Her Name Was Annie by Beth Rinyu (the little red hen read aloud txt) 📕

downsizing somewhere with me. It’s not as if she’s going to be homeless. Besides, it’s been eight years. You’re entitled to some money from that house.”

“Steph, I’m not having this conversation with you right now. When Kara gets married and moves out for good, then we’ll talk.”

“Oh...okay. So, you’re going to call the shots? What if I want to move instead of being stuck in the same home for the past eight years that’s held so many memories, making it impossible to move on?” I shouted just as we pulled into the driveway.

He threw the car in park and let out an agitated breath. “I don’t get you, Steph. I did this for you and Kara because I thought that’s what you wanted. I didn’t want to uproot either of your lives because I screwed up...and now you’re angry at me because of it?”

My frustration with him was escalating. He just didn’t get it. I was angry at him for what he had done to cause him to come to that decision. I hopped out of the truck and slammed the door, racing up the driveway. Jack followed behind me, reaching for my elbow and spinning me around to face him when we got to the front door.

“What is with you?” he demanded.

“I don’t know, Jack. I’m just sick of you saying you did this for me. You did this because of your own guilt over what you did to me. Don’t confuse the two.” I rummaged through my purse for my house key, wanting to escape to my bedroom and not come out until Jack was gone.

“Steph, I don’t know—” Jack stopped mid-sentence when I flung the door open to find paper towels shredded to pieces as far as the eye could see. Within seconds the culprit revealed himself with some of the evidence still stuck to his mouth.

“No, no, no. Max!” I wanted to cry. How did this happen? I had put his bed and some of his toys in the laundry room with the door closed while I was gone. The laundry room…where I also stored the jumbo pack of paper towels that I had picked up at Costco the other day. How could I have been so stupid to have left them in Max’s reach? He was a canine wrecking ball when it came to anything that could be chewed or shredded, even things that weren’t, he was able to find a way. More importantly, how could Max have been so smart to figure out how to get out of the laundry room? I had been outsmarted by a dog. Jack immediately went into the kitchen and opened the back door for Max to go outside, while I surveyed the damage. Bits and pieces of paper towel were in every room of my house. I was assuming he hadn’t made it upstairs when I noticed the steps were spared of the fun he had while I was gone. “This looks like a bad Halloween prank,” I said to Jack.

“Where’s the vacuum?” he asked.

“It’s okay. I can—”

“Steph, come on. I’m the one who got you partially into this mess with him. Let me help.”

I wanted to say it was in the same place it’s always been since we moved in this house, but since Jack never did any of the vacuuming while he lived here, he wouldn’t have known where that was. “It’s in the closet in the laundry room.”

I began to go from room to room, picking up the bigger pieces that were unable to be sucked up in the vacuum. When I went into the kitchen, Max was sitting by the back slider staring in. He titled his head to the side, with his expressive deep brown eyes fixated on me, conveying so much without any words. If I could’ve guessed what he was trying to say, it was I’m sorry. I just couldn’t stay mad at him for long. He was a dog, for crying out loud. It wasn’t like he knew what he was doing. He was bored and found something to keep himself entertained while I was gone. The same way he had entertained himself with my shoe when I was in the shower the other day and my sunglasses when I was grading papers a few nights ago and not paying attention to him.

As mischievous as he was, I still had a soft spot for him. I opened the door and he cautiously stepped in. I wasn’t sure if it was because he heard the vacuum running or if he really knew he did something bad. I wanted to think that it was the latter because in my mind, he was borderline genius for a dog, but chances were it was more than likely due to the vacuum of which he wasn’t a big fan. He sat at my feet and stared up at me.

“Go home,” I demanded, pointing to the laundry room. He immediately trotted off to the laundry room and plopped down on his bed, and I couldn’t help but smile. As I continued going from room to room cleaning up Max’s mess, I glanced at Jack maneuvering the vacuum around the living room with ease. Divorce had caused him to become familiar with some domestic duties.

Max was still in his place in the laundry room when I walked back into the kitchen to dispose of some more shreds of paper towel. My phone rang from my coat pocket, which I hadn’t even bothered to take off. When I pulled it out, I saw it was Kara wanting to FaceTime. I hit the button and her face flashed across my screen.

“What do you think?” she asked as soon as the connection was made.

“I love it!” She had gotten her long blond hair that was down the middle of her back cut into a shoulder-length angled bob.

“Me too! I needed a change, so I told her to just go for it when I was at the salon today.” Truth was