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“Highly unlikely.Besides, they’re a lot of work and mess, and your mother wouldn’t put up with it.She likes things to be neat.”
That she did.Cheryl Dummit was anything if not image conscious.“Well, you’re welcome to walk Hershey or come play with her any time.She likes you, I can tell.”
“She’s a sweetheart.When your mother came home claiming you’d rescued a ‘monster beast dog,’ I wasn’t quite sure what to think.”
Leave it to her mother to make the sweet Doodle out to be a monster.“I was taking a shower when Mom arrived and she scared Hershey when she let herself in.Hershey’s still adjusting to her new home.”
“Well, it certainly looks as though she’s adjusting well.Huh?Are you settled?”he asked Hershey.
The Doodle lifted her paw and placed it over her father’s wrist, holding it while looking at him with her big brown eyes.
“I suppose you are.It’s not every day a dog gets to move to the beach,” he said, slowly straightening.“I’ll take you up on that offer as often as I can,” he said to Hadley.“I know of a few good dog parks in the area we can go visit.”
“She’d love that, Dad.”And it might also help with Hershey’s separation anxiety.To know if she wasn’t with Hadley that Hershey would be safe with select others.
“So how about you give me a tour and tell me what you have planned for the house?”
“You really want to know?”she asked, surprised by his question since her father had never been one to care about such things.That was always her mother’s thing.
“Hadley, I want to know about anything that’s brought you back home and keeps you here.Show me—and tell me about this new friend of yours.”
“Oh, geez.Mom is overreacting.Bryson’s working on the house next door, and when I mentioned the roof leak here, and he said he’d fix it and do some other work I need done.He’s just a friend.”
“Mmm.That’s some friend if he’s doing all of that.”
“I’m paying him to do it.He’s a professional contractor.”
“Bryson James,” her father murmured.“Now that you mention it, I think we hired his father once or twice over the years.”
“See?Now stop worrying.”
“A parent never stops worrying.Just…don’t let the man take advantage of you.”
“If anything, I’m taking advantage of him.His company has other jobs yet he’s made my requests a priority.”
Her father frowned at the news.
“And why is that?”
“Uh, what?”Why had she said that?Told her father Bryson was giving her special attention?
“If you’re just friends, why is he making you a priority?”
“I-I don’t know.”Liar,she thought, her mind flashing back to Bryson verbalizing his interest in her.
“Don’t you?”
Hadley stared at her father for a long moment before changing the subject and starting the house tour, asking his opinion on a couple of things just to get him off the subject for good.
Still, her father’s words stayed with her long after he’d departed.Hadley turned on some music and poured herself a glass of wine, carrying it with her to the porch.
The full moon glistened off the water in the distance, and the busyness of the day had settled into the quiet reserve of evening.
A few people walked the boardwalk, voices low.Some held hands; others walked side by side but distant, their body language familiar in a way she recognized all too well.
They were the ones struggling to reconnect.To find that special something that had brought them together in the first place.
A noise sounded from next door and she turned her head toward the house.Lights were on in the interior, Bryson’s truck in the driveway.
