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“He’s a good distraction from all the crap that is going on, so no, I don’t love him that way. Losing the rescue has about done me in. I had to beg Danny’s father to take him for four days so I could finish up this fiasco. I still have six dogs to deal with.”

“I can take some of them, Kelly. But what do you think about moving the rescue here?”

“Would it still be my rescue? I mean, I know that sounds selfish, but would I still be in charge? The people who support this place know and respect me, is all I mean. I really would hate to lose that, to have to start all over.”

“Kelly, when you get to know me better, you’ll discover that I’m almost pathologically introverted,” she said, laughing out loud. “If you want to run the place, go for it. We’ll have to figure out some way to divide the responsibility, though, unless you want to rent the space from me. If we shared, I’d assume some of the financial burden. I’d be there to do the physical work. There must be other areas that would make it beneficial to share. I was going to contact an attorney Monday.”

They talked about the responsibilities running the rescue would entail, all the things that Maggie had wanted to ask her and the original reason for the call.

“Okay, I accept. You need a trailer, though, right? My father has a double-wide. I’ll ask him if we can buy it if you want. I’m sure he’ll give us a good deal.”

“No way.”

“Oh yes. It’s in St. John’s Parish. He used to use it as a hunting cabin. I just heard him say that he was going to sell the building because he lost his land lease, just like I did. It’s a coincidence for sure.”

“Ask him what he wants for it.”

“I will. You’ll have to have a foundation poured, but you know Steve can do that. He’s amazing with cement.”

“Wow, this is almost falling into place too easily.”

“I have to move all of this stuff into a storage locker, so it’s not easy yet. And now I guess I need to end it with Ted if he’s going to be a thorn in our sides.”

“Everyone says he’s harmless,” Maggie said, unconvinced.

“He really is. You saw how he acted, hanging all over me. That’s something a teenaged boy would do. It was so out of character for him. I still wonder if he’s in the middle of some kind of breakdown. He came over after Justin told him off, and we had the most amazing sex. If I dump him, that will be it for me. I might as well enter a convent.”

Maggie grinned into the phone. It seemed like sex might have been in the air that night.

“Well, I’m truly sorry, Kelly. How awful.”

They made arrangements for Maggie to bring Brulee over later that afternoon, to see what dogs she would tolerate, and they would be the rescues Maggie would foster for now. Getting a paper and pencil, Kelly made a list.

“You’re going to talk to an attorney on Monday. Today I’ll talk to my father about the double-wide, find out what it will take to move it by you, and ask Steve if he’ll manage the foundation. In the meantime, you’ll find out what you have to do to get utilities to it. I wish I had the money; I’d get solar.”

“It’s something I can look into, Kelly,” she replied, writing downlook into solar.

“Remember, they do solar at the hardware, too.”

“Right! You’re right, this is almost too easy.”

“Thank you for calling, Maggie. It was just at the right time, too.”

“Aw, I’m glad. We have a lot of exciting things to talk about and plan. Will you let me know what your dad says about the trailer? We’ve been looking for a used one. A double-wide will be even better.”

“I’ll go over to the hardware right now,” Kelly replied. “Give me a ring before you come by with Brulee, too.”

They talked for a while longer, seemingly unable to end their exciting conversation, and finally said goodbye. Maggie looked at the time. Even though she worked from home now and every day was a day off, the weekends were still special to her. Justin had clinic hours in the morning, which meant she was going to a wild horse preservation meeting without him for the first time. The closest neighbors she had—Gloria and Bubba, also volunteers, who came by Bayou Cottage every other day to scoop horse poop—were dropping by to pick Maggie up.

“It’s right on our way,” Gloria had said the last time she was there to poop scoop. “No problem at all.”

While she walked around the yard with Brulee on a leash for one last pee-pee, Maggie called Annie.

“I’m sick,” she whined. “I swear to god my mother-in-law is trying to kill me. Everything she served had cream cheese in it. I think I’m having a gall bladder attack.”

“Should you go to the doctor?” Maggie asked, concerned.

“No. If I went to the doctor every time I suffered for overeating, I’d be there daily. Anyway, I know you didn’t call to listen to me whine.”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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