Summer Rose (18 page)

“I’m not going to stroke your ego so you can justify hurting that great gal. She needed you, and you walked away from her.” Ken’s irritation had turned to anger. “Why?”

Hunter shook his head and combed his fingers through his already disheveled hair. “I don’t know, Ken. A family? All that responsibility? I’m not sure I’m up to facing that again.”

Ken laughed, but the sound held no humor. “Who do you think you are? Somebody special? Life is a responsibility. Your animals are as much of a responsibility as any gaggle of kids. The only difference is that their bodies are covered with fur and they can’t sass you back.”

“I know, but raising you guys was so much harder than taking care of the animals.”

“And you did it . . . alone. Something tells me if you have Rose by your side, it’s not going to be that hard. The burden won’t be as weighty.”

“But she’s gone. She left.”

Ken made an exasperated sound. “What did you expect her to do? Hang around and wait for you to get your head together? You need to find her and talk to her.”

Hunter signaled the waitress for two cups of coffee. “That’s easier said than done. I have no idea where she went.”

“Does she have family?”

Hunter shook his head. “She was abandoned by her mother. Grew up in foster homes. The person closest to her died in a car accident. That’s who she was carrying the babies for as a surrogate. She has no one that I know of.”

“She did have someone.”

Hunter stared at Ken. “Who?”

“You.”

“Big help I was.”

The waitress arrived with a fresh cup of coffee for Ken and refilled Hunter’s. Ken gave her a few bills and waved her off. “Maybe I can find her. I have some connections.”

Hunter stared down at the curls of steam wafting from the hot coffee. He had never felt so defeated in his life. Not even when he was raising Janice and Ken, and the money had gotten so sparse he hadn’t been sure where their next meal was coming from.

But you did it. You raised two wonderful human beings to adulthood and helped them establish good careers. You did it alone and against all odds. It’s about time you stopped feeling sorry for yourself and realize that life doesn’t come with guarantees and responsibility is a part of it. Look around you. Everyone has some kind of burden to carry through life.

It suddenly occurred to him that Ken was right. He’d seen something Hunter had been blinded to. Since Rose had come on the scene, she’d shared his responsibilities at the clinic. She’d never been just a receptionist/nurse. She’d fielded George’s incessant tirades about the animals, went up against him when he mistreated Davy, and hatched an idea to try to save the wild animals, and all without asking Hunter to help. That wasn’t the kind of woman who sat back and let her man run the show and shoulder all the burdens. She’d been as a close to a partner as possible.

What a blind, stupid fool he’d been. He looked at his brother. “Where do we start?”

Before Ken could say anything, the door to the tearoom swung open, and Sheriff Ainsley strode in. He made his way purposefully toward them and stopped beside their table.

“There’s a town council meeting on Friday night, Doc, and you need to be there.”

Three days later, on Friday night, Hunter walked into the Carson town council meeting at the town hall. The only empty chair was in the front. The town’s citizens packed the rest of the room. As he made his way toward the front, people called out to him, smiled at him, shook his hand and assured him they were on his side.

His side? For what?

Baffled, he took his seat and waited for whatever it was that was going to happen to begin.

A few minutes later, the three-member Council filed in and sat behind the long table at the front of the room, facing the assembled crowd. In the middle, a smug smile plastered on his face, was George Collins. To his right, Asa Watkins, the president of the Carson Savings and Loan and school superintendent, fiddled with a pen and avoided eye contact with Hunter. To the mayor’s left, Catherine Daniels, the town’s matriarch, shuffled the papers in front of her, her enormous diamond ring reflecting the glow from the fluorescent ceiling lights.

Sheriff Ben Ainsley stood sentinel just inside the door leading to the hall. He smiled at Hunter and winked. The gesture confused Hunter. Everyone was acting weird tonight. What the heck was going on?

When Collins pounded the oak gavel on the table, Hunter jumped out of his thoughts. “The meeting of the Carson Town Council will come to order.” Collins flashed what Rose referred to as his
smarmy smile
at the gathering. “It’s nice to see so many of our citizens attending this evening.”

A murmur of whispers floated through the crowd. George pounded the gavel again. Hunter got the feeling that since his election, George and the gavel had become one entity. Obviously, slamming it against the table and reigning over the council meetings was another of his mayoral duties that George thoroughly enjoyed.

“The first order of business is discussion on a motion brought to the floor by Catherine Daniels at the last meeting to install a street light on the corner of Hanover and Elm.”

The council immediately launched into a detailed discussion of the pros and cons of adding the street light. Bessie Wright, who lived two houses down on Hanover, claimed the street was so dark at night and the sidewalk was so uneven that she darn near broke her neck walking her dog a few weeks back. Bill Keeler claimed he’d walked into Charlie Henderson’s shrubs because he didn’t see them.

Behind him, Hunter he heard someone whisper that Bill, a faithful patron of Hannigan’s Bar out on Route 7, was probably too drunk to see the hedges. Several snickers followed. George banged his gavel again and glared at the offenders. More discussion followed. Finally the council decided unanimously to install the street light, but only after Catherine Daniels said she’d foot the cost of buying and installing it.

Hunter didn’t hear what the next topic to be debated was. He’d tuned them out while he tried to figure out what was so important that Ainsley felt the town’s veterinarian had to be at this meeting when he could be out with Ken looking for Rose. Hunter had just made up his mind to slip out as unobtrusively as possible when Collins called for new business.

Sam Watkins, the mailman, farmer and Asa’s older brother—more his opposite than any man in the room—stepped up to a small podium, which had been provide for the public to address the council, at the side of the council table.

“Sam, what can we do for you?” George favored the older man with his best saccharin smile.

“I’ll tell you what you can do. I don’t know how you hornswoggled these folks,” he waved his hand to take in the other two members, “to go along with you. Although I have my suspicions.” He stared straight at his brother. “But you need to let Doc Mackenzie keep his wild animal refuge.” Sam crossed his arms defiantly and glared at George.

A bit of color drained from the mayor’s face. Obviously he’d not been expecting this.

Hunter perked up. So this was why Ben Ainsley wanted him here. But what good could it possibly do to bring this up now. The animals were gone.

“Furthermore, we want you to get all his animals back. The ones you took away the other day are not dangerous. They’re hurt, and there ain’t nobody better at fixing hurt animals than Doc. He saved my prize mare Matilda when she had colic, and I know he’s saved a lot of other animals.” A roar of agreement went up from the crowd. Sam smacked the podium with the palm of his hand. “That’s all I have to say.”

No sooner had he stepped away than Granny Jo Hawks took his place. “I go along with what Sam said one hundred percent. Those animals are mostly like puppies that sleep and eat all the time, and the ones that aren’t, are usually injured and not gonna hurt anyone. Doc sees to that.” She pursed her lips, frowned and pointed an accusatory finger at Collins. “You mark my words, George Collins, that boy of yours is gonna follow in Doc’s footsteps. He’s a natural with four-legged critters. Just because you don’t want him out there with them is no reason to shut Doc down. If you had half a brain in your head, you’d see that. As for little Davy, you broke that little boy’s heart when you had them take away his wolf. For God’s sake, man, stop being a mayor for a little while and be a father. Don’t you have any feelings for your son?”

The room broke into cheers of agreement with Granny Jo.

George had the good grace to look reprimanded. Pink tinted his pale cheeks.

Hunter had heard enough. He’d let Rose fight his battle with George. Now he was allowing the good people of Carson to do it. It was time he stood up for himself.

George pounded his gavel for order. “That wolf was—”

“That wolf was harmless.” Hunter’s voice rose above the noise of the cheering throng. He stood and went to join Granny at the podium. “Just like all the other animals out there were, just like I’ve been telling you for weeks. Aside from the fact that most of them aren’t old enough to do damage, they were either locked in cages or pens, and the ones that weren’t locked up were hurt and incapable of doing harm to anyone.”

“What about that wolf? She isn’t a baby. And what about that vicious hog that chased after me?” George’s complexion had regained its color, and his smug expression told Hunter that he thought he’d made a good argument.

A wave of snickers rolled across the room.

“The hog is a barely out her mama’s womb and quite harmless. As for the wolf . . . Yes, she’s full grown and wild, but she hasn’t offered to hurt anyone—your son included. Sadie loves Davy, and he loves her. They became friends instantly, and in all my years as a vet, I have never seen a wild wolf become so attached, placid and affectionate with a human as she was with your son. Granny Jo’s exactly right. He’s got a touch with animals that can’t be denied. It’s a gift. Whether or not you recognize that or whether or not the council allows the wild animals back into the refuge, as long as his mother approves, Davy will have a job at my clinic. So, if you think that closing me down or taking away the animals will keep Davy away, forget it.”

Again the cheers erupted. George didn’t even try to stop them this time. Catherine Daniels clapped as loud as any of the spectators. Asa Watkins stared at the audience openmouthed, his gaze flicking from the crowd to George, uncertain whom to side with.

In the midst of the uproar, Sheriff Ainsley came running up the middle aisle, the grin on his face nearly splitting it in two. “Doc, you gotta see this. You’re not gonna believe it.” He turned to Collins. “And you best see it, too.”

Hunter followed Ben outside, trailed closely by Granny Jo and the rest of the townspeople. He glanced over his shoulder and saw George elbowing his way through to the front of the crowd. By the time they reached the Town Hall steps, Collins was right next to Hunter.

The crowd expelled a simultaneous gasp and came to an abrupt halt.

“Well, my stars. If that don’t beat all,” Granny Jo murmured.

On the sidewalk, standing side by side like any boy and his pet dog were Davy and Sadie.

The boy grinned at Hunter as if Christmas had come early. For him, it probably had.

“She ran all the way back to me, Doc.”

“I see that, Davy.”

“Mom called the man at the wolf place to tell him, and he said if she wanted to be here bad enough to travel all that way, he wasn’t gonna take her away again. He says he’ll come by and check on her once in a while, but she can live with me as long as I let her run free.” He squatted down next to Sadie and looped his arm over her back as best he could, then buried his face in her fur. The massive animal craned her neck around and licked his cheek.

Hunter grinned and turned to George. “Well, Collins, does that look like a dangerous animal to you?”

Rose looked around her small,
furnished apartment. Not lavish by any stretch of the imagination, but good enough until she could afford something bigger and better, and with the job she’d gotten at the Charleston Medical Center, that shouldn’t be too long.

She levered herself onto the fold-out couch, grabbed the TV remote and began channel surfing. When the face of a gray wolf flashed on the screen, she stopped pushing the button. For a while, she watched.

The program showcased a couple who ran a wolf awareness program that took in wolves brought to them and reintroduced them back into the wild, but at the same time tried to educate people about the species.

Finally, when she could stand the memories racing through her head of Davy and Hunter and Sadie no longer, Rose turned off the TV and opted for a book instead. But even a good crime novel didn’t have the power to still the memories that clung like attic cobwebs to her conscious mind.

She told herself sternly that dreaming about what was and what could never be would do no good. But it didn’t dispel the memories. Putting the book aside, she grabbed the mail.

A square white envelop caught her attention. In the upper left corner was Granny Jo’s address—the only person in Carson who knew where Rose had relocated. And she had been sworn to secrecy.

What could this be?
She opened the ivory envelope and slid out the matching card inside and read.

Mrs. Earl Hawks requests the honor of your presence

At

The wedding of her granddaughter

Rebecca Marie Hawks

And

Nicholas Aaron Hart

On Saturday, August Twenty-Seventh . . .

Rose stopped reading. A wedding. How could she possibly attend a wedding when her own dreams of a family and a future lay in dust? Just reading the invitation made her heart hurt. She started to lay the invitation aside when she noticed a small piece of paper hanging from the envelope. Slipping it out, she unfolded it and read.

Dear Rose,

I know you’re probably wondering why on earth I’m sending you an invitation to come back here. To put it simply, we miss you . . . ALL of us. Besides that, there’s something you need to see for yourself.

Love, Granny Jo

Rose laid the note aside. Something she needed to see for herself? What could Granny possibly be talking about? And what did she mean by ALL of us? Did that include Hunter? Did he miss her as much as she missed him? Or was that just Granny’s way of saying the townspeople who had brought their animals to the clinic missed her?

Well, whatever it was, Rose was not going back there to find out. The pain was still too fresh, the wounds to her heart too raw. She’d made her break and going back would just resurrect the old hurts, and she was not about to do that.

Besides, in four months she’d have more than enough to help her forget. More importantly, right now the babies came first, and getting into more of an emotional tangle than she was already in certainly couldn’t be good for them. She was better off staying out of Carson and away from everything there.

She dropped the invitation in the trash.