Harley, a gracious man who was always a gentleman, invited him into his office and listened attentively. At the end of Nick’s story, Harley said, “I’m sympathetic, but I’d just as soon stay out of it. My wife and Debbie Sue Overstreet are good friends. Have been their whole lives. And I consider her husband Buddy a friend.”
“I understand, Harley. I’m just giving you a heads up because I expect to hear from one or all three of those women. Fact is, I suspect you’ll hear from them.”
Harley chuckled. “Edwina and Debbie Sue do have a way of getting everyone’s attention. But don’t worry about it. We’ll handle it.”
“The whole thing is kinda silly. This woman, Sandi. She collects unwanted animals. It should be a relief for me to take a dog off her hands, especially when he was my dog in the first place.”
***
“Oh, Sandi, I am so sorry,” Aunt Ed whined, looking out over the huge, empty pasture that spread behind her mobile home. “I didn’t know he would run off.”
Sandi gave her aunt a bug-eyed look. “Aunt Ed, you didn’t go outside with Waffle?”
“Lord, no. I’ve never had a dog I had to hold his paw while he peed. There’s a high cyclone fence out there. I thought he would go potty, then come back to the back door.”
Sandi had thought so, too, though she hadn’t been entirely certain. Waffle hadn’t been exposed to the wide open spaces since he had come to live with her. And he had run off from somewhere before, hadn’t he? Maybe this was a pattern with him. Not knowing what he had been like before she got him was a disadvantage.
“Let’s go on in to the beauty shop,” Aunt Ed continued. “Maybe Debbie Sue will have some ideas.”
“Are you going to leave Jake home alone today?”
“Oh, no. Wouldn’t hear of it. When Vic’s not home, he goes to the shop with me.”
They dressed and put on makeup hurriedly. When they were ready to leave, Aunt Ed went to Jake’s room and came back with him sitting on her arm. Under his feet, she was wearing a glove that looked like a gauntlet.
“What is that, Aunt Ed?”
“It’s a hard leather glove. His toe nails cut into my skin.”
Jake made a sneezing noise. “Too much spray net.”
“Is he talking about your hair?”
“Hell if I know. After all of the years I’ve been in the beauty shop business, I’m a little psychic, but even I can’t read a parrot’s mind. I think spray net is something new for him.”
Sandi walked over to the parrot. “Good morning, Jake.”
“Hello, pretty lady. Wanna fuck?”
Aunt Ed rolled her eyes and Sandy found a laugh. “He hasn’t changed. I hate to say it, but it was a huge relief you taking him off my hands.”
“I’ll just bet it was,” Aunt Ed said, placing Jake into his carrying cage.
“Stop! Stop! Call nine-one-one,” Jake screeched.
Sandi put Pablo and Adolph in their carrier and they trundled to the Styling Station in Aunt Ed’s Mustang with Sandi in the passenger seat of the two-seated car, buried under both Jake’s and Pablo and Adolph’s carriers.
As Aunt Ed drove, she angled a look at Sandi’s position under the carrying cases. “Exactly how many dogs do you have?”
“Just five.”
“And you’ve got other animals besides dogs?”
“A few. They come and go. It’s hard for me to say no, knowing they’ll likely be euthanized. Right now, besides the dogs, I have six cats, some chickens and a gerbil. I’ll probably have them forever. They’re animals no one wants. They’ve all got something wrong with them. The shelter tried to get me to take some goats the other day, but I don’t have a place for goats to live.”
“Lord, girl, do you have time for a social life?”
“Not much. Fortunately, Richard works all the time, so he doesn’t seem to notice how often I’m tied up with something related to the animal shelter or the SPCA. Of course, he complains about the animals I have at home.”
“Sounds to me like you’ll have to eventually make a choice between him and them.”
Sandi had not let herself think that far ahead. It didn’t matter anyway because she had never been able to visualize a future with Richard. “As you say, maybe I’ll have to make a choice.”
“Well, that’s a definite maybe. If that’s how you feel about him, why on earth are you wasting your time with him?”
The question was a good one, but Sandi simply didn’t let herself think about the answer. And she sure couldn’t think about it today. At the moment, all she could think about was Waffle and where he could be. They rode in silence as she pondered.
Aunt Ed finally spoke. “If you’re looking for a new man, that Nick Conway is sure a good-looking sucker and he’s single. I hear he’s the salt of the earth. Got those gorgeous blue eyes. Women would kill to have those eyelashes. Hell, I know a few women who would kill to have the rest of him, too.”
Sandi hadn’t forgotten that her aunt had a penchant for matchmaking. She had to head her off. “Not interested, Aunt Ed.”
“Well, you should be. He’s got a good job. C. J. told us Harley thinks a lot of him. It can’t be bad having the respect of a multi-millionaire like Harley Carruthers. Knowing Harley like I do, I’m sure he’s well paid. And he likes animals, too..”
“That last fact might be his one redeeming quality. But Nick is not my friend, Aunt Ed. Don’t forget that.”
“Oh, I know. I’m just saying...”
At the beauty salon, they found Debbie Sue waiting for them. She helped Aunt Ed put Jake in his luxury home in the corner and sort his toys. “Some life, huh?,” Debbie Sue said. “Just sit around on your perch all day, play with toys and spout off.”
“And crap all over everything,” Aunt Ed added.
“He’s like a damn celebrity,” Debbie Sue said.
They
