Big Girls Don’t Cry (Dundee, Idaho #6)(64)
Author: Brenda Novak

“Want me to get the shovel?” Lucky asked from the back seat.

“No, Keith can do it.”

“When’s he coming over?”

“In a few minutes.” Reenie had told her ex-husband she wouldn’t be home until four-thirty because she’d wanted to have plenty of time to collect herself before facing the rest of the family.

“Will he be bringing the girls?” Celeste asked.

“Yeah, he picked them up from school so I could…you know, do this.”

“I’m glad he’ll be here,” Celeste said. “He gave you that dog before you had any kids. He loved Bailey, too.”

Reenie nodded and opened her door. “Let’s carry him into the back, okay?”

Lucky helped her lift the crate containing Bailey’s body, and together they headed around the side of the house. Reenie hated the fact that her dog wouldn’t be around to greet her when she came home each day. If he hadn’t been so miserable, she would’ve let his life run its course. But the cancer was getting too painful for him.

“This has been such a tough year for you,” Celeste said, following behind. “I was telling Garth just last night that I’m very proud of the way you’ve handled—”

The jingle of a collar and a yap, yap, yap interrupted.

“What’s that?” Lucky asked.

“I don’t know,” Reenie answered honestly.

Celeste skirted around them. “Sounds like a dog.”

When they reached the gate, they saw that it was a dog. A puppy. He had a big red bow around his neck and was straining against a rope tied to a stake in the ground. The moment he saw he had company, he wiggled and barked and whined for attention.

Celeste crossed over to him, walking gingerly because her high heels kept sinking into the wet lawn. “Who’s this little guy?”

Reenie’s jaw had fallen open. Quickly clamping her mouth shut, she realized it was the dog from the shelter in Boise. Isaac must’ve brought him. But she didn’t want her mother and Lucky to know that Liz’s brother had given her anything. She didn’t see any need to put herself in the awkward position of trying to explain why he might do so. As far as anyone else knew, family included, she and Isaac barely spoke to each other. “I—I thought it would be a good idea to get a new puppy for the girls, to distract them from the sadness of losing Bailey,” she said.

Celeste bent to pat the puppy’s head. “Why didn’t you tell us he was here?”

“I thought you wanted to wait a few weeks,” Lucky said. “But I can see why you changed your mind. Boy, is he cute.”

Reenie didn’t answer either one of them. “Let’s put Bailey over here,” she said.

Once they’d set the crate on the ground, she turned to find Celeste wearing a puzzled expression.

“There’s a gift card tied to his collar,” she said. “And it has your name on it.”

Damn. The card had been hidden by the bow. “I’ll get that.” Reenie started forward, but it was too late. Her mother read the brief message aloud. “‘Think of me now and then, okay? Isaac.’”

“Russell?” Lucky said.

Reenie cringed at Lucky’s loud voice. “I—I don’t think so,” she said.

Her half sister gaped at her. “We only know one Isaac, Reenie. If this dog didn’t come from him, where did it come from?”

What could she say? She’d met an Isaac on the Internet who’d shipped her a dog? No way would that work. “Okay, Isaac and I have become…friends.”

“Friends,” Lucky repeated skeptically.

It hardly helped to convince them to take her relationship with Isaac as lightly as she was presenting it when, a moment earlier, she’d lied about even having a relationship. But she tried anyway. “Yes, friends.”

“Buying you this puppy was a very nice thing to do,” Celeste said. “And this card…”

“He didn’t mean anything by the card.”

“Of course he did,” Celeste insisted. “But Reenie, Isaac is Liz’s brother.”

“Don’t jump to conclusions,” she said. “It’s nothing. Nothing at all.” The way they kept staring at her prompted a little more. “We…we danced one night.”

“And?” Lucky said.

“And then he gave me a ride home. End of story.”

Lucky began to smile.

“Quit it,” Reenie said, her voice rising. “So what if Isaac gave me a dog!”

Lucky’s eyes suddenly moved to something behind her, and a sick feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. Keith was there. She could tell by her sister’s expression.

“Mommy, did you say Isaac bought us a puppy?” Isabella came running toward them, along with the other girls. But Keith didn’t move. He stood at the open gate, wearing a dark glower.

Reenie quickly ripped the card off the puppy’s collar and stuffed it in her pocket. “I’ll get the shovel out of the barn,” she said, and hurried away.

By the time she returned, Angela had untied the puppy. The girls were kneeling down, laughing and petting him as he jumped and tried to lick their faces. Keith had joined Lucky and Celeste, but he didn’t look happy, and both Lucky and Celeste seemed uncomfortable.

“You’re really broken up about Old Bailey, huh?” he said, his words dripping with sarcasm as she handed him the shovel.

“I loved Old Bailey. I’m going to miss him a lot.”

“Yeah, right. Like you miss me?”

Celeste and Lucky exchanged glances and Reenie cleared her throat. “Let’s not make this any harder than it has to be, Keith,” she murmured. “Dig the grave, okay? The girls will say their goodbyes and I’ll offer a final prayer.”

“Isaac gets to buy a new puppy and be a hero. I get to dig the grave.”

“I didn’t ask him to buy me a puppy.”

“You don’t have to accept it,” he said earnestly.

Reenie waved at the girls to remind him that they weren’t alone. Jennifer had clued in to the fact that an argument was brewing and was watching them closely, but Angela and Isabella were completely enthralled with the puppy. “He got it from a shelter. We can’t take it back even if I wanted to. Which I don’t.”

“Tell him to come pick it up,” he insisted. “I’ll buy you another dog tonight. A bassett.”