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“I can see you’re attempting to prune your grove,” he said, indicating piles of deadwood along the paths in between the rows. You can apply for a permit to burn deadwood. It’s free of charge. Just come down to the firehouse.”
After saying goodbye and climbing back in the truck, Paul thought of something Karin had said. “The daughter is trying to revive the grove herself. She said after work she tends the grove in the evening.”
“It looks hopeless,” Danny said, frowning. “He’s not the first man whose wife died.”
After Danny’s compassionate announcement, Paul made a decision that when he was able, he’d help Karin out around the grove. Maybe he’d offer his services to Robin and Sam since they were also helping out according to Karin, thereby hopefully bypassing any wrongly taken motivation.
The next call was to the vet clinic. “You’re doing this on purpose,” Paul said, laughing.
“I’m not, I swear. You’ll meet Dr. Bogart.”
The clinic building was surrounded by a corral in which a variety of four-legged animals, and a few with three legs, chomped on a round, green bale of hay. As far as the eye could see, horses grazed with alpacas and sheep and llamas. It was a veritable menagerie.
They entered the office door, and a receptionist got up to take them to her boss, with a grin on her face.
“Come on back. He’s doing a littleprocedure.”
They followed her to the work area. Cages of dogs and cats and other living creatures barking and meowing were an assault to the senses. Pausing to look at the array of critters, Paul saw a lizard, hamsters, what he thought might be a ferret, and of all things, an aquarium.
“This is also a rescue,” the receptionist said, chuckling.
“I hope you never have to evacuate this place,” Danny said. “It’s a zoo!”
“That’s exactly what it is,” she replied.
The cages were juxtaposed by a grandfatherly-looking man with his bare foot up on the desk, clipping his toenails.
“Pardon me, boys. They were getting so long my boots weren’t fitting.”
“Oh, um, Dr. Bogart, about the brush around the office—”
“I’ll get on it this week, promise.”
He stood up, brushing toenail particles off the top of his desk, and then bent over to pull his sock on. Cringing, Paul obsessed about having to shake the man’s hand after he’d been playing with his feet, but fortunately, he didn’t offer.
Following behind Danny and the doctor, Paul happened to look over at the receptionist, just a second-long glance, and she stretched her hand out to shake. Danny and the doctor were out the front door, but he didn’t see how he could get out of stopping to acknowledge her without being rude.
“Sophia Antoni,” she said, smiling. “You’re the guy in Barney’s house, right?”
“I am. Paul Saint.”
“I know you, believe it or not, from Cathedral Catholic. We were in the same basic math class.”
“No way! How embarrassing,” he said, laughing. “My ignorance follows me everywhere.”
“Creative people often struggle with math; it’s on the wrong side of our brain, or something like that. And I recognize you fromVice. I even wrote the producer, saying they should give you another role.”
“Well, Sophia, thank you so much, and it was niceremeetingyou, but I’d better get out there and catch up with my partner.”
“If you’re around, let’s have coffee,” she said, willing him not to walk out without a promise to connect.
“Okay, let’s do it,” he said, sticking his regulation firehouse baseball cap back on his head.
So it looked like there was one more woman he could add to his list of new friends. He wondered what the attraction was. Was it just a new face?
After they left the clinic for the next place, Paul said something to Danny. “This is not my first survey in the hood,” he said. “But suddenly, because I live here now, I’m getting a lot of invitations. That secretary just asked me to have coffee.”
“You’re single,” he said. “They probably heard about your breakup.”
