Good Guys Love Dogs (3 page)

came from a different world than the
one she knew.

“Exactly who are
you going to meet, Phoebe

continued, “tromping
around in dairy barns in waist-high

rubber boots?

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INGLATH COOPER

“The bulls I run
into are a lot more interesting than

most of the men I know.

Phoebe let out an inelegant snort.

Just then, Lena tromped down the
stairs in black

military boots, her purple bombshel
replaced by a tie-dyed

explosion of orange, red and green
that made the first

outfit look tame by comparison. The
streaks of purple hair,

in tribute to the discarded
ensemble, remained. “It looks as

if Lena's finally decided on the
look of the day, Colby

said, lowering her voice. “I've
got to get going. We're

already late.

“Wait! You didn't
answer my question. Dinner this

Friday. My house. Be here.

“Phoebe—

“I promise you
won't regret it. Phoebe added a hasty

goodbye and hung up before Colby
could argue further. If

she'd had the time, she would have
cal ed her back and

given her a definite no on the spot,
but Lena would be late

for school and Colby had an early
appointment. Turning

down Phoebe's invitation would have
to wait.

24

2

en minutes later, Colby parked in
front of

TJefferson County High School. It
sat on a smal

rise, and built of brick with
classic lines, it was the kind of

building that would never look
outdated. A football

stadium—impressive
for a town the size of Keeling

Creek—sat to the
right of it.

The engine of her old Ford truck
shook a bit as she

put it into park. Out of habit, she
leaned across to give Lena

a goodbye kiss on the forehead.

“Mom! Lena
strained against her door as if Colby had

just come after her with a hot
branding iron.

Colby sat back in her seat, her
hands resting on the

steering wheel. The kiss had been a
reflex action, one of

those things that seemed impossible
to stop when she'd been

doing it for so many years. It had
only been in the past

several weeks that Lena started
rebuffing her affection. A

lump of emotion lodged in Colby's
throat. She hated to see

Lena grow up. If this was how the
young made themselves

independent from their parents, then
she only wished the

25

INGLATH COOPER

process over. Watching her daughter
pul away from her

day by day hurt too much. “Are
you coming by the clinic

after school? she asked, keeping her
voice light.

“No. A bunch of
us are going to the Dairy Queen.

Lena hadn't come by the office in
weeks. Ever since

she'd started kindergarten, she
hightailed it to the practice

as soon as the bel rang, helping out
with dog baths and

feedings, anything to be around the
animals. Now, she

seemed to have lost interest. Colby
forced herself not to

respond, but it hurt, nonetheless.
“What time wil you be

home, then?

“The usual.

Colby refrained from mentioning that
“the usual

recently stretched its boundaries to
anywhere between four

and six o'clock. “Just
be back by dinner.

A black Mercedes sedan rolled into
the spot in front

of them, its bumper barely missing
the hood of Colby's

truck.

“Oh, no! Lena
slid down in her seat.

“What is it?
Colby asked, startled.

“The new guy.
Luke McKinley. Oh, my gosh, he's so

awesome!

Not once in fifteen-plus years had
Colby ever heard

such words from Lena. She'd always
been a tomboy. As a

child, she'd have chosen playing in
the dirt over playing with

dol s any day of the week. Not so
long ago, boys rated the

same level as fish bait. Colby
wished they'd stayed there.

Nonetheless, she strained her neck
for a glimpse of the

boy.

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GOOD GUYS LOVE DOGS

“I gotta go, Mom,
Lena said, reserve creeping into her

voice as she slid out of the truck.

From the back seat, Petey and Lulu
barked in protest

when Lena forgot to say goodbye.

Colby glanced at the wounded-looking
pair. “So you've

noticed, too, huh? She put the truck
in gear, stretching for

another glimpse of the vehicle in
front of her. The boy

hadn't gotten out yet, and she could
hardly sit here al day.

She wheeled around the Mercedes,
watching Lena linger at

the door, no doubt waiting for
Awesome Luke.

27

3

olby headed up Main Street toward
the clinic,

Cfrustrated by the
twenty-five-mile-per-hour speed

limit. Joe Dooley tooled along in
front of her in his farm-

use pickup, an old Chevy that had
seen its fortieth birthday

and then some. A firm believer that
laws were laws, Joe

kept the needle of his speedometer
safely on twenty-four.

Telling herself to stop fretting and
enjoy the early

September morning, Colby waved at
Ruby Lynch who was

sweeping the sidewalk at Thurman's
Hardware. Keeling

Creek had become known as one of the
few towns that, so

far, had been bypassed by the
fast-food chains and super

shopping stores. Smal family-run
businesses stil flourished,

and Colby liked it that way.

Just past Thurman's sat Tinker's
Drug and Soda

Fountain. Then came the First Bank
of Jefferson County.

Across the street, Kirk's Department
Store had occupied

the same spot for four decades. Next
to Cutter's Grocery

sat the Dippety-Do Hair Salon, where
she went for a

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GOOD GUYS LOVE DOGS

monthly trim and the current dose of
gossip that came free

of charge with it.

Ahead, the county courthouse loomed
whitewashed

and noble. Euel Clemens and Oat
Henley, local farmers,

stood talking at the door, waving at
her as she drove by. In

two more blocks she reached the
Dairy Queen, where Joe

Dooley turned off, no doubt making a
pit stop for his

morning egg biscuit. Colby waved and
sped up a little, only

to spot the town maintenance crew up
ahead, doing some

kind of repair work that brought the
traffic to a halt. She

glanced at her watch and sighed.
Late. About to be later.

She rol ed down her window and waved
at El is

Holbrook, now holding the Stop sign
at the front of the line

of cars. He stepped back to her
truck. “Mornin', Doc.

“Good morning,
Ellis. Think this is going to take

long?

Ellis shook his head and adjusted
his Jefferson County

High Eagles cap, wiping the sweat
from his forehead.

“Shouldn't be but
a few more minutes. I'd tel you to back

up, but you've got too many cars
behind you now.

“I understand,
she said. “How's Toby?

Ellis reached through the window to
pet Petey, then

turned his attention to Lulu,
impatiently waiting her turn.

“He's fine. Nasty
cut on his leg, but it seems to be healin'

up real nice.

“He's lucky he
didn't lose it, getting tangled up in that

barbed wire.

“I wager he'll
steer clear of it from now on. I'd better

get back up there. We'l have you
movin' shortly, Doc.

29

INGLATH COOPER

“Thanks, El is.
Colby rol ed up her window, thumped

her thumbs on the steering wheel and
flicked on the radio.

WKKI announced the First Baptist
Church's plans for a

bake sale on Court Street this
Saturday and then promised

to be right back after a few
messages from its sponsors.

This was Colby's favorite season,
when summer wound

down and took the heat with it,
leaving cool mornings and

warm days in its place.
Traditionally, a time of year that she

and Lena always enjoyed together,
shopping for school

clothes and supplies, registering
for school and buying

textbooks. But this year had been
different. Lena merely

endured each of those outings, as if
she couldn't wait for

them to be over.

A song came on, as promised, and
Colby's fingers

fol owed the rhythm on the center of
the steering wheel

while she wondered if she'd somehow
taken a wrong turn

in her efforts to make up for Lena's
never having had a

father. Being a good parent was the
most important thing

in her life.

In most ways that counted, she
hadn't let Doug be the

stumbling block that he could have
been. She'd done

exactly what she'd always planned to
do. Gotten her

college degree and gone to vet
school. Opened the first

female-owned practice in Keeling
Creek. In fact, since Dr.

Granger retired two years ago, she
had become the only

veterinarian in town. All of that in
spite of being a single

mother at nineteen. Al of that in
spite of Doug Jamison's

refusal to take any responsibility
for the daughter they

created together.

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GOOD GUYS LOVE DOGS

Doug left singe marks on her soul
where relationships

were concerned. Phoebe didn't
understand that. And Colby

gave up trying to make her see that
even if she ever met

someone worth the effort, she
couldn't put her heart on

the chopping block again. She'd had
it pulverized once in

her life, and once had been quite
enough for her.

31

4

ome twenty minutes later, Colby pul
ed up to the

SJefferson County Animal Clinic. She
parked the

truck in her usual spot and hopped
out. Petey and Lulu,

used to the routine, waited for her
to raise the seat so they

could get out. She'd found them
three years ago at a gas

station in Grayson County where
someone apparently

dropped them off. Viewing her as
their savior, they wanted

to go everywhere she went and hated
to be left at home.

She hurried across the full parking
lot toward the brick

building enclosed by a white rail
fence with red-and-white

impatiens circling each post. She
rushed through the door

with Petey and Lulu at her heels,
all three of them nearly

tripping over Don Juan, who lay
stretched out like a

welcome mat at the clinic entrance.
Don Juan lived there,

along with several other pets with
problems that made

people decide they no longer wanted
them. Colby refused

to take them to the animal shelter,
so they ended up

making the clinic their home. She
and Lena christened him

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GOOD GUYS LOVE DOGS

Don Juan because al the female dogs
loved him and trailed

him like lovesick señoritas.
Even the cats adored him.

For the past two years, Colby had
been trying to raise

enough private funds to build a
no-kil shelter where pets

stayed until someone adopted them.
Unfortunately, she stil

had a long way to go to meet her
goal, and, meanwhile, her

col ection of animal dependents
continued to grow. She

gave Don Juan a quick rub behind the
ears. “We're going to

have to find you another snoozing
spot, lover boy.

The waiting room overflowed with
pets and their

people, several of whom offered
Colby and her entourage

welcoming smiles. The others simply
looked annoyed at her

tardiness. She didn't blame them.
“Sorry, everybody. I'l try

to make up for lost time here.

Luckily, her two assistants, Laura
and Ruth-Ann, already

had the examining rooms ready, a
petrified-looking

dachshund in one, a bored-looking
Saint Bernard in the

other. “We took
it as far as we could without you, Dr.

Wil iams, Laura said, smiling. “I
did the fecal for little Slim

Jim and Ruth-Ann is in the back
cleaning up. George there

decided not to go to the bathroom
this morning, but when

she pressed on his bladder, he
changed his mind.

“Just another day
at the office, Colby said, shaking her

head and smiling. Laura chuckled and
handed her the white

jacket hanging on the coat rack
behind the door.

One o'clock came and went before she
final y got a

breather. Her last patient had just
left when Stacey Renick

walked in with a can of Coke held
out in front of her. At

twenty, Stacey started working at
the clinic after graduating

33

INGLATH COOPER

from high school. Customers counted
on her smiling face.

Colby often wished for the ability
to clone her. Stacey's

only character flaw was that, she,
too, had the

matchmaking bug and constantly
reported in on recent

“hunk sightings.

“A receptionist's
job is never done, Stacey said.

“Here. You look
like you could use this.

Colby took the Coke. “Thanks.

Petey padded in and plopped down on
the floor beside

Stacey. Laura and Ruth-Ann had gone
to lunch, the place

empty except for the two of them and
a couple of part-

time girls who did grooming.