FINN LAY ON the couch, eyes closed, pretending to be asleep. Tyler ran in and out of the living room, carrying armloads of Matchbox cars and trucks and arranging them in rows on the coffee table. Finn cracked an eyelid. The rug rat was awful cute.
Dingo had left for work hours ago. Marla was getting ready to go out, too. When Tyler disappeared again, Finn checked his phone. There was a message from Carly.
Need to speak to you. Meet at Rhonda’s at noon?
He sent her a thumbs-up to signal he’d received the text and shut his eyes again as Tyler settled in between the coffee table and the couch to play.
“Vroom. Vroom.” Tyler accelerated his toy SUV across the pine coffee table and leaped, Evel Knievel-style, onto the couch. He took the truck off-road up Finn’s arm, tracking over his shoulder and into the no-man’s-land of his head. The wheels got caught in Finn’s hair but Tyler kept pushing, his own cherubic curls bouncing.
“Ouch.” Finn’s eyes shot open. A belly button peeked out between Tyler’s striped T-shirt and his red pajama bottoms. “You’re stuck, man.”
“Thtuck,” Tyler lisped, spraying Finn in the face.
“Here, let me.” Finn swung his legs over the side of the couch and felt around in his hair, pulling gently. The toy got even more tangled. “I’m going to need a mirror, kiddo.”
“Baffroom.” Tyler led the way at a trot, down the hall.
“Tyler, what’s going on?” Marla, dressed in skirt and blouse and carrying her purse, came out of her bedroom. “Finn, why do you have a truck in your hair?”
“Thtuck,” Tyler explained.
“Thtuck,” Finn confirmed.
“Here, let me.” Swiftly, she untangled the wheels and handed the toy back to Tyler. “Dingo asked me to tell you the band will be over around five o’clock.”
“Okay.” He ran a hand through his hair, feeling for knots. Nothing a good brush wouldn’t cure.
“Did you eat your breakfast?” Marla asked her son. “You’re going to stay with Grandma for a couple of hours while I go to a job interview.”
“I wanna stay with Finn.” Tyler looked up at her earnestly. “Me and him are playing.”
“He and I are playing,” Marla corrected automatically. “You’re not dressed. Besides, I’m sure Finn has other things to do.”
“Not till lunchtime.” Finn ruffled Tyler’s blond curls. “You can leave the little dude with me while you go out. We’ll go to the beach and look for crabs.”
“The beach, yay!” Tyler shouted, jumping up and down.
“Are you sure?” Marla said. “I’ll be two to three hours.”
“No problem,” Finn replied. “Go, and good luck.”
“There’s a spare key on the kitchen windowsill,” Marla said. “I’ll get his car seat out of my car before I leave.” She bent to hug Tyler. “See you later, honey. Be good for Finn.”
If good meant amiable, then Tyler was very good but the ordeal of trying to clothe a rambunctious toddler gave Finn a newfound respect for parents. Finally he got the boy strapped into the back of the Mustang. As they drove to Teddy Bear Cove Finn told Tyler about the times he’d spent there as a kid, combing the drifts of washed-up seaweed for Japanese fishing floats and shells. And how his friend Irene used to walk along the shore with her dog.
The Alaska ferry was steaming past as he and Tyler scrambled down a path overgrown with thimbleberry bushes and over the railroad tracks down onto the pebbly beach.
“Big boat,” Tyler said, pointing.
“Very big boat. It’s going to Alaska.” If things had turned out differently he might have been standing at the rail with Irene, searching out the gray slate-roofed turret of her house on the hill.
“What’s ’Laska?” Tyler put his hand in Finn’s as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Maybe for a tiny kid it was but Finn was charmed.
“A faraway place up north.” They crunched over the sloping beach, rounded stones sliding beneath their running shoes, heading away from town toward the point where the rock pools were. Even he knew better than to take a kid to the mudflats.
Tyler’s brows scrunched together. “Is it where Santa Claus lives?” Tyler exclaimed.
“Not quite, but close. Polar bears live there, too.”
“Pole bears swim under the ice,” Tyler informed him. “Like seals.”
“Polar bears,” Finn corrected. “You know a lot for a little kid. Do you know how to skip stones?” He found a smooth, flat, round stone, showed it to Tyler, then threw it with a sideways motion into the choppy waves. “Can you count the jumps?”
Tyler concentrated hard. “One, two, forty hundred, nine…”
Smiling, Finn handed the boy another stone. “You try.”
The kid was too little but he enjoyed chucking rocks in the water. Well, who didn’t? Finn bent over to search for another suitable stone.
“Doggy,” Tyler announced.
Finn looked down the beach. A large reddish-brown dog was sniffing a pile of washed-up seaweed. Rufus? This dog’s fur was matted and muddy, unlike Rufus’s silky, groomed coat, but twenty-four hours in the bushes and on the mudflats could account for that.
He dropped the stone in his hand and whistled. “Rufus, here boy.”
The dog stopped and cocked his head.
Tyler patted his thighs. “Here, doggy.”
Rufus, if it was him, trotted away from them, up the beach toward the bushes.
“I think this dog belongs to a friend of mine.” Finn spoke in a low voice to Tyler. “We’re going to go after him. Don’t run, okay? We don’t want to scare him.”
Eyes shining, Tyler put his hand in Finn’s. “Okay.”
* * *
SHE OWNED A HOUSE. Still dazed by the news, Carly carried her date scone and latte to a window table in Rhonda’s café. She’d expected a small bequest from her aunt but nothing like this. She was grateful, certainly, but she didn’t know whether to be glad or not. The house was worth quite a lot, but there was also a substantial amount left owing on it. Money Carly would have to repay.
Irene had never been a thrifty type. She enjoyed spending her money on concerts, antiques and trips. Carly had felt slightly ill at signing her name to take over the mortgage. The bank would be checking on her finances but barring any unforeseen circumstances she was now the proud owner, and responsible for, a three-story Queen Anne home on the opposite side of the country from where she lived.
Money and practical considerations aside, Carly loved the house. It represented so many happy memories of her summers with Irene. And yes, sad memories of her aunt’s death, but overall, the good memories far outweighed the bad. Should she sell, or try to hang on to it for sentimental reasons?
She’d always been a practical person. If she sold, she could afford to buy an apartment in New York. It would be easier to house Rufus if she owned rather than rented. Except that Rufus would be happier staying here, in his own home.
The dog’s ownership was the only thing that Irene hadn’t said Carly could do as she pleased about. Irene had worshipped her fur baby. Poor Rufus. Wherever he was, he must be pining for his mommy. But it was crazy to make major decisions like keeping or selling Irene’s house based solely on what Rufus would like best. Wasn’t it?
Carly picked at her scone. She wished Finn would come. She needed to talk to him. Firstly to tell him about the piano, but also she simply needed to talk to someone who was rational because she was feeling very confused right now. So many things pulled her to Fairhaven—Rufus, the house, the town itself. Every time she was here, she was reminded how much like home it felt. But her life was in Manhattan. Her father, her friends, her favorite deli, the theater. Most of all, her new job with her own office complete with bookshelf and business cards.
Oh, she’d almost forgotten to include her lodger Taylor in the equation. What was she going to do about him?
Finn was twenty minutes late. She swiped her phone open to call him. Just as she did, it rang. “Where are you?” she asked.
“Teddy Bear Cove.” He was speaking in an excited whisper. “I found Rufus.”
“Are you sure?” she said, hardly daring to hope.
“Pretty sure. Although he won’t come when I call. And he runs off every time we get near. We’ve been stalking him for the past forty minutes.”
“We?”
“I’ve got Tyler with me.”
“Rufus has a white spot on his chest,” Carly said. “It’s why Irene couldn’t show him.”
“It’s hard to tell if there’s a spot under to all the mud,” Finn said. “Can you get down here right away? Bring food. He’s got to be starving. Oh, and a collar and leash.”
Carly was already standing up, pushing her chair back. “I’ll be there in ten.”
* * *
“CARLY’S COMING,” Finn told Tyler as he put his phone away. He glanced around. “Where’s Rufus?”
“Doggy go dat way.” Tyler pointed to the train track. Thirty yards away Rufus was nosing his way along the ties.
“Good spotting.” Finn gave him a high five but his heart sank.
On one side of the railway track lay the beach. On the other side, the road and beyond that, dense forest. If Rufus went into the woods, he would be harder to track. Or he might run onto Chuckanut Drive and get hit by a car. Even as they watched, Rufus left the train tracks and trotted into the woods.
Finn grabbed Tyler’s hand. “Let’s go. Quiet now.”
They crept closer and crouched below the siding. Finn peered over, mentally marking the location the dog had entered the forest between a dead pine and an alder sapling. A moment later he glimpsed the dog moving parallel to the shore. He and Tyler followed on the beach side of the tracks.
Carly arrived, stumbling down the trail in a skirt that rode above her knees, and patent leather shoes smeared with dirt. She carried a leash over her shoulder with the price tag still on it and a plastic shopping bag. Finn went to meet her. The scent of her citrusy perfume was like a waft of fresh air above the earthy smells of pine and seaweed and mudflat.
Finn relieved her of the shopping bag and took her hand to help her down the last bit of the trail. “I see you dressed for the occasion.”
“I had an appointment at the bank this morning. I didn’t want to take the time to go home and change so I stopped at the supermarket for this stuff.” She noticed Tyler. “Hi there, sweetie.”
“Ty, this is Carly, the dog’s owner.” Finn peered into the bag. “Is this the food?”
“Yessiree.” She reached over and pulled out a warm rotisserie chicken in a foil bag. “I defy a starving dog not to come to roast chicken.”
Finn had been expecting kibble or at the best, canned dog food. “Brilliant.”
“I hungry.” Tyler edged closer, eyeing the chicken.
“Here you go.” Carly ripped off a small wing and handed it to him. “Where is Rufus?”
“He went that way,” Finn said, pointing across the tracks to the woods. “We haven’t seen him for about five minutes.”
“Maybe I should go alone in case too many people scare him,” Carly said.
“I’ll go, in case a cougar smells that chicken and comes looking for lunch,” Finn said.
“Coug’r?” Tyler’s eyes rounded with excitement.
Carly looked as if she would faint. “Cougar?”
“No, probably not,” Finn said hastily, kicking himself for scaring them. “Let’s all go.”
Finn hoisted Tyler onto his hip and carried him up the rocky siding. Then he turned to give Carly a hand but she was already at the top. They pushed their way through the undergrowth between the trees. The dog was nowhere in sight.
Carly stopped in a small clearing and tore open the foil bag. She waved a hunk of chicken in the air. “Ru-fus. Here, boy. Come and eat. Rufus.”
For at least sixty seconds, nothing happened. Then a rustling in the bushes. The Irish setter poked his noble, daft head through the bright green fronds of a sword fern. Lifting his muzzle, he scented the air.
Carly handed Finn the chicken and took the collar and leash in both hands. “You lure him and I’ll sneak around and collar him,” she whispered.
“What I do?” Tyler asked in a stage whisper between greasy bites of chicken.
“Stand by and be ready to give him lots of pats,” Carly said.
“Okay,” Tyler said, very seriously. He laid his half-eaten wing carefully on a mossy log and licked his fingers. “Ready.”
“Here, boy.” Finn walked very slowly forward, holding the chicken in front of him. “Come to papa.”
Tentatively, the dog put one paw in front of the other. Finn tore off a chunk of meat and threw it on the ground. Carly tiptoed around the dog’s flank, gradually closing the distance as Rufus crept toward the meat and gobbled it down in a single gulp.
Finn crouched with another piece of chicken in his hand. This time he held on to it, urging the dog to come closer. Rufus stretched his neck out and nibbled at the meat, trying to tug it free. Carly dropped the leash over his outstretched neck and grabbed the other end. It was then the work of seconds to snap the collar on.
Finn tore off more chunks and threw them to the starving dog, careful not to give him any bones.
Tyler patted the dirty red fur with greasy fingers. “Good doggy. You safe.”
Elated and relieved, Finn glanced at Carly to exchange a smile over Tyler’s cuteness. “We found him.”
“You found him.” Her eyes were very blue in the dark of the forest, her expression a confusion of sadness and relief. Her hair was mussed and she had smears of dirt on her clothes.
“You caught him.” He’d never seen her look so beautiful and yet so vulnerable. Like she didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.
“We did it together.” Her smile flickered and faded.
He wanted to kiss her. Something stopped him, something to do with the inner turmoil she radiated. One crisis was over but he sensed another was brewing. He touched away a drop of moisture at the corner of her eye and let his fingertip linger a moment on the soft skin of her cheek. “What was it you wanted to tell me?”
* * *
CARLY DASHED AWAY the welling tears. She’d been fine until she’d seen Rufus looking like a stray dog all filthy and starving. Now the emotions of the past few days were catching up to her. She would figure things out. She had to believe that even if she was struggling to cope right now. “Let’s go back to the beach.”
Once there she slumped onto a driftwood log and hugged Rufus. The dog put a paw on her knee and licked the moisture off her cheeks with big slurps of his tongue. She laughed through her tears and then cried harder. “You poor sweetheart. You’re going to be okay. Everything’s going to be okay.”
Finn dropped down next to her on the log. Tyler crouched on the other side of Rufus, patting and chatting to him.
“Sorry,” she said to Finn, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. “You must think I’m a complete mess. Every time you see me, I’m either drunk, hungover or crying.”
“Don’t apologize.” His arm came around her, warm and solid. “It’s okay.”
She leaned into him, unable to resist the comfort he offered. “I’m so glad we found Rufus. I remember walking with him and Aunt Irene on this beach.”
“I wish I’d kept in touch with her more,” Finn said. “We emailed occasionally about musical stuff but I felt as if I’d let her down because I’d given up performing.”
“She cared about you, even if you didn’t see each other,” Carly said. “That’s what I wanted to tell you. She left you her piano. It was in her will.”
Finn stared, a lock of dark hair falling over his raised eyebrows. “Seriously?”
She nodded, smiling at his surprise and pleasure. “It’s a nice piano.”
“Nice?” He snorted. “That’s like saying a Maserati is a ‘nice’ car.”
“She left me the house and contents. And this guy.” Carly leaned down to pat Rufus, now asleep on the smooth stones, his muzzle resting on her foot. “What am I going to do with him.”
“He’s a great dog,” Finn said.
“He’s great here in Fairhaven. Not so suitable for Manhattan. I’ll be working long hours, living in an apartment…” She shook her head. “I’m not the best person to take care of him. I don’t know what Irene was thinking of.”
“She gave him to you because she trusted you.” He drew a pattern in a patch of sand with a piece of driftwood. “And maybe she didn’t think she was going to die so soon.”
They fell silent. Gray waves lapped the shiny wet stones at the edge of the water, bringing yellow foam that collected in the crevices. A week ago she was in Manhattan wearing power suits for her high-octane new job and getting a three-hundred-dollar haircut. Now look at her, covered in mud on a Washington state beach with Finn, a runny-nosed toddler and a runaway dog.
She laughed. “Life is so random.” Then she sighed. “I might have to ask my father for a loan to carry the house for a few months until it sells.”
Finn removed his arm from around her shoulders. “You’re not going to get rid of it.”
His disapproval immediately put her back up. “What else am I going to do with it? I live in New York.”
“People change jobs and move across the country all the time.”
“There aren’t a lot of jobs at my level here in Fairhaven,” she protested.
“Seattle, then.”
“I’m in an excellent position where I am. I’d be an idiot to let it go.”
“Irene loved that house,” Finn argued. “She’s been there for… I don’t know how many years. But lots.”
“Twenty-eight. I found out this morning when I signed the deed.” For a moment she envisaged the future her aunt had hoped for. Moving in, having a family, passing the house down through the future generations. Legacy had meant a lot to Irene. On the other hand, Irene had also believed everyone was in charge of their own destiny. “She said in the will that I could do what I wanted with it. Of course I’d like to keep it but I’m not rich. Why don’t you buy it?”
“I already have a house in Los Angeles.”
“People move and change jobs all the time,” she said, one eyebrow raised. Finn’s mouth twisted. Carly found a pebble and turned it over, her fingernail tracing a gray line snaking through the white quartz.
“Being true to ourselves is the best way to honor Irene,” Finn said. “You do what you have to do.”
“I’m picking up her ashes tomorrow,” Carly said.
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“That would be nice,” Carly said. “I can’t decide whether to keep them or spread them somewhere. Did she ever say anything to you about her wishes?”
“Not that I recall,” Finn said. “You don’t have to decide right away.”
“I can’t see taking her back to New York with me. She never liked the east coast.”
“How about this beach? She came here a lot.”
“That’s an idea.” Carly tossed away the pebble. “Did you know she’d taken on a new boarder? Taylor Greene, nice guy, total geek.”
“No, I didn’t. How did you find out?”
“He showed up at the house yesterday afternoon with all his stuff, ready to move in.”
“Oh, man. Did you tell him your aunt died?” Finn said.
“I did. He brandished his rental agreement and claimed he had a right. I let him stay—for now.”
“I’m no lawyer but I’m pretty sure you’re not obligated to honor the agreement under the circumstances.”
“I’m not. And I don’t want to but he’s so…” Carly trailed off, haunted by the look in Taylor’s eyes.
“So, what?” Finn prodded.
“It’s hard to describe,” Carly said. “His reasons for needing the room were pretty compelling—he’s doing a PhD in astrophysics and the stars are aligned or something—but it was his personal life that made me cave. He’s trying to find his independence and moving into Irene’s house is a step along that road. He needs sanctuary.”
Finn shook his head. “Carly Maxwell, you’re a sucker for a sob story.”
“I am not.” She sat up straighter. “I’m ruthless. I told him he needed to start looking for another place to live.” She didn’t know if she’d have the heart to throw him out if he couldn’t find one, mind you.
Finn nudged her with his shoulder. “Look at those two.” Rufus was flaked out on the sand with Tyler, asleep, draped over him, one chubby arm around the dog’s neck. Dog and child were covered in dirt.
“We should put them in the bath together,” Carly suggested.
“Okay, but don’t let Marla know.”
“I’m kidding!”
Finn grinned at her. “I thought it was a good idea.”
“Got to admit, they’d be cute.” While they’d been talking the clouds had broken up, revealing large patches of blue. Sunlight sparkled on the water. Finn beside her was warm and real and present. She got lost in his dark chocolate eyes.
He looked away first, clearing his throat. “On second thought, I’d better get this little guy back to his mom before she sends out an APB.”
Finn bent to scoop up Tyler and lay him over his shoulder. Carly took Rufus’s leash and they set off for the path through the woods back to where they’d parked along the highway.
Carly took a breath and let it out. Everything was okay. She was okay. At least for the moment.