9
Theo was at his most genuinely adorable. Anything for Mr. Man, as he was now calling their new charge. Theo also remained a city slicker to the core.
“What do you mean there are no dog grooming establishments near me?” he huffed at his phone before moving on to big-box stores, which he’d vaguely heard offered such services. Except, of course, they were way too remote for such sizable offerings. Mobile groomers? Also a strikeout.
“Fine,” he announced. “We’ll do it ourselves.”
“One, have you ever washed a dog, cat, dependent of any kind? Two: we?”
“We have a hose.”
“Again, we?”
“Okay, here we go,” Theo declared, still staring at his phone. “I found a local pet store. We’ll pop in, grab some shampoo and advanced instruction. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
The pet store, appropriately named Four Your Paws Only, was cute and boutiquey. And in addition to shampoo and conditioner, as well as a dog brush, dog bed, half a dozen dog toys, and an entire box of homemade dog treats, it did offer general advice.
Raquel had one source of consolation. The giggly young woman helping them, generally the type to swoon over Theo, didn’t even give him a second glance; she was too busy swooning over Mr. Man.
“You said he just turned up on your front porch? But you’ve taken him to the vet, and, oh, look at this gorgeous collar. You’re such a lucky boy, yes, yes you are. What a good dog to have found such great people.”
She shot Raquel and Theo a beaming smile of approval, then went back to loving on their-dog-not-their-dog, who’d totally given up on feigning regal composure for blissed-out abandonment.
“Sure you’re prepared to no longer be the most attractive male in the family?” Raquel asked her husband.
“Yes!” He patted the now-drooling mutt on top of his head, added another toy to the pile, and proceeded to spend the average person’s weekly salary on a stray that would probably be safely ensconced with its real family in a matter of days.
“Karma,” he stated when they’d reached their SUV, rear hatch open, a pile of purchases crowding the pavement. “You know you’d want someone to treat your missing pet this kindly.”
“I don’t intend on ever having a pet.”
“Then your—”
He stopped, fumbled for a second. And just like that…Even the dog seemed to know. He pressed against Theo’s leg, whined softly.
“I didn’t mean…” Theo began.
“It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not—”
“It has to be!” Raquel’s voice, harsher than she intended.
“Otherwise, what? We spend the next week, months, years of our lives tripping over each other? Constantly watching every word we say? What was, was. And what will not be, will not be. We’re either okay with it, or not.
And if we’re not okay with it, well then, I need you to tell me right now.
Then we can be done versus, what, dragging out the pain just to end things anyway? ”
Theo appeared genuinely stricken. And she felt like the world’s biggest bitch.
She couldn’t take the words back, though, wouldn’t take them back.
They’d been burning in her throat for months.
She was the weak link. Her problem, her limitations.
And she wasn’t lying. She’d take surgical amputation over death by a thousand paper cuts any time.
Theo placed both hands on her shoulders. He peered directly into her eyes.
“I love you,” he stated quietly. “Forever and always.”
She burst into tears, right there in the middle of the parking lot, new dog/mutt/stray at their feet.
Theo drew her into his arms. She cried harder as he cradled her against him. A matter of seconds, no more than ten, then she pulled back, quickly swiping the moisture from her face, already mortified.
She hated feeling this weak, this needy.
But then she hated so much these days.
Her mother’s voice once again flitting across the back of her mind: Now you’re just like me.
You’re dead, she thought savagely. You’re dead, you’re dead, you’re dead. Now stay dead!
If only it were that simple.
She turned away from Theo, determinedly loaded the next bag into their vehicle. They headed home in silence.
Raquel hadn’t been lying—not her dog, not her problem. And if that meant she’d never be granted sainthood, fine by her. But even if she had no intention of participating in the great dog grooming experiment, that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy the show.
Sure enough. One hose hooked up with an eight-pattern nozzle. Several practice shots with varying amounts of water pressure. One excited mutt snapping at droplets and sprays, tail wagging. Then, Theo turning the stream onto the dog…
And they were off. Dog was fast. But so was Theo.
Leaping and bounding. Canine, man, man, canine.
Both of them clearly having the time of their lives.
Theo laughing, Mr. Man grinning as they tore around the overgrown yard, looped the drive.
Onto the porch. Off the porch. Into the woods, out of the woods.
Raquel shook her head, then found herself giggling as she watched two of the goofiest males she’d ever met play an extremely exuberant game of tag.
She’d been raised to look down on the Theos of the world, trust funders who wouldn’t last a day in the “real world.” It had taken Raquel all of one week to realize Theo’s strength was his joie de vivre.
He wouldn’t just survive an apocalypse, he’d build a nightclub, gather up all the survivors, and have the entire community singing and dancing on Friday nights.
Theo wasn’t the kind who endured. He was the kind who made it all worthwhile.
Apparently with bathing optional.
She left the boys to their antics, heading upstairs to engage in some quality time with a sledgehammer. After her little meltdown, she deserved her own version of stress relief.
When she finally removed her protective eye gear, Theo was calling from downstairs.
“Introducing the new and improved…Mr. Man,” he sang out.
She descended to discover one wet dog and one even wetter human dripping in the middle of the great room.
“Absolutely not.”
Theo and Mr. Man exchanged nervous glances.
“While I appreciate a big reveal as much as the next HGTV addict, this before and after is much better suited for the front porch.”
Now Theo and Mr. Man exchanged confused glances.
“No puddling inside the house!”
That did the trick.
Dog and human hastily retreated outside.
Raquel followed. She promptly showered them with praise, as it was a pretty spectacular makeover.
Mr. Man had a gorgeous pale coat, adorable floppy ears, and a trim torso.
Her husband was also devilishly handsome with his slicked-back hair and clinging wet shirt.
“Be still my beating heart,” she assured them.
They wagged their tails, one literally, one metaphorically.
“Dinner?” she inquired.
More tail wagging.
“All right. I got a plan. Theo, you might need some human washing up. Canine Opportunist, you stay outside till you’re dry. Then, we’ll talk.”
“No worries,” Theo stage-whispered to his compatriot. “I already moved your dog bed up to the bedroom.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Raquel regarded her husband with a steely gaze. “I allow only one animal in my bed. Pick wisely.”
Mr. Man bowed his head. “Sorry, bro,” Theo informed him.
“Though at these temps, it makes sense for all life-forms to sleep inside,” she allowed.
And just like that, they were back to their happy-go-lucky selves.
“Beware turning into a homeless mongrel,” Raquel advised her husband.
“Can I be a crossbreed? That would drive my mother nuts.”
Which of course made her laugh. “All right, both of you, shoo shoo. We have our missions.”
Raquel was searing two chicken breasts when Theo reappeared.
“Where’s Mr. Man?”
“Definitely not in the kitchen,” she assured him.
“He’s not on the porch.”
She shrugged. “I know nothing.”
Theo frowned, then recovered. “Can I help you with anything?”
“Find the dog; otherwise, you’ll obsess all through dinner.”
Theo disappeared. She went back to searing.
She’d just finished slicing both breasts in a pleasing diagonal pattern when Theo reappeared.
“I need help.”
She regarded him intently. She knew her husband. He meant it. “All right.”
“Mr. Man is gone.”
“Okay, what would you like to do?”
“We need to go look for him!”
“You know it’s possible he returned home…”
“We need to search!”
“All right.” Raquel might not be into the stray canine, but so help her God, she did love her husband, meaning there was only one thing to be done. “Grab a pair of flashlights. We’ll find him.”
Without any information on where the dog had originally come from, Raquel was genuinely at a loss for where to begin. She and Theo spun in circles, taking turns whistling and calling. When that failed, Theo headed to the left and she headed for the right.
She could hear him from time to time, “Hey, buddy. We got dinner. I know you want dinner!”
Raquel continued to whistle, while scanning the bushes at the edge of the property, then working her way steadily around the house, toward the collapsed old barn/garage.
The dilapidated structure struck her as a natural curiosity point for a canine, most likely filled with interesting smells and small animal activity.
She washed over it several times with her flashlight, came away with nothing. Finally, she heard a noise. Like scratching or digging. She picked up her pace, moving quickly beyond the caved-in structure until…
There, in the beam of the flashlight. One formerly washed but now completely mud-splattered mutt frantically tunneling to China.
“Hey! Crazy canine. Stop! Are you trying to break Theo’s heart?”
The dog didn’t even look up. She advanced, calling out to Theo that she’d found their runaway pooch.
Minutes later her husband appeared, loping through the gloom. “Oh, thank God!”
Mr. Man finally glanced up, then went back to urgently digging. After a moment, he moved back, sniff, sniff, sniff. Heavy sigh. The stray sat back on his now filthy haunches, regarding both of them seriously.
“Dear Lord…” Theo began.
“Apparently he really wants to bathe again,” Raquel agreed.
She stepped forward. There was something about the intensity of the canine’s efforts.
She had a vague feeling of dread. A property where six people had never been found…
She half-expected to see a skeletal hand poking up, or the white gleam of an exposed skull.
She and Theo both drew closer, the dog studying them intently.
“What’s that?” she asked at last, peering down at what appeared to be several tightly joined wooden planks, stained dark from the damp earth.
Theo didn’t speak right away. He moved from right to left, left to right. “I think…”
He whirled around, flashing his beam across the ground until he spied a sturdy-looking stick. He grabbed it, striding forward.
The dog whined softly as Theo went to work clearing the remaining dirt and vegetation from what appeared to be a round wooden cover, now half rotten from age.
Experimentally, Theo wedged his stick into one of the decaying ends and heaved.
The board gave way with a groaning creak, crude nails jutting out like daggers.
Theo pried up a second beam, a gaping black hole beginning to emerge.
Theo kneeled down, pointing his flashlight directly into the gloom.
“These old farms initially featured hand-dug wells,” Theo muttered. “Century or two later, most upgraded to modern drilled wells, tapping into deeper groundwater streams for better quantity and quality of water. The old wells were boarded up. Hang on.”
He trotted back to the garage ruins, which remained peppered with old tools, lawn equipment, and outdoor gear. Minutes later he returned with a rusty crowbar, using it to pry up the remaining boards, then tossed the old wood into a single pile.
Back on his hands and knees, he hit the abyss with the beam of his flashlight a second time, illuminating what appeared to be a pit, five to six feet in diameter, the edges of which were lined with fist-sized rocks.
“Definitely man-made. The stones were used to shore up the sides as they dug down.”
Raquel squatted lower, adding her beam to his so they could both peer into the depths. Theo was right. The walls were tightly structured, clearly engineered in nature.
The dog huffed. Gazed from the well to them to the well again.
Theo scooted closer.
“Careful,” she cautioned, instinctively reaching out a hand.
Theo circled the top several times, then straightened. “Gonna need a rope.”
“What?”
But he was already off and running again, back to the collapsed barn. When he returned, he was carrying a coil of God knows what.
“Absolutely not.” For once, the dog’s woof implied he was on her side. “No way descending down into…that…is a good idea.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not totally crazy.” Theo gave her a wink, then held out his heavy-duty flashlight. He tied one end of the rope around the textured handle, then slowly lowered it into the depths.
It spun like a disco ball, producing a dizzying kaleidoscope of moldering rocks, dirt, debris; Raquel had vertigo just watching.
Then, as the rope rasped across the well’s granite lip, the final foot snaking past Raquel’s feet…
The rope snapped taut. The flashlight whirled a few more times, then slowed to gentle rocking. Theo peered once more into the depths.
“Raquel.”
“Yes?”
“I think there’s something down there.”
He tugged at the rope a few more times, as if adjusting the beam. Then, he stilled.
She knew without him even having to say another word.
“Call Chief Grady.”
“Is that…”
“Raquel.”
She dialed the number.