The Art of Wag (12 page)

She opened the door and put Roxy down. Roxy started toward the kitchen and Kat pulled back on the leash. “I think you and the kitchen need to spend some time apart.” She walked over to the table and handed the leash to Mary. “This is Roxy. She’s a dachshund who has an unhealthy obsession with kitchenware. I need to do an errand. Could you watch her for about an hour? Make sure she doesn’t get into the cabinets. She’s really sweet. Just keep her on the leash, so she doesn’t get lost. If you go downstairs, please be sure to carry her. She’s only got three legs. The other dogs are downstairs napping, so they should all be fine. I’ll be right back.”

Mary looked at the leash in her hand, then down at the dog, who wagged her long feathery tail. “What do you mean the cabinets? Where are you going?”

“I’ll be back in a little while.” She crouched down to pet Roxy. “You be good, you hear?”

Kat grabbed the keys to her Toyota and jammed them into her pocket along with another key. She flew down the stairs and ran across the driveway toward her car. Rather than letting the car warm up like she usually did, she gunned it and hauled down the driveway, oblivious to the damage the potholes were committing on the Toyota’s suspension. Instead of heading toward town, she turned and took one of the back roads that headed north of Alpine Grove.

Making her way down a grassy, narrow single-track driveway, she arrived at Joel’s old cabin, which he affectionately referred to as The Shack. It had been quite a while since she’d been there, but the place looked exactly the same, nestled in its small clearing surrounded by huge old cedar trees. She parked the car and took the key out of her pocket.

Feeling guilty and a little like a criminal for sneaking around a house that wasn’t hers, Kat unlocked the door, opened it, and looked around. The Shack was a simple log cabin comprised of a single open space with a loft. The small kitchen area was located under the loft and the only walls in the place surrounded a tiny bathroom. The interior still smelled a little like smoke because Joel’s prior girlfriend had almost burned it down. No amount of cleaning seemed to completely eliminate the crispy wood campfire smell that pervaded the small cabin.

Kat walked over to the old mission-style sofa, lifted the receiver off the cradle of the phone on the end table, and dialed Maria’s number. “Hey, do you have a minute?”

“Girlfriend! Why are you calling me at work so early in the morning? You know Mark is going to be harassing me for his morning coffee soon. The man is cranky if he doesn’t get his caffeine. It’s not pretty.” Although Maria was looking for a new job, for the time being she was trying to play nice with her boss, Mark.

“I know. But I need to talk to you. My mother is visiting.”

“I’m sorry, but I missed something here. When did she show up? Time with Little Mary Sunshine never improves your mood.”

Kat twisted the phone cord around her finger. “Nope. And she’s even less fun than usual too. It’s been less than 24 hours and she hates Joel already. I left her with Roxy.”

Maria giggled. “The tiny destruct-o dog? That serves her right. Wait, if you’re not there, where are you?”

“I’m at The Shack. I took the key.”

“You illicitly broke into the engineer’s place? Why? I mean, I do like that little cabin, after my love-nest rendezvous there, but you have your own phone and your own house that doesn’t smell like smoke.”

“I know. I needed a private phone without my mother nearby. The Shack is definitely private. I took the test. And I need to talk to you, because now I’m confused.”

“You did? What do you mean? What did it say?”

“I’m not sure. I think I did it wrong or something. I mean, I read the directions and I thought I followed the instructions. But there are supposed to be lines. One or two lines. Not none. What does that mean? That I have no hormones at all? That I’m dead?
What
?”

There was a clunk and Kat could hear Maria snarling at Mark about the status of his morning coffee. Maria came back on the line. “Sorry. I’m back. Mark needed a little reminder that he is capable of getting his own beverages. Anyway. I’m not sure. I’ve never heard of that. You really dare to be different, girlfriend.”

The front door opened and Kat jumped up off the sofa with a small shriek. Joel stood in the doorway, and he looked annoyed to see her in his house. Kat pressed the receiver to her chest and could feel the vibration of Maria’s voice yelling at her through the line. She smiled at him feebly. “Hi.”

“What are you doing here?”

Kat put the receiver to her ear. “I’ll have to call you back.”

“Engineer alert?”

“Yes. Gotta go.” Kat slapped the phone receiver on the cradle and walked over to Joel. “I needed to use the phone.”

He crossed his arms across his chest. “You have a phone.”

Kat walked around him and shut the door. “I know. But I needed to talk to Maria without my mother around.”

“What was so important that it couldn’t wait until later? Don’t you have a dog coming today?”

Kat walked over to the sofa and sat down. She leaned forward, clasping her hands together between her knees. “Roxy is already there. I, uh, left her with my mother.”

“So you could break into The Shack?”

“Well, not technically.” Kat leaned back and pulled the key out of her pocket. She held it up so he could see it. “It was just sitting there. I figured you wouldn’t mind.”

Joel sat down next to her, took one of her hands in both of his, and looked into her eyes. “What is going on with you?”

Kat bowed her head and shook it so her long hair fell in front of her face. “Nothing. I’m fine.”

“Why don’t I believe you?” He reached over and wiped a tear off her cheek. “You don’t seem fine.”

Kat collapsed in his lap and burst into the full festival of quasi-hysterical snotty sobbing that had been building up for days. He was being so sweet, she couldn’t stand it anymore. “I...I took a test. And I don’t know what it
means
.”

Joel gently took her by the shoulders and pushed her upright again. “What are you talking about?”

“The stick! It’s supposed to have lines. One line means no and two means yes. But I don’t have any lines. What does that mean?” She put her hands over her face and sobbed into her palms.

He pulled her hands away. “I’m not exactly an expert on these things, but are you talking about a home pregnancy test?”

Kat looked into his green eyes, which were filled with concern and sympathy. “
Yes
! I didn’t want to tell you if it’s nothing. It’s probably nothing.” She hiccupped and snuffled.

“So you really think you’re pregnant?” Although the expression on his face remained ostensibly calm, a range of emotions flickered in his eyes. If Kat had to guess, she’d say surprise, shock, confusion, and maybe fear.

“I’m not sure. I don’t keep very good track of these things.”

“You don’t know? Don’t you have a calendar or something?”

Kat sniffed again and wiped her nose on her sleeve. Crying was so gross. “Do you remember what you were doing twenty-eight days ago?”

He shook his head.

“Me neither! We’ve been so careful. I probably just lost track. Or I’m late. But what if I am pregnant? I have no idea how you even feel about kids. I don’t know how
I
feel about kids!”

Joel tucked a strand of tousled dark hair back behind her ear. “To be honest, I’m not sure. I’ve never really put much thought into it, since it was never an issue. It was one of those “maybe someday” things. But if I were going to have children with anyone, I’d want it to be you.”

Kat wrapped her arms around him and sobbed uncontrollably into his chest. He put his arm around her and stroked her hair until she was completely cried out. All the stress and crying left Kat feeling drained, shaky, and headachy. She slowly lifted her head and looked into his eyes again. “Wow, I’m so sorry about that. I think I’m done now. Thanks for being, well, you. I love you.”

He ran his fingertips behind her ear and through her hair, pushing it out of her face and behind her shoulder. “I love you back. Do you feel better? You know, you’re going to have to rescue Roxy from your mother at some point.”

Kat jerked back away from him. “I totally forgot! I hope they haven’t killed each other. Two strong-willed, opinionated alpha females together. This could be bad.”

Joel stood up and stretched his arms over his head. “So are you ready to go home?”

“Okay.” She sniffed and wiped her eyes one last time. “By the way, now you know why I was here. Why were
you
here? I thought you went to town.”

He grinned. “Dropping off the chain saw didn’t take long. You’re not the only one who wanted to get away from your mother.”

Kat laughed weakly. “She has that effect on people. I think she scared Tracy. I felt a little bad for her.”

“Your mother
is
kind of scary.”

“I know. Maybe we could come back here again. Every time I’ve been to The Shack, it was because someone was staying here. I’ve never even seen the loft.”

“That’s the bedroom.”

Kat hugged him again. “I know.”

“I guess you
are
feeling better.” He bent down to give her a kiss and then looked into her eyes. “It will be okay, you know.”

“I know.”

Kat followed Joel back to the house and parked her Toyota next to his truck. She got out of the car and Joel walked over and stood next to her. They looked up at the house, which was shrouded in a heavy drizzly cloud. The mist clung to their skin like a clammy veil. Kat turned to face him. “Could it possibly be any more dreary today?”

“You haven’t lived here in the spring yet, have you?” Joel ran his fingertip along her jaw and cupped her chin with his hand, tilting her head up to look at him. “So you’re going to tell me if you do another test or your situation changes, right?”

“Yes. I think I’ve successfully proved that bottling up my emotions and keeping things from you leads to a meltdown of epic proportions.”

“I think it’s better if I stay in the loop.” He kissed her and looked at her questioningly. “So are you ready to go inside? I’m starting to feel like a mushroom out here.”

“If we have to.”

He took her hand and they walked up the steps together. Kat opened the door and was greeted by the sound of outraged barking. She looked at Joel. “I think the furry crew is miffed at us.”

Kat started down the stairs and recognized another noise beyond the hysterical barking. She stopped in the doorway to her office. Mary had neatly stacked all of Kat’s books on one side of the desk and placed a sewing machine on the other side. Roxy was sitting on the bed, surrounded by a wall of pillows that had apparently been collected from multiple locations throughout the house. The dog actually looked quite content in her cushy enclosure and wagged happily at Kat.

Mary paused in her sewing and turned in the chair. “Hello. You’re back. That was certainly longer than an hour. What happened to you? You look terrible.”

“Thank you.” Kat sat on the bed and reached over the pillow wall to pet Roxy. “My hair doesn’t appreciate this misty weather. What are you doing?”

“Finishing these quilts.” Mary pulled the cloth out of the sewing machine and held up a blue-and-white star quilt. “Isn’t it lovely? The whole thing is pieced, and even quilted already. All it needs is the edges to be finished. I found it in that little room across the hall.”

“Wow, you have been busy. I haven’t been able to face that pile of boxes yet. Cleaning out these two downstairs bedrooms wore me out. When I got here, they both looked like that storage room. It was scary. Was the sewing machine in the room too?”

“Yes! And it works wonderfully. I plugged it in and just started sewing. It all functions perfectly.”

Kat examined the ancient black Singer. “I think I remember Abigail using this. It sounds exactly the same as it did then.”

Mary turned back to the machine. “So where were you?”

“I had to go somewhere. I’m going to take the dogs for a walk now. Thanks for keeping an eye on Roxy. I think she likes your pillow fort.”

“Well, I certainly couldn’t sew with a dog attached to me.” A corner of Mary’s mouth turned up. “She is being a very good girl.”

“Yeah, watch out. That’s right when she turns into the Evil Demon Dachshund.”

Mary paused in her fabric ministrations. “Oh, your loud friend called. She wants you to call her back.”

“You mean Maria?”

“Yes. The loud woman. She sounds a bit put out with you. I think the words she used were ‘you’d better’ call her back. But she included an unflattering expletive about you as well, which I won’t repeat because I don’t think words like that should be used in polite company.”

“I can imagine.” Kat picked up the dog and put her down on the floor. “Come on Roxy, it’s time to go walkies.”

The dogs all crowded together in the hall as Kat put Tessa’s backpack on her and attached the dog’s leash to Linus. She had discovered that the only way to successfully walk Tessa and tire her out was to weigh her down with a pack and attach her to Linus, so the big dog could do the walking. He outweighed Kat by almost a hundred pounds and could keep the hyperactive golden retriever from running off. The arrangement worked out well for everyone. Tessa and Linus wagged happily, excited about going for their walk. Kat leashed up Chelsey and held her leash along with Roxy’s.