In Dog We Trust

by Beth Kendrick

  Nora glanced over at the dog run, then at her watch. “When does the arborist get here? I thought he said two thirty.”

  “I’m sure he’s on his way.” Rachel tossed the enormous lemon up in the air and caught it on the way down. Her anxiety and type A ways had vanished the moment they crossed the state line between Delaware and Maryland. She’d only called her new employee once today to make sure that the towels and linens of Black Dog Bay had been washed and folded without her direct supervision. Even though Rachel would be returning to Delaware in a few days, Jocelyn vowed to coerce her mother into visiting the ranch at least every other month.

  “We need to get this thing into the ground as soon as possible. All this upheaval’s not good for the roots.” Nora gazed up at the massive ironwood tree in the huge wooden crate. It had taken four days of branch trimming, root pruning, trench digging, hessian wrapping, and forklifting onto an extra-wide flatbed truck to prepare the tree for the sixteen-hour drive to Florida. “They said it can suffer shock.”

  Rachel waved this away. “It survived the move from here to Delaware and all that saltwater in the soil for all those years. It’ll last a few hours longer.”

  “I’m going to water the soil again, just to keep it hydrated.” Nora moved toward the garden hose, but Liam stepped in.

  “You’re going to drown it. Let it be.”

  Nora stood down but she wasn’t happy about it. “I’ll feel a lot better after it’s been in the ground for a few weeks.”

  Jocelyn studied the huge hole in the soil that had been dug in preparation for the replanting. Then she stared at the tree, marveling at the gnarled branches and thick foliage that seemed impervious to any natural or man-made disasters. “This thing is going to outlive us all.”

  “Want to go check out the house?” Liam said. “They should be almost done with the remodel.”

  Jocelyn glanced at the structure which, though sturdy and in good repair, looked as though it had been built by the Marlboro Man fifty years ago. “Please tell me it has indoor plumbing.”

  “Don’t be so spoiled,” Rachel chided. She apologized to Nora. “I didn’t raise her to be such a princess.”

  “I’m a princess because I want a toilet that flushes?”

  Rachel looked mortified. “Lucks into a little money and thinks she’s too good for an outhouse.”

  Nora laughed. “Yes, there’s plumbing. Even the trailers where the seasonal ranch hands live have plumbing. Air-conditioning and flat-screen TVs, too.”

  Jocelyn quirked a brow at her mother. “Are you going to call the ranch hands spoiled, too?”

  But Rachel had segued to juicier territory. “These ranch hands.” She looked at Nora. “Are any of them single?”

  Liam urged Jocelyn toward the house. “Let’s go check out the inside.”

  “What, you don’t want to hear our moms rate the employees on a scale of one to beefcake?”

  “I’ve got enough psychological scars already, thanks.” Liam held her hand as they stepped up to the porch, which was slightly uneven as the long, hand-hewn boards had swelled and settled in the heat and humidity. A newly hung screen door opened up to reveal a simple, clean, serviceable living space. Lots of light, lots of rustic furniture, everything you needed and nothing you didn’t.

  Jocelyn stood in the sunlight, inhaling the scents of grass and sawdust and freshly turned earth. “And to think, we could still be living in a gigantic house full of luxuries by the ocean.”

  “We barely escaped.”

  “Poor Lois. She doesn’t know what she’s missing.” Jocelyn went up on tiptoe to kiss him. He brushed her hair aside and kissed his way along her shoulder to the strap of her simple blue sundress. A dress she’d worn twice already this week and might have to wear again, depending on how quickly she could locate the rest of her wardrobe packed away in the pile of boxes on the porch.

  “You’re beautiful,” he murmured.

  “Even though I’m wearing this same dress on repeat?”

  “I love this dress,” he swore. “I hope you wear this dress every day. The only thing I like better than you in this dress is you out of this dress.”

  “This is crazy, you know.” She wrapped both arms around him and held on tightly.

  “Which part?”

  “All of it. I mean . . . what if I don’t like ranch life? What if we start fighting over stupid stuff like whose turn it is to clean up the dog corral?” She tried to figure out the exact nature of her worries. “What if, you know, it just doesn’t work out?”

  He pulled away far enough to hold her face in his hands. “What if it does?”

  She’d heard that before. But never from him, never this way.

  A car horn blared in the distance. “That’s Bree.”

  “We better go open the gate.” Liam started for the door.

  “I’ll go.” Jocelyn gestured to the stovetop. “If you want to start lunch, I won’t try to stop you.”

  “I’m on it.”

  While Liam returned to the car to collect the groceries they’d bought before leaving town, Jocelyn let Carmen out of the corral and prepared to jog the half mile to unlatch the metal gate that allowed access to the ranch from the main road.

  She looked down at her feisty, furry companion, who gazed back with complete adoration. “Okay, girl. You want to run? Let’s run.” They both sprinted full speed under the blue sky.

  Bree was waiting in her car, radio and air-conditioning cranked up to eleven. “Why are you running like it’s your money or your life?” she demanded when Jocelyn and Carmen piled in.

  “It’s a long way! This place is huge,” Jocelyn told her. “Huge and open and wild. Like nothing I’ve ever seen. What took you so long? Did you get lost?”

  “No.” Bree adjusted her sunglasses and turned the radio down. “I stopped to take a call.”

  “Do you have anything more to say about that?”

  “Well. It was Dan.”

  “Innnteresting.” Jocelyn pulled her hair back off her neck. “What did Dan have to say?”

  Bree put the car in gear and started driving down the unpaved, bumpy road. “He didn’t get married.”

  “I figured.”

  “He said he’ll be in Philadelphia for the next few years, doing that fancy fellowship.”

  “I heard.”

  “He wanted to know if I’m still planning to move to Philly.” Bree stopped the car and pulled a folded piece of stationery out of her handbag. “Which I am.”

  Jocelyn unfolded the paper, which was embossed with a university logo. She skimmed the first sentence: We are delighted to inform you that you have been accepted . . .

  “Bree!” She tossed the letter aside and engulfed her friend in a hug. “This is fantastic!” Then she noticed the date on the letter. “You got this weeks ago. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I’ve been trying to decide what to do,” Bree mumbled against Jocelyn’s shoulder. “Get off. You’re suffocating me.”

  “Sentimental as always.” Jocelyn sat back. “And of course you’re going. What’s to decide?”

  “It’s a big change.” Bree gripped the steering wheel with both hands, even though the car wasn’t moving. “Relocating, going back to school, I won’t know anybody in Philadelphia . . .”

  “You’ll know Dan.”

  Bree waved this away. “He’s not ready to date.”

  “So don’t date him. You can still hang out. Bide your time. Be friends.”

  “And then, the second he is ready to date, pounce on him?”

  “Exactly.”

  Bree released her death grip on the wheel but kept her hands at the ten and two o’clock position. “My grandmother says I have to go.”

  “She’s right. Between me and Veronika, your fate is sealed. Make your peace with it,” Jocelyn advised. “Be
sides, you’ve been talking about this for years. You worked so hard to get here. Remember all that prep we did for the LSAT?”

  “I get these weird flashes and feelings about what’s going to happen to other people. I don’t even want to, but I can’t help it. But for my own future, I get nothing. It’s not fair.”

  Carmen hung her head over Jocelyn’s left shoulder and joined the conversation, drooling and panting all the while.

  “It’s all just so much, so fast.” Bree let go of the wheel and turned up her palms. “After all these years of sameness, everything’s changing like that.” She snapped her fingers. “You’re becoming a crazy dog lady and falling in love and buying an actual cattle ranch in the middle of nowhere—”

  “The good news is, there’s indoor plumbing.”

  “—and I’m supposed to read a bunch of law books and go to eight a.m. lectures with a bunch of twenty-two-year-old whippersnappers and it’s going to take three whole years of my life.”

  Jocelyn nodded and let Bree talk.

  “What if I hate it?” Bree’s voice was soft and scared. “What if I can’t do it? What if I give it everything I have and it doesn’t work out?”

  Jocelyn put her hand in Bree’s. “What if it does?”

  Carmen licked them both.

  Bree put the car in gear and started down the grassy road full of potholes and orange wildflowers. “Then I guess we’ll just have to live crazily ever after.”

  “Yeah.” Jocelyn basked in the sunlight. “Isn’t it great?”

  When they finally arrived at the ranch house, they found Rachel, Nora, and Liam gathered beneath the boughs of the ironwood tree, pouring out tiny splashes of Mr. Allardyce’s carefully aged, ridiculously overpriced brandy into red Solo cups.

  “Welcome!” Rachel handed servings to Bree and Jocelyn. “We were just about to toast.”

  “Here’s to new beginnings,” Nora said.

  “To continued success,” Rachel chimed in.

  “To love.” Bree smiled at Liam and Jocelyn.

  “To the dogs,” Liam said.

  Jocelyn closed her eyes as she stepped out of the bright glare of the sun and into the cool sanctuary of shade. This tree had been rooted here before and would root here again, offering protection and shelter to the place that meant the most to Liam and both of his parents. The place she intended to make her home, granted to her all these years later by the father who would never be family.

  She opened her eyes and regarded the loyal companions, both human and canine, who gathered by her side as she forged her future. “To our pack.”

  QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

  Mr. Allardyce says, “My dogs are much better people than any of the people I know,” and he puts his money where his mouth is. Chris’s family also devotes a lot of time and resources to raising money for animal charities. Do you think there is any moral conflict in devoting so much money and effort to animal welfare as opposed to focusing on humanitarian causes?

  When Chris breaks up with Jocelyn he offers her an expensive “parting gift.” Do you think she should have accepted the bracelet?

  Mr. Allardyce and his acquaintances from the dog show world place a premium on preserving breed standards (both aesthetic and behavioral). In your opinion, what responsibilities do owners of purebred dogs have to adhering to historical breed standards and to providing their purebred dogs with access to the activities for which they were bred (e.g., herding opportunities for border collies)?

  Lila, Jocelyn, and Bree stand by while Chris purchases an emerald that is allegedly cursed. If you could bestow a curse on a piece of jewelry, what would the curse be and who would you give it to? What if you could bestow a blessing on a piece of jewelry?

  On multiple occasions throughout this novel, characters have to decide what matters most to them: “Your money or your life?” How do you see this dilemma playing out in your own life and your own choices?

  Given what Nora tells Jocelyn about the circumstances of her courtship, marriage, and divorce with Mr. Allardyce, to what extent did she “deserve” what she got? Did Nora’s disclosure change your perception of Mr. Allardyce at all?

  Was it right or wrong of Friday’s owner to effectively sell him to Jocelyn? Was Jocelyn right or wrong to agree to the sale?

  What would you like to see happen to Bree as she embarks on the next step of her journey?

  After she becomes the de facto beneficiary of Mr. Allardyce’s estate, Jocelyn experiences immediate differences in the way she is treated and perceived by others. How do you think your social, familial, and/or romantic relationships might be affected if you unexpectedly inherited tens of millions of dollars?

  Photo by Anna Peña

  Beth Kendrick is the author of thirteen women’s fiction novels, including Once Upon a Wine, Put a Ring On It, New Uses for Old Boyfriends, Cure for the Common Breakup, The Week Before the Wedding, and Nearlyweds, which was turned into a Hallmark Channel original movie. Although she lives in Arizona, she loves to vacation at the Delaware beaches, where she brakes for turtles, eats boardwalk fries, and wishes that the Whinery really existed.

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