Hello Love (22 page)

THIRTY-NINE

Dan spent about an hour inside the parked truck outside Andrea’s apartment. He let the engine run until he saw the fuel needle dipping dangerously close to empty, at which point he shut it off. Which meant he no longer had heat. He really hadn’t thought this through. At least he wasn’t sitting in the dark. The condo units were like a Disney World village with old-fashioned light posts along the sides of the streets and similar but smaller lampposts next to the walkway leading up to each unit. Between that and the Christmas lights on the eaves, trees, and bushes, it was bright. A person could read a book out here even during the darkest night.

When he started getting sleepy, he got out of the truck and walked up and down the short row of houses. It occurred to him that if he didn’t pay attention, Andrea could come home, pull into her garage, and lower the door behind her without him even realizing she’d returned. He didn’t want to miss her and leaving wasn’t an option. He wasn’t going to wait even one more day. If she did have Anni, that meant Anni had been hit by a car. The not knowing was killing him.

When a car pulled into Andrea’s driveway, Dan watched from around the corner. The car idled while the garage door rose, and he hurried to catch her before she went into the house. When the car stopped and he heard the engine shut off, he walked up the driveway, calling out, “Andrea?” as she got out of the car. The garage door was still up and the overhead light was on, so he could see her perfectly: her slightly windblown dark-brown hair, purse over her shoulder, keys in her hand.

He hadn’t counted on her reaction, how she immediately stiffened defensively, gripping her keys between her fingers so that they pointed outward. “Who is it?” she said sharply.

“It’s me, Dan. We met at the coffee shop?” He held his arms up to show he had nothing to hide. “I was at my aunt Doreen’s tonight for dinner. You were invited too, I hear.” He jerked a thumb in the direction of Cliff’s house. “I guess Doreen and Cliff know each other from book club.”

Her shoulders relaxed, although her expression was puzzled. “Huh,” she said, pausing. “Small world. Why are you here?”

He got right to the point. “I think you have my dog, Anni. She was stolen from my house two months ago. I’m desperate to find her.” Andrea took a step backward, like she wanted to be able to bolt into the house if he tried something funny. He continued, talking rapidly. “I showed Cliff a picture on my phone and he said it looks like the same dog. Can you tell me where you got your dog?”

“You think Anni is your dog?”

“I do,” he said. “I know it’s kind of creepy springing it on you like this, but I have to know. Where is she? Is she okay? Cliff said she was hit by a car.”

“No, she’s, um, going to be okay.” Andrea put her hand up to her forehead. “I’m sorry, I just need a minute here.” She blinked a few times and cleared her throat. “This is unbelievable.”

“I’m sorry for just showing up like this. But if you do have my dog, it’s the answer to my prayers.”

“I’m jus
t . . .
I can’t think straight.” She shook her head. “It’s been the night from hell. Anni’s spending the night at the clinic, just for observation. She ran into the car, we think, so it’s not as bad as it seemed at first, but still it was traumatic. For her and for me. But the vet says her injuries are minor. It was a miracle, really. If she’d run out in the road one second earlier, she would have been killed.”

“Can I come over there?” He pointed. “Or would that weird you out? I just want to show you pictures of Anni. My Anni.”

She nodded and he came into the garage and handed her the phone. He could tell by the look on her face that she recognized her Anni as being his dog, and for a moment he felt sorry for her.

“I’m pretty sure it’s her,” she said, letting out a sigh.

“Can you tell me where you got her?”

Andrea said, “Why don’t you come in and I’ll make some coffee and tell you all about it.” She gestured to the door; her keys dangled from her pointer finger, not a weapon anymore.

Andrea had been lost in thought when Dan walked up her driveway. His voice calling her name had scared the hell out of her and her fear turned to absolute astonishment when she realized all the connections: Dan, the man she’d struck up a conversation with in the coffee shop, was related to Doreen, who was in a book club with Cliff, who happened to be her neighbor. Very small world all around. As if that weren’t enough, he now might be laying claim to Anni. It was a bit mind-blowing.

Andrea knew inviting a strange man into her house was risky, but she didn’t feel at risk. If anything, he seemed a little scared, standing on her rug and not moving off it until she invited him to follow her into the kitchen. It felt like the middle of the night, but it was only just past seven. Winter nights played tricks that way. She put coffee on to brew and then started telling him about how she found Anni chained up on the frat boys’ balcony.

“That was them. I’m sure of it,” Dan said. “My daughter, Lindsay, saw the guys who took Anni, but she couldn’t get to the car fast enough. Punks. She thought they were drunk.”

“You have a daughter?”

“Yes, she’s seventeen. She’ll be going off to college next year.”

“You and your wife will miss her, I bet.”

“No wife. It’s just me.” Dan said, matter-of-factly. “I’m a widower.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” She was relieved he was single, but she was sincere in saying she was sorry for him. The poor man lost his wife and now his dog, but why did it have to be Anni? Anni was her dog. She continued, “So I’ve had Anni ever since. I took her to the vet and got her checked out and there was no microchip.”

“We didn’t get her microchipped, but she had an ID tag.”

She shook her head. “Her collar had her name on it, and that was it. I took her home and it just felt right, you know? I take her to work with me. I love her. Everybody loves her.” Already she was making a case for keeping Anni. Andrea got up to get mugs out of the cabinet, then poured coffee out of the pot. “Cream or sugar?” she asked, like this was a normal social event.

“Black is fine,” he said. When she placed the mug in front of him, he slid his fingers through the handle. She realized then that he hadn’t taken his jacket off. They were both on guard.

She continued, telling him about the stop for a bottle of wine on the way to Doreen’s and everything that happened right up until she came home to find him waiting outside her condo. “You must think I’m negligent for letting her get hurt, but I would have traded places with her if I could have. I feel really guilty.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Yeah, well, it feels that way,” she said. “I was so happy when the vet said she’s going to be fine.” She cast her eyes downward and took a sip of coffee.

“I know this is a tough situation,” he said. “If it is Anni, then we both want her.”

“And we can’t both have her,” Andrea said, which is what they’d both been thinking.

“Is there any wa
y . . .
”

“Yes?”

He looked straight into her eyes and what she saw was pleading. “Is there any way I could go with you tomorrow when you pick her up? We don’t have to decide how to handle this just yet. I just want to see her, and make sure it’s really her.”

Andrea tilted her head to one side, considering. “I’m not trying to be difficult, but this is a lot for me to process. Can I take the night to think about it and get back to you?”

He nodded. “Fair enough.”

FORTY

When his cell phone rang the next morning and Dan saw it was Andrea, he breathed a big sigh of relief. “The emergency clinic called just now,” she said, sounding happy. “They said we can pick Anni up this afternoon. She’s doing really well.”

It was the word “we” that did it for him. Just the sound of it made the day several shades lighter and filled him with a kind of buoyant hope. Maybe life could get better after all. He spoke cautiously, “How did you want to handle this?”

“Why don’t you come out to my place around one?” she said. “We can drive together.”

“You didn’t go to work today?”

“No, I took the day off.”

Coincidentally, so had he. The previous night’s events had emotionally sucked him dry; he knew he wouldn’t be able to bear a normal workday with Anni on his mind. When the alarm went off, he rolled over to turn it off, and then picked up the phone to leave a voice mail for his boss saying he’d had a family emergency the night before and needed the day to take care of some details. Now he was glad he had the day free. “Okay,” he said to Andrea. “I’ll be there at one.”

He tried to time it so that he’d arrive right at one, but once again he’d miscalculated and arrived twenty minutes early, making him look overeager. He was, in fact, overeager, but he hadn’t wanted to let it show. Sitting in the truck outside her front door, he didn’t pick up the phone to call her or get out to knock on the door, just waited for one o’clock to come. But at five minutes to the hour, Andrea came out and knocked on his window. He lowered it to hear what she had to say.

She held up her car keys and said, “I’m going to be driving. You’re welcome to ride along with me if you’d like.”

He left his truck at the condo and became her passenger, watching her profile as she drove. Unlike most people, she didn’t feel the need to fill the space with empty chatter, but she did say a few things, all of them heartfelt and sincere. “You know,” she said. “I didn’t get much sleep last night, which is why I look so horrendous.” (He actually thought she looked really pretty.) “You should know that I debated going to get Anni from the clinic, putting her in the car, and relocating to Canada, but you seem like a really good guy, and I just couldn’t do it.” She glanced over and he could see now that her eyes did look tired, but, in all fairness, the rest of her looked great.

“I’ve heard that Canada won’t enforce dog extradition, so that would have been a good choice,” he said.

She laughed, a throaty, startled laugh. “That was really funny, but can you give me some credit here for doing the right thing? I’m telling you that I’m not going to cause a fuss about giving Anni back. I realize that you’re her legal owner.”

“I appreciate that.”

They were at a stoplight now and she gave him her full attention. “But I want you to know that this is breaking my heart. I haven’t even had her that long and I feel like she’s part of me.” She blinked away what might have been the start of tears. “That’s why I’m giving her back. If I feel this way after this short a time, I can only imagine how you feel. And I don’t want to be the cause of someone else’s misery.”

He was touched by her kindheartedness. The rest of the ride was quiet, somber even.

They arrived at the clinic, and when the lady tech brought Anni out to the waiting area, Andrea burst into tears, so happy and relieved to see the little dog. Almost reflexively, she threw her arms around Dan, and he found her joy contagious. Emotions flooded through him, like she had awakened something inside him he hadn’t even noticed was missing.

Both of them knelt down next to Anni, who raced back and forth between them, as overjoyed as a child who thought she’d never see her parents again. She jumped on them and licked their faces, her tail thumping wildly. “Now that’s one happy dog,” the vet tech said, handing the leash over to Andrea.

Dan let Andrea act as the dog owner, only stepping forward to offer to pay, but she brushed him aside and got out a credit card. “It’s my fault she was injured. I should pay,” she said. Dan let it go, thinking they’d work it out later.

In the car, Anni settled on Dan’s lap as Andrea drove. He stroked her head and noticed Andrea had become very quiet. “My daughter, Lindsay, is going to be overjoyed when she sees Anni,” he said. “She never gave up hope.”

“Did you tell her about the accident?” Andrea asked, looking stricken.

“No.” He shook his head. “She’s had her heart broken too many times. I didn’t want her to know anything until it was definite.”

“Well, it’s definite now,” Andrea said sadly.

Dan felt her pain and said, “Would you like to go with me when Lindsay sees Anni for the first time?” He made the offer, not thinking she’d go for it, but to his surprise she nodded and said, “I’d like that very much.”

He called ahead to the high school to get Lindsay excused early, and was told they’d have his daughter wait in the office, that he could just come in to sign her out. Andrea followed his directions to the school and he again admired her profile, the lift of her chin as she checked for cross traffic before pulling out into intersections, the way her hair fell over her shoulders, framing her face. She was exceptionally pretty. He could have looked at her all day.

When they arrived half an hour later, he directed her to pull up to the curb in front of the entrance, while he went to get his daughter. Opening the glass door, he glanced back to see Anni’s face at the car window, watching with rapt attention. Behind her, Andrea gave him a small wave, urging him to keep going. It occurred to him that Andrea could just drive off, taking Anni with her. She could cut off all contact after that, forcing him to take legal action to get his dog back. Andrea wouldn’t do that, though. He was certain.

In the office, Lindsay stood there with her coat on, her backpack resting at her feet. When she caught sight of her father, her face crumpled in relief. “What’s wrong?” she said, and he realized she’d expected the worst: a death in the family, a house fire, a cancer diagnosis. Something so horrible that he would inexplicably pull her out of school without warning.

“Nothing’s wrong,” he said, going over to the counter to take a clipboard from the outstretched hands of the school secretary. “I just needed you to leave early today.”

Lindsay put her hand on her hip. “Dad, you pulled me out of a test. I’m going to have to make it up now.” Her attitude had switched from worried to annoyed in the time it took him to sign his name.

“This is important,” he said, beckoning for her to follow him. “You’ll be glad.” They left the office with him in the lead and Lindsay grumbling that this better be important. When he reached the door, he saw Andrea leaning against the side of her car with Anni at her feet. Lindsay, behind him, still clueless, kept asking what was going on. He opened the door for her and she walked through. At the same time, Anni caught sight of Lindsay and let out an excited bark, and Andrea let go of the leash.

The moment Lindsay recognized what was happening, she dropped to her knees with arms outstretched, and cried, “Anni, oh Anni,” over and over again in between ragged sobs. Joyfully the dog bounded into her arms, barking and letting Lindsay bury her face in her fur.

Dan met Andrea’s eyes and saw the sacrifice on her end. He mouthed the words,
thank you
,
and she nodded. It was everything, but not enough.