Page 51 of Wayward

“I’ll have you come in and pay monthly. Most people, I keep a card on file, but this is Ada, and one look at you and I know you’ll do right by me.”

That was nuts. How did she know? How did Connie just assume I could take care of a dog? How did Mr. Raleigh decide I would be good with Ada’s money? How did Mrs. Matal take one look at me, smile, and think of course he’s good? And Misha. People were always talking about the almost mystical quality of a dog’s judgment, so Misha should have perceived the blood and death on me on some spiritual level. But no. He just picked me and said c’mon, let’s go home. It was all just a lot.

No one saw the man who had taken the gun from his father at fifteen and ended a life.

I needed the day to stop. I needed to go home, to bed, and decompress. The issue was, I didn’t even know if I had one.

SEVEN

When we got home, it was a little after five in the afternoon. I was surprised to already see Gale’s cruiser sitting under his carport to the right of his house.

“Is it okay if I drive out to my place?” I asked Ada. “I noticed there’s no path here.”

“Oh, there used to be,” she assured me. “It’s just been so long. But yes, drive out, just mind the sheep.”

“The sheep that are way over there?”

“Yes,” she said sweetly, completely missing my sarcasm.

When Ada was out of the car, instead of putting Misha on his leash, she put him down. He was on the run fast, bolting away from her.

“Hey,” I yelled, but he kept going, streaking toward Gale, who was outside the back gate of his yard, behind his house, down on one knee, waiting for my dog.

Misha leaped into his arms.

“That’s so sweet,” Ada cooed.

Once the greeting happened, complete with kisses, Misha stepped out of the way like a gentleman, relieved himself, and then trotted back to me.

Gale was right behind him, jogging, and when he reached me, I got a smile that rolled right through me.

“Hey,” he greeted me. “I was going to offer to do some cooking tonight for both of you if you wanted to join me for dinner.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Ada told him. “It’s why I got you brisket from the Lumberyard, since I know you love it.”

He appeared stunned. “You did?”

“Of course, dear. Do you think I would just invite you to watch us eat?”

He thanked her, then asked me, “Have you been in your place yet?”

“No.”

Ada gasped. “Oh my goodness, I haven’t even shown you your house.” She clutched her heart. “What you must think of me.”

“No, no,” I soothed her, scooping up my dog. “I’d just like to see it, and I need to get Misha settled.”

“We’ll do that right now,” she agreed. “Do you have the keys? Gale had to help me find them and I asked him to put them in the mail to whoever rented it for you.”

“Where did you have them?”

“In a drawer in the kitchen. It was very clever of him to look there.”

It seemed a reasonable place to start, at least to me.

“I do have the keys,” I told her.

“Well, good. Perhaps give them to Deputy Chief Malloy so he can take the food into your new house.”