Chapter One
Two Days Later
Crystal Rock, Wisconsin
“Where in the world did this guy come from? He’s the size of a small pony.” Veterinarian Kinley Mathis studied the massive dog, who seemed to be staring at her longingly from inside the largest cage available at the Crystal Rock Animal Shelter.
Obviously realizing she was talking about him, the dog started wagging his tail like crazy as he stood expectantly and began to whine.
Rose Atkinson grimaced. “Dad brought him in. Supposedly, he was wandering around at the beach near the house.”
Kinley smiled widely. “So, how many animals have shown up at your doorstep through the years?”
Rose grinned. “Too many to count. I suspect that Dad doesn’t mention half of them to Mom anymore.”
The Atkinsons were rather an amazing family. Rose’s mom Emily Richardson was a Grammy Award winning vocalist who had settled in Crystal Rock with her husband Tim, a former Air Force Veteran and service dog trainer who had taken over the running of the shelter when he’d returned home as a wounded warrior. Tim’s idea had been to turn strays into service animals for people with disabilities, and the program had been highly successful.
Rose had come into the picture as a young disabled girl who’d been blinded in a car accident where she’d lost her parents, and Emily and Tim had ended up adopting Rose when they’d fallen in love with the six year old girl who had needed a service animal.
“I’m surprised you’re back in Crystal Rock already. Aren’t you and Ben usually touring until Christmas?”
Rose suddenly looked flustered.
Kinley gave her a wry smile. “Okay. What’s going on? You’ve been acting distracted the entire week.”
“I was going to wait to announce it at the Christmas charity event, but since you’re already like a member of the family anyway…”
“You’re pregnant – aren’t you?”
Rose blinked. “How did you know?”
“It’s written all over your face,” Kinley admitted, reaching over and pulling her into her arms. “I’ve seen my share of pregnancies in my day since my dad was an obstetrician.”
Rose reached for Kinley’s hand as they pulled apart. “I have such an amazing life, but I still think of my birth parents all the time.”
“Yes. The holidays can be pretty rough,” Kinley confessed. “I can’t believe it’s been ten years now since my mom and dad were killed in that plane crash right before Christmas.”
Rose was misty eyed. “At the time I lost my parents, I was too young to realize how lucky I was to be adopted by Emily and Tim. Especially considering my disability. That’s something I’m worried about, you know. Even though the blindness was initially caused by the car accident, apparently, there’s a good chance that it was going to happen anyway because I was predisposed genetically. And now there’s my baby…”
“Don’t worry, Rose. Think about how many advances have been made in the optometry field. Look how well that corrective operation worked for you? It’s been what? Nearly ten years, you said?”
Rose looked thoughtful. “Yes. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long. Although, there’s a chance that the results aren’t permanent. But even though my vision has never been one hundred percent, I haven’t noticed any loss, and neither have the doctors.”
“Well, there you go,” Kinley murmured. “I have a feeling the only thing you and Ben will have to worry about is the amount of talent your kid will inherit from the two of you.”
Rose pursed her lips. “It was kind of funny how I ended up as a vocalist when I didn’t even know I could carry a tune until I was adopted.”
“You have the voice of an angel,” Kinley said dryly. “And I croak like a frog.”
Even Rose’s laughter was lyrical, Kinley thought to herself. Rose had been like a breath of fresh air for Ben Michaelson, a former rock star who’d enlisted and had come home critically injured. Despite their eight-year age gap, Rose and Ben were perfect together, both onstage and off. In fact, Rose had admitted she’d had a crush on Ben as a teenager when he’d been a star. Although, he’d been completely full of himself as well as a womanizer before he’d suddenly enlisted and had seemed to disappear off the face of the earth. Rose and Ben had met again, falling for each other hard when he’d returned to Crystal Rock to make a comeback after surviving the loss of his leg in combat overseas.
“What does Ben think about becoming a father?”
Rose grimaced. “Would you believe he doesn’t know? That’s why he’s still on the road. I told him I wasn’t feeling well, because actually, I wasn’t. He sent me home to rest up. I didn’t find out I was pregnant until Mom suggested it and I took a couple pregnancy tests and saw the doctor. Anyway, that’s why we’re spending the next week together alone in one of the cabins at Dragonfly Pointe. I wanted it to be special when I finally told Ben.”
Kinley smiled. “That sounds perfect.”
Rose continued, “Don’t worry about the fact that Ben and I are having a second honeymoon. I forgot to tell you earlier that Dad’s recruited some extra help for you. He’ll be here for at least a week or possibly two. He’s on leave from the Air Force, but there’s a chance he could be deployed at any time. If that happens, I’ll come in if you need me. But apparently, he has some experience training service dogs.”
“Really?” Kinley pursed her lips. “It would be nice to have some input about our new wounded warrior dog training program from someone who’s actually worked with the animals.”
“That’s exactly what I thought too,” Rose admitted. “Especially since we’re supposed to begin in the summer. But supposedly, he’ll be here tomorrow sometime. I’m sorry that I forgot to ask Dad his name. Dad’s going to be letting him stay in one of the rental cabins that they use for the kids who attend Mom’s music camp though.”
“Okay. I’ll remember that,” Kinley responded. “I can see all the rental cabins from mine, so if the lights go on in one, I won’t be worried.”
“I can’t wait to see the inside of your cabin,” Rose murmured. “Dad said it’s really impressive.”
“You’ll have to come by sometime. Maybe I’ll have a little get together before Christmas when I’m more settled in.” Kinley smiled widely. “I’m really looking forward to Christmas this year since I’ve had the cabin built. I decided to put aside the past because that’s what my parents would want. It will be the first time I’ve celebrated the holidays since they’ve passed away.”
“I can’t believe how quickly you decided to build a house,” Rose said. “I think that Ben wants us to have our own home instead of living in Mom and Dad’s guest house. It’s worked out well when we’ve been touring, but we may want to stick closer to home because of the baby, so I can see Ben’s point about having more privacy, especially when music camp is in session. My brothers and sisters are older now too, so they can more or less take care of themselves.”
“I think you should probably have a home of your own. Babies can be tough, even though you have a lot of family to babysit, there are going to be times you two will need to escape from the madness.” For a moment, Kinley felt an overwhelming sense of loneliness. Christmastime was not only difficult because of the loss of her parents, but because of some other personal circumstances as well. Namely, breaking off the relationship with her boyfriend last year right before Thanksgiving.
But Kinley had discovered she was much better off without Brent Phillips.
Rose gave her an impish grin. “I hear you. So, tell me how you ended up deciding to settle down in Crystal Rock, when you only intended to stick around for a year or two? The last time I saw you this summer, I was dropping you off at your apartment after Anna and Neil’s wedding reception. When I came home last week, I was never more surprised to learn you’d purchased the cabin that was being built on the ridge overlooking the river along Crystal Rock Lake. Dad said that you’d had them completely revamp the original plans because you wanted a much larger, pet friendly home.”
“It was after I was asked to be in charge of the service animal program. Your dad has done so much good with these no kill shelters which he’s continued to set up throughout the country. And since this is going to be a pilot program, I decided that if I was going to do it, I was going to give it my best shot. Besides, this is the first place I’ve lived since growing up in Alabama that has felt like home.”
“There was a man in Montgomery, wasn’t there?”
Kinley blinked. “I guess I haven’t exactly made it a secret.”
Rose studied her for a long hard moment. “I have a feeling there’s more to it than that, but I can understand if you’re not ready to talk about it.”
“Yes,” Kinley admitted. “I’m still a little raw.”
“But you can tell me about why you wanted such a big house? Dad mentioned you had an aviary built.”
Kinley laughed. “Since it’s a small town, I guess that everyone still knows more about me than I know about them. Dad had a thing for birds. We had a parrot named Lafayette who passed away a couple of years after Dad and Mom did. He was pretty old and very sweet, but I could swear he died of grief. I was really attached to him, especially since both Dad and Mom had been, and it kind of broke my heart when he passed away too. Anyway, I got thinking about what I wanted in a forever home. I inherited quite a bit of money from my parents because Dad and Mom were always workaholics and I was an only child. If I was going to take on the job as the full-time permanent vet in charge of the facility here, I decided I wanted to have the capability to care for animals at home if I needed to. Your Dad and Mom warned me about the weather, and I knew we would continue having interns feeding, watering and walking the animals, but if I’m on call, I don’t want to necessarily be stuck here at the shelter all night and sleeping on one of the couches. I would rather be in the comfort of my own home where I can stay rested at the same time. I’m sure this program is going to keep me very busy, so I decided to have an extra heated space attached to the garage which could serve as an office in case of an emergency.”
“That’s an excellent idea. Dad used to get called in here all the time before we had the extra help and interns we have now.” Rose looked thoughtful. “We do need more than just a break room here at the shelter. We have a lot of kids and teenagers working here part time and it’s fine for them, but the more full-time people Dad hires, the more he needs to be thinking about his vision of the future. He pretty much comes and goes as he pleases, and you do all the scheduling not to mention hiring and firing.”
“I had to tell him that I think we needed an extra training space too, like an additional arena maybe at the back of the property away from the shelter. It’s important to keep the warriors training program separate from the program for kids and adults with disabilities to avoid confusion for the service animals. Training with them could end up being entirely different.”
“That’s something I never even thought of, although I’m sure that Dad has, since he was deployed to Afghanistan with his own service animal. At least we own all the surrounding space.” Rose grimaced. “We’ll have to go back into fund raising mode though if we need to add another facility.”
“That sounds like a plan. Maybe we can get something started before the Christmas charity event,” Kinley said, still staring at the massive dog. “Has anyone besides your dad tried handling this guy yet, Rose?”
Rose scrunched her nose. “I don’t think so. But Dad seemed to think he was pretty tame.”
Kinley heaved a sigh. “He’s so thin. I wonder if someone couldn’t afford to keep him because he’s so big. He looks to be part boxer. It’s going to be hard to get him adopted just for that reason alone.”
Rose nodded her agreement as she began scooping out food. “I was just thinking the same thing.”
“Let’s see if I can handle you, Buster, after Rose gives you dinner. I think I’ll take him for a walk around the arena and see how he behaves.”
“Okay. I’ll go ahead and feed him first,” Rose murmured, giving Kinley a smile.