Sophie's Path (18 page)

“Yeah. Sophie told me she'd found a really nice person to care for Frenchie. I'm glad it was you.” He glanced at the sandwich in his hand. When he raised his head, his pale hazel eyes were misted over. “Thanks.” He raised his hand. “For this. For Frenchie. There aren't many people like you. And Sophie.”

He turned and started to walk away.

Jack was speechless for a moment. “Hey! Wait.”

Jeremy stopped and turned back. He shook his head. “No. I don't want to pet her. I don't want to hold her. It would kill me. Understand? She's okay now. She has you. I'm good with that.”

Jeremy started jogging, putting distance between himself and Jack.

Jack watched after him, feeling pity. Understanding Sophie in a new way.

CHAPTER TWENTY

J
ACK
HELD
F
RENCHIE
in his lap at one of Indian Lake Deli's sidewalk tables. She licked his hand. He couldn't imagine life without her.

The café umbrella blocked the noon sun, though Frenchie's jeweled collar still glittered in the light, casting beams that apparently fascinated Frenchie enough for her to try to catch them with her paws. She patted the tabletop, tapped Jack's chest and clutched at his forearm.

“Hey, Jack! Who's your new friend?” Nate Barzonni called as he approached, arm in arm with Maddie. Nate was wearing his lab coat, suggesting they'd walked over from the hospital.

Jack lifted the dog in his right hand. “Guys, I'm in love. Meet Frenchie.”

Maddie sat down next to Jack and scooped Frenchie into her arms. “She's precious! I didn't know you had a dog.”

“That's a dog?” Nate joked. “I had a cat bigger than that.”

Jack put his hands over Frenchie's ears. “Don't listen to him. He's just jealous he doesn't have a pretty girl like you.”

Maddie smiled at her husband. “I want one. Where'd you get her?”

“I sorta rescued her.”

“From the Indian Lake Animal Shelter?” she asked, kissing the top of Frenchie's head. Maddie had such a possessive hold on Frenchie, Jack nearly feared he wouldn't get his dog back.

“No, uh, Sophie found her for me.”

“Really?” Nate asked. “Now she's rescuing dogs? The woman is relentlessly—”

“Helpful?” Jack interjected.

“Precisely. She's always volunteering to save the world.”

Maddie rolled her eyes. “Like you're not? Donating free time to the clinic up in Michigan?”

“That's different,” Nate argued.

Jack shook his head. “No, it's not. Two peas in a pod.” He hadn't thought about it that way before, but as soon as the words were out he realized he was right. Nate was as dedicated as Sophie. They were two people with their thumbs holding back the dam.

With the possibility of the hospital being acquired or a new one being built, Jack wondered if there would be money for more personnel. Would Emory continue his cost cutting? Or would there be even broader changes? Generous, talented people like Nate and Sophie were assets to the hospital, but would a big corporation see them that way? Would Emory? Their volunteer work was pulling them in several directions, and that could put their jobs at risk.

The future of Indian Lake Hospital was never far from Jack's mind these days, and he found himself slipping into his own thoughts. Regardless of what Emory planned, there was the chance he'd be forced into early retirement if the merger happened. And if Jack was seen as too closely tied to the former president, he'd never get a meeting with the new hospital board or leadership. He'd be dead in the water before he so much as dove in.

Jack had never had to strategize this much on a deal. The stakes were the highest he'd ever encountered.

Maddie handed Frenchie back to him. “You better take her back, or I'll walk off with her.” She smiled and linked her arm through Nate's. “By the way, you live in the condos on the other side of the Lodges, right? We aren't that far from each other, you know. You should come over for dinner sometime. I have more in my repertoire than cupcakes, I swear.”

“Dinner?” Jack was slightly rattled. Since he'd moved to town, the only dinners he'd been to had been functions with boring speakers, where he hoped to connect with prospective clients. Leathery chicken, frozen vegetables and limp salad were the norm. Dinner was a means to an end, a way to build his business so he could pay salaries and keep the lights on.

Nate smirked at him. “You remember the concept, right, Jack? Food, wine, friends. Maybe listen to some music?”

Maddie rolled her eyes. “Nate's suddenly into country-western. I have no idea what's going on.”

“I got tired of Hopi wind flutes,” he joked as Maddie pushed his shoulder.

Jack stroked Frenchie's head. “Can I bring Frenchie? She's got separation anxiety.”

“Of course!” Maddie replied brightly, eyeing the dog a tad too possessively. “Though something tells me
you're
the one with the separation issues. I'd love for her to visit anytime. I'll call you and we'll set something up.”

Maddie and Nate rose together and walked away with their arms still around each other. Jack couldn't tell where Maddie ended and Nate began, they were so close.

How did they do that?

Staring after them, Jack felt an odd twang in his stomach and realized it was jealousy. Jack had put his personal life on hold for years. But lately, work just wasn't enough. He wasn't fulfilled.

He needed to take action, otherwise he'd always be the odd man out. It was one thing to blame his predicament on business, the move to Indian Lake and the lack of time he had for personal issues. It was another to get lazy. Jack had never been lazy.

He looked at Frenchie's upturned face as an idea took shape. He ruffled her ears and kissed her snout. “Frenchie, I should take you for a stroll. Four blocks ought to do it.”

* * *

A
CTING
ON
A
whim had never been Jack's strong point, and as he approached Mrs. Beabots's, passing Sarah and Luke Bosworth's large Italian stucco house with the massive front porch on the way, Jack felt his resolve melt like sugar in the rain.

“Maybe this wasn't such a good idea,” he said, tucking Frenchie under his right arm.

He'd no more thought about turning around and heading back to his office when Frenchie started barking.

“Hey!”

She squirmed, pawed at his wrist and leaped out of his arms. He caught her midflight before she hit the sidewalk and hurt herself.

“What are you doing? Frenchie!”

Then he heard another dog barking. It was the deep, massive, thunderous bark of a large dog.

“Beau!” Jack heard a child's voice yell from Mrs. Beabots's front porch. Apparently, the kid had no authority over the dog because the dog kept barking.

So did Frenchie, though she'd stopped trying to escape Jack's grasp.

“Beau! Stop that!” another child shouted.

The front door opened. “Annie? Timmy? What's going on?” Sophie rushed onto the porch and put her arms around a red-haired girl and wide-eyed little boy. She gathered the two children to her waist.

Jack was awestruck. She was dressed in her surgical scrubs and sneakers, her dark hair pulled back in a French braid. But it wasn't her unassuming beauty that stopped him in his tracks. It was her affectionate gestures, the caring in her eyes and concern in her voice for these two children. He felt his heart opening on the spot.

She scanned the street. “Jack?”

“Hey,” he said, setting Frenchie on the ground and holding the ridiculous rhinestone leash in his hand. Sophie was so stunning, he'd forgotten about the dog.

Frenchie lunged forward and snapped the leash right out of Jack's grasp. She bolted up the front steps and over to the enormous, movie-star handsome golden retriever, skidding to a stop at Beau's feet.

Frenchie tipped her nose at Beau, who leaned down and touched his nose to hers.

“Oh, wow!” the girl exclaimed, dropping to her knees. “How adorable!”

“Cool!” her brother agreed. He squatted next to Beau, putting his arm around the dog's neck.

Jack sauntered along the sidewalk, never taking his eyes off Sophie. He noticed that she barely glanced at the dogs or the kids. She was watching him. Warily. But still, he'd take that.

“I think they're entranced,” Sophie said.

So am I.

“Yeah. It happens,” Jack said.

Sophie ruffled the boy's hair, smiled and walked down the steps toward Jack. She gestured behind her. “Frenchie likes Beau. Cute, huh? I'm, uh, babysitting the kids till their mom gets back. Annie and Timmy, by the way. They're Sarah's and Luke's.”

“But it's your lunch hour.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I mean, I just saw Nate at the deli. I figured since he was taking a break—”

“That I might be home?” she finished for him with a glimmer in her eye.

“I wanted to thank you for giving her to me. Thinking of me. I mean, er, to be her dad.”
Good grief!
He was bungling this. Since when did Jack Carter get tongue-tied?

Her face filled with pleasure. “I guess I just knew you'd be a natural.”

She seemed overjoyed, as if he'd just handed her a diamond ring.

Odd. He had no idea where that visual had come from. Why would he be thinking about diamond rings and Sophie? It didn't make sense. Did it?

“I don't think anybody should be alone, especially helpless animals. She's so darling, Jack. The kids love her already. You'll have to bring her by again.”

Jack felt something zing through his heart. Okay. That had never happened before. At least not that he could remember. Maybe in high school with Mary Beth Peterson, who was in his algebra class and always let him copy off her tests. But Jack hadn't actually had a crush on Mary Beth. She was just a good friend. No, this feeling was new.

“You were right that I'd need to bring Frenchie to work with me. She likes it. She greets my clients.” He nodded. “Yep, a real asset to the firm. Oh, and Owen has really taken a liking to her.”

“Sounds like she's made a difference in your life, Jack.”

“Actually, it's you who made the difference.”

“Me?”

He put his hand on her shoulder and gave it a slight squeeze. “A few days ago, I met Jeremy.”

“You what?”

“It was totally random. I still can't quite believe it, frankly. It was at the gas station. He was ahead of me in line and after he walked out, he recognized Frenchie in the car. When he said her name, she knew him.”

A lump of emotion cut off his words. For the first time, he understood the empathy that Sophie had for the addicts she worked with.

“I just wanted to say thanks, and that I admire you, Sophie. For who you are. What you do.”

“Jack...”

He felt a burning in his chest where a new awareness of others was growing.

At that moment, it was all he could do to fight the impulse to reach out, pull her to him and kiss her.

He didn't care that the kids were watching them from the porch. He didn't care that any passing car could contain his clients or people who would gossip to them.

“You're amazing,” he whispered then leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Don't ever stop being you.”

She stared at him. Speechless.

“Jack?”

He shifted his weight awkwardly. “I gotta go. I'll just get Frenchie.”

He went up the steps, said goodbye to the kids and petted Beau. “See you two around.”

“Bring Frenchie back anytime,” Annie said.

Jack stroked his dog's head. “Thanks for the invitation. I think we'll be walking by quite often.”

Jack went back to Sophie, who was still frozen in place. The afternoon sun filtered through the canopy of maple leaves overhead, dappling her shoulders. A slight breeze swept down the driveway and across the front yard. Sophie tucked a stray tendril of long hair behind her ear.

“Jack,” she said, reaching out as he passed. Instead of petting Frenchie, which he'd expected, she touched his forearm. “Thanks.”

“Well, I didn't mean to barge in on your afternoon gig.” He tilted his head toward the kids. They raced down the steps and to the backyard, Beau leading the way.

“Not just for stopping by, but for, well, understanding.”

Pursing his lips contritely, he leaned closer. “I'm trying to do more of that.”

She stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his.

She felt warm, soft and tender. It was a kiss out of a dream. Jack felt the combustion all the way down to his toes. When she pulled back, he felt an odd sense of longing, as if he'd been abandoned. He didn't know how that was possible, but it gave him renewed empathy for Frenchie.

Jack was tempted to set the dog down, pull Sophie into his arms and hold her close. He needed at least a dozen more kisses to make certain that what he'd just felt was real.

“I gotta go, too,” she said before he could give in. She hurried back up the steps, called for the kids and Beau, then went inside.

It was Jack's turn to freeze. He wasn't sure his legs would ever move again. Just then, Frenchie licked his hand. “Sorry, girl.” He stroked her head. “Guess I got carried away.”

Jack turned toward town. He needed to get back to work.

He glanced back at Mrs. Beabots's house. He needed to do a lot of things.

But all he wanted to do was sit on that front porch with Sophie and spend the rest of the afternoon with her. If he did, would she kiss him again? Or was that just a one-time thing? Spur of the moment?

Frenchie cocked her head and shot him an “are you kidding me?” look.

Jack whistled all the way back to his office.