AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As an adult, I can appreciate that we only moved six miles from our old neighborhood. I didn’t even have to change schools, but at the time I thought it was the end of the world.
A year after we moved out here, I learned a person’s world can end more than once.
I paused at the door for another deep breath, wiping my sweaty palms on the towel tucked into my belt before pressing open the door to our small lobby. I paste a smile on my face.
“Mr. Ralston,” I say. “How nice to see you again.”
“Look, Callie,” says the red-faced older man without preamble, “you keep jacking up your prices and I’m going to be forced to take my Charlie to that new place over on Center Street.”
Right. Hale House Kennel’s newest competitor. We couldn’t compete with their specials or their location, and I knew it.
“I understand, Mr. Ralston,” I say, stepping over to the computer, wishing with every cell in my body to be back to the dogs or back in my own house.
I gave the man a discount and told him his Charlie was as welcome at Hale House as ever, but that the prices were nonnegotiable going forward. Mr. Ralston left with a smile but I didn’t dare fool myself he’d be back any time soon.
“I’m sorry, Callie,” says Lucy, our only employee. She handles the desk in the afternoons after her classes at the community college.
“Mr. Ralston insisted on speaking with one of the owners, and I couldn’t find Finn. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, Lucy,” I say, patting her hand. I don’t know if the gesture soothes or not; I don’t have a lot of experience helping other people feel better. Pets, I could help all day long. People, not so much. “Was Charlie our last pickup of the day?”
Lucy taps the tablet screen a couple of times. “One more to go. Mrs. Newport should be here to pick up Elise within the hour.”
Elise, as in Fur Elise, a Pomeranian whose hair made her look the size of a beach ball until her monthly haircut, which I’d finished earlier this afternoon.
“You can head on out, if you like,” I say. “Friday night, I’m sure you’ve got big plans.”
Lucy snorts. “Something like that.”
“A date?” Lucy had been working for us the last eighteen months, but I’d never once heard her talk about a boyfriend or a girlfriend or anybody besides her family, which I wondered about. At nineteen, even I’d had a boyfriend or two.
Well, two total. Ever. But I’d gone on dates sometimes, back then.
“No date,” says Lucy, ducking down to grab her backpack from a shelf under the counter. “Homework.”
“You know you can do that here when we’re not busy,” I tell her. With Finn cutting back his time at Hale House, Lucy is my last remaining on-site lifeline. I plan to do everything I can to keep her working here as long as possible.
“I know,” she says, tapping the tablet again to log in to her timecard. “I appreciate it, Callie. You and Finn are the best.”
She gives me a smile, hitches up her backpack, and says goodbye, making sure to shut the front door firmly behind her.
Finn and I were still taking courses at the same community college Lucy’s now attending when I’d had the idea for Hale House Kennels. I’d wanted something I could do close to home, and it didn’t get any closer than this. We’d just last year expanded to offer grooming services in an attempt to keep people coming this far out of town. The farm isn’t more than a mile outside of city limits, but it’s enough to present a challenge.
Seven years in, and I’m still surprised Hale House Kennels is mine. And if lately it’s the only thing that gets me out of bed in the morning… I try not to think about that too much.
I try not to think about a lot of things. Dogs are just about the best remedy for thinking too much, so I focus on getting Charlie’s kennel cleaned out and making sure Fur Elise looks her best. When Mrs. Newport picks her up an hour later, I triple check the locks and head back to the main house.
My house now. It’s hard to think of it as mine, since it was “ours” until not that long ago. My cousin Sully moved out when he turned eighteen, but Finn still lived here up until a couple of years ago. He moved out to the apartment over the garage after our twenty-third birthday, saying he wanted to keep an eye on me but that he still needed space. We hadn’t had anybody renting it in a while, so it suited us both. Finn could manwhore around, like he thinks I don’t know he does, and me…
I’m safe. I don’t need anything else.
Maybe it’s not good to be alone this much, but it suits me. And if there are times when things don’t feel quite right, then I’ve got the dogs. And baking. Cupcakes never let me down.
I need to bounce some ideas off my brother about maybe hiring somebody to help back Lucy up—especially on days like today, so I don’t have to deal with confrontations like that again—so I head out the front door, circling the building to get to the stairs that lead to Finn’s apartment.
It’s been more than ten years, and I still don’t know why my parents chose this place. Maybe they wanted to have more kids? The thought lands like a kick to the gut and I have to stop at the base of the steps, one hand on the rail keeping me from dropping to my knees.
The grief doesn’t hit nearly as often as it used to, but when it happens, it hits hard. When I’m reasonably sure I’m not about to burst into tears, I head up the steps.
