“Are you taking pictures because it’s cute,” Daniela said in a faint voice, “or because this is dangerous?”
“I’ve been around pets all my life,” he said. “Nothing in Shambhala’s body language says she’s dangerous.”
“I know,” she said, “but how quickly will Shambhala switch from this to a guard dog?”
He looked at her and smiled. “Well, if she switches to a guard dog, you’d be blessed,” he said, “because she would protect Sari with her life.”
She looked at him, surprised, then looked down at Sari and Shambhala. “Well, good. It’s perfect timing.”
“What’s that?”
She let out her breath and slowly tried to get calm. “Because Angel contacted me today. Via email. And if there’s one thing I don’t trust, it’s that woman.” She hadn’t meant to say it that way, and, after his look, she shrugged and nodded. “I was going to tell you earlier, but I forgot, what with all the things you had on your mind.”
“We did have a lot of other stuff to talk about.” He glanced again at Sari and frowned. “Do you have legal documents giving you custody of Sari?”
“I do,” she said, “but you also know that, in some cases, particularly something like this, one where it didn’t go through a government agency, the judges do tend to favor the birth parents.”
“Ah,” he said, “so you really are worried Angel is after Sari now?”
“You would be too if you saw the email she sent.” She pulled out her phone, found Angel’s email and handed it to him.
“Do you really think, if you say no, she’ll come and steal her away?”
“I think it’s a strong possibility. I don’t know what to say, other than that, because it’s obviously my … my biggest fear.”
He nodded. “I can see that.” He crossed his arms, tapping his finger on his forearm.
“What do you think?”
“I’m thinking Shambhala would quite likely protect Sari, if that were the case. But I’m not sure you’re prepared to handle the cost and the commitment required to deal with a dog like this.”
“It sounds like a huge responsibility,” she said. “And that would be very difficult for me. Money aside, the dog will need training, I presume.”
He looked at her, and the corner of his mouth tilted upward. “Not quite. You’d be the one who needs training.”
She looked at him, startled for a moment, then glanced back at the dog lying there, completely happy as Sari lay on top of her, happily chattering away, telling her some story. Sari’s head was against Shambhala’s ear, which twitched with every breath.
“Shambhala looks so gentle right now,” Daniela murmured. “It’s hard to believe she’d be anything other than this.”
“I do know from her training,” Weston said, “that she can be a whole lot more than this experience, but she is retired. I don’t know what her last six weeks were like. I don’t even know what her last six months were like. But the training she would have gone through originally would have been rigorous, intensive and ongoing.”
“I need to learn more than basic commands,” she said, “but right now she looks like nothing but a teddy bear.”
Privately he had to agree. He stepped back to see if Shambhala would react differently. But she appeared to be happy. He took several more steps back.
Daniela looked at him sharply. “Are you trying to do that?”
He nodded. “Take several steps back too, please.” She hesitated. He looked at her with a smile. “I would never endanger Sari.”
She took several more steps back, so they were both about eight feet away from the dog. Shambhala didn’t even open her eyes.
“So, is this a good thing or a bad thing?” Daniela asked with a laugh, as she joined Weston farther away from the dog.
“It looks like her focus is on Sari,” he said quietly. “I don’t know what would happen if somebody came up and disturbed them.”
“And I don’t want to find out.”
He smiled. “How long do you want to leave Sari out here?”
“I hate to take her away,” she admitted. “She doesn’t have a lot of playmates around here. Plus I think she just adopted Shambhala.”
“That may be,” he said, “but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right decision to keep the dog. If we even were to get that cleared.”
Daniela walked toward her daughter. “Come on, Sari. Do you want to play in the sandbox?”
Sari turned to look at her and asked, “Doggy come?”
Daniela hesitated.
Weston asked, “Where’s the sandbox?”
“At the park around the corner. It’s got a pretty decent-size sandbox.”
“Why don’t we all go,” he said. “It will give me a chance to see what Shambhala’s training is like.”
“That’s a good idea.” Daniela smiled down at Sari. “Yes. We’ll take Shambhala to the park.”
Sari squeezed Shambhala and scrambled to her feet, toddling unsteadily toward her mother.
“Doggy, come,” she ordered in a strict tone, directed at the dog. It was so funny to see her voice change as she tried to be an adult, as she tried to mimic Weston’s command.
Weston walked closer to Sari, crouched and said, “When you want the doggy to do something, you look at her in her good eye, reach out with your arm and make this motion, and then you give her the order to come.”
Sari stared at him with her huge eyes, looked back at Shambhala and moved her hand the way she was supposed to and said, “Doggy, come.”
Shambhala looked at Weston and looked at the little girl. Then, with her tongue lolling to the side, she hopped to her feet and went over to Sari. As she arrived, she gave Sari another lick on the face.
Sari laughed, hanging on to the dog for support, as they walked back toward the stairs. Daniela watched closely, completely flabbergasted that the dog would follow the little girl’s commands, but Shambhala seemed to realize she was needed for steadiness. As they went up the steps, she took them at the exact same pace as Sari.
“She’s so good with Sari,” she said in wonder.
“I see that. So let’s take this chance to put Shambhala through her paces, see what else she might know.” With the leash once again attached to her collar, Shambhala hesitated at the door. But when she saw everybody else was getting boots on and walking out the door along with her, she seemed to be totally okay.
“Did you see that? I’m not sure she would be happy to leave without you,” he murmured.
“I don’t think it’s without me,” Daniela said. “It’s without Sari.”
“True enough.”
As they wandered down the lane toward the park, Sari was busy stomping in recent puddles and then picking up rocks, trying to hand them to Shambhala, who would sniff them and keep walking. Weston kept an eye on Shambhala, who appeared to be keeping an eye on Sari. “For whatever reason,” he said, “she’s in protective mode over Sari.”
“I won’t argue against it,” Daniela said. “I just don’t know how to turn it on and off.”
“There may be no Off button in this case because I don’t think she’s doing this by command. I think she’s doing this because she wants to.”
“Meaning that she cares about Sari?”
“She definitely cares about Sari. A strong bond exists already between them.”
At that, Daniela shook her head. “I don’t know that I’m ready for the commitment to keep a dog, any dog really,” she said. “And I can’t even imagine trying to feed her.”
“Not a discussion for today, that’s for sure.”
“Well, if it doesn’t fit in today,” she challenged, “when does it? Because, as far as I know, you’re leaving tomorrow.” She watched him carefully as he hesitated, then looked at her and smiled.
“How would you feel about a houseguest for a week or two?”
Weston watched a pretty smile bloom across her face. Then he gave a nod. “Only if you’re okay with it. I do want to sort out the Grant, Gregory and Ginger thing, and I do need to make sure Shambhala has a foster home, stays with me or stays with you.”
She hesitated at that and looked down.
He grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently. “No pressure, Daniela. Really.”
She gave a light laugh. “So good to hear that, because you know something, Weston? As much as I’m okay with keeping Shambhala, I’m not flush with money.”
“I get that. It sounds like we need to deal with Angel too.”
“Yes, we do,” she said sadly.
“Do you think she just wants to have regular visits with Sari?”
“I don’t know. Am I a bad person for not even wanting her to have that? She would be a horrible influence with her lifestyle.”
“I think the hardest thing for a child is a parent who flips in and out on a whim,” he said. “Are you looking at me for the same problem?”
She just shrugged, not saying anything. But it was affirmation enough that it was already a problem.
“When did you last see Angel?”
She looked at him in surprise. “Not since she handed Sari over.”
He stared at her. “Seriously?”
“Yes,” she said. “That’s why I don’t understand why she wants anything to do with her now. Sari won’t know her.”
“What changed in Angel’s life that she suddenly cares?” he murmured.
“I don’t know. And because of my number one fear, I don’t want her anywhere close to me or Sari.”
“Did you have to pay a certain amount of money to get Sari?”
“We covered all the legal costs,” she said, “but we didn’t give her a lump sum. That would feel like paying for or buying my daughter. Angel wanted money for a flight to Vegas, and we paid that. We were happy to get rid of her, if I’m being honest.”
“So she just wanted to drop off her daughter and leave?”
“I think so,” she said. “We didn’t really get into the discussion. She made the offer, and I jumped at it. Then we moved on.”
“Now Angel’s wanting something different?” He watched as Daniela slowly nodded.
“The trouble is,” she confessed, “I don’t want to change the conditions. I don’t want this situation to change at all. I just want her to stay away from Sari.”
“Is that because you’re afraid to lose Sari physically, or because you’re afraid Sari will form a bond with her biological mother that may be stronger than her bond with you?” When she sucked in her breath, he knew he’d hit a bull’s-eye. He reached out and squeezed her hand again. “It’s obvious Sari really loves you.”
“I know that,” she said. “I didn’t think I was such a small person that I would be afraid of sharing that love. But I think at the moment that’s an issue for me.”
When they reached the park, Sari headed toward the large sandbox. Shambhala stayed at her side, tugging at her leash to make sure they were keeping up. She would correct her behavior when he gave the motion, but her choice was always to stay close to Sari.
He gave her enough lead to see how she would react.
Sari got ahead of them, and Shambhala tried to catch up. But she never needed to be in front. She wasn’t trying to be alpha; she was just keeping an eye on the little girl.
As they got to the sandbox, Sari made her way to the center, tripped, and landed on her back in the middle of a soft sand pile. She looked up at her mother, her face scrunched up as if she would cry, but then Shambhala bumped her gently with her head on her shoulder. Immediately the storm clouds cleared, and sunshine came through as Sari reached up and threw her arms around Shambhala’s head.
Daniela murmured, “It’s incredible just how good Shambhala is with her.”
“I know,” he said. “It’s pretty intriguing.”
When Sari was settled and busily digging in the sand, Weston brought Shambhala closer to him. Turning to look at Daniela, he said, “I’ll just walk around the park a little with the dog. I want to go over some commands to see how she does.”
Daniela nodded, and he headed a little distance away from them.
Shambhala let him know she was disturbed at leaving the little girl. She kept turning to look behind them to make sure Sari was okay.
“It’s okay, Shambhala. She’s fine.”
Shambhala gave him a hard look, and he had to acknowledge an awful lot of guard dog remained in her. Setting to work, he ascertained she remembered her basic training. Then he worked on several others he had looked up after finding out he was coming after a War Dog. A few more he needed to work on to see if she would listen as well. He needed her off-leash and in a fenced area for that. She had all the regular commands down pat, and he was really proud of her for that.
When they walked back with her heeling properly and at his side, her ears picked up and more energy was in her step as they headed to the sandbox, where Daniela and Sari were waiting for them. He smiled, reached down and scratched Shambhala between the ears.
“You really do love that little girl, don’t you?” Her tail wagged faster and faster the closer they got, and, as soon as they made it to the sandbox, she hopped in and nudged the little girl.
“Doggy, doggy,” Sari cried out and wrapped her arms around the dog.
“You know something?” he said to Daniela. “We may have a harder time separating them than we’re thinking.”
“I can tell,” she said. “I was just thinking that when you came back toward us. The dog was obviously happy to be coming this way.”
He nodded. “Let’s head home.”
She smiled. “That sounds great. But how will you get Sari to do that?”
“Easy,” he said. “Sari, come on. Time to go back to the house.”
She looked up at him and shook her head. “No.”
He looked at her, surprised, then looked at her mother, who stood there with her arms crossed over her chest and a big grin on her face. “I guess you don’t have to, but Shambhala and I are going home.” He called Shambhala to his side. Reluctant but obedient, she complied. Then he turned back to look at Sari. “We’re leaving now and going back to the house.”
As he and Shambhala turned and walked away, Sari started crying and screaming.
He stopped and looked back at her. “So does that mean you’re ready to listen and to come home with us?”
She nodded and reached up her hands. Daniela picked Sari up and caught up with Weston and Shambhala.
Weston turned to the little girl. “I’m so glad you came with us. Do you want to ride on my shoulders?”
Immediately the clouds disappeared, and the sun shone once more.
As soon as Daniela put her up on his shoulders, he reached up with one hand and said, “Now, you’ve got to grab hold of my ears, and I’ll hold on to your feet.” Her legs were just long enough that he could grab both of her feet with one hand. He looked at Daniela. “Does she have any experience being carried like this?”
She shook her head and, with one hand, gently pushed on the little girl’s back to show her how to sit up straight. “I’ll just walk back here,” she said with a laugh. “The last thing we need is to have her fall backward.”
Slowly the procession made its way back to the house.
The next morning, Weston woke up and went downstairs quietly, not wanting to wake either Daniela or Sari. As he walked past her room, he could hear Sari gurgling. He stopped with a smile on his face as he listened to the sounds of a baby waking up. It was something he had never heard before, and it was special. Very special.
He noted that Shambhala lay on the floor by the child’s bed.
Soon, he slipped down the stairs as quietly as he could, not sure what Daniela’s morning routine was, Shambhala following him. Once in the kitchen, he watched as Shambhala headed to her empty food bowl. He filled it for her and then set about making coffee. When it was ready, he watched as Shambhala returned to Sari’s room, while Weston stepped outside onto the patio, where he enjoyed his first cup, watching the sunrise.
He wondered if Daniela was intent on staying up here in Alaska. And then another thought came. If he wanted to keep up a relationship with his daughter, was he prepared to move here? There were things he would have to sort out.
He was amazed at the bond between Shambhala and Sari. Though there was a little tug at his heart when he first met Sari, there hadn’t been that immediate, overwhelming connection of “This is my child. I need to be there for her.” A part of him wondered if something was wrong with him because that hadn’t happened.
He sat here contemplating fatherhood, wondering if someone adapted to having it suddenly sprung upon them. He knew a lot of guys who were baby crazy. It was funny to see, and, while he’d seen many more women who were that way, seeing it in the occasional male was compelling. He hadn’t ever had anything to do with babies and didn’t feel any need to turn into a simpering idiot because a baby showed up.
At the same time, she was his daughter, and something was between them. It was up to him to foster it, so a bond could form between them. Maybe it was seeing the bond between Shambhala and Sari happen so fast that made him expect something like that for himself. But obviously he needed a fur coat in order to fit the bill. He snickered at his own joke.
“Well, it’s nice to see you’re having a good morning,” Daniela said, but her voice was cross. “Do you think you could give me a hand for a second?”
He bounded to his feet and turned to face her. She had Sari in her arms, only Sari was cranky and wouldn’t sit properly. He reached out his hands, taking Sari from her, putting her on his hip. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know,” Daniela said, rubbing her eyes. “I had a crappy night. She woke up just fine, but then, within a few minutes, she got crabby. I need a cup of coffee, and I’ll get her some food. She often wakes up superhungry.”
“That’s a family trait on my side. Sorry,” he said apologetically.
She looked at him in surprise.
“I always woke up hungry,” he said. “The first thing I did, as soon as I was old enough, was get to the cupboards and into the fridge to get myself something to eat.”
“Great,” she said. “I’ll have to start putting snacks out for Sari, so she’ll get them first thing in the morning.”
“It’s not a bad idea,” he said. “It’s what my parents did.”
She shook her head and poured herself a cup of coffee while he watched. He looked down to see Sari staring up at them. Her eyes were huge and deep. It was as if she had decided to withhold judgment on him, depending on how he behaved over the next little while.
“Good morning, Sari. I heard you talking to yourself this morning.” She looked at him, her gaze widening at the sound of his voice, and then her face split into a big smile. “That is a much nicer greeting than the first one I got from you,” he said, smiling back at her.
She was astonishing and quite substantial. He didn’t know what he’d expected her to weigh, but she was so small, he figured he wouldn’t really notice it. But suddenly she was leaning back against his arm because she wasn’t quite sure she wanted to get any closer. He could actually feel her weight now. “No wonder women get such strong muscles from packing kids,” he murmured.
Just then Daniela stepped back outside, holding her cup of coffee. She looked up at the sun, closed her eyes and took several deep breaths.
“How long have you been in Alaska?”
“About five years,” she said. She opened her eyes and turned to look at him. “Why do you ask?”
“I was just wondering if this is where you wanted to be,” he explained. “If this is where your family and friends are, or if you were open to moving somewhere else.”
“I came here because of Charlie. As it happened, my sister was here already. Our parents live in Maine.”
“That’s a long way to come,” he said.
She nodded. “It is,” she said. “I’m sure more employment opportunities are in other places, but I do like it here.”
“Like as in a lot?”
Her lips kicked up at the corners. “Like,” she repeated. “It’s hard to love the winters.”
He grinned. “For that reason alone, Maine sounds like a better deal,” he said.
“But then, there’s the people,” she said with a shudder. “And very high real estate.”
“True, but there are plenty of other states. New Mexico, for one. How about Oregon? Anything along the West Coast or in the Southwest. You could do quite well in those areas.”
She nodded. “But I’d have to have a reason. I can’t just pick up and move for no reason. It’s hard to uproot her, and I’d still have to have the money to make it happen, which I don’t.”
“Quite true,” he said in agreement.
“Where do you live?”
“I was in New Mexico,” he said, “and that’s where the group of guys are that I ended up working with before I came here. I was raised in Colorado, but we all left as soon as I was a teenager. My parents live in Arizona.”
“I don’t think I want to go that far south,” she said. “I don’t mind four seasons. I think it’s stunning to have fall and spring.”
“Agreed,” he said, “but I’m in the position of having to find a job too.”
She studied him for a long moment.
He dropped his gaze to the backyard, where he’d seen a small garden she had tried and then either gave up on or it just wasn’t warm enough yet for the sprouts to come up.
“Are you asking for a specific reason?”
“Of course,” he said. “We’re both facing an uncertain future and are at odd ends. The question is whether we want to align some of our future, so we can make a parental relationship work.”
“Oh,” she said, then gave a clipped nod. “Of course that makes sense. I’d never considered moving away.”
“But you did consider me moving up here?”
She gave him a half grin. “Yeah. Selfish of me, wasn’t it?”
He shrugged. “It’s reasonable, I think, to expect or want other people to make a change instead of yourself.”
“I hadn’t considered that,” she said, sitting down on the step with a rather hard thump. “I would certainly miss my sister.”
“Of course,” he said. “I don’t know that living in another state is what you want. Or if that would be any easier for you.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Sometimes I think it’s better to stay because the memories are here, and then other times I think I’d be better off to get away from the memories. I just get through that day, and then all I can see is getting through the next day, so I don’t really think about down the road to some different future.”
“Understood,” he said with a smile.
As soon as she finished her coffee, she stood. “Let’s bring her inside, so we can get breakfast.”
He took Sari in, set her in her high chair, and she grinned up at him. He pulled up a chair beside her and sat down. “What does she normally have for breakfast?”
“Her favorite is toast.” It wasn’t long before the toaster popped up.
Sari picked up a piece and started munching away.
Weston laughed. “Does she get most of it in her mouth?”
Daniela’s laughter made his smile even brighter. “She does eventually,” she said. “But, in the meantime, there’ll be butter everywhere, particularly in her hair.”
And just as she said that, he watched Sari run her mucky fingers over her head. He grinned. “You must spend a lot of time with her in the bath.”
“Washcloths do a pretty good job,” she said cheerfully. She came back over with another piece of toast cut into little squares.
He looked at it with interest as she put some peanut butter on it and handed over one square. “Only one square?”
“Yes,” she answered. “Sari likes to lick off the peanut butter but doesn’t eat most of the bread.” She looked over at him. “What would you like for breakfast?”
“Normally I eat a fairly big breakfast,” he said, “but I don’t want to put you out or eat you out of house and home. I can always go to town and pick up something or go to a restaurant.”
She waved her hand at him. “Nonsense. You do remember you gave me a pile of cash yesterday, right? But you’ll need to tell me what you mean, when you say, a big breakfast.”
“Bacon and eggs or something like that for a start,” he said. “I can cook it if you have the ingredients.”
She looked at him, surprising him with a nod. “I think we can manage that.” She walked to the fridge, pulled out a pack of bacon and a dozen eggs. “Anything else?”
He looked in to see a couple cold baked potatoes on the rack and spoke up. “Were you saving those potatoes for anything?”
She shook her head. “Nope. If you want them, go for it.”
He snagged them both and chopped them into little pieces, frying them in a pan with the bacon. When everything was done, he moved it all off to the side, cracking a couple eggs and adding them to the pan. When he had the eggs cooked the way he liked, he used the spatula to put it all onto a plate, took it to the table and sat down beside them. He noticed that Daniela had just toast too, along with her daughter.
He stopped, looked at her plate and asked, “You can have half of this, if you’d like.”
She chuckled. “Then it wouldn’t be a big breakfast, would it?” she teased.
“I should have asked if you wanted some. I’m embarrassed I didn’t.”
“I don’t eat breakfast,” she said. “I don’t have much appetite in the morning.”
“Good to know,” he said.
With that, he dug into his breakfast. Sari watched him with fascination. He looked at her as she started banging her high chair tray. “Would she eat any of this?”
“It’s all good food for her,” she said, “so you can try her with some of it.”
He picked up a piece of bacon, snapped off a little bit and handed it to her. She grabbed it from his hand and put it in her mouth. Almost a blissful look came over her face. He laughed. “Maybe I shouldn’t have done that.”
“No, maybe not,” Daniela said with a heavy sigh. “She does like your food, so that’s a good thing. But trying to keep some foods in the house is not an easy job.”
“Not at all,” he said. “But you’re doing a lovely job with her.”
She looked at him in surprise. “You mean, all that you’ve seen in the last day or two.”
He shrugged. “Well, so far, it’s all I’ve got,” he said. “The house is clean. Sari looks great. She’s eating well, and she’s happy. You care deeply about her, and she adores you, so it’s obvious she’s doing very well in your care.”
She noticeably relaxed at that, which made him realize just how much fear was inside her.
“Did you really expect me to try to take her away from you?”
She gave him a flat glare. “Expect, no, but people are people. So while I certainly didn’t want to entertain the idea, it’s hard not to be concerned.”
“I understand,” he said.
Just then her phone rang. She looked at it and gasped.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s Angel,” she said.
“You might as well answer it,” he said. “We need to deal with this one way or another.”
She looked at him with fear evident in her eyes.
“Put it on Speakerphone.”
She did as he asked and set the phone on the table, taking a deep breath. “Angel, what’s up?”
“I want to come see my daughter,” Angel said abruptly.
“Why is that?” Daniela asked.
There was silence at first. “She is my daughter,” Angel said belligerently.
Weston was interested in her tone of voice. Nothing in there said Angel missed her daughter and wanted to see her or that Angel was heartbroken at having given her up. Angel spoke as if Sari were a possession—as if she had ownership. He just nodded at Daniela to keep the conversation going.
“She’s not your daughter anymore, Angel,” Daniela said calmly. “I have the paperwork to prove it.”
“You can’t keep her from me,” Angel said.
“I don’t know about that,” Daniela replied. “The thing is, this is the first time in eighteen months you’ve even bothered to contact me about her. So why now?”
“Well, maybe I just want to see her now,” Angel said.
“I don’t think so,” Daniela murmured.
“What? Do you think you’re the only mother around?” Angel snapped. “You’re not a real mother anyway,” she said. “I’m the mother. You’re just a babysitter. This isn’t over, and, when you least expect me, I’ll be there.”
At that, Western snatched the phone and said, “That’s a very interesting comment you just made there, Angel.”
Suspicious, she said, “Who’s there? Who is that?”
“Sari’s father,” Weston said in a silky voice, as he looked over at Daniela. “I’m here for a visit with my daughter.”
A shocked silence came on the other end of the phone. “God, why would she want you there?” Angel said, her voice snide as always. “And just because you’re there doesn’t mean I can’t be. That’s my daughter, and you’re not keeping her from me.”
“Like Daniela said, it’s interesting that you haven’t wanted anything to do with Sari all this time. Why now, Angel? Did you find a buyer for her? Is there something you want? Drug money, perhaps? Did you end up in a slum somewhere and need cash to pick up your game?”
Angel laughed. “You don’t know anything about me. But you will. You will.” And, with that, she hung up, leaving the two of them staring at each other across the phone.