Love Is in the Air (103 page)

“They run and play together and then they rest under tree and Blackie shakes hands. I wanted to go there too, but Wyatt says I have to learn things first.” Andrea’s eyes shone as she beamed up at her mother. “Isn’t that awesome?”

Ms. Stone gripped the handle of her briefcase until her knuckles turned white. Jazmine feared the expensive Argentine leather would snap in her employer’s hand.

“Andrea, could you go to your room for a bit? I need to talk to Jazmine.”

The little girl didn’t seem to notice that her mother’s voice had lost all sense of warmth. “Okay, Mommy. Can I play some Wii?”

“That’s fine.”

“Can Jazmine come play with me when you’re done?” Andrea asked.

“We’ll see.”

Andrea gave Jazmine’s waist a big hug. Jazmine squeezed back trying not to allow Ms. Stone’s icy glare to unnerve her. Once released, Andrea skipped upstairs, heading toward a playroom that was bigger than Jazmine’s entire apartment. The little girl hummed the tune that had been playing in the car, “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow,” although at this moment Jazmine wasn’t so sure about that.

The sound of the little girl running down the hallway above them filled the room. Then the patter of her steps gave way to the snick of the playroom’s door closing behind her.

Silence. A long silence. A long, cold silence.

Evelyn Stone walked her office off the foyer and set her briefcase on the desk. With typical steady precision she opened the case and got something out. Jazmine wasn’t sure what it was, but she knew she better start talking. Silence from Ms. Stone usually predicted a litany in the making from Ms. Stone.

“Ms. Stone, I am so sorry. I just thought—”

“It’s alright,” Ms. Stone responded.

Okay, that was the last thing Jazmine ever thought that she would hear out of her employers mouth. Jazmine just stood there as Ms. Stone finished writing something down.

“Here you are,” Ms. Stone said as she handed Jazmine a slip of paper. A check.

“I don’t understand…”

Ms. Stone’s eyebrow cocked up. “Really? I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised given the fact you couldn’t follow the simplest of instructions.” She nodded to Jazmine’s hand. “That is your final check.”

Jazmine clutched the paper in her hand. She could
not
get fired. Not with rent coming up and this check not even covering half of it. “Ms. Stone, please, I didn’t mean to—”

“Didn’t mean to what? Countermand my direct instructions? Override my express desires? Contaminate my daughter’s mind with wishful thinking and starry-eyed stories?

Jazmine almost wished Ms. Stone was yelling. Then there might be some hope of figuring this out. But with her employer’s cool, detached manner, Jazmine knew it was impossible. She’d heard that measured tone before. Usually on business calls right before Ms. Stone bought the company and then gutted it for profit.

“That will be all,” Ms. Stone stated before sitting down at her desk.

Jazmine’s lips trembled and she was pretty sure her feet had gone numb. If captains of industry couldn’t change Ms. Stone’s mind, how could she?

Then laughter, bright, tinkling laughter drifted from the room above them. Andrea’s laughter. “Don’t worry, Mario! Andrea’s coming to the rescue!”

With a spark of hope, Jazmine looked to Ms. Stone. Surely her employer must realize that Jazmine had only taken Andrea to the stupid pet whispering event to help her. But Ms. Stone didn’t even look up when she hit the intercom button.

“Andrea, please keep it down. Mommy is trying to work.”

Or not.

With a sigh, Jazmine folded the check in half and left without another word.

* * *

Wyatt dodged to the left. Diablo zagged to the right. They’d been in this Mexican Chihuahua stand off for a while. Another nurse passed by, camera phone in hand. Sure. Laugh. Take videos. Did they not know he was on a life or death mission here?

Turning back to the devil dog, Wyatt cracked his knuckles. “You can do this.” He said just like Richard Simmons had taught him on Bodhi’s old VHS tapes. “You heard the doctor. I’m a good nephew.”

However Diablo lifted his snout in an Elvis sneer then looked away in disdain.

“Darn it, Diablo. Look at me.” Wyatt pointed his index and middle fingers at Diablo’s eyes and then back at his own. “Eyes here.”

The pooch turned his malevolent gaze on Wyatt, glaring with such intensity that Wyatt stumbled backward, bumping into one of the machines, nearly knocking it over.

“Okay, okay… Maybe here.” Wyatt indicated a spot next to his head. Yeah, too close. “Over there.” Wyatt gestured to the far wall. Still not enough. “Way out in the hallway.”

Diablo settled back down next to Bodhi with what could only be referred to as a certain smugness. That was it. The dog was going down.

“You
are
my Everest.” Wyatt began edging around the bed toward the devil beast, speaking in a matter-of-fact tone, “Now, look it. Do you know how heartbroken Bodhi would be if he found out you were in the pound?” Diablo growled deep in his throat, making Wyatt’s skin try to crawl off his body.

Wyatt straightened his shoulders, cracked his neck… and lunged. Diablo sprang into action, leaping up with perfect timing to clamp his needle teeth square onto Wyatt’s nose. Wyatt yelped, grabbed at his wounded proboscis and retreated until he tripped into the chair in the corner of the room.

Diablo barked in triumph, then scuttled down off the bed and scurried underneath, where he proceeded to growl and snarl, the sound magnified and reverberating off the metal.

“Seriously, dog, what is wrong with you?”

Wyatt crouched, looking under the bed. He sprang back ramrod straight when he realized Diablo’s fangs were inches from his still aching nose. He could feel his heartbeat throb in his offended appendage. He probably looked like Rudolph. Rudolph with great hair of course, but Rudolph nonetheless.

Wyatt got down on his hands and knees, well back from the demon’s den, and crawled to the other side of the bed. His hope was to get at the little tyrant diagonally. But Diablo matched him move for move. Everywhere Wyatt went, Diablo mirrored him exactly, cutting off every avenue of attack.

Wyatt rose, dusting off his knees. He had to admit that he was never going to win a straight out battle with Diablo. Who could? This was going to take some strategy.

He rummaged around in the room, staying well away from the bed, finally locating the materials he needed. He first stuffed wads of toilet paper into the sleeves of his shirt, buttoning them into place. He then took two thick stacks of paper towels and wrapped them around his hands, taping them in place with medical tape. Finally he emptied out the wastebasket and placed in on his head like a helmet. He looked at his reflection in the dispenser. He was ready.

“Come on, you little land shark,” Wyatt taunted Diablo now that he was fully geared up. “Show me what you got.”

Wyatt splayed himself out on the ground and wormed his way under the bed. Once again, Diablo proved too savvy. Instead of the head-on attack Wyatt was prepared for, Diablo darted from underneath the bed and ran up Wyatt’s back. The wiley little devil shoved his nose under the rim of the trashcan and nipped at Wyatt’s ears.

“Ow. Ouch! Hey!”

A dry voice remarked from somewhere behind Wyatt’s prostrate form, “Wow. Showing off your “animal oriented” skills, huh?”

* * *

Jazmine was doing everything she could not to laugh. There was Wyatt, sprawled on the ground, rolling around to escape from the tiniest teacup Chihuahua she had ever seen. And what on earth did he have on his head? The tiny pup barked up at her then raced around and up onto the bed.

Wyatt scrambled to his feet, ripping what appeared sheets of paper off of his hands. “What are you doing here?” Wyatt looked a bit crazed, breathing like he’d just run the New York and Boston marathons back to back.

“Hello to you, too. You left before—”

“Wait,” Wyatt said seeming realize that he was still wearing a trashcan on his head as he whipped it off. “Where’s Andrea?”

Jazmine’s mirth vanished. “I dropped her off at home.”

He ran his fingers through his mop of hair. “How is the little lass doing?”

“Great, just great.” Jazmine realized that might have come out a bit harsh. It wasn’t Wyatt’s fault what happened. She softened her tone. “She ran home right up to her mother and told her all about the field and the tree and…”

“And?” Wyatt prompted.

“She fired me.”

“What?” Wyatt stammered. “She can’t. She couldn’t just—”

Jazmine shook her head. “You know. Don’t worry about it.”

“Look, I’ll talk to her and—”

Although it was kind of sweet that Wyatt rose to her defense, there was no talking Ms. Stone back from the ledge on this one.

“It’s okay. I can find another job.”

Wyatt looked possibly more upset than Jazmine felt. She shrugged, “Besides, it was totally worth it. To see Andrea smile again…”

She had meant to just comfort Wyatt with those words but realized they were true. Even if she had know what was going to happen. Even if she knew going to the pet whispering event was going to leave her in the unemployment line and possibly evicted, she would have done it all over again. Jazmine knew what it was like to be bogged down in grief. She couldn’t let Andrea live like that anymore.

But that wasn’t why she had come to the hospital. She better get back to business before she lost this little moment of zen she’d found.

“Anyway, the event didn’t have your contact information, so I brought by your referrals.”

Wyatt snorted. “Yeah right. Not even that crazy bird lady wants me.”

Jazmine placed the cards in Wyatt’s hand as she joked, “Clearly they are much more gullible than you thought.”

Wyatt puzzled over the pieces of paper, turning them over a couple of times. “Wait, these are just phone numbers. Where’s the animal’s information?”

“Oh, sorry. Wrong stack,” Jazmine said, pointing to the cards in his hand. Who could blame her for sneaking a little peak? “Those are women who were hoping you’d communicate with more than their pet, if you know what I mean.”

Wyatt looked as befuddled as he sounded. “Chicks gave me their number?”

“Yes, strangely.” Jazmine chuckled as Wyatt set down his trashcan helmet. She reached into her purse to pull out a much larger stack of cards. “But here are your client referrals.”

* * *

Wyatt reached out and took the huge pile from Jazmine. None of this made any sense. Why would the ferret lady want to see him again? More importantly why would he want to see her? Okay, he got why Ashley and Scout wanted an encore performance, but the iguana? And Wooda baby? He meant Spike? How could all of these people want to hire
him
?

“Oh, no. I guess they don’t matter any more,” Jazmine said as she approached Bodhi’s bed. She turned back to Wyatt. “Although if it is any consolation, I think he’d be proud of the job you did today.”

Wyatt looked up at her. Jazmine’s eyes were hazel, with gold specks in them. Weird. He’d never noticed that before. A nurse bustled in with a tray full of meds, but Diablo growled ferociously at her, hackles raised. The nurse sprang back.

“That’s it,” she declared, fleeing the room, “I’m calling the pound.”

“Okay, Bodhi might’ve been proud,” Wyatt informed Jazmine. “But now I’ve got to get Diablo—”

“Hey,” Jazmine protested, cooing at the spawn of Satan like he was some sort of bunny rabbit. “Don’t call him that.”

“No, that’s his
name
. And his attitude.” Wyatt looked around for something to use to subdue the beast. “I just need to throw something over him, then maybe wrestle him to the—” The whole time Wyatt was prepping for the dog-napping, Jazmine was moving toward the prickly Chihuahua, murmuring sweet little nothings the entire time.

Then she did something crazy. She picked him up.

“Now, now,” Jazmine said, nuzzling against Diablo’s neck. “It’s just nobody understands. You just want love, don’t you baby? I know you want to protect your daddy, but we’ve got to get you home, darling.” Jazmine darted a look at Wyatt. “Some communicator you are.”

“How?” Wyatt sputtered, “Why? What? Huh?”

Jazmine flashed a mean set of dimples. “My mother’s a vet. I grew up around a clinic. Trust me, it’s going to take more than a Chihuahua’s growl to scare me.” She chuckled as she moved to hand the devil dog over. “Here.”

“Uh-uh. No way,” Wyatt said as he backed away. “He likes
you
.”

“Yes, but I’m allergic, so take him.”

Okay, there wasn’t much arguing with that. He didn’t want Jazmine to go all runny eyed and drippy nosed on him.

“Fine. Then here.” Wyatt went to hand the stacks of cards over to Jazmine, stopped, reconsidered, and withdrew the ones with the numbers on them. No sense this day was a complete loss. “I’ll be keeping those.”

“No,” she said urging the cards back at him. “You are keeping them all. They’re yours now.” She offered the dog once more. “Just like
he
is.”

Jazmine deposited the tiny animal in Wyatt’s arms. While Diablo allowed the exchange to happen, he beared his teeth to remind Wyatt exactly who was Alpha male in the relationship.

“Ummm. I’m not sure if you attended the same event as I did, but I ain’t got nothing going on in the communicator arena. Nada.” He made a chopping motion with his empty hand, jostling Diablo. Wyatt went completely still as the dog snarled. Diablo was
way
too close to his nose for comfort.

“True, but honestly, I’m not sure any of them did,” Jazmine explained as she pet Diablo. “You touched those people. You reached Andrea when no one else could. Or would.”

“Yeah, but—”

Jazmine held up her hand, cutting off his half-formed protest. “They felt you understood their concerns. Now they’re asking for your help.” She cocked her head. “I’m assuming you and your uncle need the income?”

Wyatt looked over at Bodhi’s still form. If the insurance wasn’t going to pay for these medical bills…

“Yeah, definitely.” He answered. “But look, I may be able to fake my way through three minutes, but a whole hour…” He stopped. He felt an idea itching at the back of his brain, just like it had with Wooda. If only he could scratch it.