Stormy Cove by Bernadette Calonego

Author:Bernadette Calonego [Calonego, Bernadette]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781503935846
Publisher: AmazonCrossing, Seattle
Published: 2016-05-23T19:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 26

The miserable husky belonged to a man called Tom Quinton, as Lori learned from Patience, and his house had the only double garage in Stormy Cove. Patience also said the Quintons were the only ones in town with a dishwasher. Tom drove the snowplow and the fire truck and sometimes the school bus when the regular driver couldn’t. Besides, he owned three pickups. Lori imagined a man with so many vehicles would have little empathy for members of the human species that sometimes chose to go on foot.

Fortunately, she got some help from Tom’s wife, Vera, who offered her a cup of tea in the kitchen. Lori spotted the fabled dishwasher.

“Folks in Vancouver walk a lot,” Vera Quinton said. “It was on TV. There are walking trails everywhere with a white line down the middle so cyclists don’t run into the walkers. Is that really true?”

Lori nodded. “I go jogging every day in Vancouver, but I prefer just to walk here, and . . .”

She wanted to say that she felt safer with a dog, but changed her mind.

“And it’s more fun with a dog.”

Tom Quinton wasn’t so easily persuaded.

“This dog will drive you nuts. It takes off and doesn’t listen when you call it.”

“I’ll just keep him on a leash,” Lori countered.

“A leash? We don’t have a leash.” Tom laughed at the absurd idea.

His wife butted in.

“Tom, you can tie a rope to his collar. That works too, y’know!”

Quinton growled a kind of acknowledgment and stood up. “This dog is—we took him in. He ran up to us because—”

“He belonged to Gideon Moore before,” Vera interrupted him again. “The dog always ran away from Gideon, though he denies it. We brought him back a few times, but then it got to be too much, so we just kept him.”

Vera tapped her fingers on the table.

“Gideon was unhappy with his wife, you see. He’s got a young one now, and he built a house for her. The dog probably wasn’t good enough for him either. Now they’ve got some kind of little lap dog. I heard they paid six thousand for it.”

“I could buy an outboard motor and a speedboat for that,” Tom grumbled.

“Or two weeks’ holiday in Hawaii,” Vera shot back.

Her husband snorted. “That would be throwing money away. I don’t need a sunburn.”

Vera’s mouth morphed into a thin line.

“It would be nice if you could introduce me to your dog,” Lori said, getting to her feet. “That way he could learn not to be afraid of me.”

“Rusty’s a good dog, doesn’t bite,” Tom assured her on their way outside.

As they approached the husky, he pulled at his chain furiously. But Lori quickly realized that this welcome break from his desolate life just excited him and that he wasn’t vicious. She waited until Tom had calmed Rusty down and then let him sniff her hands and clothing thoroughly while avoiding any eye contact.

“Does he obey commands?”

“Only sit and stop,” Tom replied as he tied a rope onto Rusty’s collar.

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