Monday morning, 8:00 a.m. If Nick were in Salt Lick, he would be on the job, doing the work he had been hired to do. Instead, he was still in Midland. He had made a decision. The woman holding Buster had no intention of letting him go. Getting him back required stronger measures.
He called the Flying C and told Harley he was delayed in Midland, but would be back to the ranch as soon as possible. Harley didn’t complain. The cattle sale had gone better than it had in years, thanks to Nick’s organizing skills.
Nick’s old high school friend, Jason Webster, was now a Midland County deputy sheriff. Jason and his wife and Nick and his former wife used to be social friends. Now that Nick was single, he and Jason didn’t connect socially that often, but they had continued to be buds. Nick had called him when the llamas next door had been abandoned. He called him now and explained the situation with Buster.
“You’re sure it’s your dog?” Jason asked.
“Stake my life on it.”
“You say she found him while he was lost? If she didn’t steal him, there isn’t much my office can do.”
“I understand that. I’m not calling to file a complaint. She appears to be a high-strung person. She might respond if you just show up and scare her a little.”
“I guess we could drop by and see her. Most people, even if they’re blustery at first, tend to get more cooperative when the cops come.” Jason gave a wicked chuckle. “What’s her name?”
“Sandi. I don’t know her last name. Listen, Jason, I don’t want trouble. All I want is for her to give my dog back.”
“Is she mistreating him?”
“No. He looks good, like she’s taking good care of him. She owns this store where she makes and sells health food for dogs and cats. It’s got a goofy name. La-something.”
“LaBarkery? I know that store. Either I or my wife go into it occasionally to buy a treat for our dogs. That’s a real cool store. Your dog is probably eating great.”
Suddenly, it came to Nick that though he hadn’t taken a close look at Sandi’s little operation, he admired what she was doing. With in-depth knowledge of animal nutrition himself, he could see she was conscientious and caring.
“Tell you what,” Jason said. “I’ve been here all night. I’ll be off in about half an hour. I know right where LaBarkery is. I’ll meet you in the parking lot. We’ll go talk to her. I’m a firm believer that a little conversation solves a lot of problems.”
Half an hour later, Nick drove to the parking lot and came to a stop away from the front entrance to LaBarkery. After Jason had sung the store’s praises, Nick had a dubious feeling having him be the one to talk to Sandi about Buster.
Jason soon drove up, interrupting Nick’s thoughts. Nick stepped down from his truck as Jason parked beside him and scooted out of his county car. “I looked up her business license,” he said. “Her last name is Walker. Sandi Walker. Let’s go see what she has to say. When she sees me in my uniform, she’ll probably hand your dog right over.”
As they approached the store’s front entrance, they saw Buster barking and wagging his tail on the other side of the front door. “See?” Nick said. “He knows me. He’s glad to see me. He’s my dog.”
They walked into the store and the aromas of freshly cooked meats surrounded them. Buster barked and danced and bounced. Tail whipping, he rose on his hind legs and put his paws on Nick’s chest. Nick hands reflexively went to scruff the golden head and ears. Man, he loved this dog. “Hey, boy. Howya doing today?” Nick couldn’t keep from smiling. “See how glad he is to see me?” he said to Jason.
Sandi came from the back room wearing a green butcher’s apron and wiping her hands on a towel. She stopped in her tracks, her breath catching.
Instantly, Nick saw a storm of emotions in her pretty green eyes, including fear. He felt like a chickenshit and wished he hadn’t called Jason. There was something about her that made him not want to quarrel with her.
“Waffle. Come here,” she said firmly.
The dog obeyed, but reluctantly. He looked back at Nick. She bent forward and clutched his collar. “You stay here with mama, boy. Be a good dog.”
Nick could see she wasn’t going to let Buster escape her. She looked up at him. “How can I help you?”
Jason removed his uniform cap and held it in front of his chest. Nick, too, removed his own cap.
“Miz Walker, I’m Deputy Webster. First, let me tell you this isn’t an official visit. The truth is, I’m one of your customers. I was hoping you and me and Mr. Conway here could have a conversation about his dog”—he nodded toward Buster—“that’s obviously in your possession.”
Nick winced, even more profoundly sorry for what he had set in motion.
“Sit, Waffle, sit,” Sandi told Buster. The dog parked his butt between him and Sandi, looking first at one, then the other.
Two young girls came out from the back room, their faces lined with worry. Sandi lifted her chin defiantly. “I do not have his dog.”
Again, Jason tilted his head toward Buster. “The dog seems to know him, ma’am.”
“That doesn’t mean anything. Waffle is friendly to everyone.”
Buster began to whine and strain toward Nick. “See?” Nick said. “He wants to come to me.”
“I have to agree, ma’am,” Jason said. “The dog seems to want to be with Mr. Conway.”
Sandi’s eyes glistened with tears and Nick felt worse. “That isn’t possible. I’ve had Waffle since he was a puppy.”
Jason turned to Nick, a bewildered expression on his face.
Any idea that this woman was going to easily give up Buster just because a cop was on the scene fled. Now Nick was even more uncertain that he was doing the right thing, but his ego demanded that he stand his ground. After all, she had just told Jason a bald-faced lie. “That’s not true, Jason. I got him when he was less than a week old. I saved his life.”
The two girls stood silently in the background, their faces in a scowl, their arms crossed over their chests. If looks could kill, Nick was sure he would be a dead man.
Buster pranced and whimpered and strained against Sandi’s grip on his collar, his toenails clicking on the tile floor.
“As I said, ma’am,” Jason continued. “This isn’t an official visit. I want to try to mediate something between you and Mr. Conway.”
She sniffled. “What, you just automatically believe what he says, without even considering that I just told you I’ve had Waffle since he was born?” She turned to one of the girls. “Betty Ann, please bring me Waffle’s leash.”
The petite blonde quickly left the room.
“No, ma’am. I mean, yes, ma’am,” Jason said. His jaws puffed and he blew out a breath. “Look, here’s an idea. Why don’t you and Mr. Conway here share the dog and let it decide where it wants to live?”
Nick didn’t want to share Buster with Sandi Walker or anybody else. He glared at the deputy. The expression on Sandi’s face could be explained only as a look of horror. She was as stunned as he was.
The blonde returned with a dog leash and handed it to Sandi.
She snapped it onto Buster’s collar and held a solid grip on it. Though poor Buster looked up at her with pleading eyes, she said, “That’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard. Dogs don’t get to decide where they want to live. Only cats do that.”
Jason pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped his brow. Now Nick felt guilty, not only for badgering Sandi, but for putting a friend in an awkward spot.
“I wouldn’t know, ma’am. Don’t have any experience with cats. All I’m saying is if you both like the dog and want him to be around you, I don’t see why Nick here can’t keep him a while, then bring him back to you and you keep him a while. Kind of a back and forth situation”—he made a rocking gesture with his hand— “know what I mean?”
Now Nick was as confused as Jason. His head shook involuntarily. “I’m not sure that solves the problem, Jason. Buster’s a trained working dog. I need him with me at the ranch to—”
Sandi’s mouth dropped open and she huffed. “Oh? Nick and Jason, is it?” She looked up at Jason, her eyes snapping with anger. “You two are on a first-name basis? What is this? Are you using your job as a law enforcement officer to harass me on your friend’s behalf? I guess that explains why a county cop is in my store inside the city limits throwing his weight around.”
Inside, Nick winced. He hadn’t intended for her to know he and Jason were even acquainted, much less friends. And it hadn’t occurred to him that Jason, as a county employee, might not have jurisdiction in the city or that she might know that.
Jason’s eyes rolled toward the ceiling. Nick could tell he hadn’t intended for Sandi to know that fact either. “That’s not what’s happening here. Mr. Conway, er, Nick and I knowing each other doesn’t keep me from trying to be an honest broker in this deal.”
Sandi planted her fists on her slim hips and gave Jason the squint-eye. Uh-oh. Nick hadn’t anticipated this.
“Sharing definitely doesn’t do it for me, Deputy. Didn’t you hear what he just said? He’s a dog enslaver and an abuser. Since you know him, you must know that about him.”
Dog enslaver? Abuser? Nick grunted a loud gasp.
“Ma’am, using a dog to help with cattle isn’t enslaving the animal and it isn’t abuse either,” Jason said. “The dog probably likes it.”
Sandi crossed her arms over her breasts. “Hah. That’s what you say. Are you a dog mind-reader, too?”
“Wait just a minute.” Enough was enough. Nick cocked his head and raised his palms. “I’ve had just about enough here. I’ve never abused an animal in my life.”
He turned to Jason. “You know that, Jason. I love animals. I’ve always loved animals. Don’t I take care of a broken-down horse that’s not good for much except eating up feed? Don’t I feed every stray cat that comes along and let them sleep in my barn? Didn’t I take those llamas to keep them from being put down? I damn sure didn’t do it because I needed two glorified goats in my life.”
“Oh, really,” Sandi said, fire in her eye and her arms crossed under her very attractive breasts. She turned to Jason. “Mr. Conway takes care of cattle that are set to be slaughtered because he loves animals? Y’all must think I just fell off a turnip truck.”
“That’s different,” Nick said firmly.
“How is it different?”
Nick growled and threw up his hands. “What are you, nuts? You wanna go through your life without beef to eat?”
“Of course not. And I’m not —”
“Just hold on.” Jason plopped his cap back on his head and stabbed the air with his finger. “Listen, you two. Y’all aren’t trying.”
Sandi flipped a palm in the air. “There’s no point. You’re already prejudiced against me. Even if that weren’t true, Mr. Conway”—Sandy pointed a finger at Nick—“lives down in Salt Lick and I live here. Sharing will not work.”
Jason pushed the bill of his cap back. “Sure, it will, ma’am. Look, Nick’s place is just out of town a short distance from here.” He leaned forward and opened his palms, his eyes holding hers. “I’m sure he’d let you go out there and look around. You can see for yourself it’s a good place for a dog to live.” Jason turned toward Nick. “You’d do that, wouldn’t you, Nick?”
Sandi didn’t relent, maintaining her pinched-mouth expression. She wasn’t buying Jason’s conciliatory tone or gestures. Mental eyeroll. Nick wished he had never called the deputy. “Uh, sure. I guess so.”
Jason’s’s face broke into a toothy grin. “See? A little talk always solves problems. Look, I need to get home, so I’m going to leave you two to work this out.”
With that, the deputy readjusted his cap. “See ya, Nick.” He walked out of the store, leaving Nick speechless.
Buster whined, but Sandi hung onto his leash.
Seconds of silence crept by. As much as he hated to do it, Nick caved. “Did you want to go out to my place now?”
“I thought you worked in Salt Lick. Why are you in Midland on a weekday?”
Nick’s mind flew back to the supper at Hogg’s and how he had prompted her several times to place an order for food. “Ma’am, you’ve got a way of not answering a question and taking a conversation off in a direction it wasn’t intended to go. I’m not going through this again. Just a simple yes or no. Do you want to take a ride out to my house?”
She ducked her chin and glared at him from beneath her brow. “For the record, I do not consider this a satisfactory resolution to this problem. If you hadn’t gotten the law involved, I wouldn’t even consider it. Even if I go to your house and inspect it, Waffle is staying here with my two employees.”
“Okay, fine. My place is about ten miles out one-fifty-eight.”
“Where, pray tell, is that?
Nick couldn’t stop the are-you-stupid expression he felt overtaking his face. “It’s the highway going north out of town. You take one-ninety-one, then turn right on seventeen-eighty-eight. When you get to the four-way stop, turn left on twenty-four twenty-five. My place is on the left side of the highway before you get to one seventy-six going to Andrews. Do you want to follow me? Or would you rather ride with me?”
She returned a sour look. “I am not in the habit of riding into rural areas with men with whom I’m not acquainted.”
She was the most exasperating woman he had ever met. He set his jaw and summoned his patience. “Fine, then. I’m leaving now. If you intend to follow, you’d better get it in gear.”
He plopped his cap onto his head and stamped out of the store.
***
Sandi had no intention of making a ten-mile trip over a bunch of confusing roads with only numbers for names to look at Nick’s house when Waffle was never going to live there. Besides, she could get lost forever in that maze of highways and connections going north. Good grief! She could end up in Wyoming!
The minute Nick cleared the door, she yanked off her apron and turned to her two employees. “Girls, I’m going to be out for the rest of the day and tomorrow. If anyone calls for me, just say you don’t know where I am.”
She was already pressing in the number of Juanita, her animal shelter friend who soon connected with a “Hey, Sandi.”
“Hi, Juanita. How are you today?”
“Busier than that well known cranberry merchant. What’s up?”
“Listen, I have to make an unexpected trip out of town. I’ll be gone overnight. Can you arrange for someone to go to my house and feed the animals tomorrow morning?”
“Sure can. What about tonight?”
“I’ll take care of tonight. I have to run by my house and pick up a few things before I leave, so I might as well feed everyone while I’m there.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll do it myself. It’s the least I can do for somebody who’s as friendly to unfortunate animals as you are.”
“You know where everything is. You know I’ve found a home for Jake, so you won’t have to worry about feeding him. He was the one who took up so much time. Thank you so much, Juanita.”
The minute Sandi disconnected, she looked up and saw Betty Ann’s brow tented with concern. “You aren’t going to look at his house?”
“I am not.”
“But he’s so good-looking.”
“Which has what to do with the price of tea in China? Remember this, Betty Ann. Looks are only skin-deep. Ted Bundy was good-looking, but that doesn’t mean I would want to go visit him.”
“Where are you going now?” Jessica asked, her eyes wide and questioning.
“Waffle and I are going to my aunt’s house in Salt Lick. I’ll be back tomorrow. You girls will have to close the store tonight and open it tomorrow. You have my cell number if you need me.”
They could manage without her until tomorrow. Sandy had confidence in Betty Ann, her go-to employee who had a key to the store.
“Remember, if he calls, you don’t know where I am.”
“But you said Mr. Conway lives in Salt Lick,” Jessica said. “If you’re down there, too, won’t it be easier for him to find you?”
“But he’s not in Salt Lick now. I don’t want him to come back and catch Waffle and me here in Midland. He might go to my house. Even if he goes back to Salt Lick today, he won’t figure out that Waffle and I are there. Besides that, my aunt’s husband is a retired Navy SEAL. He’s six-feet-five and weighs over two hundred pounds. Aunt Ed says he knows three hundred ways to kill you quietly and he liberated Kuwait. We’ll just see if Mr. Nick Conway wants a confrontation with him.”
“Wow,” Betty Ann said.
“Holy cow. I hope no one gets hurt.” Jessica bit down on her lower lip.
Sandi rushed home. Adolph barked and stalked around as she gathered Waffle’s bed and a couple of his toys. Then she picked up Pablo and Adolph’s beds and toys. She put the two miniature dogs into the oversize pet carrier and was on her way to Salt Lick.