Mary nodded promptly. “She’s a girl, and yes. When she’s a little bigger, she’ll need someone to teach her the rules of being a dog.”
Davey leaned against Paul’s leg while Mary thumbed through more pictures of the puppy, and he yawned hugely.
Mary smiled down at Davey. “Speaking of Sarge, you and your dad should probably get home and put him to bed.”
“Good idea,” Paul said.
Mary stood. “I’m going to stop in and see if I can see Amber, and then I’ll be heading home to my pup, too.”
Paul knew she was right, and that he should go home. Had to go home because he had to tend to Sarge and get Davey settled down. But he hated to leave without seeing Amber. The sight of her passed out, pale and unresponsive, had done a number on him.
“I got something for Miss Amber.” Davey reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a crusty brown lump. He held it out to Mary.
To her credit, she accepted it immediately. “What’s this?”
“It’s magical,” Davey explained. “It goes deep in the dark ground and turns into a real live flower.”
“A bulb,” Mary and Paul said at the same time.
“Is that from when you helped Miss Amber plant them?” Paul wondered whether it had gone through the washing machine a few times, or whether this pair of jeans had really not been washed for a month.
Davey nodded, and then two lines appeared between his eyebrows, a sign that he was thinking hard. “Mommy went into the ground and she didn’t come up ’live. If Miss Amber goes into the ground, give her this so she can come out ’live.”
Mary let out a sound that was half sigh, half an “oh” of understanding. She glanced at Paul as her fingers closed around the brown lump. “Of course, I’ll give this to Miss Amber. You know, honey, she’s going to be fine.”
“Okay,” Davey said, nodding politely. But the lines between his brows remained.
Paul stood, picked up Davey and thanked Mary for all she had done. His voice remained steady through the whole thing, and he carried Davey easily. He didn’t fall apart, because he was a dad, and dads couldn’t fall apart. On the outside at least.
Inside was a different story. Paul was a wreck.
He should never have let Davey get so attached that he would put Amber into the same category as his mother.
Paul had failed to protect his son.
AT ELEVEN O’CLOCK Monday morning, Mary opened her front door and hurried down to greet Amber and her daughter, Hannah. After spending the night in observation in the hospital, Amber had been released, and she’d called to see if she could visit the new puppy on the way home while Hannah picked up a prescription for her. Mary had gotten the feeling Amber wanted a few minutes away from her overprotective daughter.
Mary helped Amber up the steps, Hannah holding her other arm. They walked her into the front room and got her seated on the couch.
“You don’t have to treat me like an invalid.” Amber sounded exasperated.
“Humor us,” Mary said. “And meet Coco,” she added. She picked the little puppy up out of the pen she’d improvised.
Both Amber and Hannah squealed and raved over how cute the dog was. “Can I hold her?” Hannah asked.
But Coco quavered, obviously terrified.
“We’d better keep our distance,” Amber said. “Let her get used to her new home for a little while.”
“I don’t know what happened to scare her,” Mary said, “but she seems to have a very timid personality. Or maybe it’s just the change from Goody’s place.”
Amber raised an eyebrow. “So you picked out the needy one, did you?”
“She was the only one left!” Mary protested. “Besides, Goody was ready to sell her to a pet store. When I saw how skittish she was, I knew that wouldn’t do.”
Hannah reached out a finger and ran it over the puppy’s soft coat. “Okay, I’m going to run over to the drugstore and pick up your meds. When I come back, Mom, we’re going home and you’re going to bed.”
Amber rolled her eyes. “You see what I’m dealing with here,” she said to Mary. “It took all my persuasive powers to be allowed to visit you for twenty minutes.”
“Well, I’m glad you did,” Mary said as Hannah disappeared out the door. She stroked the puppy in her lap. “So how are you doing today?”
“Not real happy.” Amber propped an elbow on the arm of the couch and rested her head on her hand. “Every time I get sick in a ‘normal’ way, people think I’m dying. It’s a bit of a weight to carry. No more than I deserve, I suppose, but I hate it.”
“So everything’s fine? They’re not worried about the fainting?”
Amber shook her head. “Nope, not worried. It’s from a horseback-riding accident I was in. Unrelated to the cancer.”
That still sounded a little scary, but Mary got what Amber meant. “People automatically assume that you’re having a recurrence, I guess. Probably including you.”
Amber nodded. “Whenever I get sick, I worry. Goes with the territory.”
“I’m sure.” Mary studied the younger woman. “You said something else. What do you mean, it’s no more than you deserve?”
Amber kicked off her shoes and pulled her feet up under herself. “I didn’t make very good choices as a younger woman. Didn’t really take care of myself. I didn’t think it mattered.”
The puppy wiggled in Mary’s lap, and she set it down to walk around the floor in its cute, clumsy way. “I hear that. I definitely have regrets about the past. They can be hard to shake.”
“Yeah. So now, I kind of wish—I really wish—that I had good health and could move forward in a new direction.”
“Like a direction of getting close to a certain man and boy?”
Amber’s mouth twisted to one side. “I guess it’s obvious.”
Mary saw the puppy start to squat. “Oh no you don’t!” She jumped up and grabbed it, then hurried toward the back
