Sandi arrived in Salt Lick soon after noon. The Styling Station was closed, but circling the block, she saw Edwina’s blue classic Mustang and Debbie Sue’s red pickup in the back parking lot. She parked beside it, picked Pablo and Adolph’s carrier off the passenger seat and set it on the ground, then let Waffle out of the SUV’s backseat. After they all did their business, she picked up Pablo and Adolph’s carrying case and walked around the building to the front door. Waffle followed like the well-trained dog that he was.
She tapped lightly on the front door. “Aunt Ed? Debbie Sue?”
“We’re closed. Who’s there?”
She recognized her aunt’s voice. “It’s me, Sandi. Can I come in?”
The door swung open. “Well, great day in the morning. Where did you come from?”
“Why are you closed?”
“Mondays are light days. Sometimes we just close and catch up. What are you doing all the way down here today, girl?”
“Oh, I just thought I’d visit Jake.”
“On a Monday? Who’s taking care of your store?”
“My two employees are there. I’ll bet you don’t want my dogs inside—”
“We can’t let them into the salon, hon, but they can go into the back room. Take them around to the back door.”
Sandi trudged around the building again. Her aunt met her at the back door. She secured the three dogs in the back storeroom, then walked into the salon. She didn’t spot Jake in his corner home. “I don’t see Jake.”
“My honey’s home today, so he and Jake are having a boys’ day. Vic’s teaching him about patriotism.”
“He’s okay then. He’s still healthy and—”
“Oh, hell, hon, he’s already gotten acquainted with the vet. We know the vet and his wife, Paige, personally. When she spotted him, she had a fit and dragged Spur all way out of his office to come and see that Jake do his thing. The whole town is talking about him. We could sell tickets.”
“It’ll be interesting to hear what the state inspector says when he comes around the next time,” Debbie Sue said.
Sandi frowned. “Oh, my gosh, I hadn’t thought of that. I guess I didn’t realize he’d be living in the salon.”
“Well, we aren’t worrying about it yet,” Aunt Ed said. “Salt Lick is so far off the beaten path those Austin folks might not know this town’s got a beauty shop. Hell, they might not even know we’re anything but a ghost town.” A thoughtful frown creased her brow. “I wonder if they’d notice if we stopped sending them sales tax.”
“You wouldn’t believe how our business has picked up since he’s been here,” Debbie Sue said. “We’ve got customers who want to come in just to talk to him. But since his cage is near the manicure and pedicure corner, we don’t let them unless they get manicures or pedicures. That way, they’re happy and we’re making money. And a crowd doesn’t gather. Also, the smell of the nail products masks the odor coming from Jake’s cage.”
Sandi gave Debbie Sue a look. “You’re making money off of Jake?”
“That bird is a real ham. He craves attention. Some of the customers ask him to pick a color for their nails. He’s learned colors and he’s learned to say red and pink and even blue. If they choose a color he doesn’t like, he’ll make noises and say ‘not that one, not that one.’ And some ask his advice on other things, which, by the way, he gives freely.”
“Oh, I know he has opinions on everything.” She turned to her aunt. “You haven’t had any trouble with his diet then?”
“Oh, hell no. My honey’s on top of it. I suspect Jake eats even fancier than he did at your house. Vic drives all the way up to Odessa to buy him stuff. I passed around the recipe for parrot muffins so that the customers can bake them for him.”
“Oh, my gosh. Sounds like Jake has never had it so good. I hope their homemade muffins don’t have sugar. He gets enough sugar in the raw fruits and vegetables he likes.”
“Listen, I told them, ‘If it ain’t in the recipe, don’t put it in there. And that includes sugar.’”
But Sandi was skeptical. Well-meaning cooks might think a cup of sugar would make the muffins better.
Stop it, Sandi, she told herself. Jake was no longer her responsibility. Only after she got over parting with him had she realized just how much of her time and attention he had consumed. Not having to take care of his daily needs or cope with his personality or clean up after him was almost like being on vacation.
***
Four o’clock. After cooling his heels for six hours waiting for Miz Sandi Walker to appear, Nick’s temper stewed at a simmer. He had about a million chores he could have been doing down at the Flying C instead of waiting for her up here in Midland. He had called her shop several times, but her employees said she wasn’t there and refused to give him her cell number. He had found her name in the phone book and called her house several times, left messages each time.
Now he had run out of time. He had to get on the road back to Salt Lick. One day was all he was willing to take off work to try to reason with Sandi and rescue Buster.
An hour and a half later, he drove into the Salt Lick city limits. He had to follow the highway through the middle of town and pass by the Styling Station on his way out to the Flying C. Parked in front of it was a silver SUV that looked way too familiar.
Dammit, that’s her!
She had lied to him again. She’d had no intention of following him out to his house and looking it over. Instead, she had run down here to her aunt’s place where she thought she could escape him. Except for his ex-wife, he couldn’t think of a woman he had known who had wanted to escape him.
Of all the human frailties Nick hated, the one he hated the most was lying. He hit the brake, slowed and circled the block, deciding how to handle the situation, his anger so close to the surface his skin burned. Finally, he decided to confront her.
He pulled into a parking slot beside the SUV. A CLOSED sign hung on the front door, but he knew she was in there. He stepped out of his truck and stalked to the door, gave a heavy rap-rap-rap with his knuckles on one of the glass panes in the upper part of the door. When no one responded, he knocked again.
“We’re closed,” a voice sang out.
“I need to speak to Sandi Walker.”
Silence. He knocked on the wood frame with his fist and rattled the door knob.
The door opened a three-inch crack. The older skinny hairdresser’s face and her lime green glasses showed through. “Oh, it’s you. What do you want?”
Dammit, she had known it was him before she opened the door. Another log added to the fire of his anger. “It’s personal. I’d like to speak to Miz Walker. I know she’s here.”
“I don’t think she wants to talk to you.”
“Ma’am, I know she’s your niece, but this doesn’t concern you. She’s got something of mine and I’d like to have it back. I’d really appreciate it if she’d come to the door and talk to me.”
The door closed. He thought he heard low voices on the other side. The door opened again and the skinny one stood in the doorway, blocking entrance. “Okay, you can come in. But only because you work for Harley and he’s a friend of ours. But mind you, we don’t want any trouble in here. If you start anything, you’ll have our local sheriff to deal with. And he’s our friend too.”
“And you might even have to deal with my husband,” the one named Debbie Sue added.
Nick had met the local sheriff, Billy Don Roberts, and he wasn’t worried. But getting crossways with Buddy Overstreet was a horse of a different color. “I don’t intend to start—”
Woof! Bwoof! Bwoof!
The deep barks came from behind a closed door, followed by staccato high-pitched barking, a humming snarling sound and frantic scratching on the floor and on the door. Dammit, they had Buster locked up. A new anger flew through him. “I know one of those sounds is my dog barking.” He looked around. “But I don’t see Miz Walker.”
“She isn’t here,” the aunt said.
“Why are we lying?” Debbie Sue said, her arms crossed over her chest. “She’s in the back room.” She yelled toward the closed door. “Sandi, come in here and take care of this.”
It was a good thing she had spoken up because he was out of patience. He just might call the sheriff himself, even if the guy was their friend.
The aunt walked over to the door to the back room and eased it open. Sandi stood there, holding a shivering, growling Chihuahua under one arm and with the other hand, hanging onto the leash of a little dog that yapped with such vehemence all four of his feet came off the floor with each bark. If she thought she was going to pawn some grouchy bald-headed Chihuahua or some yip-yapping thing that looked like a long-haired rat off on him instead of Buster, she had another think coming.
Buster scrambled to follow her, but she scolded them to “stay” and closed the door against him. He continued to scratch and whine and bark.
“You must’ve forgotten our appointment,” Nick said to Sandi.
“Of course I didn’t. I deliberately avoided it.” She heaved a shoulder-lifting sigh. “Mr. Conway, we might as well stop this nonsense. Your friend’s idea about sharing Waffle was dumb.”
Nick didn’t disagree.
Buster continued to create a commotion at the closed door. “Why don’t you open the door?” Nick snapped. “Afraid to let your allies see who Buster wants to be with?”
The Chihuahua bared its teeth and snarled. She ran her hand over his almost hairless head. “Pablo, be a sweet doggie.” The other little dog let out several loud barks. She yanked on his leash. “Hush, Adolph.” She slid a hand into her pants pocket, pulled out treats and fed one to the jittery Chihuahua, then one to the barker.
From out of the blue, the gentleness she showed to these two ugly dogs touched him. They were dogs with neurotic behavior and would never be claimed as pets. If not for her, no doubt they would have already been put to sleep. The woman was either the nut he had thought she was when he first met her or she had more heart than any one person's body could hold. The thought came to Nick that she would make a great mother. Whoa! Where had that notion come from?
Her attention came back to him. “I’m not afraid of anything and I’m not afraid of you. I don’t know if Waffle was your dog—past tense, Mr. Conway, past tense. You haven’t proved it. If he was, maybe you should’ve kept a closer watch on him. I found him when he was in terrible condition and nearly starved, eating in alleys and out of dumpsters. He had been living on the streets for weeks. He was lucky to be alive. I nursed him back to health and I’ve given him a home where he has good food, regular veterinary care and he’s safe.”
Nick reined in his temper, feeling sheepish and a little guilty. He had no explanation for why Buster had run off from him in the first place, but he knew one thing. In this environment and under these circumstances, venting his anger would get him nowhere. “Ma’am, you said your goal—”
“Please do not call me ma’am. I suspect I’m younger than you are.”
“Ma’am, I was taught me the polite thing to do was call women ma’am. It has nothing to do with your age. As I started to say, you said your intent is to find good homes for the animals you rescue. I’m here to tell you Buster did have and will have a good home with me. Always.”
“Finding homes for the animals I rescue is my intent, but Waffle’s different from the other dogs I’ve taken in,” Sandi replied. “I love him and he loves me. I’m not going to just give him to you. I’m willing to give you one or even both of my other large dogs, Ricky and Fred. I’m looking for homes for them. They’re—”
Nick stopped her. “Ma’am,” he said as softly as he could manage, given his state of mind. He hadn’t expected her to be so honest. “That just won’t work. I’ve had Buster since he was only days old. We’re friends. We’ve relied on each other for several years. Having him around helped me through a rough time. I’ve trained him to be a cattle dog. You’ve seen that he knows me. He wants to be with me.”
Her eyes began to glisten. “He and I are friends too.”
Tears? Shit. His memory flew backward to the evening he had bought her a hamburger after she had delivered the parrot to her aunt and the bawling episode all through the meal and how much difficulty she had seemed to have with placing an order for food. The last thing he wanted was a replay.
Suddenly, she squared her shoulders and looked him in the eye, the tears gone, eyes sparking with anger. “You know what? You should go.”
The Chihuahua began to growl and bare his teeth. She muzzled him with her hand. The one named Adolph began to bark again. “Adolph, no!” She squatted and began to pet him and talk to him softly. “Mama said no. Behave now. You have nothing to be upset about.”
She got to her feet, still hanging onto the snarling Chihuahua. “This is too much commotion. It’s upsetting to Pablo and Adolph. And this is my aunt and her partner’s business. They don’t want to be a part of this.”
“Then you shouldn’t have run down here like a coward and involved them.”
“Your insults mean nothing to me. I’ll be going back to Midland tomorrow. We can talk there. You can come to my store.”
Nick had never been so frustrated. He was accomplishing nothing. He didn’t know what to do. He lifted his hands and let them drop. “Okay, dammit, I’m gonna go. But I can’t be back in Midland tomorrow to talk about this. I still have a job to do here. It’ll be the weekend before I get back up there. But don’t think I’m gonna forget about it, Miz Walker. And you’re gonna be wasting a lot of gasoline if you need to run down here to Salt Lick every time you think I’m anywhere near.”
He stalked out the door and slammed it so hard the glass panes in the upper half rattled.
***
Sandi waited anxiously for the panes to fall out of the door. She, her Aunt Ed and Debbie Sue all stared after Nick. No one said a word.
Finally, Aunt Ed spoke. “Lordy, Lordy, niece-of-mine. Something tells me there’s more going on than you missing ol’ Jake the Mouth. What’s this about?”
Sandi broke into tears. “Oh, Aunt Ed...”
Her aunt came over and put an arm around her shoulder, drew her against her. “Now, now. You can tell your dear ol’ auntie, hon. I’m not a pinch-mouth like your mother. I don’t judge. Were you and Nick lovers? Is that why you’re both claiming the same dog? Is it one of those custody things?”
Sandi raised her head and stepped back, her eyes suddenly dry. “Aunt Ed! Nick Conway a lover? Not in this lifetime.”
Her aunt gave her the goggle-eye. “You could do worse. Hell, you’ve already done worse.”
“He’s trying to steal my dog, Aunt Ed!”
“But he says it’s his dog,” Debbie Sue said. “And he looked and sounded believable to me.”
From the corner of her eye, Sandi angled a look toward her aunt’s partner. She wasn’t one hundred percent sure she could trust Debbie Sue, even if she was Aunt Ed’s friend.
Sandi sank into a styling chair. Amidst tears and sniffles, she told Waffle’s story.
At the end of it, her aunt said, “So Waffle’s just another stray. It seems like this particular dog is real important to Nick.”
“Waffle is important to me, too, Aunt Ed.”
“Hell, Sandi, you’ve got access to dozens of dogs. Like he said, why not let him have Waffle and you take the puppy he offered you. I mean, it's just a dog, right?”
“Ed! Bite your tongue!” Debbie Sue said. “What if I felt that way about Jim, Jack and Jose? Or Rocket Man?”
Jimjack and Jose? Rocket Man? “Those are dogs’ names?” Sandi asked, incredulous.
“Jim Beam, Jack Daniel’s and Jose Cuervo. I got them back in my partying days before I remarried Buddy.”
“Rocket Man’s a horse,” Aunt Edwina put in. “An old horse she used to ride when she was a champion barrel racer in ProRodeo. He’s so old, once when he was sick, I knitted an afghan to throw over his rump.”
Sandi shook her head, trying to clear away the cobwebs. Her aunt hadn’t told her much about her partner. It sounded as if Debbie Sue had lived a busy lifetime in just two sentences.
“All I know, Aunt Ed, is I don’t want to lose Waffle. And I’m never going to be bullied by a man again.”
Debbie Sue loomed over her. “So is this uproar about the dog? Or is it about you?”
Sandi raised her gaze to Debbie Sue. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t see that he’s bullying you. He just wants his dog back. I don’t understand why it’s such an obsession for you.”
Sandi could stop the tears that rushed to her eyes. “I can’t help it. It’s hard to explain. After two husbands left me for other women, I was so lost. My self-esteem was so beaten down. My mother says I have terrible judgement when it comes to men.”
Aunt Ed patted Sandi’s shoulders with a comforting hand. “That’s all right, darlin’. Don’t listen to your mother. Her brain cavity has always been a little small.”
Sandi looked up at her aunt in shock. “Aunt Ed! Why do you say mean things about my mother? She’s your sister!”
Her aunt lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “Can I help it the way she is?”
“So you’re projecting,” Debbie Sue said.
“What the hell does that mean, Debbie Sue?” Aunt Ed said. “Whose side are you on?”
“I’m just saying, Sandi, that maybe you’re projecting your need for some guy to love you onto Waffle. That’s why you’re afraid to let him go.”
“Maybe that’s true,” Sandi replied. “When Waffle came along, maybe I needed something to love that loved me back.”
She plucked a Kleenex out of a box on her aunt’s station and blew her nose. “I have so much love to give, but I can’t seem to find a human who wants it. Only animals. And most of them only want to be fed and housed. Waffle’s different. He has a personality and he gives back.”
“I have to believe that you know he really is Nick’s dog,” Debbie Sue Said.
“There’s somebody out there for you, Sandi,” Aunt Ed said. “You just haven’t found the right one. Sometimes it takes a while.” She drew a big sniff. “Just look at your ol’ auntie. It took me four tries to get a good one.”
Sandy clamped her jaw tight. She had no intention of ever having four husbands. One more time was all she was willing to give to an attempt at marriage. If the third time didn’t prove to be a charm, she would give up love and romance with the human male altogether and become a cat lady. She was already well on her way.
She gave her aunt an arch look. “No offense, Aunt Ed, but two ex-husbands are enough. I don’t want three. I might never get married again, but if I do, it’ll be for good.”