Chapter 9
NINE
O
n Monday morning Willow finished tidying the kitchen, the last bit of housework she needed to finish, excitement humming through her.
It had been more than a year since she and Bronwyn had seen each other, and in just a few hours her best friend would be here.
She’d been running around like a maniac the past two days getting everything ready.
All her stuff had arrived from New York last week. The moving boxes had been unpacked, broken down, and taken to the recycling depot.
Everything was organized and put away. The fridge and pantry were fully stocked. This morning she’d put fresh linens and towels on the bed in her grandmother’s room and given the floors a good scrub.
Rufus was lying in the kitchen entryway, watching her quietly, muzzle resting on his paws. It seemed like he was slowly warming to the idea of being a pet and companion.
“I know you’re bored, buddy, but I’m pretty much done now.” Looking around the gleaming kitchen, she stood there a moment, pausing to assess how she felt.
Restless. Full of pent-up energy.
And no wonder, since she’d been mostly working inside all weekend, getting everything put away and all her finances and bills in order.
She’d been so busy she hadn’t even unwrapped the big canvas sitting on her easel, let alone started the first painting project she’d been so excited about working on once she moved in.
She didn’t have time to paint right now. Or tidy up the back garden, or tackle any of the other items left on her to-do list. The past week had been a complete blur of settling into her new routine, while trying to get Rufus settled into his new life.
They were still getting to know each other. It seemed like he was starting to accept her.
The past two days he’d begun following her whenever she moved to another room, though he didn’t yet seem to understand that he lived in the house instead of outside in the backyard or on the porch.
The first few nights, she’d had to resort to using treats to coax him to the expensive orthopedic foam bed she’d bought him and placed on the floor beside her bed.
Rufus stared at her from the floor, relaxed but watchful, still a little wary of her.
If she was feeling cooped up, it must be worse for him.
And everything she’d read online said the best way to bond with a new dog was through food and spending quality time together, especially through play and exercise.
It was another sunny, hot day, and they needed to get out of the house for a while. A trip to the beach was just the thing for both of them. The cool wind coming off the water would be blissful.
“Come on, buddy, let’s get outta here for a bit. You wanna go for a car ride?”
Rufus’s head jerked up where he was lounging inside the threshold.
“Yeah? Go for a ride?”
He leaped to his feet and watched her with those eerily human eyes, ears cocked, tail swishing gently from side to side. She could almost read his mind. You serious?
“Yeah. Let’s go, handsome.” He was starting to trust her a little more. She’d left his harness and collar on to make it easier to catch him if need be, with a leash attached to the harness so he could drag it around the house and backyard to get used to it.
He didn’t love it. Their first few walks had been torture. He’d been terrified, crying and bucking and biting the leash, absolutely frantic to get away. If she hadn’t had him double leashed to both his collar and harness, he would probably have wrestled free and run for it.
She went to the door. Put on her shoes, picked up the leash for his collar, and squatted down. “Okay, c’mere.”
Rufus lowered his head, his ears going back. No growl though. Just an expression that said aw, do I have to?
“Yes, you have to. It’s for your safety.” She didn’t dare let him outside with just the leash and collar yet. It was possible he would eventually run back to his old house if he got away from her and bolted, but she wasn’t taking the chance.
“Come on, you love car rides. It’ll be fun.” You can do it, buddy. Meet me partway.
Rufus huffed out a resigned breath and took a step forward. Then another. And another, until he was within reach, then stopped. Eyeing her as he waited. Fine. Put it on.
“Oh, brave boy,” she praised, earning another tail swish as she reached out to clip the leash to the collar and grabbed hold of the other one for insurance.
At least now he seemed to realize that she wasn’t going to drag him off to slaughter. “Yeah. See? Walkies and car rides are fun, right? All right, let’s go.”
His ears pricked up when she opened the front door, the tip of the right one flopping over. He practically dragged her through it and towed her to the car.
“Whoa, we really need to work on your manners—and patience.” Baby steps. He was going to be an amazing companion once he bonded with her, she could already tell.
She opened the back passenger door. He hopped right in, settling himself upright on the seat, mouth open in a doggy smile, tongue lolling.
“You are so freaking adorable,” she muttered, clipping the seatbelt to his harness before heading around to the driver’s side.
She undid the back windows halfway for him. Just enough that he could stick his nose through but not try to jump out. Not that he’d get far being buckled to the seatbelt. But she’d rather avoid anything that might make him panic.
Blue sky and puffy clouds arched overhead. She drove up the hill and turned left onto the main highway, heading for the west side of the island.
“I’m taking you to my favorite spot, Rufus.” Her favorite beach was down there on the sparsely populated windward side of the island, on an isolated spot that most tourists didn’t know about.
She loved the seclusion and wildness of it.
In winter, fierce storms battered that part of the coastline.
In summers, it was a popular spot for beach parties and bonfires among teens and twenty-somethings.
She’d done a lot of partying down there on her summer holidays over the years. This place always made her nostalgic.
A gravel pullout served as the parking lot, surrounded on three sides by towering evergreens: Western Red Cedars, Douglas Firs, and native Arbutus trees endemic to this part of the coast dotting the rockier, south-facing areas.
The ragged edges of their distinctive, peeling reddish-orange bark glowed in the sunshine, exposing satin-smooth bark beneath.
She pulled on a fleece and zipped it up to protect her from the wind, tugged on a knit cap to keep her hair from flying around, and took Rufus out of the car.
The sound of waves hitting the shore filled the air, soothing her along with the incredible blend of spicy cedar and the salty tang of the sea.
Rufus hopped out and immediately took a running leap toward the trailhead that led down to the beach, nearly yanking her off her feet.
“Rufus, no,” she said sternly, and reeled him back in. For being only forty-five pounds, he was strong and wasn’t a fan of being controlled or restrained.
She adjusted the martingale collar up to rest just under the angle of his jaw, the way she’d seen on a training video online. “Sit.”
He looked up at her, seemed to weigh whether he wanted or not to obey, then gave in and settled back on his haunches. All the while giving the distinct impression of having just done her a favor.
“Good boy. Here.” She took a little dried venison training treat from her pocket and fed it to him, stroking his head.
“I know this whole leash thing and having to do what you’re told is new, but that’s the way it has to be now.
” He’d already come a long way in the past eight days. With time, he would only get better.
He gazed up at her, eyes dropping to her pocket for a moment before looking back up at her.
Gah. Adorable. She was ridiculously in love with him already. “Okay. Rufus, close.” She kept both leashes short and walked him on her left to the top of the trail that wound down the bank.
He pulled against his restraints, head, ears, and tail up. Ready to charge the moment he saw something interesting. Willow tightened her grip on both leashes as they made their way down the narrow trail bordered by a thick carpet of evergreen sword ferns and Oregon grape that swayed in the wind.
Cool gusts whipped off the water and up the hill, bringing a rush of blood into her cheeks. Below them, a wide expanse of softball-size rocks formed most of the beach, dotted with silvery driftwood logs.
Beyond that, a thick band of drying seaweed marked the highwater mark where the tide had washed it up, and then the rocks gave way to a band of mud-colored sand that disappeared into the water. Small waves curled onto it, leaving foamy fingers decorated with seaweed and long strands of bull kelp.
At the bottom of the trail, she went right at the edge of the rocks, leading Rufus toward her favorite little cove tucked away around the corner. He trotted along beside her, nose stuck to the ground as if every single thing they passed had the most fascinating smell he’d ever encountered.
It made her wonder if he’d ever been to the beach before.
“This way, buddy.” She tugged him right. Had to pull him to make him abandon a particularly interesting smell he’d found.
They clambered over a huge driftwood log and some large boulders before Willow stopped to let him explore the sheltered tidepools amongst the rocks on the other side.
Willow paused to look down at Shipwreck Cove, named after one of the nineteenth-century wrecks caught on the dangerous, unmarked reef just offshore.
The small round bay was a hidden oasis, the clear green water a perfect example of why this part of the world was nicknamed the Emerald Sea.
Its round shape, protected on either side by rock formations and towering forest on a third, provided shelter from the ceaseless, windswept surf that pounded the rest of the shoreline.
Some of her best memories were of summer nights spent down here with Rafe, Tripp, Carson, and her brother.
She let the heavy weight of sadness roll over her like a wave. Paused atop a boulder to take a deep, cleansing breath, and then exhaled, consciously letting the pain go.
She missed her brother, but thinking about him now brought a pang, a short, bittersweet sting instead of the crushing grief that had engulfed her in the first few months after he’d died.
Seeing Tripp had triggered some of that again. Made her wonder if things might have been different if...
Rufus digging at something pulled her from her thoughts. He was straining away from her at the end of the leash, trying to get at something in the rocks.
She gave him the full six feet of leash to allow him more room to explore, and paused to take in the perfect little bit of paradise surrounding her. She’d needed this.
The space. The quiet. The chance to stop and breathe, soak in the magic of her new home.
At an insistent scratching sound, she looked over to see Rufus frantically pawing between the rocks near the high-tide line. “What’ve you got, buddy? A crab? Careful, you’ll get pinched.”
Rufus turned his head, holding something in his mouth. But it wasn’t a crab.
It was a long, ivory-colored bone.