Howl at the Loon (An Alpine Grove Romantic Comedy Book 6) Read online

  “Maybe you should take a break.”

  “I’ve got to get this done!”

  He sat down on the bed. “You have a few days before the deadline, right?”

  “I know. I’m having trouble concentrating because I’m so disgusted with the software. And now it turns out we’re marooned here. I feel like Gilligan.”

  Joel chuckled. “I don’t think it’s that bad. Maria can come out and pick you up if you get a desperate urge to go to town.”

  “Eventually we will run out of food, you know. And if we run out of dog or cat food, then we’re really in trouble.”

  “If things get tough I’m sure Maria will share one of her cases of Twinkies with you. And we’ll get the culvert fixed before the canines figure out that we’re cut off from all sources of dog food.”

  Kat sat down next to him on the bed in her office, leaned her head on his arm, and sighed. “I also have to talk to you about something that I don’t want to talk about.”

  His arm stiffened and he gently pushed her away so he could stand up. “Okay. Maybe you could feed the dogs first.” He pointed at the group of canine faces staring intently at them. “They’re looking pretty anxious. I’ll go figure out what we’re having for dinner.”

  Linus came over and plopped his big muzzle on Kat’s thigh to emphasize the fact that dinner was late. She stroked the soft brown fur on the dog’s giant head as Joel left the room and went upstairs. “Yeah, Linus, I know. I’m dawdling. Give me a minute, okay? Joel isn’t gonna like what I have to say, so you guys need to eat super-slowly tonight.” Linus looked unconvinced, but wagged his tail in sympathy anyway.

  After feeding the dogs, Kat let them upstairs, where they all settled into their favorite napping spots for some important after-dinner slumber. Joel was in the kitchen and Kat peered around him to see what was on the stove. “That looks good.”

  “It’s rice. I haven’t figured out the rest. Any ideas?”

  Kat walked over to the refrigerator and gazed at the contents. “How much chopping do you want to do?”

  “As little as possible.”

  She walked over the pantry, grabbed some cans, and held them up. “Here you go. Water chestnuts and bamboo shoots. No chopping required.”

  He turned and leaned back on the counter, crossing his arms across his chest. “I suppose it’s a start.”

  “You look mad.”

  “I’m not mad. More like concerned. Usually, you want to talk about things I don’t want to talk about. I’m a little worried that now there’s something that you don’t want to talk about.”

  She smiled. “Hey, I’m supposed to be the worrier, not you. You’re invading my territory.”

  Joel uncrossed his arms and walked back to the refrigerator. “Not funny. Are you going to tell me whatever it is you don’t want to tell me?”

  “Do you promise not to get mad?”

  “No.”

  “Maybe we should make dinner. You don’t seem to be in a good mood.”

  “Fine.”

  Kat chopped some veggies and threw them into the saucepan while Joel stirred in stony silence. He was obviously now even more upset with her, but she couldn’t think of a low-key way to say, “Gee, here’s something I never mentioned before—I might be married.” There wasn’t any easy way to begin a conversation like that. Of course, the fact that he was now already irritated was not a good lead-in either. Sometimes she needed to just shut up instead of blurting things out.

  After an uncomfortably quiet dinner, Kat went back to the sofa to curl up with her novel. Emma was snoring on the rug in front of the couch, and Joel silently disappeared into the bedroom. Kat tried to focus on her novel, but now that she’d made such a mess of things, even the trashy story in the book wasn’t enough distraction. She sighed and led the dogs downstairs. “Time for bed, guys.”

  After giving the canines a final outing and settling them in for the evening, Kat went into the bedroom. Joel was lying on top of the covers with his arm over his eyes. She crawled onto the bed next to him and he lowered his arm and put it around her. She hugged him and tugged on his flannel shirt. “So okay, what I’ve got to tell you…I’m pretty sure you’re going to get mad.”

  He sat up straighter on the bed. “You sure know how to open a conversation.”

  She looked into his eyes. “Remember when you told me about the car accident with your parents and your sister and you said sometimes you didn’t come off as the greatest person?”

  “Yeah, I remember.”

  “This is kind of like that. Well, except way worse, because you were young and did the best you could in a horrible situation. In this case, I was just stupid. Really, really stupid. I’m afraid you’re not going to think about me in the same way anymore.”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “Everybody does stupid things sometimes.”

  “Not like this. It’s pretty much the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.”

  “So what is it?”

  “Well, um,” she leaned her head on his chest and cleared her throat. “I ah, well, a long time ago I went to Las Vegas with this guy named Ned. And, um, I might have gotten married.”

  “What? Is this some kind of joke?” He moved away from her so he could look into her face. “You’re married? And you’re telling me this now? After all this time?”

  “I know. This is the part where you get mad, and I’m sorry. But it’s not like that. I don’t think I actually am married. I mean I never did, but Maria thinks I might be. So I’m not sure.”

  Making an obvious effort to collect himself, Joel said in an overly controlled low voice, “How can you not be sure? You were there, right?”

  “I was.” Kat closed her eyes, not wanting to see his reaction. “But I don’t remember. It’s kind of a long story.”

  “I think I’d like to hear this story.”

  She opened her eyes. “Okay, but this is the not-good part where I don’t come off very well.”

  “I’m listening.”

  Kat sighed. “A long time ago, I was sort of dating a guy named Ned.”

  “Sort of? How do you sort of date someone?”

  “He was a jerk. You may have noticed that Maria sometimes makes comments about my pathetic dating history. He’s one of the reasons why.”

  “Okay. So you married the jerk?”

  “No. Well maybe. I don’t know. Anyway, it was right when I started working at my old job. I was incredibly nervous and I didn’t know anyone, so when they all invited me out to happy hour at a bar, I said yes. It was one of the first times I went out with Maria, actually. It was how we first started getting to know each other. An editor I worked with—I think it was Sharon—introduced me to the friend of a friend of a friend. Ned had been watching from some corner of the room. I’m not exactly sure how he was connected. But he bought me a drink and we talked for a while. Like I said, I was really nervous. I kept drinking and he kept talking.”

  Joel arched an eyebrow. “I think I know where this is going.”

  “No, it’s not what you think. The bar was near my apartment and he walked me home. It was all kind of sweet, so I gave him my phone number.”

  “Okay. So you did go out with the jerk.”

  “We went out for a while—mostly we went to a lot of bars. He told me all about his job. He said he bought and sold merchandise, and it was all ridiculously complicated. So I tended to drink too much and pretend to be interested.” She looked into Joel’s eyes. “This is some of the stuff I’m not particularly proud of.”

  “It doesn’t sound bad so far. You know about some of the people I went out with. I’d like to point out that I didn’t marry them though.” He leaned closer to her face. “And if I had, I would have told you by now.”

  “I know, and I’m glad to hear that. Anyway, like I said, a lot of the time I spent with Ned was in bars. I suppose when you meet a guy in a bar, it shouldn’t be a big surprise that hanging out in bars is what he likes to do.”

  “Did you go o
ut for a long time?”

  “Too long. Maria was constantly after me to dump him because it seemed like he was lying about some things.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like the fact that he didn’t actually have a job. He stayed over at my place a few times, and in the morning he made it sound like he was going off to work. But he never gave me the number for the place. Finally, Maria called around trying to find it. But it turned out the company didn’t exist. No business with that name was in any records anywhere in the vicinity.”

  Joel smiled faintly. “This is getting more interesting.”

  “It gets worse. Finally, I sucked up the courage to say something. I mean, it’s not like I had huge experience with men and relationships, but I thought asking if he had a job was a pretty reasonable question.”

  “I guess it didn’t go well?”

  “No. We met at a bar…again…and when I asked him about the job, he started to make a scene. It was so embarrassing. He was shouting that if I really loved him, I wouldn’t be asking that kind of thing.”

  “So did you dump him?”

  “No.”

  “You’re kidding. After all that? Why not?”

  “He started to cry. Then he went on this whole long story that he was afraid to tell me about the job.” Kat shook her head. “Anyway, now in retrospect, I think it was just more lies, but I bought it. This is another part where I was really stupid.”

  Joel nodded, but didn’t say anything.

  “We had this awful, strange, weepy conversation and I drank some more. I drank a lot. There was a lot of drinking and crying. Then Ned called some friend…I think his name was George. I’m sort of fuzzy on the details. He’s the one who drove us to Vegas.”

  “You went to Las Vegas?”

  “Yes. I was in the backseat and I fell asleep for a while, but Ned kept making proclamations about love and life and how this was going to change everything. George kept yelling ‘road trip!’ like John Belushi in Animal House and driving scary fast.”

  “So did this guy mean getting married was going to change everything? Didn’t you see a problem with that?”

  “They kept saying it was a road trip and reminiscing about a lot of places and people I didn’t know anything about. By that point I felt sick, and mostly I was focusing on not hurling all over George’s car. We got there late at night and I remember opening the door and throwing up outside in the gutter.”

  Joel scratched the short beard on his chin. “Wow, this isn’t good.”

  “Ned proclaimed that if I really loved him, I’d do this.”

  “Do what? Get married?”

  “Well, yeah, I know that now. At the time, I thought it was some melodramatic way to get my attention. I don’t know if technically a man can be a drama queen, but if so, that’s what Ned was like. Plus the place didn’t look real. Everything was plastic and Elvis was there. It was like a sort of bizarre dream.”

  “I suppose Vegas is like that.”

  “So Elvis goes through the thing and I barely make it before running off to the ladies room to throw up again. I was lying on the tile for a while. I think I fell asleep.”

  “What happened?”

  “A cleaning lady kicked my shoe, probably to see if I was dead. That woke me up. It was morning and even though I was alive, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be. I threw up again and went back out to the room where Elvis had been. But Elvis, George, and Ned were gone.”

  “Gone? They just left you there? Where did they go?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “That’s horrible. What did you do?

  “I took a bus back home and called in sick to work for a few days.”

  “Didn’t you try to find Ned?”

  “No. The whole thing was humiliating and I didn’t want to wander around Vegas smelling like barf. I’m sure the people on the bus weren’t too excited about sharing a ride with me.”

  “And you never tried to find him after you got home?”

  “No. I never went to any of the bars we frequented ever again, just in case.”

  Joel ran his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know what to say. Are you married?”

  Kat sighed. “That’s the thing. I always assumed the answer was no. But now I’m not sure. Maria says that Ned would have had to have gotten a marriage license for it to be legal.”

  “Like at a courthouse?”

  “Yes. Apparently the Clark County clerk’s office is open until midnight.”

  “Do you think he did? Did you sign anything?”

  “No. Or I don’t think so. I was so sure I didn’t, but I was so drunk and so sick, who knows? What if I did?”

  “Maybe you should find out. I can’t believe you never checked.”

  “I wanted to forget about the whole thing. I figured if I never signed anything, it was just a stupid trip to Vegas.” Kat threw up her hands in exasperation and let them drop on her thighs. “For a long time, being married was never an issue anyway, since no one was interested. After that disastrous relationship failure, I kind of swore off men completely for a while.”

  Joel looked at her and sighed. “It is an issue to me. I’d really rather not be sleeping with another man’s wife, thanks.”

  Kat leaned over on his chest and started to cry quietly. “I’m so sorry. I should have told you about this a long time ago.”

  Joel wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. “Probably. But you can’t change what’s already happened. I’m glad you told me now.”

  Chapter 7

  Lights Out

  As she sat down to dinner, Robin was still thinking about her reaction to leaving Emma behind and watching the old truck disappear into the forest. It was like when she had to let the veterinarian take Emma into the back to do a procedure. A little piece of her heart went with the dog and she worried that Emma wouldn’t ever come back. She couldn’t imagine how mothers were able to watch their babies get vaccinated at the doctor’s office. It was easy to understand why Moira worried about her children so much.

  Brett walked up to the table and Robin smiled at him. “Would you like to join me?”

  He settled into the chair beside her and said, “You looked to be deep in thought. And not particularly rosy. Is everything all right?”

  “Yes. I was thinking about responsibilities and parenthood. Even being a dog parent is hard sometimes. Do you have pets?”

  He shook his head. “I travel too much.”

  “That must be exciting. I’m a bit too much of a homebody for that, I think.”

  “Yes. As it turned out, my ex-wife wasn’t too fond of my lifestyle either.”

  Robin took another sip of water and considered the kind of woman who would be bold enough to marry Brett. A man who came on as strong as Brett undoubtedly did not lack for female companionship. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he’d had a woman in every city. Being involved with him would likely be complicated and ultimately disastrous. “I’m sorry. That must have been difficult.”

  He looked into her eyes. “Not everyone is quite as accommodating as you are.”

  A low screeching noise arose from outside and Robin jerked her gaze away from Brett. “What was that?” She twisted her napkin in her fingers. The room was freezing for some reason all of a sudden. “Good gravy, why is it so cold in here? Please excuse me. I need to go ask Chuck about the heat.”

  She got up and went through the doors into the kitchen. Chuck was standing in front of the stove methodically stirring a sauce. She cleared her throat to get his attention. “Excuse me, Chuck. Do you know where the thermostat is? It’s cold in the dining room.”

  He turned and pointed his whisk toward the far wall. “Over there. Last time I looked, it was set to 68 I think. But with the stove, I can’t tell.”

  A long mournful howl came from outside. It seemed to seep though the air like a long tendril of smoke as Robin walked across the kitchen. “What was that?”

  “Maybe coyotes?”
r />   “I’ve heard coyotes before and they don’t sound like that. Unless maybe something is wrong. It sounds as if something is dying.” She turned the thermostat up a degree and crossed the room to the outside door. Peering out into the misty darkness, she shuddered. At the sound of rustling leaves and snapping branches, she closed the door quickly. “I think there’s something out there.”

  Chuck looked over his shoulder. “Well, you know about Leroy, right? Alec probably brought him by for a handout again.”

  “I’ve heard Leroy before and whatever made that awful wail was not a dog. Unless he’s hurt. Oh, no! What if something happened to Leroy? Alec was worried he might get shot if he’s caught wandering around. I should go see if he’s okay.”

  “Well it could be the ghost.” Chuck grinned at her. “Don’t forget, you gotta watch out for Julia.”

  Robin clenched her fists and put them at her sides. “Cut that out.” She stalked out of the kitchen and back into the dining room, which was filling with people.

  At her table, she put her hand on Brett’s shoulder. “Please excuse me. I’ll be right back. I need to check on something.”

  Crossing the dining room to the lobby, she stopped when Alec walked in the door. She waved at him and pointed at the fireplace to indicate that she wanted to talk to him there. She scuttled up to him and whispered. “Where is Leroy?”

  Alec grinned. “Fast asleep in Pine Cone 2. I gave him dinner, and between food and all the running around this afternoon with Emma, that dog is wiped out. I think it was the best day he’s had in a long time.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Of course I’m sure. I just walked up from there five minutes ago.”