Man's Best Friend (The Dogmothers Book 6) Read online

  “She wasn’t mad, though. Mildly amused.”

  “You were always pulling crap like that, E. How about when Ella locked herself in the back stairs’ secret hatch when we were babysitting her?”

  “Oh, you freaked out.”

  “My baby sister was locked in a hole in the staircase landing.”

  “I told her it was a good hiding place to try to fool you, but it wasn’t supposed to lock with her in it,” she said on a laugh. “God, this house has idiosyncrasies.”

  “You hid my sister in a hole,” he said, giving her a look.

  She waved her hand. “She thought it was one grand adventure.”

  “She would.” He worked the wooden globe from side to side again. “I may have to squirt some glue in the seam,” he said. “Although you’d think this carved ball would be part of the post.”

  “It’s always been a little loose, even when I was young. But now it feels like one good pull and—”

  “Whoa!” It detached with so much force that Declan almost lost his balance, making Evie reach up to his waist to steady him. “What the hell?” he muttered, turning the thing over to see it was made like a wooden cork that fit into a carved space in the newel post. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

  “Welcome to Gloriana House,” she said. “Surprises in the woodwork. Literally.”

  Leaning over, he looked into the hole. “But it’s… What’s that?”

  “What’s what?” She popped up to peer in, her face so close to his, he could feel the warmth of her skin. “Oh my God, Declan. There’s a box in there.”

  “Way down there, unreachable.”

  “No such thing as unreachable,” she said, stepping back. “I need the right tool. A metal hanger? Something long and tweezerlike.” She shot off toward the kitchen, leaving behind her sweet Evie scent and a vague feeling of déjà vu. And a smile still on his face.

  “Look what I found!” She came back with a long pair of rubber-tipped tongs that she snapped near his face. “What do you call these?”

  “Tongs.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  He rolled his eyes. “A total stretch.”

  “’Cause I was tweasing you.”

  He laughed. “I walked right into that.”

  “The best kind.”

  He reached for the tongs. “Want me to do it?”

  “My hand’s smaller. I can get deeper.” She positioned herself on the step above the newel while Declan pulled out his phone to give her light. “I can’t wait to find out what it is,” she said. “Grandmama Penelope used to always find treasures in the house, mostly things about Gloriana Bushrod. Amelia, her mother, was so distraught after Glory died that she would hide her things. Once, my grandmother found a letter in a broken floor board written by Amelia the day after Gloriana died. It was so sad. It’s in the museum room.”

  “The creepy room.”

  She shot him a look. “It’s not creepy.”

  “Evie. It’s a room full of sad letters about dead relatives.”

  “Please. There’s an altar to the family’s Irish setters from the past in your cousin’s waiting room,” she reminded him. “That room has the history of this house. And this might…belong in it.” She grunted and pushed harder, drawing his attention to her body as she worked, too on task to notice him appreciating the curves and angles and the way she filled out a pair of jeans.

  “I got it!” Her whole face turned pink as she worked to squeeze the tongs and not drop the box as she slid it up the deep well in the newel.

  She managed to pull the box out of the newel, and Declan snagged it right before it fell back in. “Good teamwork.”

  He handed it to her, and she dropped back on the step with a happy sigh, holding a small jewelers box in both hands. “What do you think? A ring? Brooch? Empty?”

  Easing down next to her, he couldn’t help but be more captivated by her beautiful expression than the treasure she’d found. “Oh, I hope not empty.” Because he didn’t want to see that glimmer in her eyes disappear. In fact, he wanted to see it all the damn time.

  “Here goes.” She lifted the lid and gasped softly at the shiny gold heart-shaped necklace inside. “It’s a locket!” she exclaimed, gently taking the necklace from the box and giving him an excited look. “I bet there are pictures inside.”

  “Oh yeah. My grandmother had one of those and gave it to my mom.”

  She rubbed her thumb over the engraving on the front, her touch slow and reverent, then slowly turned it over with a soft gasp. “Gloriana and Evangeline, 1910.” She gave a little shiver, chills on her arms.

  “So, Evangeline’s your great-grandmother?”

  “Yes, Glory’s younger sister.” She slid her fingernail into a crack in the heart, then popped it open like a book. “Look.” She held it out so they could both see that each side of the heart held a sepia-toned picture of a baby. They were so similar he could never have told them apart.

  “These are their baby portraits,” she said. “So, this necklace must have belonged to Amelia Bushrod.”

  “Okay, wait.” He closed his eyes to see the family tree. “Great-great?”

  She nodded. “The wife of Thaddeus Jr. and daughter-in-law of Big Bad Thad himself. The woman who built Gloriana House and named it for…” She tapped one side of the locket. “This little lady right here. Her first-born.”

  “Wow. That’s something.”

  Leaning back, she sighed, pressing the locket to her chest. “Oh, Dec.”

  He tried to read her expression, surprised to see it so sad after such a great find. “What’s wrong?”

  “I can’t sell this house,” she whispered. “There’s so much history and so many treasures. Who knows what else is hidden in the walls?”

  “All kinds of pieces of your family.”

  She nodded, her mouth turned down. “My mother never really cared or connected, you know? It was Grandmama’s house, and my mom and my dad lived here because…” She gave a soft laugh. “I don’t even know why. Convenience and habit and because it’s huge.”

  “And your dad really doesn’t want to keep it, if only for posterity?”

  “He only wants to make my mother happy, and she wants to live on a boat and paint sunsets. When I talked to her this morning, she couldn’t have been more overjoyed by the prospect of a multimillion-dollar payout and no giant house to maintain.”

  She stared at the locket for a long time, her chest rising and falling with slow breaths. “But this family is so special,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “And this house…”

  “Is special, also.”

  She glanced up at him, looking a little surprised he would say that. “It’s such a shame to…”

  “Sell the house?” he guessed.

  She looked up from the locket into his eyes, a storm brewing. “Would you really…” She took another breath, searching his face.

  “Would I what?”

  “Would you…”

  He closed his hand over hers when she didn’t finish. What did she want? Some work on the house or…something more permanent? Something that he woke up ten times in the middle of the night thinking about?

  He took a breath and added some pressure on her hand. “Look, I know it might be hard to believe because a lot of time has passed, but, Evie, ask me what you want me to do. I can’t ever say no to you.”

  She looked down at their joined hands. “You told me that once, you know.”

  He knew. He remembered. Declan’s promise. A list of promises he smashed to kingdom come literally less than an hour after he made it.

  “So go ahead, ask me.”

  A vein pulsed in her throat as her chest rose and fell with another breath.

  “Would you…” She popped off the stairs and pointed to the chandelier. “Go up to the attic and find the winch to lower that so I can clean that monster?” she asked, rushing the question as if she couldn’t get it out fast enough.

  That was what was causi
ng her so much visible stress? Somehow, he doubted it. “Sure.”

  “And will you really fix the window sashes and also nail down the floorboards and maybe help me paint?” Again, she asked quickly, like she didn’t want time to change her mind.

  “That’s why I’m here.” One of the reasons, anyway. “Are you trying to drive the price up even further?”

  “I want to honor the house, Declan. I want to return it to its original beauty. I want to do that for my grandmother and great-grandmother and…” She pressed the locket to her chest. “My great-great-grandmother who built it. The least I can do is fix Gloriana House.”

  “Okay,” he said slowly, standing up to get close to her. “Of course I’ll help you, and what I can’t do, I’ll help you find someone who can.”

  She turned to him, only then realizing they were inches apart. “I know this isn’t your favorite place to spend time.”

  “But you are one of my favorite people to spend time with.” He felt his lips lift in a smile that mirrored hers.

  “Really?”

  “Some things don’t change, E.”

  “But…” She held his gaze, slicing him wide open with those cut-crystal eyes. “Then why did you freeze me out, Dec?”

  There it was. The question he’d known was coming. And he didn’t have a good answer, not one worthy of this fine woman. “Because I’m an idiot.”

  She gave him a look that said she thought the explanation was as lame as he did.

  His heart hammering, he lifted his hand to her hair, stroking the near-black silk as he held her gaze. Then he slipped his fingers under her hair, grazing her neck, easing her a little closer.

  “Evie?”

  “Yes?”

  He heard the breathlessness in the word, the need for him to give her a better reason than I was a mess living in an emotional hole as dark and dank as a basement in an old house.

  “Oh wait.” She reached into her back pocket and pulled out her phone, reading the screen. “Vestal Valley approved me to do Judah’s surgery on Saturday.”

  “That’s awesome.”

  She nodded, stepping back, out of his touch. “Let’s take it one day at a time, Dec. We both need…time.”

  After twenty years? He didn’t really need any more time, but maybe she did. Time and a hell of a better explanation.

  She held up the locket and let it dangle between them. “We’ve already found a treasure. Who knows what else could happen?”

  He knew. He knew exactly what could happen. If he could apologize for shutting her out for twenty years and be man enough to explain why.

  And if that wasn’t incentive enough, he didn’t know what was.

  Chapter Eleven

  Evie couldn’t help letting him off the hook. Sometimes, all you can do for an animal in pain is let them curl into a ball and ride it out. She could sense Declan’s walls coming down, if a little more slowly than she’d like. Maybe it wouldn’t be the full-on detonation of the fortress he’d built, but she was getting through, one straight arrow and bad joke at a time.

  And after twenty years, she was mature enough to know that being with him, even without getting the answers she wanted, was better than being without him. Plus, he was going to help her around Gloriana House, which was already a huge concession.

  While he worked, Evie spent time with Granddaddy and Judah, playing an endless game of gin rummy with one and taking the other for slow walks to the grass.

  It was nearly four when she walked Judah downstairs, grabbed a few bottles of water, and guided the dog to the garage building on the west side of the property, following the sound of an electric sander.

  Outside the separate garage, which, in her lifetime, had never actually housed a car, but certainly had a century’s worth of tools and random garden equipment, Judah started sniffing and exploring some shrubs. Evie squinted into the building toward the workbench, catching sight of Declan in some afternoon light streaming through a window, his slightly damp T-shirt stretched over rock-solid muscles as he gripped the tool to shave a window frame.

  It’s gonna be hard to be just friends.

  And imagine how complicated making a baby would be.

  But what they had made was progress. From frozen to friends, and she liked that. She also liked how delicious he looked in a tight, sweaty T-shirt. Ripped. Solid. So damn masculine and easy on the eyes.

  Her handyman.

  When he’d mentioned that, her mind had slipped back twenty years to a cool Carolina mountain morning when a boy made…promises.

  I’ll be your handyman…chauffeur…lover…husband.

  She couldn’t remember the exact words he’d written on some random note card all those years ago, but she remembered the sentiment behind them. Sometimes, on her darkest nights, she’d dredge up that feeling of the last truly happy time they had together, less than an hour before their worlds and friendship imploded.

  Yes, his father died, so it seemed fair to not hold him to promises he made when he was young and trying to get her back into his sleeping bag. But the fact was, Declan, for all his goodness and strength and loyalty and love, broke that promise so fast, her head spun just thinking about it. And he never even tried to fix it…yet.

  “I bring water and a dog,” she called when the electrical hum stopped, coming closer to offer a bottle of water. “Thirsty?”

  Putting the sander down, he pushed the plastic goggles he wore up over his hair, sliding into a grateful smile. “Parched. Thanks.”

  He took the bottle and offered a casual toast, glancing past her to see Judah, snout-down in some bushes. “Look who’s been sprung.”

  He took a sip and walked to Judah, crouching down to pet him. “How ya feelin’, big guy?” Judah looked up at him, slightly interested, then returned to whatever smelled better on the ground.

  At the workbench, Evie checked out his progress. “How’s it going with the sixty-year-old window sashes?”

  “Truth? Honey, you need entirely new windows in this place.” After petting Judah some more, he rose and came to stand next to her. “This is a Band-Aid that will allow them to open and close again. Not sure how great the insulation will be this winter, or what one decent storm could do.”

  “All new windows?” She curled her lip. How much did she want to invest in making her family home beautiful when it wasn’t…hers? Maybe she should let the wealthy new homeowner worry about that.

  “It would cost a fortune if you wanted to match these,” he said as if he could read her mind. “I think you’d need a real historic home specialist to do the job,” he said after swallowing a deep gulp of his water. “Speaking of historic homes, do you ever get used to the tourists gawking and taking pictures?” He gestured toward the street. “I’ve seen half a dozen today.”

  “As long as they don’t bother me, I take it as a compliment for the house my ancestors built.”

  He peered past her to the side of the house. “It needs work, but there’s no denying this house is a stunner.”

  For some reason, hearing him say anything good about Gloriana House made her heart happy. “I’m so grateful for what you’re doing,” she said and wondered if he knew she meant so much more than helping with repairs. Being here, caring about this house, helping her…it meant the world.

  “Then we’re even.” He pointed his head toward Judah. “He’s so much calmer than he was at the station. You’re like magic with animals, you know that?”

  “He’s a simple creature, to be fair. He’s got a person and painkillers. Oh, I spoke to Dr. Rafferty,” she added. “They’re going to have a staff for me on Saturday, including an anesthesiologist and two nurses. They’re even letting me bring Molly into the OR. In fact, she’s on her way over now.”

  “Molly is?”

  “She has to do one more physical on Judah and sign an online form for approval to be in the OR.” At the sound of a car pulling into the long drive, she turned, seeing that old van that had been at Waterford. “Is that what
Molly drives? I could swear that’s the same dog van your aunt Annie used to drive.”

  He chuckled. “It is the same one. And not merely the make and model—it’s the very same vehicle.”

  “Wow, it’s in good shape.”

  “Molly never told you the story of how Trace found it and refurbished it? Ask her. And ask her why.”

  “I will—”

  “But not when Pru’s around, because she hates the story.” He led her out of the garage into the sunlight as the doors of the van opened, and more than just Molly climbed out. “And speaking of Prudence, there she is.”

  A lanky teenage girl slipped out of the van, followed by Gramma Finnie and Yiayia. Then Molly reached into the van and emerged holding Danny, her baby who probably wasn’t even eighteen months old yet.

  “Oh boy,” Evie whispered.

  “And not just any boy,” Declan added. “Hide the china. That kid is a human tornado.”

  Sensing the new arrivals, Judah lifted his head and barked, starting toward the small group as they came up the driveway.

  “I got him,” Declan said, carefully stopping the dog without putting any pressure on his neck. “You go greet the guests.”

  She met the little party halfway down the long drive, waving and laughing when Molly put Danny down, and he toddled forward, arms outstretched toward the dog.

  “Mmmbah! Mmmbah!”

  “He thinks every dog is Meatball,” Molly said, reaching for Evie with the same spark in her eyes as her little boy. “I travel in a pack,” she whispered as they hugged. “And the grannies insisted, but points to me for making them leave their dogs at home.”

  “Oh, it’s fine, I—”

  “Is that Declan?” Molly asked with a soft gasp. “Brace yourself. Yiayia’s gonna explode with high hopes.”

  “If her hopes are that the windows will open and close again, she’s in luck.” Evie added a squeeze and greeted the rest of them in a flurry of hugs and hellos, taking an extra moment with Pru, whom she hadn’t seen in several years.

  “Beautiful Prudence Anne,” she whispered, making the teenager laugh and roll her eyes.

  “Hi, Dr. Hewitt.”