Caleb (The K9 Files Book 11) by Dale Mayer (sneezy the snowman read aloud TXT) 📕

Chapter 11

If they could just get out of this without an explosion, Laysha would be happy. By the time the wedding ceremony was over, she saw that Caleb, although still stiff, had warmed up slightly to his brother—yet held himself apart, not being, in any way, agreeable to Sarah. As the paperwork was finished, Caleb stood and stiffly shook hands with both of them, which was probably as much as he was capable of doing right now, and immediately looked at Laysha with a head nod toward the door. She bounded to her feet, congratulated the couple, giving them both a hug, and then said, “As promised, we have to leave.”

Jackson beamed. “Thank you.”

Caleb nodded and said, “Take care of yourself.” And he half dragged Laysha out the doorway. As soon as she got outside, she said, “Well, you almost made it through the whole event without being ignorant.”

He snorted. “Hell, I deserve a medal. I wanted to smack her to the ground.”

“But you didn’t, and I’m really proud of you.”

He looked at her, grinned, and said, “I did good, didn’t I?”

She laughed. “And that sounds like a two-year-old,” she said, “but yes. You did good.”

He motioned at the truck. “Come on. Let’s go.”

“Where are we going?”

“Well, we can either finish your floors or we can get back on the trail of the dog.”

“Regardless we have to change clothes. If we’re driving to find Beowulf,” she said, “I want to bring all my dogs with me.”

He considered that and then said, “Well, why don’t we go home, put another coat on the floor—if it’s ready. It’s not been twenty-four hours yet, so we’ll have to check it. Then we’ll take everybody on a road trip.”

“That works for me,” she said.

As soon as he pulled out of the parking lot, she looked back to see the married couple, standing on the front steps of the church, talking with a few of the other guests, their arms wrapped around each other.

“At least they look happy,” she said. She thought back to the stunned look on Sarah’s face when she’d seen her first husband standing at the altar. “I don’t think Sarah thought you would show up.”

“I’m sure she didn’t,” he said. “But, whether I like it or not, she’s family again.”

“Not to mention you will be in her wedding photos.” With that, Laysha reached over, patted his knee, and said, “She is family, indeed. However, remember that family is what you’re born into, but friends are the ones you choose.”

He laughed, grabbed her fingers with his free hand, and held them flat on his thigh. “Well, I know one friend I choose.”

“That’s the thing,” she said in the meditative voice. “We’ve always been able to talk, always been able to communicate.”

“Yet you never once told me that you wanted to spend any private time with me,” he said, shooting her a look.

“Didn’t know it myself,” she quipped. “Neither did you for me.”

“No, and I’m still trying to figure out why the hell we missed all those cues,” he murmured.

“Most likely,” she said, “because we were so busy living life in every other way.”

“Maybe,” he murmured. As they drove back home again, almost halfway there, he asked, “Where to from here then?”

“Well, let’s first solve whatever shooter issue we’ve got going on,” she said. “And it’d be nice to get the damn floors done upstairs so I can get back into my bedroom.”

He snickered at that. “Hey, you’re the one who started this project.”

“Don’t remind me,” she said. “There’s never a good time to refinish floors while you currently live in the place.”

“No. Usually the best time is before you move in,” he said.

“Well, that didn’t happen,” she said, “so this was second best.”

“You mean, waiting till I showed up,” he said drily.

“Absolutely. Then I didn’t have to do it all alone,” she said with a cheeky grin.

He laughed. “Tell me what other plans you have for the place.”

She filled him in on the gist of it, knowing that some of the plans would take years to get off the ground, and, maybe by then, she wouldn’t care about them, but it was fun to talk about. “What about you?” she asked. “Have you thought about buying a place?”

“No, I haven’t,” he said. “That whole recovery thing sidelined me for future plans, and, when I did see that I was slowly regaining my normal health, I wasn’t sure what to do in any aspect. Still not in some ways. I don’t have a job. Not exactly sure what to do about a career.”

“Well, you do have a job,” she said gently. “It might not be a career job right now, but it is something.”

He looked over at her and frowned.

She said, “Beowulf.”

“Well, there’s no payment for that,” he admitted. “It’s purely voluntary.”

“And I love that even more,” she said warmly.

He shook his head. “Only you would. Most people think it’s a waste of my time.”

“Hell no,” she said forcibly. “Those dogs deserve everything we can give them. If that means freeing them from an ugly situation and giving them a better one, then that’s what should be done.”

“See? I knew I liked you.”

She burst out laughing. As they drove up the long driveway to her place, she looked around. “How would we ever tell if there was a visitor?” she asked.

“If they are any good, it’s pretty hard,” he said. “Honestly, if you don’t have any security system and motion sensors and video tracking, I don’t know how you would. Particularly when there are no tracks to show any new presence around.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” she said, “but I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do about it.”

“We’ll solve the problem,” he said.

“Once you find the dog, you’re leaving though, aren’t you?”

He looked at her in surprise and then shrugged. “Are you sending me away? I thought we were past that.”

“And I thought you had to go home, and we would see how the