“No, and I’ll get something in writing to say that I have the right to keep her.”
She smiled. “Thank you for saving me again,” she whispered, reaching up to kiss his cheek. And then she walked around to the passenger side of the truck, opened it up, and Sabine immediately hopped in and took her spot between the two of them.
Laurie Ann gently scratched Sabine and said, “You two are saving me again.”
Sabine gave a bark that made them both laugh.
Chapter 13
“Before we go home,” Laurie Ann said, “we should stop at the pet store and get some food for her.”
“I don’t know if anything’s open, is it?”
She said, “News alert. All that mess with the cops took a lot of time. It’s almost ten.”
“Good Lord,” he said. He pulled into a pet food store, and they walked in with Sabine on her leash. They quickly bought what they needed and were shortly back in the truck and headed home.
“What about Jeremy?”
“I sent him a text and told him not to come home too early.” As they drove up, Jeremy and Frank sat on the front steps. She hopped out of the truck and went to him. She threw her arms around him and gave him a big hug. He looked at her and asked, “What happened, Mom?”
“All kinds of things happened,” she said, giving him a misty smile. “But I’m fine. Sabine’s fine, and Kurt’s fine,” she said. “So help us unload, will you? Then we’ll go inside and explain what happened.”
“Like what though?” he asked. “I haven’t been in the house because you told me not to.”
She nodded and let them in, pushing open the front door. “We had an intruder last night,” she said.
He looked at her in horror.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “Kurt came. … I called him early in the afternoon when I saw somebody around the property. Kurt came and laid in wait for him. The guy came back last night, and Kurt caught him.”
“Jesus,” Jeremy said.
“Don’t swear,” she said automatically. He just rolled his eyes, and she sighed. “Given what we’ve been through,” she said, “that’s the least of my worries.”
She walked in, carrying a small bag of dog treats, put them down and then decided where she would put dog food. She opened the closet and motioned at the space on the floor and said, “Put her food in there.”
Jeremy dropped the twenty-pound bag, scooted it inside, and asked, “So does that mean we have a dog now?” He looked over at Sabine with interest.
She wandered around the house, looking at him from a distance.
Laurie Ann reached out a hand toward Sabine and explained. “Kids were tormenting Sabine. Those kids were all part of that same gang. She has to decide if you are on the good side or the bad side.”
“She’ll really think I’m on the bad side?”
“No, but she has to make that judgment on her own, and that depends if she ever has smelled you in the bush tormenting her,” she said lightly.
Jeremy looked down at her and said, “You know I love animals, Mom.”
She frowned, reached up, gave him a kiss and a big hug. As soon as she stepped back, Sabine was there with one paw up. Laurie Ann crouched and told her son, “Come say hi.”
He bent down and accepted the paw shake and said, “Hi, Sabine. How are you doing now?”
She gave a small bark of welcome, her tail wagging like crazy. “You see that?” she said, looking at her son. “That’s called acceptance.”
“Yeah, acceptance is big,” he said, as he looked sideways at Kurt, who leaned against the counter, somewhat close to Frank. Jeremy got up, walked over, reached out a hand, and said, “Hi, apparently you’re my father, and I’m really glad to hear that, and thank you very much for saving my mother’s life.”
“Twice,” she said, standing up, keeping a hand on Sabine. “And Sabine did too.”
Jeremy frowned, then said, “Okay, sounds like you haven’t told us an awful lot of important information here.”
“Let me put on some coffee, and also I need food,” she said, “and then, yeah, there’s a lot to tell you.”
By the time they’d all had a small belated breakfast and coffee, the telling took a couple hours. Everyone was getting hungry again, so it was time to fire up the barbecue. About an hour later, when she put the big burgers on the grill, Jeremy looked at her and said, “I’m really glad you’re okay, Mom.”
She walked over, gave him another big hug, and said, “Me too.” She took a deep breath. “And you should also know that your father and I are getting back together again.”
He stared at her in shock, looked over at his father, who looked at Jeremy as if waiting for the boom to come down on top of him. “Well, I’m really glad to hear that.”
She stopped, stared, and said, “What?”
“Well, as you know, I’m a freshman next year, and I’m thinking of college, and I was afraid—if I picked an out-of-state college and I moved there—that nobody would be here for you. I’ve still got four years of school before college, but it’s been a bit of a worry,” he said. “Now he’ll be here to look after you.”
“News flash. I don’t need anybody to look after me,” she said, staring at her son in surprise.
“I know, but, Mom, you’re lonely,” he said, “and I didn’t want to leave you all by yourself.”
Immediately she felt the tears clogging her throat. She wrapped her arms around Jeremy and held him close. “You’ve been the best son anybody could ever have,” she said, “so thank you for that.”
He looked over at his dad and said, “And I hope you’ll look after her this time.”
“If I had known last time, I would have as well,” he said. “But honestly—I know it’s hard to understand—but it was a good thing that I left.”
Jeremy said, “I understand a little bit. I don’t know the whole story, and maybe over time we’ll get there,” he said, “but she didn’t have it easy.”
Kurt nodded and reached out a hand to Laurie Ann, and she immediately put her hand in Kurt’s. He tugged her close, wrapping an arm around her, and said, “She’ll have a much easier time from now on.” He added, “Your mother and Sabine.”
“Yeah, but do you have a job? Can you look after her? Does she have to work so hard all the time?” Jeremy complained. “And I sure as hell don’t want a deadbeat dad,” he said. “You need a viable paycheck to support yourself and the dog and Mom.”
Laurie Ann stared at her son in shock.
“Not a problem,” Kurt said. “I have a phone interview with the governor this morning.”
“The governor?” She looked at Kurt in surprise, still amazed at the change in her son.
“Yeah, they seem to think that I should be a watchdog for law enforcement.”
She looked at him, and then she started to laugh. “Oh, my God,” she said, “you would be absolutely fantastic at it.”