Normally, if his path crossed Shannon’s, especially this early in the morning, Declan would just nod at his niece. But this morning, for some reason, Josie’s words about Shannon wanting his approval had stuck in his head. So, against his better judgment, he initiated a conversation.
“You’re up early,” he said to the teenager, thinking that was a safe observation to make. He doubted that would get her back up, but then he never knew when it came to Shannon. Her attitude had been improving, but a display of temper could just be around the corner.
Surprised that her uncle had said anything at all to her, Shannon stopped walking. She felt if she didn’t answer him, she could very well be rocking the boat. She didn’t want to take a chance on his grounding her. If he did, she knew that Josie wouldn’t take her to the shelter.
“I had to get my chores out of the way first.” She slanted a look at her uncle’s face before going on. “Josie insists on it and she’s coming to pick me up ’cause we’re going to the animal shelter today.”
“Oh.” Declan would have been content to leave his reaction encased in the single word, but if he was going to test Josie’s theory, he knew he would have to say more to Shannon than just one word. “This has turned into a regular thing, hasn’t it? You going to the animal shelter,” he added because Shannon was looking at him as if she wasn’t sure exactly what he was getting at. “You like it? Helping out there?”
Somehow, his own words were sounding rather choppy and disjointed to him. He was about to restate his question when Shannon’s expression shifted.
Declan wasn’t prepared for the radiant smile that rose to his niece’s lips.
“No,” she answered. He thought she was being flippant, but then Shannon went on to tell him, “I love it.”
He would have walked away, satisfied with that, but Declan knew he had left out the important, crucial test that went with this. Taking a deep breath, he forged ahead.
“Josie told me that you were doing a really great job with those dogs.” He saw surprise and then pleasure wash over the girl’s face. It encouraged him to push on. “She said that you were—how did she put it?—‘socializing’ them. Who taught you how to do that?” He was curious.
Shannon shrugged. “Nobody. I just felt like those dogs needed someone to love them and pay attention to them—like anyone else.”
Declan couldn’t help wondering if that was a less than subtle hint meant for him. About to make a comment, he paused and reconsidered the words that rose to his lips in response. Now that he thought about it, maybe he hadn’t been all that supportive of his niece. When he had taken her in, he’d viewed her as one more responsibility when he already had too many to handle. What he hadn’t done was think about her in terms of what she had to be feeling, being palmed off the way she had been on any available adult member of the family. First on his parents and now on him. Quite honestly, he hadn’t thought about the situation from her point of view.
Maybe he should have, Declan told himself. It did seem rather bleak.
“You’re probably right,” he said. “Pretty sharp of you, figuring that out. I’m proud of you.”
For his trouble, he was rewarded with a now all but blinding smile from Shannon.
And just like that, without even thinking about it, he had managed to bridge the gap that had existed between his niece and him. All because of Josie. Pretty damn sharp of the woman, he couldn’t help thinking.
Just then there was a knock on the front door. Shannon was instantly alert, coming to life even more than she already was.
“That’s Josie,” she announced happily, already heading toward the foyer.
“Wait,” Declan said. When she turned to him, he told her, “I’ll walk with you.”
He half expected her to question why he wanted to do that and tell him to stay where he was, saying that she was perfectly capable of opening the door herself.
Instead, Shannon caught him off guard by saying, “Sure. C’mon.”
So when the door opened, Josie found herself not only looking down at Shannon, but up at Declan, who was standing behind his niece.
If the sight of her tall, strapping instructor threw her, Josie didn’t show it.
“Did I forget the part where you said you were coming along with us to the shelter?” Josie asked, cocking her head as she looked at Declan.
“No. I’m just accompanying Shannon to the front door—and after that I’m on my way out,” he told her. And then he couldn’t help adding, “Shannon was up early so she could do her chores before leaving with you.”
Josie flashed a smile at the girl. “Nice to hear,” she said, the remark aimed at both the girl and her uncle. And then she looked at Shannon. “So, are you ready to go to the shelter?”
“Oh, more than ready,” the teen responded. Waving at her uncle, she fell into place beside her new best friend as they walked out the front door. “You know, Uncle D said you told him I was doing a good job,” Shannon confided as if she was revealing a secret. “He actually said he was proud of me.” The girl was fairly beaming again. “How about that?”
She was obviously thrilled by Declan’s comment, Josie thought.
“Why wouldn’t he be proud of you?” the woman asked. “You’ve come a long way in a really short amount of time,” Josie pointed out. “You ask me, that’s really something to be proud of,” she said enthusiastically.
“Aw, it’s no big deal,” Shannon said, shrugging her shoulders.
“Don’t sell yourself short, Shannon. It really is a big deal. Trust me,” she went on as they got into her vehicle. “A lot of people wouldn’t be able to do what you do with those dogs at the shelter. A lot of volunteers lose their patience—or they lose interest. You’ve stuck to it. If anything, you seem to become even more enthusiastic every time you come. I know that Bethany’s really glad you volunteered.”
Shannon looked a little confused. “Which one’s Bethany?”
Josie found it amusing that the girl could keep all the puppies and grown dogs straight in her mind, but had trouble doing the same when it came to the people who ran the shelter.
“Bethany is the director at Furever Paws,” Josie told her. Then, because she could see that her description didn’t really ring any bells for Shannon, she added, “That’s Meatball’s mom,” mentioning one of the dogs recently adopted from the shelter.
That caused the lightbulb to go off in Shannon’s head. “Oh, her. She’s the only one that Salty doesn’t hiss at,” the teen recalled.
Salty was the resident cat—the personal pet of the backyard breeder whose animals had been confiscated. “Salty doesn’t hiss at you, either,” Josie pointed out. The cat hissed at anyone who came close to him.
“That’s because Salty ignores me,” the teenager told her.
“Being ignored is still a lot better than being hissed at,” Josie pointed out. “Don’t worry, you’ll win Salty over eventually,” she promised just as she pulled her vehicle into the shelter parking lot.
She hadn’t come to a full stop yet, but Shannon was already beginning to open up the door on her side to get out.
“Hey, slow down, Shannon. I don’t want you getting hurt because you jumped out of my car before I could bring it to a full stop. The shelter will still be there half a minute from now,” she promised.
With that, Josie pulled her car into a space that was close to the front of the shelter.
Hardly able to sit still, Shannon reminded Josie of a pot that was about to boil over. “Now?” Shannon asked hopefully.
Josie laughed. “Now.”
And Shannon was out of the vehicle like a shot, hurrying to the shelter’s front door. Josie only hoped that the teen would be lucky enough to find something that she was this excited about when she was finally able to go into the work world.
“Is Shannon gone already?” Ruth asked her son as she came out to turn her attention to preparing the lunch she was going to serve later.
“Shot out of the house like a bat out of hell,” Declan told his mother. “But not before she finished doing her chores,” he couldn’t help marveling. “That woman is a miracle worker.”
Ruth didn’t have to ask what woman her son was referring to. “Maybe Josie learned that lavishing a little attention on a very lonely teenager yields a lot of dividends,” she theorized.
“You and Dad used to take Shannon in every time Peggy decided to try to kick her drug habit,” Declan remembered. “You can’t tell me that Shannon didn’t get that attention she needed from you.”
“Actually, that was mostly your father’s department. Those two had their own little mutual admiration society.” Ruth smiled sadly as she remembered and went on working. “And besides, Shannon wasn’t a teenager then.” She shook her head. “Those adolescent hormones throw everything out of whack once they get going. Her grandfather is gone and Shannon’s not staying in what she thought of as her second home.” Ruth stopped working as she thought of the look on her granddaughter’s face after she had been dropped off at Declan’s ranch and her mother had pulled away in her car. “What used to be just being dropped off for a visit now seems like being abandoned.”
Declan frowned. “Well, since you put it that way...” he said, his voice trailing off.
“I do, I don’t get around like I used to. I can’t do things with her the way I used to,” Ruth answered, not very happy about the idea.
“But you’re here, Mom,” he pointed out. “Just not in the same location you used to be in.”
“I might be here, Declan, but I’m not the person I used to be,” she told her son sadly. “I was good at dealing with Shannon-the-little-girl, but I definitely wasn’t any good at dealing with Shannon-the-teenager when she got here. I’m not proud of that.”
Declan’s mouth curved just a shade. “Then I suppose it’s a lucky thing that Josie came to me for riding lessons when she did.”
His mother smiled her agreement as she nodded. “Very lucky,” she said. “It wouldn’t hurt you to let that woman know how grateful you are that she’s taken Shannon under her wing the way she has.”
“Well, she didn’t do it just out of the goodness of her heart,” he reminded his mother, stealing a sliver of the pie she had taken out of the oven and was now cooling on the table. His mother slapped his hand away the way she used to do back when he was younger than Shannon was now. “After all, I am giving her free riding lessons, not to mention that the shelter probably welcomes having another volunteer to help out with the animals that they’ve taken in.”
“Yes, yes, that’s all true,” Ruth agreed, nodding. “But the bottom line, dear, is because of her, Shannon has stopped behaving like a wounded, sullen teenager.” She looked at her son over her shoulder, her eyes meeting Declan’s, warning him not to try to steal another sliver of pie.
But Declan was more interested in what his mother had to say than any piece of pie, good though that pie was.
“Where are you going with this?” he asked her, thinking it would save them both some time if he just asked outright.
“I was thinking that maybe we could invite Josie over for dinner to thank her. I could make something that she really likes to eat,” Ruth suggested, her brown eyes gleaming with anticipation.
How did his mother know what Josie liked to eat? “Such as?” he asked.
Ruth smiled at her son, her manner indicating that he should have figured this out already. “Whatever she tells you that she likes.”
The pieces were beginning to come together. “You want me to ask her?” he guessed, surprised and not a little uncomfortable at the idea.
“Well you’re the one who’s taking her out riding,” his mother reminded him. “Ask her then.”
“Mom, you’re beginning to sound as if you’ve been watching too many of those reality TV shows,” he complained.
“I am perfectly able to have an original thought of my own without taking a cue from one of those programs,” she told her son. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been around longer than those programs have.”
“I have no idea how long they’ve been around,” he told his mother.
“Well, that makes two of us,” his mother admitted with a careless shrug. The programs he had mentioned didn’t interest her. Declan, Shannon and the woman who had come into their lives did.
Knowing how he could easily forget about things, Ruth reminded her son. “Just remember to ask Josie what her favorite food is when the two of you are out riding next, dear.”
His mother made it sound as if their rides were for recreational purposes instead of part of his business. He decided it would do no good to point that fact out. His mother always viewed things exactly the way she wanted to.
He determined that it was best to approach her proposition logically. “And what sort of an excuse should I give her as to why I’m asking about her favorite food?” Declan wanted to know.
Ruth sighed. “Do I have to explain everything to you?” she asked. “Just tell that lovely woman that I wanted to thank her for all she’s done for Shannon and my son by having her over for her favorite meal.”
Red flags immediately went up. “Hold it. Back up,” Declan ordered. “‘To thank her for all she’s done for your son?’” he questioned. “Aren’t you going a little overboard here, Mom?”
His mother just smiled at him. “That’s not the way I see it,” she told him. And then, because she didn’t feel like continuing the conversation along that line, she waved her son toward the door. “Don’t you have some horses to work with today?” she asked.
“Yes, I do,” he answered. “Thank God horses don’t like to argue with me or give me grief,” he told his mother.
“They also can’t cook and clean for you,” Ruth pointed out.
“Right now, Mom, that could only be a tradeoff,” he replied. “See you later,” he tossed over his shoulder as he left the house.
Getting into his Jeep, Declan drove over to the stables. Normally, he did enjoy working with the horses, but at the moment, his mother had planted that suggestion of dinner with Josie in his head and he couldn’t seem to get rid of it or even move it to the back burner.
While the idea of approximating something like a date with Josie was certainly not a deal breaker—he could even view it as something refreshing—he didn’t want his mother acting like some sort of an overzealous matchmaker. The very idea of having her try to create anything akin to a “date” was nothing short of pathetic.
He wouldn’t have thought that it was actually possible, but his mother had managed to succeed in making him dread the next riding lesson he had scheduled with Josie.
Declan supposed that he wasn’t under any obligation to do as his mother had suggested—but if he didn’t, he knew the woman would keep harping on it until he finally gave in and asked Josie what her favorite meal was. Or worse, his mother would ask Josie directly what that meal was.
He supposed there was one good thing to come out of all this, he told himself as he walked into the stable. His mother was finally getting back to being her old self. It had been an exceptionally slow journey for her—and for him, since he was on the outside, observing her progress and worrying about her. Although by no means was she over the death of his father, she had begun to manage her pain and was now displaying interest in their family. That included both Shannon and him—and apparently, the woman who had entered all of their lives.
The woman, he thought now, who didn’t seem to give him so much as a tumble.
Maybe having her over for dinner wasn’t all that bad an idea after all, Declan mused. He decided to play it by ear when their next lesson came up.