AllFreeNovel
Share Us
twenty-four
Sunny trained her binoculars on the Matteri property. The air inside the car was so cold her breath was turning to steam. A couple of weeks had come and gone since the animal control van’s visit, and it was hard to tell if Janice’s operation had changed much. Other than there was a certain stillness over her house and back kennel. Were all the dogs gone? Even though there was only one road in and out of this neck of the woods that housed Sunny’s, Janice’s and Pete’s holdings, it was a vast stretch of land, encompassing dozens of acres and many miles. Sunny could easily have missed a second pass of animal control while she was out, asleep or merely not looking at the road.
She sighed. What the hell was she doing out here? She had a pile of adoptions and fosters today, including Pete’s collection of Chevy’s pups to take back to Canine Warriors for training, and she had to be at her best. A late night with Callahan hadn’t helped, either. Just a little too much wine and not enough sleep made a baby hangover press around the edges of her temples. She’d just tossed her binoculars to the passenger seat and started the engine when she saw it: the animal control van creeping around from the back curve of Janice’s house. Excitement pumped up Sunny’s heart as she watched it edge out onto the road. The van was too dark, and Sunny was too far away, to see if the van held dogs, but she’d been peeping at Janice’s house for fifteen minutes, watching for comings and goings, which meant the van had been back there for at least as long.
A smile plastered her face as she took the short drive home. She went inside and collected Chevy, who’d taken to following her everywhere, and brought her back out to do her business. Chevy had just finished squatting in the grass when an old station wagon screeched to a halt.
Chevy gave a sharp bark. Sunny grabbed the newspaper off the front stoop, even though it wouldn’t make much of a weapon.
“You!” Janice’s tall, skinny form made it out of the car and to the driveway in a flash. She fisted her hands on her hips, her lips pursed and sporting premature wrinkles at the corners. “You got my place shut down! You got my dogs taken away!”
Sunny drew a steadying breath, her grip on the newspaper tightening. The last time Janice had come over, she’d shaped her bony finger into a gun and pointed it at Sunny’s head. This time, Janice was a thousand times as angry and might actually be packing.
“I did nothing of the sort. You got your own dogs taken away by abusing and neglecting them.” Sunny snapped her fingers at her side, and Chevy came around and sat there. Sunny stepped in front of the dog, just in case Janice pulled out a real weapon.
Janice’s eyes, drawn over in heavy black eyeliner and clumpy mascara, narrowed. “You did this,” she repeated. “And this time you’ve gone too far. Too. Far.”
Sunny pressed the newspaper to her chest. “Get off my property.”
Janice pushed back her stringy hair. “You just wait.” Her voice was quiet. Almost a whisper. “You just wait.” She threw her shoulders back and marched to the driver’s seat of her ancient car. The engine roared to life, but Janice poked her head out the window and repeated her directive one more time. “You just wait.” Then she pointed at Chevy, peeking around Sunny’s knees. “And you, too.”
Sunny remained frozen to the end of her driveway long after Janice was gone, despite how her body shivered in the cold. Chevy shifted around, dancing, her nails tapping on the concrete. “All right,” Sunny murmured. “Let’s go inside, girl.”
Constance made sure the cast-iron pan was smoking hot before she seared off the chunks of beef. In just a few minutes, she’d have a beautiful crust on the meat, the juices and the flavor sealed in and ready for the long, slow stew in the oven. She chopped the veg while the meat cooked. Onions, celery, carrots and potatoes. Simple, down-home ingredients.
“Is that Daddy’s magic stew I smell?” Sunny’s voice called out from the foyer.
Constance waited until Sunny was in the kitchen and could see for herself.
“Whose ass are you trying to kiss?” Sunny popped around the corner. “Daddy’s dead. Is this a celebration for Janice losing her dogs today?”
Constance said nothing, even though Sunny’s text this morning regarding the dogs had made her week. Using tongs, she flipped each meat chunk over so they were evenly caramelized on every side.
“Ohhh,” Sunny said. “Right.”
“Go get undressed and get on the table,” Constance ordered. She didn’t want to discuss her “magic stew,” which Sunny had named back in the day when she discovered that Constance always made this meal when she knew Daddy was going to be pissed about something. Daddy wasn’t a picky eater. He ate everything Constance made. But the stew never failed.
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Sunny disappeared downstairs, to the massage room.
Constance finished the meat, then washed her hands and went downstairs to find her sister, already undressed, under the sheets and half-asleep. “You’re hungover, aren’t you?” She could always tell when Sunny had had a late night. She still had that perpetual spring in her step, but she got these dark rings under her eyes that were easy to spot on her pale skin.
“Maybe a little. It’s mostly worn off.”
“You know I can make it worse.”
“You won’t. You’ve massaged me hungover many times.”
“Comforting.”
Sunny went quiet after that, until the end of the massage. During the neck routine, her voice came softly from the table. “I’m sorry I got you in this mess with Rhett. Though, I can’t lie, I’m only a little sorry. If you hadn’t agreed to the deal, animal control might’ve never been able to completely shut down Janice’s operation.” Sunny went silent, and when Constance didn’t respond, her voice went meek. “All right, I’m completely sorry.”
“That’s probably smart. Especially while I have your neck in my hands.” Constance applied pressure down either side of Sunny’s cervical spine.
“You have to talk to him about it, eventually.”
Constance moved her way slowly back up to Sunny’s mastoid processes and held there. “Your neck’s a mess. It’s all that texting and typing and spinning.”
“Just fix me. I’m not giving up any of those things.”
