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It’s just after dinnertime when Duke gets up, comes over to where I’m at on the couch, and stands next to me, wagging his tail. He’s so cute, with white hairs dotting his face. I pet him a few times, and then he makes his way to the door and stands by it.
“Ready to go home, are you?” I ask him, and he huffs as if he can understand me.
“Well, how about I walk you back so I know you make it to your grumpy owner.”
Slipping on my tall rubber boots, I open the door, and Duke wanders out. He doesn’t run or sprint off. Instead, he slowly meanders down the stairs and then turns to look back at me to see if I’m coming.
Together, we make the trek up my driveway and over to Briggs’s house. Today’s activity is gone, and the mountain is again silent.
I like it.
In fact, it makes me wonder how I’ll do back in the city with all the noise.
At his house, I trudge up the front steps and knock on his door. A few moments later, I hear his heavy footsteps. The door flies open, and there he is, freshly showered and surprised to see me here.
“Umm,” I mumble as I’m stuck staring at his damp hair, his skin which has that freshly cleaned look, muscular tanned arms as his T-shirt is loving him perfectly, and his pink lips, which are not scowling at me. “I had a visitor.” I wave my hand toward Duke, and his eyes, which were pinned on me, drop to his dog.
Surprising me even further, he drops down where he’s crouching on the balls of his feet and pulls the dog into a hug.
“Too much for you today?” he asks, and the dog nuzzles into him. “I was wondering where you got off to. How long was he with you?” he asks, glancing up at me.
“Just a couple of hours.”
Standing, he scratches Duke behind the ears, and then Duke leaves us to go into the house.
“That makes sense,” he says.
“What does?”
“That he would go to your house. He was Mrs. Benson’s dog. After she passed, he just came over here and stayed.”
“So he’s not your dog?”
“Well, he is now. She’s dead.”
My cheeks heat, and I narrow my eyes at him.
“I just meant that he belongs to that family. No one came and got him?”
“One of her sons checked in with me, but Duke was happy here, and I don’t think they wanted him. It’s fine. This was a little before my mom died, and he would lay by her side. He made her happy.”
I don’t know what to say to this. Keeping a dog because it lay next to his mother while she was sick is a very selfless thing. Between buying the orchard and the dog, I’ve quickly realized that he loved his mother very much.
And that’s when his words hit me. “My house sat empty for over three years?”
“Yes.”
“Wow, I didn’t realize that. It wasn’t in that bad of shape when I bought it, so I just assumed it was a recent thing.”
“Nope, it just sat there. At one time, there was a small barn, but they didn’t maintain it, and it was old, so they tore it down and threw down some grass seed.”
“Where was it?”
He glances toward my house. “Far northeast corner.”
“That makes sense.” It’s exactly where I want to put my garden.
He pauses, eyes me warily, and then asks, “How do you feel about blackberry cheesecake?”
