Suddenly, she squared her shoulders and looked him in the eye, the tears gone, eyes sparking with anger. “You know what? You should go.”
The Chihuahua began to growl and bare his teeth. She muzzled him with her hand. The one named Adolph began to bark again. “Adolph, no!” She squatted and began to pet him and talk to him softly. “Mama said no. Behave now. You have nothing to be upset about.”
She got to her feet, still hanging onto the snarling Chihuahua. “This is too much commotion. It’s upsetting to Pablo and Adolph. And this is my aunt and her partner’s business. They don’t want to be a part of this.”
“Then you shouldn’t have run down here like a coward and involved them.”
“Your insults mean nothing to me. I’ll be going back to Midland tomorrow. We can talk there. You can come to my store.”
Nick had never been so frustrated. He was accomplishing nothing. He didn’t know what to do. He lifted his hands and let them drop. “Okay, dammit, I’m gonna go. But I can’t be back in Midland tomorrow to talk about this. I still have a job to do here. It’ll be the weekend before I get back up there. But don’t think I’m gonna forget about it, Miz Walker. And you’re gonna be wasting a lot of gasoline if you need to run down here to Salt Lick every time you think I’m anywhere near.”
He stalked out the door and slammed it so hard the glass panes in the upper half rattled.
***
Sandi waited anxiously for the panes to fall out of the door. She, her Aunt Ed and Debbie Sue all stared after Nick. No one said a word.
Finally, Aunt Ed spoke. “Lordy, Lordy, niece-of-mine. Something tells me there’s more going on than you missing ol’ Jake the Mouth. What’s this about?”
Sandi broke into tears. “Oh, Aunt Ed...”
Her aunt came over and put an arm around her shoulder, drew her against her. “Now, now. You can tell your dear ol’ auntie, hon. I’m not a pinch-mouth like your mother. I don’t judge. Were you and Nick lovers? Is that why you’re both claiming the same dog? Is it one of those custody things?”
Sandi raised her head and stepped back, her eyes suddenly dry. “Aunt Ed! Nick Conway a lover? Not in this lifetime.”
Her aunt gave her the goggle-eye. “You could do worse. Hell, you’ve already done worse.”
“He’s trying to steal my dog, Aunt Ed!”
“But he says it’s his dog,” Debbie Sue said. “And he looked and sounded believable to me.”
From the corner of her eye, Sandi angled a look toward her aunt’s partner. She wasn’t one hundred percent sure she could trust Debbie Sue, even if she was Aunt Ed’s friend.
Sandi sank into a styling chair. Amidst tears and sniffles, she told Waffle’s story.
At the end of it, her aunt said, “So Waffle’s just another stray. It seems like this particular dog is real important to Nick.”
“Waffle is important to me, too, Aunt Ed.”
“Hell, Sandi, you’ve got access to dozens of dogs. Like he said, why not let him have Waffle and you take the puppy he offered you. I mean, it's just a dog, right?”
“Ed! Bite your tongue!” Debbie Sue said. “What if I felt that way about Jim, Jack and Jose? Or Rocket Man?”
Jimjack and Jose? Rocket Man? “Those are dogs’ names?” Sandi asked, incredulous.
“Jim Beam, Jack Daniel’s and Jose Cuervo. I got them back in my partying days before I remarried Buddy.”
“Rocket Man’s a horse,” Aunt Edwina put in. “An old horse she used to ride when she was a champion barrel racer in ProRodeo. He’s so old, once when he was sick, I knitted an afghan to throw over his rump.”
Sandi shook her head, trying to clear away the cobwebs. Her aunt hadn’t told her much about her partner. It sounded as if Debbie Sue had lived a busy lifetime in just two sentences.
“All I know, Aunt Ed, is I don’t want to lose Waffle. And I’m never going to be bullied by a man again.”
Debbie Sue loomed over her. “So is this uproar about the dog? Or is it about you?”
Sandi raised her gaze to Debbie Sue. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t see that he’s bullying you. He just wants his dog back. I don’t understand why it’s such an obsession for you.”
Sandi could stop the tears that rushed to her eyes. “I can’t help it. It’s hard to explain. After two husbands left me for other women, I was so lost. My self-esteem was so beaten down. My mother says I have terrible judgement when it comes to men.”
Aunt Ed patted Sandi’s shoulders with a comforting hand. “That’s all right, darlin’. Don’t listen to your mother. Her brain cavity has always been a little small.”
Sandi looked up at her aunt in shock. “Aunt Ed! Why do you say mean things about my mother? She’s your sister!”
Her aunt lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “Can I help it the way she is?”
“So you’re projecting,” Debbie Sue said.
“What the hell does that mean, Debbie Sue?” Aunt Ed said. “Whose side are you on?”
“I’m just saying, Sandi, that maybe you’re projecting your need for some guy to love you onto Waffle. That’s why you’re afraid to let him go.”
“Maybe that’s true,” Sandi replied. “When Waffle came along, maybe I needed something to love that loved me back.”
She plucked a Kleenex out of a box on her aunt’s station and blew her nose. “I have so much love to give, but I can’t seem to find a human who wants it. Only animals. And most of them only want to be fed and housed. Waffle’s different. He has a personality and he gives back.”
“I have to believe
