“I know. I’ve been trying to deal with it. Keeping busy helps.”
“I heard that a friend of his is in town and brought you Trevor’s dog.”
“Yeah, Rob Michelini. He’s helping me learn how to manage Maverick, a beautiful Belgian Malinois.”
“Rumor has it Rob isn’t so bad himself.” Meredith raised an eyebrow at her.
“He’s very nice.” MJ looked around to see if anyone was close enough to hear. “And, yes, he’s good-looking in that warrior-type way.” She felt herself blush. She shouldn’t be so attracted to him, but the more time she spent with him, the more she noticed that the man was hot.
Meredith gazed at her and then reached over to squeeze her hand. “It’s okay to move on, MJ. Trevor wouldn’t have wanted you grieving for him. He’d want you to have a wonderful life.”
“I know. I will. It just takes time to realize that what I always dreamed about can’t come true.” She gave her friend a phony smile, but Meredith shook her head. She knew MJ was faking it.
“You may not have the dream with Trevor, but, honey, you can create new dreams with someone else. If you’re attracted to Rob, go for it.”
Before she could demur, Blake came over to claim his wife. “Time for the reveal, sweetheart,” he said, helping Meredith up from her chair, and moving her toward the front of the room with his hand on her lower back.
They called the crowd to attention, and Meredith’s mother carried the box over to them and placed it on the table in front of them.
“Thank you all for coming today,” Blake said, looking around the room at the crowd of friends gathered there. “We wanted to share our excitement with you by having this party to disclose the gender of our new soon-to-be family member. This is a surprise for us. We had Crandall’s Bakery bake a gender-reveal cake. Blue roses for a boy, pink roses for a girl.” He turned to Meredith and gestured for her to lift the top off the box. As she started to lift it, he leaned in to help her.
Everybody was silent, watching and straining to see how the large cake was decorated. As the cake cleared the box, MJ could hear the gasp from the new parents, as they turned the cake so that everybody in the room could see the blue decorative frosting.
The room burst into spontaneous applause, and the rumble of good wishes grew to a small roar. MJ added her congratulations along with others, and smiled a genuine smile, happy for her friends. Their lives would be different in a few months.
An attendant cut pieces of the cake for everyone, and MJ talked with old friends from high school. Some had kids of their own, and others were married but hadn’t started a family yet. A few, like her, were unattached. She noticed the married women or those who had kids gravitated toward others at the same life stage. It made sense, because they had so much in common. They could share information about parenting or weddings, but it made her wonder what her future would be like.
She’d always thought she’d end up with Trevor, and they’d marry and have a family together. She’d felt inside that they were “meant to be.” Now those dreams were destroyed. Would she end up the “old maid” of their group? The one who was a career woman? Not that she didn’t love her job as a librarian, but it wasn’t all she wanted. Feeling the melancholy mood overtake her again, she made an excuse to leave and headed home.
Chapter Eleven
“Ready for bed, Maverick?”
The dog looked up at him, and damned if it didn’t look like he’d smiled.
Rob moved into the bedroom and pulled off his clothes, changing into his sleep pants. He sat on the edge of the bed and ruffled the fur on the dog’s neck. Maverick moved into him, groaning and seeking more.
“I get it, boy. You need comfort and affection, same as me. I’ll bet MJ could heal us both.” The dog let out a big sigh, and Rob followed suit. “Let’s hit the hay.”
He lifted the covers and slid in for some needed shut-eye. Maverick settled next to him on the floor.
Adjusting his pillow, his thoughts turned back to his conversation with Derrick an hour earlier. Could he build something with MJ? Would Trevor have wanted that? He yawned and settled into the pillow.
He woke to Maverick nudging him, and he turned over to find the dog on the bed. He never did that. At least he never had. He didn’t make any noise, but as Rob’s eyes adjusted to the dark, he saw that Maverick was alerting—giving the sign that he smelled something dangerous.
What the hell? Was this some new form of PTSD? Then he smelled it. Smoke.
“Good boy. Let’s go. Andiamo.” They needed to get out of here. He stuffed his feet into his boots, but didn’t bother to lace them. Now that he was upright, he could hear a crackling sound.
He snatched up Maverick’s leash, not bothering with his harness. He didn’t know how the dog would handle a fire, especially after all that had happened in Iraq.
They moved into the kitchen, toward the door leading to the stairs. A glance out the window over the sink showed the glow of flames licking the wooden structure. The crackling sound was much louder.
He checked the back-door window and felt the wooden door for heat. Seemed clear. He shortened Maverick’s leash, so he had good grip. They would have to do this together. Opening the door, he prepared to run down the stairs, only to pull up short. The fire fully engulfed the stairs at the bottom. Could they run through the flames? Whatever they did, they needed to do it now.
