The Moment of Truth

She made a salad for dinner. Listened to classical music while she ate it. Enjoyed the one glass of wine she allowed herself when she was drinking alone. Thought about calling her mother. And called a college classmate instead. Sharon was in her sixties, going to college for the first time and had just moved to Shelter Valley from Phoenix. She was in Dana’s biology lab study group and was supposed to have completed a worksheet that they were all going to use in class in the morning. Dana’s portion of the assignment had been during the original research phase. A third student was writing up the end report.

Sharon didn’t answer. At least, not the first time Dana tried. She got her on the second attempt, but the woman, a widow who seemed to take things in her stride, sounded harried. There was a problem with her plumbing and she’d be without water until the morning.

Dana offered her the spare bedroom Lori had used Friday night, having just changed the sheets that afternoon. She told Sharon that it would be fine if she didn’t make it over until after ten so the older woman could still attend her Bible study that evening.

After she hung up with Sharon, her mother called. She said she was missing her, but Dana could also hear a change in her mother’s voice—a lessening of the tension that had become a member of their family from the night Susan had been presented with a report of DNA results and admitted that she’d lied to her husband about the paternity of their first child. From that moment on, Susan had had a tightrope to walk. To appease the husband she adored—and still see that her oldest child knew she was loved and wanted.

The phone rang one more time that evening. It was Jon, a guy in her calculus class—a single dad she’d met when she’d overheard him talking about his two-year-old son, about some adjustment issues the boy was having. She’d mentioned pet therapy to him, told him about the club on campus. That conversation had taken place a good six weeks before.

“I was talking to my fiancée about the whole pet-therapy thing and she asked if I’d put her in touch with you,” Jon explained as soon as he’d identified himself.

“I’m happy to speak with her, sure,” Dana said, unaware, until that second, that the guy even had a girlfriend, let alone a fiancée. “She can come to the next meeting with me if she’d like. It’s next Wednesday at four—”

“Lillie’s not a student,” Jon interrupted. “She’s a child life specialist and wants to research the possibility of using pet therapy at the day care.”

In the end, Jon put Lillie on and, excited by the prospect of using animals in an entirely different way than she’d ever thought of before, Dana offered to meet the woman for lunch the next day. And to speak with Zack Foster, too, about having Lillie observe their next pet-therapy visit.

She’d just hung up—and hadn’t yet had a chance to put on makeup or brush through the hair she’d pinned up for her shower—when the doorbell rang.

The Suburban she’d seen in the parking lot at the clinic on Friday was parked behind her Mazda on her side of the duplex driveway.

So much for making a good impression. Which was just as well. It wasn’t like Dana would have a chance with an administrator at the college she attended—not when he looked as good as Josh Redmond looked.

Or sounded as sexy as he sounded. A man like that could have any woman he wanted. He wouldn’t have to settle for some too-skinny plain Jane from Indiana. And an overage college student at that.

“Josh, hi!” She pulled open the door with her emotions firmly in check and her usual smile on her face. So they weren’t going to be an item—she could still like him. They could still be friends.

“Hi.” Dressed in jeans, a long-sleeved black pullover and a different pair of leather shoes, he made her tingle all the way to her toes. Holding out a hand to her, he dangled the key.

She took it. “Thanks,” she said with another smile. Too much of one. She was being too smiley. Definitely too smiley. She tried to stop.

“Would you like to come in for a glass of wine?” What? What in the hell was the matter with her?

“Sure. Just a second...” He turned and jogged toward the driveway. And returned, almost immediately, carrying a small kennel.

He moved as though to enter her house and Dana stood holding the door in one hand and his key in the other, staring at that kennel.

“You brought Little Guy with you?” It wasn’t that big of a deal. But...

“Yeah. I wanted to ensure that I get a good night’s sleep tonight. Figured it was best not to leave him alone so close to bedtime or he’d be wound up.”