“I love you, Olivia,” her mother said softly as Olivia started out the door.
The comment struck her as odd. Her mother rarely said those words. She smiled. “I know, Mom, and I love you, too.” She came back and bent over to kiss her mother’s cheek. “I’ll see you in a few hours.”
For an instant Charlotte regarded her blankly and Olivia knew that her mother had no idea why her daughter would be returning so soon.
Five
Five puppies now had homes. Five to go.
It’d been love at first sight. Jack Griffin had come by with his son, Eric, and Eric’s family. The grandsons had each chosen a puppy. They’d fallen to their knees and eight puppies had raced into their arms. It had taken quite a long time for the boys to make their decisions. In the end, they’d selected two males; in fact, they’d already given their puppies names, albeit not very original ones: Baron and Duke. Five were left, since Eddie Cox had picked one up for his parents—three females and two males. Ted had volunteered to watch over whatever puppies didn’t have homes when Beth and the girls drove to Whistler, but she hated to burden him with extra animals.
Instead of returning to the house after she’d seen off the Griffins and their puppies, Beth wandered into the back of the yard where she had the heated kennel. She opened the gate and let her dogs run in among the trees. They were happy to exercise and she enjoyed playing with them, enjoyed their boundless energy.
Her whole family had been pet lovers. From her earliest memories, they’d always had a dog. Kent loved animals, too, which was one of the reasons she’d been attracted to him all those years ago…and now. At one time he’d considered entering veterinary college, but the application process was complex and difficult, with only a few candidates accepted each year. He’d tried two years running and was declined both times. Although bitterly disappointed, he’d decided to change his course of study to engineering. In the end, that career choice had suited him well.
Thinking of Kent, Beth was forced to confront his news head-on. He was involved with someone else. Danielle had made a point of telling everyone what “good” friends they were. Although Kent had called her merely a friend, it was obvious that Danielle intended it to be so much more.
After three years, this shouldn’t come as such a shock—only it did. Her heart felt weighted down by grief and disappointment. Yet she was the one who’d set him free. Not once had she made an effort to turn the tide of the divorce proceedings. Perhaps this was one of those classic scenarios; she didn’t want him but she didn’t want anyone else to have him, either.
Still, she had to ask herself: Did she want her ex-husband back? She couldn’t answer that, not with certainty, and in any event the decision had been taken out of her hands. This sense of loss and confusion was probably typical of ex-wives, she reasoned. It must be.
“Mom?” Bailey was calling her.
Pulling herself out of her musing, she shouted and waved. “Over here.”
“I saw the Griffins leave and you didn’t come back in the house.”
Beth didn’t feel much like company at the moment. “I thought I’d let the dogs run a bit first,” she said.
Sophie joined her sister. It’d started to snow again, thick flakes that drifted lazily down. The wind chilled her through her thick jacket. Because she spent so much time outdoors, she’d learned to ignore the cold. But this particular chill seemed to come from the inside out….
“Are you upset about Dad and Danielle?” Sophie asked, still putting on her gloves. She didn’t look at Beth, as though she wanted to hide her own reaction to Kent’s “friend.”
“You mean because your father has someone else in his life? Oh, heavens, no.” She wondered how effective her lie had been.
“We don’t like Danielle,” Bailey announced for the two of them.
“You have to admit she’s beautiful.”
Both girls rolled their eyes. “Mom, she’s plastic. I can’t imagine what Dad sees in her. Besides, she treats us like we’re still in diapers.”
“Give her a chance,” Beth urged. She didn’t know why she was championing the other woman when she agreed with everything her daughters said.
“Tell us again, how did you and Dad meet?” Bailey asked.
Instead of answering their question, she asked one of her own. “Did you know that at one time your father wanted to be a veterinarian?”
“Dad?”
“Get out of here!”
“We met in college,” Beth said. “You remember that.” They’d heard the story a hundred times. It didn’t make sense to repeat it now. “Are you sure you want to hear this?”
Their response was immediate and enthusiastic. “Yes!”
“Okay. We met on campus. A friend-of-a-friend situation. My roommate was dating your father, and I was dating another guy named Steve. I liked your father a whole lot more than Steve, but he was with Melanie and I couldn’t very well make a play for him. We dated as a foursome quite a bit and then one day Melanie told me she liked Steve better than Kent and I confessed that I liked Kent better than Steve.”
“And the two of you wanted to switch dates,” Sophie finished for her.
“That is so cool,” Bailey said.
“Well, it would’ve been if the guys felt the same way about us, but they didn’t. Steve claimed he wanted to marry me, but I wasn’t interested. Kent, on the other hand, only had eyes for Melanie.”
“Oh, brother. Clearly, Dad’s needed direction in the girlfriend department for a long time.”
“We worked it out. Melanie broke up with Kent and I took the initiative and phoned to console him. What he wanted was for me to convince Melanie to take him back….” She paused and kicked at a pile of snow. “I guess I was always the second choice with your father.”
“Oh, Mom, that isn’t true!”
Beth smiled, letting her daughters know she wasn’t serious. Well, maybe she was, not that it mattered.
“Whatever happened to Melanie? Did she marry Steve?”
“No. She left college in our junior year and dated a guy from France. Eventually she followed him there. We lost contact after a while. I haven’t heard from her in years.”
Princess raced to Beth’s side. Panting, the collie dropped a stick at her feet. “You want to play fetch, do you?” she asked, and bent to pet her thick fur. Princess was a rescue someone had brought her. Her friend had found the collie on the side of the road near the freeway. With some effort she was able to get the large dog into the car. Rather than take her to the animal shelter, Beth’s friend had brought her to Beth. Half-starved, Princess was in bad shape, and Beth had nourished her back to health. She’d tried to find her owner, but the dog had no identification. Now Princess was deeply attached to Beth and was one of the dogs in the Reading with Rover program Grace had instigated at the library.
“Dad still loves you,” Bailey insisted.
“Of course he does,” Beth said, and meant it. “We were married for twenty-three years. I’m the mother of his children. While we might have opposing opinions on certain issues, when it comes to you girls, we’re in total agreement.”
“Bailey means he really loves you.”
Beth threw her arms around her daughters and brought them close. “Listen, you two. I know this is difficult. Maybe you believed that your father’s visit to Cedar Cove meant more than he intended