Chapter 34
THIRTY-FOUR
“ I have not wanted syllables when actions have spoken so plainly .”
~Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility
L abor Day was the first holiday she’d spent in Perry in fourteen years. More importantly, it was the start of the “Week of Pete,” as she and Tobey dubbed the various birthday-themed shenanigans planned for the week that included individualized dates planned by Janet, Tobey, Jerome, and Elle.
Despite being a holiday, Elle had to take a business call regarding the mobile mammography initiative partnership she’d pitched to Magda at the fundraiser in Boston. With early detection lives could be saved. Lives like her grandma’s.
By the time she disconnected the call, she was soaring with a sense of accomplishment. The program was shaping up nicely and the call had gone exceptionally well, solidifying the non-profit and healthcare company’s partnership to expand services in underserved rural communities. The thumbs up emoji text from Malcolm was the cherry on what was already a sundae of a day.
When Elle finished with her meeting, she FaceTimed Clayton. “You’re a fucking rock star,” he praised while elbow deep in puppies at the shelter where he volunteered.
“Look at them!”Elle squealed as Clayton held the phone toward the yelping puppy pile that had been dropped anonymously at the shelter.
“They are pretty rambunctious.” Clayton chuckled as a brown and white puppy leapt at its siblings then flopped to the newspaper covered floor.
“What about that little nugget over there?”
A patch of brown covered the right eye of the smallest puppy, and ink blot-shaped brown patches littered its torso. The puppy sat quietly, more a spectator than a member of the little orphaned family.
Elle was drawn to that outsider puppy.
“This one?” Clayton asked, crouching down allowing the camera to come close to the puppy’s face.
“Yes.” Smiling, she pressed her face to the phone as if pressing her nose to the pup’s. “Hello there.”
“This is the sister.” He massaged her ears.
“She’s not playing. Is she okay?”
“Yeah. She’s healthy.”
“Are they not letting her play?” A furrow creased her brow. “Hello, lovely girl. Are your brothers being obnoxious?” she cooed to the puppy.
“No, she’s just watching over them. The staff say she’s sweet and friendly, as you can see.”As if on cue, she licked Clayton’s fingers. “She’s just protective of her brothers…keeping an eye on them.”
Elle could hear the smile in his voice, even though all she could see was his hand caressing delicate fur. She knew how great those same fingers felt as they stroked her.
“Like Lizzie Bennet always looking out for her sisters. Maybe we should call her Lizzie.”
“You know, she needs a good home.”Clayton winked, turning the camera to himself as he sat on the ground.
“I work and travel a lot.”
“Malcolm has dogs.” Clayton countered.
“Yes, but he’s married so he has someone that can help.”
“Noted.” Clayton grinned, as the puppy climbed into his lap and nuzzled his chest. “You know unmarried people can have pets.”
“Noted,” Elle mimicked his response.
She had thought about it in the past. There were times she walked by adoption fairs outside pet stores or lost herself down adoption website rabbit holes debating with herself whether to commit. There was always an excuse not to.
I work too much.
I travel too much.
I am alone.
They deserve a real home.
The strongest reason she hadn’t ever said “Yes” was the home piece. Everyone deserved a home and Elle had so recently forged her own home in Long Beach.
“I won’t push but you love dogs. You’re also really good with them,” Clayton said.
“How is that not pushing?” Elle cocked her brow.
“If I was pushing, I’d do this.” Clayton pressed the camera close to Lizzie’s face and pitched his voice high. “Please be my mommy, Elle. I’d be such a good girl. I could keep your always cold feet warm. I could lay on your lap as you read to me. I could eat burnt bacon with you.”
“Stop!” she barked, the giggles rumbling through her. “Your emotional terrorism will not work with me.”
“Sorry, Lizzie I tried.”Clayton pouted, pressing a kiss to the puppy’s cheek.
Elle bit her lower lip, suddenly thinking of Summer Michaels and her little boy. The precocious Liam would adore all these puppies.
“You have your ‘I have an idea’ smile.”
“Remember how I told you about Summer’s little boy, Liam?”
“Yes.”
“If Summer is okay with it, would you be open for Liam to come to the clinic and spend time with you to learn more about being a veterinarian?”
“Of course.”Clayton’s quick response didn’t surprise her.
“You have your ‘Elle’ smile.”
“Yeah.” He sighed. “Moments like this just remind me why your heart is one of my top three favorite things about you.”
“But my butt is your number one,”she said cheekily.
“It is a fantastic ass.”
“Clayton, there are impressionable ears present.”Elle gasped in mock dismay, referring to the yelping puppies in the background.
After her video chat with Clayton, Elle raced to pick Uncle Pete up for their memory lane inspired solo birthday outing.
“We’re heading toward Niagara Falls.”Pete rubbed his hands together, attempting to guess where she was taking him. “We’re not going to the casino, are we?”
“When have we gone to a casino together?”
“True, that would be more your aunt.”
“She does love the slots.”
“Oh, my slotty woman,” Pete deadpanned.
“I’m so torn by that joke.” Elle fought a laugh at the word play but also, was mortified by his very bad dad and a little sexist joke.
“That was gold!” Pete said, his blue eyes twinkling with pleasure. “What could be in Niagara Falls?” He tapped his index finger on his chin.
Elle’s lips curled at his pretend perplexment of their destination. There were few options of where and what they’d be doing in Niagara Falls that would be worthy of a fiftieth birthday week date.
In seventh grade, Elle had missed a field trip to the Niagara Falls Aquarium. Her dad had already left, and her mom was in the psychiatric unit, she had no legal guardian to sign the permission slip.
Elle wasn’t sure how or when Pete found out she’d been denied the trip on a technicality, but one Monday morning in May, Elle had been called to the school office. A grinning Pete had come for her to take her for a dental appointment. Only there was no dental appointment. Climbing into his truck, Pete had pulled out the unsigned permission slip for the aquarium field trip, telling her to come to him whenever she needed anything. “Anything,” he’d repeated hitting every syllable.
The dentist appointment was just a clever ruse to take her out of school. Pete took her to the Maid of the Mist, where their raincoat-clad forms were dosed in the cool waters of the Niagara Falls as the tour’s boat ventured close the falls’ base. It had been a good day. A great day.
Now, as she pulled into the parking lot for the Maid of the Mist, Pete shouted, “I knew it!!”
His words that long ago day came back to her. I’m always here for you, no matter what.
“Thank you.”Elle sighed, gratitude filling her up. She was thanking him for all those times when he had, in fact, been there for her and all the times yet to come when she knew he’d be there.
Pete’s forehead wrinkled. “Aren’t I supposed to be thanking you?”
“No.” Elle shook her head. “I appreciate you so much. I don’t know if I say it enough but thank you for everything.”
“You show me in so many ways. I’m a lucky uncle.”
“I feel like the lucky one.”
“Let’s agree, we’re both pretty damn lucky.”
“I don’t want to only see you on video chats or every couple of years when you fly to Long Beach. I don’t want to go another fourteen years without coming back.”Elle inhaled a steadying breath. “I’m going to come back more often, at least one proper trip a year and maybe some quick stopovers when I fly to New York City for work.”
“I’d like that.”
“Maybe I can come back for Christmas?”Elle asked, playing with her starfish bracelet.
She wasn’t sure whose permission she sought, her uncle’s or her own. It had been so long since she’d spent a holiday in Perry. Labor Day wasn’t one generally marked for homecomings, but here she was. Even her last few years at UB, when she lived only an hour away, she’d come back to Pete and Janet’s just a handful of times. The already complicated holidays with her mom’s influx of rotating boyfriends became more strained after she broke with her mom. It was hard to relax into Pete and Janet’s cozy Christmas cottage, like something out of a Hallmark movie, when Elle kept looking over her shoulder for the lurking specter of her mom.
She could do this.She could come back for visits and holidays and survive. Only days away from leaving, she recognized how far she’d come.
“You never have to ask.” Pete took her hand. “Our door is always open. You’re my favorite niece.”
“I’m your only niece.”Her lips tugged up, sweetly sarcastic.
“My one and only.” His smile large.