Snowfall on Haven Point(65)
“Why do my children all find such delight in teasing me?” she asked, presumably to the universe in general.
“Because we love you. And because you’re an easy mark.”
She huffed out a breath, but when she spoke, she sounded like her usual cheerful self. “I’ll see you tomorrow evening, then. Dress warmly, but the forecast calls for only a little more snow tonight, and then it’s supposed to melt right off tomorrow by noon. I understand we’ve got a warm front coming in tomorrow. That will be perfect for the festival, won’t it?”
“I guess.”
“I don’t know what time Andrea planned to pick you up. If you don’t hear from her tomorrow, you might want to give her a call.”
He didn’t. He needed to put as much distance between them as possible—and spending the evening in the company of her and her very cute children was going to make that increasingly difficult.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
DID SHE HAVE EVERYTHING? Blanket, hand warmers, snacks, water bottles, extra mittens and hats.
She looked in the cargo area of her SUV to make sure she had everything on her mental list. When she couldn’t think of anything she’d forgotten—though, doubtless, she had—she pushed the power button and the hatch door slid with a whoosh.
Though she sometimes missed the minivan she used to drive, she had come to love her new small SUV.
Her first Idaho mountain snowstorm a few months earlier had reinforced that winters around Lake Haven definitely warranted a four-wheel drive. As a result, she had traded the minivan she and Jason purchased together after Will was born for a late-model used vehicle from a dealership in Shelter Springs.
It was the first time she had purchased a car on her own, as she had never been able to afford her own vehicle when she was living on her own and going to school. Somehow it had seemed like one more rite of passage into widowhood.
New town, new house, new vehicle. New life. Sometimes it seemed Chloe and Will were all that remained of the marriage she thought would endure forever.
She paused on her way back into the house to breathe past the familiar grief, aware it had become a mere shadow of what it once was.
As if sensing her distress, Sadie nudged her leg. The little dog planted her haunches on the sidewalk to give her a quizzical look.
“I’m okay. Relax.”
From the moment they’d brought her home from the shelter, Sadie seemed to have a particular gift for sensing when one of her new family members was experiencing an excess of emotion and was in need of extra attention.
The dog waited for her to gain control, then with a wag of her tail, Sadie scampered to the rear of the SUV and waited there expectantly.
“You can’t go, sweetie. I’m sorry.”
The dog’s expressive eyes turned reproachful. Andie would swear the dog understood every word she said.
“I would take you if I could, I promise, but we’re supposed to go to a party afterward. Lots of boring conversation. You wouldn’t enjoy it.”
The dog took a few steps to where Andie stood on the sidewalk, then returned to the liftgate of the SUV.
“Why can’t we just take her?” Chloe begged from the backseat. “We can keep her on the leash the whole time!”
“Yeah,” Will said. “I bet she would love seeing the boats.”
“Not tonight,” she said. “We can’t take Sadie to McKenzie’s house after the parade.”
“Why not?” Chloe begged. “She could play with Hondo and Rika! It will be like a doggie playdate!”
She couldn’t deny, she was tempted by their entreaties. All of them loved having the little dog along. In this case, though, she was already going to be taking Marshall with them. She was nervous enough about spending the evening with him. She didn’t need to add the chaos and further responsibility of taking along a little dog.
She shouldn’t be so nervous. She knew it and had been trying all afternoon to tell herself all the reasons her anxiety was ridiculous. Still, she couldn’t seem to shake it off.
After that stunning kiss, she wasn’t in a hurry to spend the evening with him, especially when his mother thought they had a budding relationship.
Oh, she wanted to smack him for giving Charlene that impression.
“Not tonight,” she repeated firmly. “When you’re a guest of someone, it is poor manners to take an uninvited dog to their home, especially when there will be others there who might not love dogs. We’ll make arrangements for a playdate with Hondo and Paprika another day. Now, we need to hurry or we’ll miss the beginning of the parade. Sorry, Sadie. Not you,” she said to the dog.
When she scooped up the little brown-and-white Havachon, Sadie wagged her tail harder, apparently convinced Andie had changed her mind.