five agility competitions and will make someone money.” She gave a sigh. “That was Sugar’s competition name, Shug-Shug. If I wanted her to do anything at all, I just said, ‘Shug-Shug, go!’ and she would. Such a good girl.”
Mark shook his head. “I just hope the bastards who took her don’t breed her again, because she’s all done. We just hadn’t had a chance to get her fixed after this litter.”
Grace studied the image of the dog who had Jack’s fur color, Bitsy’s cute markings, and Gertie’s eyes.
“If I see or hear anything,” she said, “I’ll let you know.”
“Do they have anything we should take with us?” Jennifer asked, leaving no doubt what their intentions were—to take the dogs. “We’re anxious to get them home to Asheville.”
“Just…that blanket. I’ll go get it.” She went into the office and got the whole crate, her heart literally aching as she lifted it and carried it back.
“I just don’t know how to thank you,” Jennifer said, pressing a kiss into Gertie’s head. “They seem so healthy and happy.”
“They are. I’ve had them to a vet. They’ve had shots. I guess I should get you all that information.” She looked from one to the other. “Can you come back and get them tomorrow, and I’ll have the shot records and…”
Jennifer angled her head. “I’m not leaving here without my puppies,” she said. “I’m sure you’ve grown attached to them, but they are ours, and this is for the best.”
Grace’s eyes shuttered. “Of course. I understand.”
She walked with them to their van, got their card and phone number, and took pictures of all of the paperwork they’d brought with them. Finally, she took the time to say goodbye to each of the puppies.
Jack, the leader. Bitsy, the wild one. And Gertie, the neediest of all.
As they drove off, her vision blurred with tears until all Grace could do was sit on the stone steps of the winery and call the only person who could comfort her right at that moment. She didn’t need space or time. She needed Alex.
Chapter Twenty-four
After Grace called, Alex walked straight out of Santorini’s during the lunch rush. John didn’t argue, and Yiayia was already on her way in. And as he drove well over the speed limit to Overlook Glen, he cursed himself for not remembering to tell her about the reward offer Garrett had discovered for three puppies that looked like theirs. But, still, there was no guarantee these were their rightful owners. So who were these clowns who took the puppies?
Grace had been upset, and it had been a little hard to follow her explanation, but he knew one thing: She needed him.
He practically two-wheeled it on the turn to the winery, squealing into the front lot to see Grace sitting on the step to the entrance, her head in her hands. Instantly, he felt his heart shatter, knowing just how much she loved those puppies. They both did, but Grace had been on such a roller coaster of emotions, he wasn’t going to make it worse by accusing her of gi
ving up the puppies to the wrong people.
She pushed up as he got out of the Jeep, both of them rushing a little to meet halfway and fold into each other’s arms.
“I can’t believe they’re gone,” she whispered on a ragged breath.
“I know, I know.” After a hug, he pulled back to search her ravaged face and red-rimmed eyes. “I forgot to tell you that Garrett spotted a reward for three puppies online. He’s been trying to reach the owners, but hasn’t yet.”
“Because the woman lost her phone.”
“How convenient. And impossible.”
She bristled as if she’d expected the pushback. “They knew the dogs, the dogs knew them, they had all the paperwork.”
“I know they said all that, but—”
She took out her phone and tapped the screen. “I took pictures of all the paperwork, which looked legitimate to me. And here’s the guy with each of the puppies moments after they were born.”
He squinted at the image, recognizing newborn versions of Jack, Bitsy, and Gertie. “Yeah, that looks like them.”
“And here’s what they filed with an organization that oversees competition dogs, which I did just look up, and it is real. And this?” She slid to the next shot. “A copy of the police report they filed after they found out the dogs had been stolen. They’re valuable.”
“If they’re valuable, why leave them?”
“Apparently, their mother is the most valuable, quite the winner of working-dog competitions. I guess the puppies are still an unknown, since they are mixed breed.” She angled the screen and showed him a shot of a brown Lab with markings that looked like Gertie’s and Bitsy’s. “Here’s their mother, Sugar.”
He drew back, frowning. “The mother’s name is Sugar?”
“Yes, but they call her Shug-Shug.” She eyed the picture with a sigh. “And they have no idea where she is or who took her.”
“But I might.”
That made her jerk her head up to look at him. “You do?”
“The guy who tried to take the puppies a while back? His dog, the one he claimed was the mother, but Garrett didn’t think she was? He called that dog Sugar.”
“But it wasn’t her?” She pointed to the phone.
“Not even close. Garrett’s chip reader said the dog was named Maggie. But maybe he called her Sugar because he knew the real mother’s name because he stole her.”
“We have to find out. Did that chip reader have an address?”
He already had his phone out, tapping Garrett’s contact. “If you had to go from Asheville to Winston-Salem on back roads, looking for a place to dump puppies, you’d pretty much go through this area.”
She made a face as if the very idea of dumping the puppies hurt. Then her eyes flashed. “Then the owners, who didn’t find out the dogs were gone for a while, put up a reward, and that’s probably why he came back for them.” She squeezed his arm with urgency, her voice cracking. “We have to find their mother, Alex. Those babies need to be together with their mother, no matter who owns them. We owe that to our puppies.”
He put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his chest while he got Garrett on the phone and gave him a fast explanation, then got Marty Casper’s address.
“If you go after that dog, be careful,” Garrett added. “That guy was a jerk. Could be a jerk with a gun.”
“We’ll be careful,” he promised Garrett.
“You could contact the Winston-Salem Police and send them out there.”
He could, but that would tip the guy off that they knew he’d taken the dog. “I might,” he said. “Right now, I just want to do some recon.”
In a matter of minutes, they were on the road, silent but holding hands. With a sigh and a soft laugh, Grace leaned into him.
“What was that movie? Mission: Impossible?”
He chuckled. “Your mission, Gracie, should you choose to accept it, is to locate, abduct, and return a dog to her rightful owners and precious puppies.”
“Oh, is that all?”
“No, it’s not.” He squeezed her hand for a long time, both of them knowing they had another big mission to undertake. “You also have to make a life-changing decision about whether to give up your winery business and move to California for the best job in your industry and the family you’ve always dreamed of.”
“Oh yeah, that.” She slipped her hand from his and rubbed her arms as if she were cold, turning to stare out the windows. “I almost forgot.”
He snorted. “Right.” He took her hand back. “What are they like, really?”
“Pretty darn wonderful.” She sounded like the admission pained her. “Genuine. Warm. Deeply concerned and surprisingly racked with guilt, considering they didn’t know I existed until fairly recently. They’re ashamed of their grandfather, a little disgusted by their grandmother, and seem to really want to not only make it all up to me, but hand me the moon as compensation for my years of anguish. You don’t even want to know how much money a third of Carlson Woods is.”
No, he didn’t. “Then you’re going.” It wasn’t a question. It couldn’t be.
For a long moment, she didn’t answer. “It’s not that simple,” she finally said. “And we didn’t finish our conversation.”
The conversation where he’d come this close to telling her he loved her? Not now. Not ever. He couldn’t complicate her already far too complicated life with that admission. He couldn’t make anything more difficult for her.
“You were going to tell me something,” she urged. “Something you wanted. Something that mattered.”
“Yeah, well…”
“Alex.” She stroked his knuckles. “I want all the information I can have before I make a decision.”
“There’s no decision, Grace.” He forced all the emotion out of his voice, sounding like he was discussing a menu item, not the rest of her life. He couldn’t steal her happily ever after just because he wanted her in his. “It’s a fairy tale ending for a really rough life. You get the name, the business, the fortune, and the love of a real family.” He smiled at her, forcing himself to make it authentic because she really deserved this. No one deserved it more. “It’s perfect.”
She just stared at him. “What about you?”
He’d just come in second, like always. “Me? Well…” He shifted in his seat and passed a slow-moving truck on the highway. “I do kind of have an idea.” A kernel of one, but he could get behind it. “But it involves you.”
She let out a little shuddering breath, her fingers still on his. “Really? What is it?”
“I had this interesting conversation with my grandmother yesterday after I left the winery.” He glanced at her, seeing a light in her eyes he knew he’d put there. That glimmer of happiness and hope hadn’t been evident the night he’d hunted her down and pretended to want a different wine. It hadn’t been there when he’d found her with three lost puppies. It hadn’t been there when Scooter and Blue had shown up to turn their world upside down.
But it was there now. Bright blue-green, warm with affection, glistening with…love. But she could find love again. But her real family? One of the largest wineries in the world? No, this was too good to take away just because they…had a crush on each other. It was too soon to be more than that. Right?
“What did you and your grandmother the matchmaker talk about?” she asked on a tease.
It would be so easy. Yes, she matchmade us right into each other’s arms. Don’t go, Gracie. Let’s make a life together and forget your real family and fortune and…
He swallowed. “My grandmother, the secret line cook.”
“Excuse me?”
“Turns out, Yiayia has been rooting for me to leave my job so she can take it over.”
She turned in her seat a little. “Leave your job?”
“But she accused me of being so comfortable at Santorini’s that I’m actually afraid to leave and pursue my culinary dreams.” He added a smile. “I think you called it a ‘bunch
of Greek excuses.’”
She nodded. “So…what are you going to do?”
He was going to stop being afraid. “When you go to California, I’m wondering if I might buy your winery here and turn it into a farm-to-table restaurant like the one where I trained in France.”
A shadow of disappointment crossed her face. “That’s what you want to do? If I…leave?”
He threw her a grin he suspected didn’t reach his eyes. “I love that kitchen, Gracie.”
She closed her eyes and smiled. “I know you do. Well, we’ll see. I haven’t made my decision yet.” She leaned forward and turned on the music, effectively ending the conversation. Connected to his playlist, the system jumped right to Blue’s famous song that Cassie and Braden had danced to. But today, the lyrics were personal, and cut right into Alex’s heart.
And that’s why they call me crazy…crazy for you.
* * *
He didn’t want her. He didn’t love her. He didn’t see the possibilities here or in California for a life together.
Grace squeezed her eyes against the sting of tears as they reached the exit for Winston-Salem, trying hard to think about the job at hand and not the heartache in her chest.
Had he really been about to ask to buy the winery yesterday morning? She’d never know now, because Bitsy and Jack showed up, and everything changed. Her chance at happiness was snatched away by the very thing she’d always thought would make her happy—a reunion with her siblings. But they wouldn’t accept just a reunion. That wouldn’t be enough for them. They wanted a sister, a sibling, a life near and with one another.
And, on some level, so did she. But she also wanted Alex, which was insane since she’d known the man about two weeks.
“Okay, the GPS says we take the next left and head into the hills.” He squinted into the light and handed her the phone. “Can you look on satellite and give me the lay of the land?”
She did, zooming in as much as she could. “It’s a farm kind of place, lots of woods, a little house and smaller structures around it. Can’t tell what they are.”
Three Dog Night (The Dogmothers Book 2) Page 26
