Chapter 20
20
When I left Onyx, I texted Marlowe to see if she was ready for me to pick her up. She said she wasn’t, which really didn’t come as that big of a surprise. She and the vet were probably exchanging recipes. Since I had a little bit of time on my hands I decided to track down Java Jolt. It was easy enough when I got to the town square, since there was a sign on the side of the hardware store pointing back a block to the coffee shop.
Bells jingled when I opened the door and the scent of coffee came at me like a heavenly wind. There were three women in line before me. I realized they were all together and one woman was paying. Good, I would get to the counter faster. When I did, I asked for a black cup of coffee, and any pastry she would recommend. She had smiled at me when I first walked up, but when I suggested she choose the pastry, she gave me a full-watt smile, and she was dazzling. Not as gorgeous as Marlowe, but close.
“Are you Ruby Garner?” I asked.
“Yep.” She looked me up and down, then asked. “Are you Kai Davies?”
“How’d you know that?”
“Word gets around.” She grinned. “But from what I hear from Pearl, you like all kinds of desserts, so I’m thinking it’s going to be hard to go wrong.”
“I do have my favorites.”
“Would they know how to do algebra?” Her eyes gleamed as she asked that question. She put down the large coffee on the counter, then bent toward the bakery items.
I chuckled. “I think Marlowe even knows calculus,” I bragged.
Ruby laughed too as she brought out a cherry turnover and put it on a plate. She pointed to my backpack. “Are you planning on working this morning?”
“I want to make a couple of phone calls and do a little research.”
“It’s hot out, so go over near the fireplace. There’s no fire, but still, in the summer people tend to avoid it. Also, there’s a plug if you need it.”
I swiped my card to pay for my items and took her advice and headed toward the fireplace. As soon as I was settled, I pulled my laptop out of my backpack. Marlowe had teased me about it. She said I needed to venture into the new decade and get myself a tablet, but I refused to trade-up on anything that wasn’t broken. Unless, of course, it was a bigger screen TV.
I took a sip of Ruby’s coffee and wondered if she sold bags of it that I could buy as I booted up my laptop. Granted, Simon and Roan looked like they had a handle on shit, especially when it came to Marlowe’s old boyfriend and principal, but I really didn’t want to sit around with my thumb up my ass and wait for their phone call. Especially when it came to my fucking father.
As usual, my laptop made its normal grinding sounds as it started up, another thing that told Marlowe that I needed to upgrade, or at least back it up. I pretended not to know what backing it up meant just to fuck with her. That had been fun. I took a bite of my cherry turnover and dialed Lucky’s number. He was going to be out on a boat, but he was a good guy; he’d take my call if he could.
“Where have you been, you asshole? You almost die and then don’t keep us up to date, what the fuck is wrong with you?”
“I’m sorry, did you send some flowers that I should have thanked you for?”
God, I loved this guy.
“We sent a stripper telegram, didn’t she show up?”
“You’re too cheap to have sent that. Now if Shil had told me that lie, I might have believed it.”
“Answer the goddamned question. Where have you been?”
“Calm your ass down. I called you when I was in Walter Reed. I told you they had me up and walking.”
“What you told me, and I’ll give you an exact quote, was; I can now drag my legs from one end of the parallel bars to the other without falling, end quote. Jesus, Kai, all of us texted you and left you messages. Did it ever occur to you to call or text us back?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I wasn’t in good head space,” I reluctantly admitted.
Lucky didn’t speak for so long, I had to look down at my screen to make sure he hadn’t hung up on me.
“You in good head space now?”
“Yeah. Real good.”
“You walking?”
“Yeah. I’m in Tennessee. Turns out good old Ronald kidnapped me, or took me away from my mom and twin brother before I was four years old.”
“What the fuck?! Are you shitting me?”
“Would I shit my favorite turd?”
Lucky laughed.
“Jesus, Kai, I knew your father was a bastard of epic proportions, but to steal you from your mama and your twin brother, that’s just fucking vile.”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“What are they like?” he asked.
“My mother died over ten years ago,” I whispered. That still hurt to think about. I needed to find out where she was buried. I needed to find out what her favorite flowers were. I needed to…
“Aw, Kai. That bites. What about your brother?”
“He’s in the service. He’s overseas at the moment. I did a FaceTime talk with him. We’re still trying to figure out a way for us to get together.”
“Really? Can’t he come to where you are? Or, can’t you go to where he is?”
“It’s a little more complicated than that.”
“Well uncomplicate it. He’s your family. He’s your twin. Figure it out.”
I grinned. Damn, I’d missed Lucky.
“I’m calling because I’ve got another problem.”
“Before you get into that, you haven’t told me. How are you doing physically?”
“Pretty damn good. I can actually jog, maybe run, but not push it. I can ride a bicycle, no mountain biking. I’m allowed to lift more and more each month.”
“Fucking A. That’s fucking wonderful!”
“Yeah, the physical therapist I had at Walter Reed was amazing. He was determined to push my ass over the finish line whether I wanted him to or not.”
“Now that guy, I’ll send him flowers.”
I found myself laughing again.
“So what’s your other problem?”
“Ronald.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll tell everyone here in Dillingham what happened. If he shows his face anywhere, he’ll be in for the beating of his life.”
“What do you mean if he shows his face? Aren’t you working on his boat?”
“They took it from him. He wasn’t making his payments.”
“The fishing was that bad?”
“Nah.” I could hear the satisfied smile in Lucky’s voice. “After your last trip up here, your dad got a lot worse, not even Kenny and Ed could stand him anymore. When he couldn’t find a decent crew, he couldn’t bring in a decent haul, therefore he couldn’t make his payments.”
“Shit, Lucky, I would have thought he’d have owned that piece-of-shit boat by now.”
“Not the way he drank and whored around. He was constantly taking out mortgages against it. He lost the boat about five months ago. He was lucky they let him take his possessions off her before they padlocked her.”
It all came together for me then.
“And that was how he got this bright idea,” I muttered.
“What?”
“He’s come down here to Jasper Creek and is saying he owns the house that my Mama and brother were making payments on these last twenty years.”
“You have got to be kidding me. Wait, never mind. You’re not. This is Ronald Davies we’re talking about; of course you’re not kidding.”
“Do you know anybody up there in Dillingham who might know where he is right now, or how to get in touch with him?”
“Hell, Kai, he’s burnt every bridge he ever had. Turns out that woman who home-schooled you was only his second-cousin, not his sister. Those kids of hers hate his ass, so they wouldn’t be of any help.”
That explained a lot. “I understand.”
“I’ll check in at the two bars he spent most of his time at. See if anybody there has any ideas.”
“I sure would appreciate it.”
“Kai, it would be my pleasure. However, if you ever ghost me and the boys like that again, we’re going to come find you and kick your ass. We’re not going to give a shit if you’re disabled or not. Got it?”
I laughed out loud and saw a couple of heads turn my way. “I got it, Lucky.”
“Good. I’ll call you back.”
“Thanks Lucky, I appreciate this.”
“You’re welcome.”
After I hung up with Lucky, I didn’t have as much interest in looking up Principal Sykes and Denny Rasmussen. I was too busy thinking about how good I’d had it with the men I had worked with out on the Bering Sea. Ronald might have been a twisted piece of shit, but he’d hired some of the best men in the world.
“Look at you, you’re eating that up like a champ.”
I stroked Chaos’ ears as she licked up the food I’d brought her. She’d been having a nap when I’d first arrived.
“Marlowe, that smells so good that I’d like to eat it,” Kizzie said as she bumped her shoulder with mine.
I looked over at the petite veterinarian and smiled. “Don’t tell her doctor, but sometimes her mother gives her pumpkin pie which she adores. That’s why I found this dog food recipe with pumpkin puree.”
“Don’t I smell cinnamon?” she asked me.
“Yeah, I put in a little sugar and cinnamon. I figure what the hell, let’s make every meal taste like dessert. If I could do that for myself, I sure would.”
Kizzie grinned. She reached around me and gently lifted up the bandage on Chaos’ side. Chaos whimpered. I started to pet her behind her ear and she settled.
“Her incision is looking good,” Kizzie smiled up at me. “She’s responding well to her treatment. I think she can go home with you by the end of the week.”
“If I have a home,” I muttered.
“What?”
“Nothing. Just a little kerfuffle.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, Kai’s going to get it all straightened out.” And wasn’t that the weirdest thing in the world? I actually trusted him to do that. I wasn’t over here going all control freak, I was actually letting him take care of this thing.
Chaos had stopped eating and her eyes were closing.
“I think lunch time is over with,” I said as I eased the bowl away from Chaos’ face.
Kizzie nodded. She took the bowl away from me, then handed me a towel to wipe up Chaos’ muzzle.
“She’s going to be out for a while. All the medication I’m giving her is making her sleepy. That just helps to ensure she doesn’t move around all that much and gives her body time to recuperate.”
“Makes sense.”
“Do you want to come into my office?” Kizzie asked.
I looked down at my watch. I’d been at the animal hospital for three-and-a-half hours. “Let me text Kai and see what’s on his schedule.”
Kizzie nodded. “I’m going to clean up.” She held up the bowl. I nodded. “I’ll meet you in reception in a minute or two, and you can let me know your plans.”
“Will do,” I said.
I was smiling as I walked out to the front of the veterinary clinic. I loved that I was making more and more friends here in Jasper Creek. So far, I hadn’t found anyone disagreeable, except maybe that woman with the purple hair who pointed her finger at me. But even she was more funny than annoying.
Leaning against the wall, I looked down at my phone to see if I had missed any texts. I hadn’t. I texted Kai and said I was about ready to leave the vet’s, but I could also spend more time here if he had something going on. He immediately texted back and said he’d meet me there in a few. I gave him a thumbs up sign, and went to the young man behind the reception desk.
“Can you let me back in so I can talk to Kizzie?”
“Sure.”
He hit a buzzer and the door unlocked. I headed back to Kizzie’s office.
“No coffee, huh?”
I frowned. “How’d you know?”
“Honey, you have that, ‘I’m man crazy’ look on your face.”
“I do not.”
Kizzie laughed. “Okay, you don’t.”
“Damn. I do, don’t I?”
“Yep. So maybe we can meet up for drinks or a meal some other time? I can wrangle in some of the other ladies in town. Do you know Maddie Avery?”
I shook my head.
“She’s good people. There’s a couple of others in the crew. You’ll have fun.”
“I’d really like that, Kizzie.”
She reached for a card on her desk, then turned it over and wrote something on it and handed it to me. “This is my cell number. I already have yours. Let’s try for something next week. Does that work for you?”
“Definitely.”
I waved to her and left her office, then left the clinic. Kai’s truck wasn’t parked in the street, it was tucked near the back of the hardware parking lot. Hell, even here it was nice. They had trees planted, and somebody had planted flowers at the base. Careful not to step on the flowers, I leaned against the tree and looked down at my phone as I soaked in the sun. I needed my vitamin D since I wasn’t walking Chaos at least twice a day.
I grinned at the three text messages that had come in from Sue. She said she could only text, because her mouth was killing her. She also explained she was more than capable of listening. I texted back and said that this conversation was a group participation play, so we would have to wait until tomorrow.
I got an immediate reply back. It was the middle finger emoji. Once again I was laughing. Despite the eviction notice, I had to say, it was turning into a pretty good day. Now if I could just jump Kai’s bones, it would be a stupendous day.