Adrian felt like growling at everyone who gave him shocked glances as he walked past the people leaving Bayside Barn and heading toward their cars. His forehead and nose were both bandaged, and even though he wore his sunglasses, the entire top half of his face was bruised and swollen.
As the medics had predicted, he did indeed look like Frankenstein.
At the gate, he paid the entry fee for himself and his parents and bought a bunch of tickets for them plus more for Heather’s kids. “Y’all have fun,” he said to his parents. “I’m gonna go find Heather.”
Even this late in the afternoon, the place was packed. The hot breeze carried the sound of a live band playing Zydeco music along with the mingled scents of barbecue, funnel cake, and grilled corn on the cob.
Adrian found Erin and Sean taking tickets for the pony and donkey rides. Erin’s eyes went wide, and her mouth dropped open.
Seeing the expression on her face, Sean followed her gaze. “Whoa,” Sean said. “Holy shit, Batman.”
Surprising Adrian, Erin gave him a hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay.” She pulled away and studied his face. “I mean, I hope you’re okay. At least you’re walking, right? I mean, at least you’re not—”
“Right.” He was glad he wasn’t dead too. “I might not win any beauty contests for a while, but I’m gonna be okay.”
“Can I see?” She made a motion asking him to remove his sunglasses.
He lifted them up for a second, revealing two spectacularly black eyes.
Erin winced, and Sean turned away to take someone’s tickets and tell them where to stand to wait for the next group’s ride. But not before Adrian saw the pained look on Sean’s face. “It’s not as bad as it looks,” he said to both teens. Then, to Erin, “Do you know where your mom is?”
Erin pointed in the direction of the gate between the shelter and the barn. “She and Abby are taking turns giving shelter tours.”
He had walked right past there, so Heather must have been giving a tour. “Okay, thanks. What about the twins?”
Erin shrugged. “Around here somewhere. They ran out of tickets a while back, so…” She shrugged again.
“Okay. If you see them, tell them to come find me at the shelter. I’ve got more tickets for them.”
“Will do.” Erin hugged him again. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Thanks.” Adrian hadn’t walked ten feet before he was tackled from behind, and two spindly little arms wrapped around his legs. He’d know that tackle and those spindly little arms anywhere. “Josh, hey.”
“Ade! You came!” Josh released him, and Adrian turned to see Josh, Caroline, and another kid about their same size staring at him. “Whoa!” Josh yelled, apparently delighted at Adrian’s gruesome appearance. “You’re all bruised up. Can I see your scars?”
“Maybe later.”
Caroline stood behind the boys, looking uncomfortable. Adrian knelt. “Come here, Caroline.”
She eased forward, and he gently guided her to sit on his knee. “I’m sorry you had to see what happened yesterday. I know that was very upsetting for you.”
She nodded, her green eyes solemn.
“But I’m okay now.”
She didn’t say anything. She just stared.
“Are you okay?”
She stuck her thumb in her mouth and shrugged.
“She had nightmares,” Josh offered. “Didn’t you, Caroline?”
She nodded.
He smoothed her long blond hair. “I’m really sorry about that.”
“Did you get stitches?” Josh asked, clearly enthralled with the idea.
“Yep.” When Adrian looked at Josh, he noticed Caroline studying his face. When he turned his head, she would’ve been able to see the bruised skin beneath his sunglasses. Not black, exactly, but certainly a nice deep purple.
“How many?” the other kid, a boy with curly red hair and freckles, spoke up.
“Forty-six,” Adrian answered.
“Wow,” both boys said at once.
“Did it hurt?” Caroline asked in a soft, hesitant voice.
Adrian thought about sugarcoating it, but he knew Caroline would know better, and he wanted her to trust him. “Yes, it did. It hurt pretty bad. But not the getting-stitches part. They gave me shots so that part didn’t hurt.”
“Shots hurt,” Caroline said. “Don’t they?”
He smiled. “Yeah, but not much because after the first few shots, everything starts to go numb.”
She reached up and touched the bruise that wasn’t quite hidden by his sunglasses.
“Is your nose broke?” Josh asked with avid curiosity.
“No. My nose isn’t broken.” They’d done a CT scan to determine the severity of his concussion, so even though his nose looked broken, they knew for sure that it wasn’t.
“Mama said you had a combustion, though.”
Adrian laughed, then winced because any kind of movement still hurt like hell. “I had a concussion. But it’s going to be okay too.”
“Okay, well,” Josh said, now that all the fun of examining Adrian’s injuries was over. “Max and me are gonna go play. Caroline, are you coming?”
Caroline looked at the boys, then at Adrian, weighing her options.
“You can come with me if you like,” he said to her. “I’m gonna go find your mother.”
She smiled at him, a tiny upward tilt of her lips. “I’ll come with you.”
Adrian stood, and Caroline slipped her hand into his. He gave a handful of tickets to Josh, who yelled, “Thanks, Ade.” After counting his ticket windfall, Josh grinned. “I’ll split with ya,” he promised his friend, and both boys took off in the direction of the bouncy house.
“I’ve got tickets for you too, Caroline, if you want to play any of the games.”
“No, thank you. But after we find Mama, can we go see the puppies?”
“Sure thing.” They went to the tent where the shelter tours started. Abby was sitting in one of the two chairs, reading a book. Her wavy brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail, a few wisps escaping to twirl down her neck. She wore a cute sundress and sandals but looked a little wilted in spite of the warm breeze.
“Hey, Abby,” Adrian said.
She looked up from the book she was reading. “Holy sh…” Her wide hazel eyes flickered from him to Caroline. “Holy…um…sheep.”
Abby set her book aside and walked over to study Adrian’s face. Gingerly, she lifted his sunglasses, just enough to see his two black eyes, before easing them gently back down. “You’re lucky to be alive, man,” she whispered.
“So I’ve been told. About a million times.”
“I didn’t think…” Abby swallowed. “It’s worse than I imagined.”
He cut his eyes down toward Caroline. “I’m fine,” he said with emphasis. “The bruises will fade in a few days.” Or weeks, whatever. “Heather’s giving a tour, I guess?”
“Yeah. She’ll be done in a few minutes if you want to wait here.”
“Then we’re gonna go look at the puppies,” Caroline announced. He could tell that his accident had set his relationship with Caroline back a bit, but once again, progress was being made.
“Yep, we are,” he agreed, smiling down at her. “I just hope they’re not too cute because I’m pretty sure your mama wouldn’t want us bringing home a new puppy, huh?”
“Adrian,” Heather said from behind him. “Can we talk in private for a few minutes?”
He turned, smiling, but felt the smile die when he saw her expression. Remote, resolute, regretful. The distance he’d sensed between them at the hospital hadn’t decreased overnight, as he’d hoped. Instead, it seemed that though they stood next to each other, they were worlds apart.
Heather turned to Abby. “Don’t you think we can stop doing tours at this point?” Her tone was light, but he knew she was faking a nonchalance she didn’t feel.
“Yeah, sure.” Abby sounded puzzled but agreeable. “Everyone who wanted a tour has probably already done it.”
Heather knelt to talk to Caroline. “How about if Abby takes you to get a snack or something?”
“But Adrian was going to take me to see the puppies,” Caroline said in a quiet, pleading tone. “I want to see the puppies.”
“I’ll take you to see the puppies.” Abby held out a hand to Caroline. “Come on.”
Instead of taking Abby’s hand, Caroline stepped up to Adrian and raised her arms, a silent signal for him to pick her up. With an apologetic glance to Heather for making her wait, he lifted Caroline into his arms and turned slightly away from both Heather and Abby.
Caroline took his face in her small hands. “I’m sorry you got hurt,” she whispered, “but I’m glad you’re gonna be okay.”
Touched by her sincerity, Adrian felt the unaccustomed sting of tears behind his eyes. How long had it been since he’d cried? He couldn’t remember.
“Thank you, Caroline.” He hugged the child close, and when she patted his back and put her head on his shoulder, he realized for the first time that he had already begun to love each of Heather’s kids.
He loved Josh’s wild exuberance, Caroline’s quiet intelligence, and even Erin’s passionate outspokenness. In the hospital last night, he’d had plenty of time to think about the life he’d been leading and the one he wanted to reach out for. He had begun to believe that maybe his life could be about more than his work and his self-indulgent pursuit of the next fun adventure. Maybe he could fit into Heather’s life, and if he tried hard enough, he could be a good daddy to her kids.
But now, watching Heather’s expressive face, he wondered if this would be the last time he saw any of them.
***
Heather spotted Reva walking toward them from the aviary with Freddy the macaw on her arm and Georgia trotting along beside her. Heather took Adrian’s arm and headed in that direction. They met up with Reva near the fence that separated Reva’s private residence from Bayside Barn’s public venue. “Reva,” Heather asked, “can we use your house for a minute? I want to talk to Adrian somewhere private.”
“Sure,” Reva said. “Just don’t let any of the critters out. I’ve put Jack and Winky in there for the day to avoid getting them stressed with all the people around. Winky was in a hell of a mood, so I put him in a big dog crate in the laundry room. But his cat crate is right there, Adrian, so you can take him with you when you’re ready to go back home. Just be careful with the transfer because if he manages to slip out of the house, he won’t be coming back.”
“We’ll be careful,” Heather promised.
Reva looked back and forth between them, her expression concerned. “Is everything okay?”
Heather hesitated, but Adrian answered. “Everything’s fine, Reva.”
“Thanks,” Heather added. “We won’t be long.”
Inside Reva’s old-fashioned farmhouse, a welling-up of love for Adrian threatened to swamp Heather’s determination to pump the brakes on their relationship, but she couldn’t allow that to happen. Gathering courage to say what had to be said, she perched on the edge of an overstuffed chair. Jack, the new three-legged dog, came into the room quietly. He leaned against Heather’s leg.
Adrian pulled an ottoman up close to Heather’s chair, sat in front of her, and slipped his sunglasses up onto his head.
She stifled a gasp at the bruising around his eyes that made the irises seem all the more blue. Without her consent, her arm reached out and her fingertips touched the swollen skin. Then her brain kicked in, and she pulled her hand back as if she’d touched a hot stove.
Adrian leaned forward and grabbed Heather’s hands in his. “I can tell you’re gearing up to kick me to the curb, but before you say anything, please hear me out. This thing between us is happening so fast that it scares you—hell, it scares me too. I know you’re thinking that the accident was a wake-up call, a chance to back out.”
“Not back out. I do think we need to back up to being friends though.”
“Of course we can be friends, sure. But I had a lot of time with nothing to do but think last night, and I’ve realized that I want more than that.”
“I’ve had time to think too. And I’m not capable of more than friendship right now.”
“I know that the accident was traumatic. I get that. But it doesn’t have to change anything between us.”
“Doesn’t it?” Heather pulled her hands out of his and crossed her arms. “From my perspective,” Heather said with emphasis, “it changes everything.”
“No, it doesn’t.” He bolted to his feet and paced the braided rug between the couch and Heather’s chair. “It shouldn’t.”
“It changes everything because it made me realize that I’ve been selfish in thinking that I could have a relationship with you or with anyone. I’m a mother, first and foremost. My first…no, my only responsibility is to protect my kids.”
“I’m a threat to your kids?” Adrian flung his hands up. “How, exactly? You know I would never hurt your children. I wouldn’t harm them in any way. In fact, I would do anything to protect them. Even if you kicked me to the curb, I would still give my life to protect any one of them or you.”
“I know that, Adrian.” Heather kept her voice level. “But first of all, I’m not kicking you to the curb. I’m resetting our relationship before we’re in too deep to back out.”
“Ha!” He pointed an accusing finger at her face. “So. Now you admit it. You do want to back out. You are kicking me to the curb.”
“No, I’m not. You’re twisting my words. I just want to go back to being friends while we still can.”
“You haven’t dated enough to know this, but the friend zone is the death knell for a romantic relationship.”
“We haven’t known each other long enough to call this a relationship though, have we?”
“Not a… Are you kidding me? What you’re saying makes zero sense.” He crossed his arms and studied her, his mouth tight. With exaggerated patience, he walked over to the couch and threw himself into it. “But I’m willing to listen. Go ahead. Shoot.”
In the silence marred only by the ticking grandfather clock, she gathered her thoughts. Honesty, she decided, would be her only recourse because he could read her too well to accept a lie. “I’m falling in love you, Adrian. And you’re right. It scares the hell out of me.”
He nodded, accepting her first declaration of love with little outward emotion beyond the movement of his throat when he swallowed.
The ticking clock marked time.
“I lost more than a year of my life when Dale died. So did my kids. We’re only just now getting over it, and in some ways, we’ll never be over it. Seeing…watching Dale die, right in front of us, and not being able to do anything about it… We were all scarred by it in different ways.”
Adrian nodded. “I understand that.” To his credit, he didn’t follow up with a But…, though she knew he wanted to.
“The bottom line is, I may have already made the mistake of falling in love with you. But the kids aren’t there yet. I need to protect them from making that same mistake. Because if we allow you to take Dale’s place—”
“I don’t want to take Dale’s place,” Adrian butted in, his voice earnest. “He will always be your kids’ father. I wouldn’t try to diminish his memory.”
“I know, Adrian, but it’s not even about that.”
“Then what’s it about?”
“I can’t…” Sudden tears swamped the back of her throat, and she tilted her head back to keep them from flooding her eyes too. She felt him touch her knee and tilted her legs gently away from him to the other side of the chair. “I can’t let you into our lives as anything more than a friend because none of us would survive it if anything happened to you. Maybe one day…”
He moved back to the ottoman and grabbed her arms, forcing her to look into his poor, bruised eyes. “Nothing is going to happen to me. I promise.”
She touched his cheek. “But it already has, and it could again. It’s a miracle you’re not dead, Adrian. And if you had been…” This time, she couldn’t stop the tears from filling her eyes and spilling over. “I barely managed to keep it together when Dale died. There were days…weeks…” She gave a huff of sad laughter. “Hell, there were whole months when I thought I’d go crazy.”
“But you didn’t.”
Confessing it all, she realized, was the only way to get through this. “I actually did go crazy sometimes.” She looked into his eyes and allowed herself to show him everything she felt. Maybe letting him know how toxic too much love could be would convince him when nothing else could. “I love my children, of course. You know that.”
“Everyone knows that, Heather. It’s evident in everything you do.”
“But Dale was my soul mate. We were everything to each other. When he died, I did go a little bit crazy. I screamed at Josh to go get the EpiPen, not thinking that he was too little to reach it. I screamed at Caroline to go find my phone so we could call for an ambulance. I screamed at Erin to get the damn horse out of the way because I was too scared to do it and I didn’t want to leave Dale’s side. My poor kids…”
Heather took a shuddering breath and wiped her eyes with the tissue Adrian pressed into her hand. “My poor kids were rushing all over the place, trying to save their daddy, while all I did was sit there and hold his hand and scream at them.”
“It was an emergency situation,” he said, too quick to make excuses for her. “Of course you would be frantic.”
“But it wasn’t just then that I was a bad mother. There were days afterward when I couldn’t get out of bed. I just…checked out. Erin had to step up and be the twins’ mother because I…I just couldn’t. She took care of me when I should have been taking care of her. She taught herself to cook, brought me food, encouraged me to eat.… I didn’t even care that my children needed me. Sometimes, I’d send them outside to play so I could lock myself in my bathroom and scream until my throat was sore.
“If anyone had known how badly I was coping… If the kids had said anything to their teachers, the authorities would have taken my kids away from me. And they’d have been right to do it.”
She paused to let that sink in before hitting him with the worst of it. “There were times when I let my children take care of themselves while I locked myself in my bedroom because I was afraid of what I might do to them.”
“You would never hurt your children.”
“Wouldn’t I?” She twisted the tissue he’d given her. “How would you know?”
“I know you better than to think you could harm your kids.” He put a hand over hers. “You should know yourself better than to think that.”
“Pushed to the brink, anyone is capable of anything. My mother taught me that, when my father left us and she took it out on me. For years, she took it out on me. And that’s a lesson I’ll never forget. My kids and I have finally made it out of the woods, and now you’re trying to lure us right back in.”
“But, Heather, you’re not your mother. And I’m not Dale. I don’t have any allergies. If a bee stung me—”
“It was hornets.”
“Fine. Hornets, bees, whatever. If anything stings me, I’m not going to die.”
“And Dale wouldn’t have died if he’d carried his EpiPen with him like any normal person would have. But he didn’t because he was too much of a fucking cowboy to take simple precautions.” One of Reva’s cats hopped into her lap, and she petted its soft fur. “You’re just like him in that respect. You were a fucking cowboy on that ski yesterday. Skiing backward, doing 360s—”
He scoffed. “I go skiing like three times a year. I’ll never ski again if that’s what it takes—”
“Yeah, but what about all the other stuff you like to do? Hiking, you could get bit by a snake. Riding Charlie, you could fall off. My point is, I’m not capable of a romantic relationship with you right now.”
“And if that’s not enough for me?” His eyes had gone dark, his voice deadly soft.
“Maybe our friendship will evolve into something more—and I hope it does—but I can’t promise that it will. I’m not ready—”
He stood and looked down at her, his expression grim. A slow-simmering anger had begun to build behind his eyes. “So you’re saying you don’t want any claim on me besides friendship. I can date who I want, fuck who I want, do whatever I want, and it won’t bother you. I’m no different to you than Quinn or Mack.”
“Of course you’re different.” She’d said she was falling in love with him, but he seemed not to remember that now. How had this conversation devolved so suddenly? She wanted to apologize, to take it back, to jump up and wrap her arms around him. But instead she forced herself to sit still. With her hands buried in the cat’s fur, she closed her eyes and tried to gather her thoughts, to figure out what she could say to make him understand. “I’m not breaking up with you, Adrian. I just want to put the brakes on us for a while. That’s all.”
“Yeah?” His voice sounded cold and distant. “And how long is a while?”
“I don’t know.”
“A day? A month? A year?”
The anger in his voice brought tears to her eyes, but she blinked them back. “I don’t know. Maybe a year? Or a few months?”
“Sorry, honey.” The endearment sounded like a curse. “That ain’t gonna work for me.”
“But…” She wanted to remind him of their pinkie swear to always be friends no matter what. But when she looked up at him, his expression took her breath away, and the words she wanted to say shriveled in her throat.
“I guess I’ll see you at the shelter sometime. Friend.” Then he turned and walked out, closing the door with a soft and final click.
***
Reva stood with Abby at the adoption event, watching Caroline commune with one of the adoptable dogs through the bars of his crate. Heather walked toward them, holding Josh by the hand and looking straight ahead with a miserable expression on her face. “Uh-oh,” Reva said to Abby under her breath. “This doesn’t bode well.”
“What is going on?” Abby asked, also talking quietly. “I noticed a high degree of tension between Heather and Adrian earlier.”
“It appears that she just broke up with him,” Reva said, not particularly caring that she was betraying a confidence. Heather needed to have her butt spanked, and Reva had been hoping that Adrian would do it—sweetly, of course.
“What?” Abby squeaked. Then she lowered her voice. “I didn’t even know they were a thing.”
“For about two minutes, maybe,” Reva said. “But it looks like Heather’s gone and trashed it.” She shook her head and made a tsking sound. When Heather reached them, Reva narrowed her eyes and speared Heather with a look.
“Don’t judge me,” Heather said, her voice wobbly.
“None of my business.” But her heart ached for all of them. Not just Heather and Adrian, who Reva hoped would go to his friend Quinn for solace and advice, but for Heather’s kids and that poor horse. Charlie had allowed himself to trust, only to be abandoned by someone he loved yet again. “I guess you’re grown-up enough to do what you think is best.”
Reva knew her tone suggested otherwise. She could abide foolishness in strangers, but when she saw someone she loved making a mess of their lives—and therefore also the lives of their animals, who had no say in the matter—Reva had to admit that she sometimes took it a bit personally. “Is Adrian taking Winky with him?”
“He didn’t take him when he walked out.”
“Great,” Reva said. “I guess I’ll find out what kind of mess that cat has become when I get back to my house.”
“I guess you will,” Heather agreed. She shifted her focus to Abby. “I’m going to take Josh and Caroline home now. Do you think you could get Quinn to give Erin a ride home later? She wants to stay and help with the cleanup.”
Abby nodded. “Sure. Or I’ll take her myself. No problem.”
“Thank you. Come on, Caroline. It’s time to go.”
Caroline popped up like one of those suction-cup frogs. “Okay, Mama.”
As Heather walked away with the twins, Reva noticed how brittle she looked, as if she was barely holding herself together. Did Heather think this self-inflicted trauma was better than reaching out for the chance at happiness the universe held out to her? Reva shook her head. “I hope I’m never guilty of whacking a gift horse on the rump and telling it to get the hell away from me.”
Sara sidled up to Reva and Abby. “What is going on?”
“I’ve said too much already,” Reva said, “but you should give Heather a call later on. She’ll need a friend to talk to, and I’ve already tried. It’s someone else’s turn, I think.”
“Okay, I will.” Sara turned to Abby. “Now that y’all have the grand opening out of the way, I guess you’ll be shifting to wedding planning?”
“It’s mostly done,” Abby said. “All but the actual decorating and last-minute stuff. Thanks for offering your photography skills on the day.”
“It was the best wedding gift I could think of,” Sara answered. “I’m honored that you’re taking me up on it.”
“Do you know that in all the years Bayside Barn has been in operation,” Reva said, “it’s never been a wedding venue before? This’ll be a first. I wish we had time to grow some jasmine or climbing roses on the arbor Quinn is building for the ceremony.”
“Ribbons and plastic flowers will be fine for us,” Abby said. “And I’ll plant something pretty afterward to commemorate the occasion. Maybe whoever gets married there next will reap the benefit.”
“Yeah, and I was hoping it would be…” Reva sighed. “Never mind.”
A really tall guy—had to be six foot six—came up to them.
“Hello, ladies,” he said in a deep, silky voice.
They all looked way, way up to meet his serious—and seriously attractive—chocolate-brown eyes.
Abby and Reva both answered, “Yes?”
Sara said “Hello” in a tone that suggested she’d just had the wind knocked out of her sails. And rightly so, Reva thought. This guy was serious eye candy. Not as pretty as Heather’s Adrian, but then again, there was no comparing Superman to Kylo Ren, was there?
This guy, whose long black hair fell in loose waves to his wide shoulders, didn’t have the sort of face you’d call gorgeous or even traditionally handsome. A better description would be…arresting. Compelling.
“Hey, um…” He seemed adorably abashed being the object of such close regard. “I’m here to help my friends”—he glanced over at a polished-looking couple who were bending down to look at some dogs in a nearby kennel—“choose the right dog for them.”
Reva took charge, hoping that Sara would remember to close her mouth sometime soon. “Sure. I’ll help you find the right people to talk with.” Reva looped her arm through his and walked toward his friends. “Were you interested in a certain dog?”
He pointed out a black mastiff-Rottweiler dog inside a huge kennel that was still only big enough for the dog to stand up and turn around. “This one, I think.”
Reva looked around and couldn’t find any of the folks wearing the T-shirts that would identify them as volunteers for the organization manning this tent. “I’m sorry. I don’t see any of the right people here at the moment.”
Reva glanced over at Sara, who had composed herself and was now smiling instead of looking as if she’d been smacked upside the head. “Sara, could you come over here? Maybe you can help…um…” She looked way up at the guy’s…smoldering sex appeal. That was another good description that had eluded her before. “I’m sorry. I didn’t get your name?”
“Justin.” He stuck out a hand, and when she shook hands with him, his hand completely engulfed hers. “Justin Reed. I’m a dog trainer. I’m helping my friends choose the right dog. We’d like to take him on-leash, maybe to one of those fenced areas, if that’s okay, and work with him a little.”
Sara came over with her phone in her hand. “I just sent a text. They’re next door grabbing something to eat. Said they’d left a note that they’d be right back, but it must have blown away.” She smiled at Justin, and a gust of wind caught her long copper curls and sent them flying, proving her point. “I don’t doubt it, either. This wind!”
“Sara, this is Justin,” Reva said. “Can you help him and his friends take this dog to one of the play yards?”
“Yes, of course.” Sara bent down to unhook the leash that had been fastened to the door of the crate, then asked the big black dog to sit. He sat, and Reva sent a silent “Good job” to the dog, who cocked his ears and glanced toward her but went back to staring straight ahead while Sara unlatched the crate door and hooked the leash to his collar.
Reva’s phone in her pocket beeped with a loud emergency alert alarm. She let out a surprised yelp and just about jumped out of her skin. Several other phones nearby went off as well, and a ripple of “Whoos!” and “Ohs!” and “Ooohs!” went through the crowd. Reva silenced her phone and was still reading the message when the alarm went off again. “I get it,” she fussed at her phone, hitting the mute button for the second time.
Sara gave the leash to Justin. Without speaking a word, Justin looked down at the dog, who responded immediately by sitting at Justin’s side and training his gaze on Justin, awaiting further instruction. The couple who’d come with Justin so he could help them choose a dog sidled up to join the conversation. “What’s going on?” the pretty blond woman asked. “Was that an Amber Alert?”
“Incoming storm alert,” Reva answered absently. They had thirty-six hours’ notice to prepare for the arrival of a tropical storm with the potential to become a hurricane. But she was more interested in the arrival of this guy, a kindred spirit, whether he knew it or not.
Reva had never met another animal communicator before, aside from her niece, Abby, whom Reva had trained herself. But this big guy standing in front of her definitely was one.
Did he know it? Or was he like Cesar Milan, who seemed to think that his training ability was all due to the accurate observation of body language and the astute application of behavior modification techniques?
“Yeah?” Justin looked up at the still-clear-blue skies. “When?”
She flapped a hand. “Couple days. It’s just a tropical storm. I doubt it’ll turn into more than a Category 1, if that. We’ll be fine.”
The woman’s eyes opened wide. “You mean a hurricane?”
“Just a little one. More likely, just a tropical storm.”
“We’re from California,” she said. “We’re used to earthquakes and fires. Aren’t you worried?”
“If it was expected to be bigger, yes, we’d be worried. But with these smaller storms, we’re more concerned with flooding than wind. And we’re on high ground here. This bluff has been built up over centuries.”
“Sounds like you’ve got everything under control, but…” Justin took his wallet out of his back pocket and flipped it open one-handed while the dog at his side looked on with interest. “If you do need help with evacuating the animals, we can provide transportation.” He gave Reva his business card.
“Oh, yes,” the pretty lady said. “We’ll be filming in New Orleans for the next few months. We have access to any sort of vehicle you’d want. Buses, ambulances, whatever. The props department can get anything. If y’all need help, let Justin know.”
“Thank you.” Reva looked down at Justin’s business card. “We will.”
Now, she was the one who probably looked like she’d been smacked upside the head, and she reminded herself to close her mouth. Justin wasn’t just a dog trainer; he was an animal trainer for the film industry. His picture showed him cozying up to a full-grown tiger, something that made Reva feel immediately and intensely jealous.
“Sara,” Reva said weakly, “would you please show Justin and his friends to the play yard? I need to see how things are going next door.”
Maybe Justin and Sara would hit it off and exchange numbers. They clearly had some chemical thing going between them. But since Reva had struck out matchmaking between Heather and Adrian—who had seemed so right for each other—she might as well put any ideas about those other two out of her head.
Reva went back to her house, wondering what sort of state she’d find Winky in. Poor cat had been bounced around so much in such a short amount of time that she feared he would never trust humans again. “Winky?” Reva walked toward his crate in the laundry room. “How you doing, kitty?”
The poor cat sat in his litter box, his face tucked into the far back corner of the crate. His head was down; his eyes were closed. Reva cautiously opened the crate door in case he thought about running, but he sat still and unresponsive. She reached into the crate to touch his hunched back. He didn’t flinch or hiss or try to run. He didn’t move at all. “Hey, buddy. What’s wrong, huh?”
She knew what was wrong, but she was hoping to start a dialogue, to get him to express his feelings about being abandoned. “Do you feel like talking about it?”
She didn’t get a sense of yes or no. She didn’t get anything at all. Winky had shut down emotionally to such a degree that Reva couldn’t reach him.
***
Adrian sat on his balcony early the next morning and watched the river drift past. He still had trouble believing that Heather had kicked him into the friend zone, which honestly wasn’t that far from the curb. He knew exactly what the let’s be friends line meant because he’d used it himself more times than he could count.
He’d used it on Jamie, who’d been just as ready to move on as he had, so they’d actually been able to be friends after the breakup. But no mistake; it had been a breakup. That’s exactly what let’s be friends meant. He learned that when his high school girlfriend found somebody new the month after he moved to Houston. Let’s be friends. Yeah, right.
He missed Heather already.
He missed her kids.
He even missed the damn cat and regretted not taking Winky with him when he left. Winky would have given him some comfort. But at the time, Adrian hadn’t wanted to take even a minute to do what needed to be done to make that happen. He’d been so angry and upset that he hadn’t wanted to do anything other than get the hell out of there.
He was halfway home before he realized that his parents would be worried that he’d just disappeared. He pulled over and sent a text claiming that something work-related had come up and he had to return to New Orleans right away. Then he sent step-by-step instructions they could follow to get to the highway when they were ready to head home.
He couldn’t believe he’d run away like an embarrassed kid. Stupid. He had been too shell-shocked to think straight, as numb as he’d been when that ski first hit him in the face.
The pain was coming on stronger now, along with a hefty dose of anger at Heather for not even giving them a chance. He felt as isolated and uprooted now as he had when Hurricane Katrina had torn through New Orleans and ripped through his life.
Adrian realized that because of what he’d been through, he could empathize with animals whose lives were impacted by events over which they had no control. Adrian had promised to ride Charlie no matter what happened with Heather. The poor horse had done nothing wrong. But now, through no fault of his own, Charlie would be stuck in his stall again with no one to ride him.
Okay, not strictly true because Adrian felt sure Quinn would spend time with the horse. But for Quinn, it would be a perfunctory obligation. For Adrian, it had been a pleasure and a joy. For him and for Charlie, it had been the beginning of a relationship.
And hell, he had relationships with Heather’s kids too, no matter what she thought. What right did she have to yank the foundations out from under all those relationships?
Tired of sitting on the balcony and fuming all by himself, he thought about calling Jamie but decided against it. Fuck-buddy sex wasn’t going to help his situation, and he liked Jamie too much to damage the friendship they’d managed to salvage from the ashes of a few too many meaningless hookups.
Besides, Jamie wasn’t Heather. The only reason he and Jamie had managed to be friends after being lovers was that neither of them really wanted the other. And he did want Heather. Still.
Aimless, he went back inside and turned on his laptop. Took care of some business, billed some clients, took on that new job he’d been angling for. They wanted him to come to Dallas to meet everyone and observe the company setup in person, so fine, he’d go to Dallas. He e-signed the contract, made the bookings, then emailed his itinerary to the company president. He would fly out first thing in the morning, then stay for a couple of weeks. That should get him over the worst of this.
By the time he got home from Dallas, he would be over his failed-before-it-even-got-started relationship with Heather.
And, he realized, it was just as well that he hadn’t brought the cat.
But dammit, he deserved a chance to say goodbye to Charlie. He sent a text to Heather:
I’ll be going out of town for a few days. I’m going to your place today to ride Charlie one more time before I leave. I’ll come when you’re at work and the kids are at school.
He didn’t ask Heather for permission. Fuck getting her permission. Adrian had made a promise to that horse, and he intended to keep it. He’d go today and spend some quality time with Charlie. He’d double-check with Quinn that he would be around to ride Charlie while he was away.
And when Adrian got back from Dallas, he would insist on the right to continue riding Charlie on a regular basis. Hell, maybe he’d even insist on buying the horse from her. There were plenty of high-dollar full-board horse barns around here where he could rent a stall.
It wasn’t like Heather spent any time with Charlie anyway beyond the bare minimum required for the horse’s upkeep. Maybe she would let him buy Charlie. Then at least he’d get a horse out of the deal instead of walking away with nothing but a broken heart.
With a plan in mind and a tiny ember of resentment burning in his heart, he dressed in jeans and boots and a thin old T-shirt for riding, then stuffed a change of clothes and a pair of tennis shoes into his gym bag.
A message came through from Heather:
That’s fine! Charlie will be glad to see you.
It seemed from the breezy tone of her text that she was already comfortable with her decision to put him in the friend zone. But then, a second later, another message came through.
Please be careful.
Adrian flipped a bird at his phone and headed out the door.