I sniffled and inched away to get a look at her, and she was as pretty as the day I adopted her. Shiny black coat. Big beautiful eyes. And so loyal and comforting. And smart—a good worker in the field. She’d been there with me, every step of the way, the past decade. It was only the last year she’d taken up permanent residence on the big porch of the main house. Before then, she’d stayed with me in one of the guest cabins or whatever apartment I was leasing at the time I worked away from the ranch.
“I’m deeply sorry, brother,” David murmured. “I can refer you to an oncologist if you’d like to get started on a treatment. The odds are usually pretty good for the cancer to go into remission.”
I hated that word. It brought false hope. “And nine times out of ten, the cancer comes back within a year.”
“Not quite those numbers, but…” He dipped his chin, conceding, because in the end, lymphoma was terminal.
I stroked Rosie gently behind her ears and felt more tears roll down my cheeks. “Is she in pain?”
“No.” He reached out and touched her neck.
Rosie did what she’d done so many times before. She licked David’s hand and planted a paw on my knee in comfort.
“There’s no one like you, sugar.” I leaned down and kissed the side of her face. “What is your honest recommendation for her?”
David sighed and rested his arms on his legs. “In her specific case…? Given her age and how aggressive the cancer is, I probably wouldn’t prolong things. And without treatment, she has maybe two or three weeks before she’ll be in pain.”
Because the cancer would spread and ultimately cause organ failure. Yeah, I was painfully familiar with that part.
“Goddammit.” I wiped at my face and tried to get my shit together. “I need family members who don’t fucking die every ten years.”
David put a hand on my back. “There’s an idea.”
He didn’t have to spell it out. He and Soph had encouraged me to spend more time with people than animals, no matter how much they loved animals too.
I’d thought adopting Oppy and Percy had been a decent compromise, because smaller dogs lived longer than bigger breeds. My brother and sister had humored me.
I released a breath and brushed my fingers over Rosie’s paw. “I want you to do it before I leave.”
Part of me wanted to bring her along with me to Washington—have a final adventure with me—but I couldn’t risk her being in pain.
“Of course.” David squeezed my shoulder. “We don’t have to do it at the clinic either.”
I liked that idea. Rosie had always loved the small barn behind David’s house. They’d renovated it and turned it into a playground, complete with a slide from the hayloft, monkey bars, and seating area for children’s birthday parties. With eight kids, it was just a solid investment.
I dipped down and pressed my forehead to the top of Rosie’s head. “Daddy loves you, Rosie. Always remember that, okay? I love you, I love you, I love you.”
Three
I was actually trading the best time of year to be in the South for this…this frigid, wet, evergreen dump.
Perhaps frigid was a stretch, but in October, you could still wear a T-shirt in my part of Georgia.
“I’ll have to dress y’all up like them Hollywood dogs, won’t I?” I reached over to the passenger’s seat, and Oppy tumbled into my touch. It would be just my luck if a cop pulled me over now. Five days of being good, of the boys riding in their carrier in the back, but now because Daddy was depressed and wanted company the last few miles, some officer was gonna jump out of the woods and put me away for life. I could see it happening.
I drove past the sign welcoming me to Camassia Cove and felt that was a bit presumptive. I knew of at least two people who didn’t want me here.
I rolled down the window and shivered at the cold, but we might as well get used to it. We were sleeping in the truck until I got the guesthouse up and running. And I had to hurry. I couldn’t imagine anyone building houses in northern Washington past October. Thankfully, the guesthouse was one of those pre-cut cabin kits I’d ordered—230 square feet, fourteen grand. Shouldn’t take me more than a couple weeks to assemble if I worked full time.
Two weeks was approximately what I had before I’d force myself to let Soph know I was in town, because that was Halloween and, more importantly, Teddy’s birthday.
I drove through the town and followed the signs for Downtown. In my experience, downtown was run-down and unsafe or part of a financial district in a major city. Here, it was idyllic Victorian suburbia forming a crest around a small town center and a marina.