For Keeps

by Rachel Lacey

  Merry could hardly believe what she was seeing. Triangle Boxer Rescue’s Facebook page had gone from a hundred and thirty-two likes to over four hundred. Olivia had sent an email to the volunteer list asking for news and photos to share. She’d posted several Happy Tails stories about dogs that had been adopted, created a poll to name a new dog just pulled from the shelter charging twenty dollars for each vote, and set up a fund-raiser through an online pet food delivery service.

  Over two hundred dollars had been received into Triangle Boxer Rescue’s Paypal account. Two hundred new dollars to pay vet bills and save more dogs.

  Olivia Bennett truly was a social media genius.

  Merry called her in a haze, ready to grovel at her feet and promise her whatever she wanted for the rest of her life if she’d just keep running TBR’s Facebook page. She got voice mail, left a long and rambling message, then sat in her kitchen, feeling strangely out of sorts.

  If Olivia could keep her magic going, it was the start of something that might turn around her financial crisis. She couldn’t support the rescue on Facebook alone, but between the ideas she was discussing with her volunteers and her plan to start a canine therapy group with local kids, she finally felt like she’d rounded the corner.

  She could do this.

  Then she saw the message from Cara. Call me.

  She dialed her best friend, and she answered on the second ring.

  “I have a name for you,” Cara said.

  “A name?” Merry rubbed her brow, drawing a total blank.

  “The person who was giving you all that money?”

  “Oh.” Merry sat bolt upright in the chair. “Oh! Really?”

  “I told you Jason’s a cyber-genius. He tracked it down for you, although he says not to ask him how he did it.”

  “Sure thing.”

  “So your anonymous donor was Beverly Clarence. Ring a bell?”

  Merry slid out of the chair and sat on the floor, heart pounding. “Yeah. She’s my mom.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  T.J.’s house felt empty, big and yawning in a way it had never felt before. He missed Merry, missed her a lot, even though it had only been twenty-four hours since he’d seen her, and he’d see her again on Wednesday.

  Her absence alone couldn’t explain this bout of loneliness. Loath as he was to admit it, he missed the damn dog. Amber had become somewhat of a buddy, following him quietly around the house, keeping him company without demanding much in return.

  If he ever got a dog, he’d want one like Amber. Amber with a pedigree. Surely such a dog existed. But hell, even Amber the mutt wasn’t half bad.

  He didn’t want to be alone anymore.

  He stared at the corner where her dog bed had been for the last month. Having Amber around hadn’t been so bad. Maybe he could ask for her back, impress Merry and cement himself for all time as Noah’s favorite—albeit only—uncle.

  Yeah, he could do that. He glanced at the clock. It was past eight. Merry ought to be home from work by now. Desperate to escape his empty house, he grabbed his keys and wallet and headed out the front door.

  Thirty minutes later, he rang her doorbell, armed with a loaded pizza and a six-pack of beer.

  She opened it, wide-eyed in pink-striped pajama shorts and a matching tank top. “What in the world?”

  “Have you eaten?” he asked.

  She shook her head, gazing longingly at the pizza box in his arms.

  “That’s excellent news. I’m starving.” His stomach rumbled, but his heart was full just standing in front of her.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, as she backed up to let him in.

  He walked to the coffee table and set down the pizza and beer. Ralph and Chip clamored around him for attention, but he spotted Amber on her dog bed against the wall. She gazed up at him, and her tail started to thump the bed happily.

  He walked over and rubbed her neck. She licked his cheek, tail still wagging. Then he stood and turned back to Merry. “Well, if you want to know the truth, I was a little lonely tonight so I took a chance and came over here.”

  “You missed her,” Merry said smugly.

  “A little,” he admitted. “I missed you more.” He pulled her in for a kiss.

  “You kissed her first.”

  “I did not kiss the damn dog.”

  “Did too.” She placed a teasing kiss on his lips, then pulled away. “You actually have good timing. I was about to waste away here in my barren kitchen.”

  She walked to the kitchen and returned with a bottle opener, plates, and napkins. She popped the cap off two beers, handed him one, and took a long drink from the other. For a moment, he thought she was going to say something else. Her expression darkened, but then she shook her head and sat on the couch.

  He settled next to her as she flicked on the TV and changed the channel to baseball. The Reds were playing the Braves. They were quiet as they dug into the pizza.

  “I hope it doesn’t lower your opinion of me if I eat my body weight in pizza,” she said between mouthfuls.

  “Not at all. It might lower my opinion of you though if you didn’t eat what you wanted on my account.”

  “Good to know.” She reached for another slice.

  They ate in companionable silence, demolishing the whole pizza between the two of them. Merry ate like she hadn’t been fed in a week, but he knew how it was after a long day on the job. Being on your feet for twelve hours, caring for others, took a lot out of a person.

  She polished off her beer, then leaned back with a satisfied sigh. She curled her feet underneath herself and rested her head on his shoulder. He put his arm around her to keep her close.

  He envisioned a time when every evening was like this. And the first step toward making that happen was to ask for Amber back. Simple enough, but the words were harder to say than he’d imagined.

  He looked down at Merry, saw her worrying her bottom lip the way she did when she was stewing over something. “What is it?”

  Her brows furrowed. “What?”

  “Your mind’s spinning so fast I can hear it.”

  “Oh.” She said nothing for a long minute. “I got some weird news tonight, that’s all.”

  “Bad news?”

  She lifted one shoulder. “No. Not bad, just… unexpected.”

  “You going to tell me about it?”

  She sighed. “Right after I founded Triangle Boxer Rescue, I started getting these monthly anonymous donations. Big donations. And then seven months ago, they stopped. I always wanted to know who was sending that money.”

  “And tonight you found out,” he guessed.

  Merry nodded, her shoulders stiff beneath his arm. “It turns out it was my mom.”

  “Your mom,” he repeated. “The one who bailed when you were born.”

  She kept her eyes on the baseball game. “Yep. I looked her up once when I was a teenager, saw that she was a fashion designer out in Chicago. I guess she kept tabs on me too.”

  “So she was sending anonymous donations to your rescue. Why did she stop?”

  “Apparently she went to jail for tax evasion. She was released a few weeks ago.”

  “Interesting.” No wonder Merry was out of sorts tonight. This had to be awfully hard to make sense of.

  “I guess neither one of us knows how to manage money.”

  Aha. He looked down at her. “You having money troubles?”

  “The rescue, not me personally. Everything pretty much tanked after her donations stopped coming.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  She squirmed out from under his arm. “I signed up for a fund-raising class, and I’ve got some new ideas to try out. Plus I let Olivia take over our Facebook page. We’ll pull through.”

  “Good. And what about your mom?”

  She smoothed her hands over her pajama shorts. “I don’t know yet.”

  “Have you ever been in touch with her?”

  She shook her head. “I’v
e never spoken to her in my life.”

  “Think it’s time to change that?”

  * * *

  Was it? That had been the question in Merry’s mind ever since she’d learned her mother was behind the anonymous donations. Was it time for them to talk?

  “I don’t know yet,” she answered T.J.’s question. “I need to think about it.”

  “Makes sense,” he said. “No need to rush into anything.”

  No, there wasn’t. Last year she would have said no way. Her mother gave her up, and that was that. But nothing was cut and dried anymore. She’d watched Crystal’s struggle over the past month to get her life in order and become a parent to Jayden.

  Sometimes people failed. Merry knew that better than anyone.

  Maybe her mom deserved another chance.

  Maybe.

  She nudged T.J. “You’re one to talk, Mr. Stuck In His Ways.”

  “You got me. However, I’d like to show you that even a stubborn man can change. I want Amber back.”

  She almost fell off the couch. “What?”

  “I want her back.” His dark eyes were steady and serious.

  “You want to adopt her?”

  A flicker of panic crossed his face. “Do I have to decide that right now?”

  She was tempted to go easy on him because she knew this was a huge step for him, but she had to think of Amber too. “Yeah, you do. Amber’s been bounced around a lot this summer. She’s just learning to trust, so if you take her, you have to promise to keep her.”

  He stared at her for a long moment, then nodded. “Okay then. I’ll adopt her.”

  Merry clapped a hand over her mouth.

  He grunted in annoyance. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

  “It is that big of a deal! You… you’re adopting a dog, and not just any dog, but a stray.”

  “Yeah, I know. A friggin’ mutt.” But he looked at Amber with kindness and affection. T. J. Jameson was a loyal man, a man of his word. If he said he’d adopt Amber, keep her and care for her, then it was a done deal.

  Amber had a home.

  And if Merry’d had any hope of escaping this man with her heart intact, it was officially gone now. He’d grown. He’d overcome his fear and embraced Amber. He’d changed.

  Could she do the same?

  Maybe, but first she had to follow her conscience and talk to Noah. Then she’d see if there was anything left to salvage with T.J.

  * * *

  On Wednesday, T.J. invited Noah over for the afternoon so that he would be there when Merry arrived with Amber. Maybe seeing how well she was doing would help the boy get over his guilt about her accident and whatever else was bothering him.

  Maybe it would finally give T.J. a chance to bond with his nephew.

  Noah sat quietly in the corner, building with Legos. He’d created a spaceship from scratch that boggled T.J.’s mind. The kid had talent. He could be an amazing architect someday.

  Later, after Noah had gone home, T.J. planned to woo Merry with a romantic, home-cooked meal and convince her that their relationship was too important to throw away. He wanted to keep seeing her. The hell with any of the rest of it.

  He glanced out the front window. A storm was gathering on the horizon. Hopefully it would bring a reprieve from the heat and humidity that had left him saturated with sweat on barn calls that morning.

  The storm clouds darkened, bringing to mind the afternoon he and Merry had taken that first trail ride. The storm that had chased them home, the way he’d kissed her in the pouring rain, and everything that had come after.

  Maybe later tonight they could pick up where they’d left off.

  Her CR-V turned into the driveway.

  “She’s here,” he said to Noah.

  Noah placed a final Lego onto his spaceship, then walked to the window. Amber’s profile was visible in the back of the car, and the boy smiled.

  “She’s going to live here with me, but she’s your dog, okay? Come play with her any time, come with me to her vet appointments. She sleeps in your room when you’re here. Deal?”

  Noah nodded. He fussed with his sleeve, picking at a string. T.J. shoved his hands into his pockets to resist the urge to try to stop him.

  Merry walked toward the door with Amber at her side.

  “Hey,” she said with a warm smile when he opened it. “Looks like quite a storm brewing out there.”

  “Sure is. Welcome home, Amber.”

  Amber wagged her tail with appreciation.

  “Her stuff’s in the car,” Merry said.

  “I’ll go get it.” He started toward the door.

  “I’ll come with you. You stay here with Amber, okay, Noah?”

  The boy nodded.

  Merry followed T.J. to the car and opened the hatch. “More money went missing from my purse on Sunday.”

  He scowled at her. “It’s too late for that now. Camp’s over. You want me to pay you back or something?”

  Her brows knitted. “Of course not. It’s not about the money. It happened at your parents’ house. Unless you’ve been lifting fives from my wallet, Noah did.”

  He gripped the dog bed in her trunk. “Dammit, Merry.”

  “He’s obviously in some kind of trouble. Maybe I can get him to open up about it to me if I tell him I know.”

  “Absolutely not.”

  She let out a sound of exasperation. “Look, I’m going to talk to him about it. I have to. And I was hoping to get your blessing.”

  “No way. You aren’t going to accuse him of being a thief.”

  “I don’t plan to call him a thief. I just want to find out what’s wrong and try to help fix it.”

  She glanced at the house, and T.J. followed her gaze. Noah stood at the window, watching them. Had he overheard any of their conversation?

  “We’ll talk about this later.” He loaded up his arms with Amber’s belongings and carried them inside.

  Merry followed, uncharacteristically subdued.

  “Hey, Noah, I brought you something.” She held out a small, blue-wrapped box.

  Noah came forward and took it, looking up at her with questioning eyes.

  “Just a little something to remember the fun we had together at camp this summer.”

  Noah pulled the wrapping paper off carefully and set it on the table, then opened the box.

  He smiled as he held up the Lego nurse figure that he and Merry had looked at together in the Lego Character Encyclopedia that day in the hospital. In his other hand, he held a brown Lego dog. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. Now that you have a dog, you need a Lego dog, right?”

  Noah ran to his Lego stash in the corner, and Merry followed.

  “Wow, did you build this?” She sat on the floor beside him to look at the spaceship. Amber came and lay next to them, head on her front paws, eyes closed. Relaxed and content.

  Noah showed Merry all the features he’d added to his spaceship, the rockets, the hatch, the boosters, even a bathroom for the astronauts. She sat and played Legos with him while T.J. put away Amber’s stuff.

  He returned the box of toys Noah had picked out at the pet store to its corner in the family room, set her bowls in the kitchen, and poured some water for her. He grabbed the extra dog bed and carried it upstairs.

  His phone rang, and he lingered in the hallway outside his bedroom to take the call. Tom Hairston had a mare come in lame from the pasture today. T.J. checked the calendar on his phone to schedule an appointment.

  “How does nine a.m. tomorrow work for you?” he asked.

  “Great. See you then,” Tom said.

  T.J. started down the stairs as he ended the call. He walked back into the family room just in time to see Noah run from the room with tears streaming down his cheeks.

  * * *

  “What have you done?” His voice shook with anger.

  Merry stood slowly. “I told him I knew about the money.”

  “Dammit, woman—”

 
She threw a hand out in front of herself. “Not now. I need to go after him.”

  “I’ll handle it from here.” He looked furious, his cheeks red, arms crossed over his chest.

  “No. I need to do this.” She pushed past him and ran up the stairs before he could stop her. She found Noah in the spare room down the hall. It was clearly his home away from home, decorated in basic blue with a huge bin of Legos in the back corner. The bottom drawer of the dresser peeked open to reveal child-sized sweatpants.

  He sat on the bed, his back to her, his shoulders heaving with sobs. His hands flailed at his sides, flapping like a wounded bird unable to take flight.

  She sat next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You know I’m not mad, right? If you’d asked me for the money, I would have given it to you. I just want to talk.”

  Noah stifled a sob and shook his head.

  “If you’re in some kind of trouble, I might be able to help.”

  Nothing.

  “Even if I can’t help, it might make you feel better to talk about it.”

  He pressed his face against the comforter. “Go away.”

  “Please, Noah. Talk to me.” She sat there for several minutes, coaxing, begging him to talk to her. Outwardly, she was calm, but inside she was crumbling into pieces. She’d been so sure she could get through to him.

  She’d failed him, and T.J. might never forgive her for it.

  She sat on the bed with him, one arm over his small shoulders until T.J. appeared in the doorway. He beckoned to her. A tight fist closed over her stomach as she followed him downstairs.

  “I think you should go.” His voice was quiet, but his meaning wasn’t. He vibrated with anger. He couldn’t even meet her eyes.

  “Please—”

  He looked away and shook his head. “I have to deal with this now. Go.”

  “Let me stay and talk to him when he comes down. Please.”

  “You’ve done enough for today. Go home, Merry.”

  She opened her mouth to protest, but the look in his eyes changed her mind. She swallowed over the lump in her throat and walked out the front door, leaving her dignity somewhere on his front porch.

  She drove home and sat for a while on her couch, a dog on either side, just staring at the carpet. Was T.J. right? Had she been wrong to tell Noah she knew? Could it ever be right to walk away from a child in trouble without trying to help?