Boomer's Bucket List by Sue Pethick

Author:Sue Pethick [Pethick, Sue]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2016-10-26T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

They found a Mexican restaurant that night with a patio outside where Boomer could doze at their feet while they ate dinner. Jennifer sipped a margarita as Nathan described the dog show from his point of view, making what had felt like a minor disaster seem like something almost intentionally comical. She was grateful to him for helping her find the humor in the situation, especially since Boomer had had such a good time. By the time their food arrived, the pain of humiliation had faded to a dull ache.

“He’s a natural born ham,” Nathan said. “Did you see him shake hands with the runners-up? If Darlene was smart, she’d have asked Boomer to come back and judge next year’s contest, too.”

“Except that Boomer won’t be here next year.”

His face fell. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“No, it’s okay,” she said. “When he has a good day like this, it’s hard to remember how sick he is.”

“Do you ever wonder if the vet made a mistake? Boomer seems pretty healthy to me.”

She shook her head, feeling the hot press of tears behind her eyes.

“I think I knew something was wrong even before Dr. Samuels did the tests. When we’d go to the park, Boomer didn’t seem to want to run with the other dogs, but I told myself that it wasn’t important. He goes to day care while I’m at work, and he seemed happy enough to stay inside when we got home, so I figured he was just tired from playing all day. Looking back, it seems obvious, but I guess I just didn’t want to see it at the time.”

She took out a tissue and blotted her eyes. It was hard to admit how selfish she’d been, even to herself. Having Nathan question her about it only made her feel worse. He must think she was an awful person, ignoring Boomer in favor of her work, letting him waste away while she played superwoman at Compton/Sellwood. If she had to do it over again, she’d make every second count, but it was too late now. She put the tissue away and picked up her fork.

“I must sound like some sort of monster.”

“Hardly that,” he said. “Nobody sees what they don’t want to.”

“I suppose you’re right,” she said, stabbing at a piece of lettuce. “Must be a habit of mine.”

Nathan chewed thoughtfully.

“Is that what happened with Vic Ott?”

She shrugged, keeping her eyes on the food in front of her.

“Someone’s been reading Wikipedia.”

“Hey, we’re not all off the Internet.”

Jennifer set her fork down and gave him a frank look.

“Okay, Mr. Newspaper Reporter, what do you want to know? Did I love him? Yes. Did he hit me? Several times. Did I blame myself? Of course; we all do. But it has nothing to do with how I feel about losing Boomer.”

“Really? ’Cause that sounds a lot like what you said before. You didn’t want to think about losing your dog so you ignored the problem and now that the evidence is overwhelming, you’re blaming yourself for not doing something about it sooner.

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