The Luck of the Paw (An Alpine Grove Romantic Comedy Book 9) Page 15

  Mia glanced at him. “What’s your second choice?”

  “This one says it’s a park, so we should be able to find it.” He pulled out the map. “It’s off Farm-to-Market Road.”

  “Okay, after we talk to the gift-store lady, we’ll go there.” Mia looked in the rearview mirror. Gizmo was standing at the window with a contemplative expression, watching the scenery go by. She couldn’t see Lulu because she was so small, but she was undoubtedly back there somewhere.

  Chris reached over toward the driver’s seat and Mia moved her head. “Don’t distract the driver.”

  “I’m not, although I’d like to.” He rubbed the upholstery. “I think your dog may have taken a nibble here. Sorry about that.”

  “It might not have been today. I’ve had to leave him while I ran inside to check into motels. There are a few little tooth marks. I’m trying not to think about it. I should buy some seat covers to slow him down.”

  Chris laughed. “Better get those extra-thick sheepskin ones. Or better yet, if they make Kevlar ones, that would work.”

  “Maybe being bulletproof would make them Gizmo-proof.”

  “Couldn’t hurt.”

  Mia went through some side streets to turn around, so she could nab a parking spot right in front of the gift store. She parallel-parked and turned to Chris. “I didn’t plan this out very well. With two dogs in the car, I guess you can’t go in with me.”

  “Someone has to guard the RAV from destruction. If you like your car, you’re on your own.”

  “Oh well. If this person is like everyone else, it won’t take long. I mention Dad, they look at me like I’m some kind of crackpot, and I move on.”

  Chris put his hand on her thigh. “Don’t be nervous. It will be fine. You’re just asking a question.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Wish me luck.”

  He leaned over and gave her a kiss. “Good luck.”

  Mia got out of the car and walked across the sidewalk to Bea Haven Gifts. The window display was full of cute knickknacks and shiny baubles. People who lived in spaces larger than motel rooms or travel trailers probably loved buying stuff at this place.

  An older woman with streaked blonde and gray hair was standing behind the counter laughing with a tall thin man wearing glasses. He took them off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. They both turned as Mia walked up.

  The woman said, “May I help you?”

  “I’m looking for Bea,” Mia said.

  “Well, you’ve found her.” Bea gestured toward the man. “And this is Rob. He lives upstairs with my daughter.”

  Mia was relieved she’d found the right person. “Yes, Tracy! I met her the other night. You’re the baby…father…boyfriend. I mean boyfriend.”

  Both Bea and Rob stared at her in silence. Bea looked confused and Rob looked concerned.

  Mia closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath. No one in their right mind should ever tell her secrets they didn’t want revealed. “I’m sorry. It’s just I have a problem with mixing up words.”

  “That’s fine. What can I help you with?” Bea said.

  “I saw Tracy and Kat the other night and they mentioned that you’ve lived in Alpine Grove for a long time.”

  Bea smiled. “A very long time. Why do you ask?”

  “I’m hoping you might have met someone around 1975. Or earlier. I’m not really sure. His name is Dan Riggins.”

  Bea leaned forward and rested her elbows on the counter. “Hmm, I’m not sure. Do you know if he was at the commune?”

  “Tracy said something about being at a commune. Where is it?” Mia glanced at Rob, who smiled but didn’t add anything.

  “Well, the land is still there, but the commune disbanded a long time ago,” Bea said. “Many people came and went during the late sixties and seventies. It’s hard to remember their names. But I think Domingo’s name might have been Dan.”

  “Domingo?”

  “Sunday in Spanish. That’s when he arrived. Gardenia used to call him Domingo soleado because it was a sunny Sunday when he helped her move.” Bea stood up straight. “Good heavens, that was a long time ago. I feel old.”

  “Have you seen Domingo recently?” Mia said. This was the closest she’d gotten to anyone actually having heard of her father.

  “Oh no, not for years. If anyone would know, it would be Gardenia. Although her name is Gwen now. She lives out near Abigail Goodman’s place.”

  “She changed her name to Gwen?” Mia was getting thoroughly lost. “Who is Abigail Goodman?”

  Rob said, “It helps to know that at the commune, people had different names.”

  Bea nodded. “I’m sorry; this must all be terribly confusing. Abigail died more than a year ago. It sounds like you already know Kat, who owns the boarding kennel. Abigail was her aunt and Kat inherited the house. Gwen lives next door, although I hear she wants to leave before winter, to move closer to her daughter. I don’t know if she was successful in selling the place or not.”

  “Do you have her number?”

  “I’m sure she’s in the book. Her last name is Davis.”

  “Thank you! This is so helpful.” Mia said.

  “Why are you trying to find this person?” Rob asked.

  “Dan Riggins is my father. I think he sent me some postcards. I haven’t seen him for years and well…” Mia paused at their mystified looks. “It’s a long story. Anyway, I appreciate your help.”

  “My pleasure. If you find him, tell him to stop by the store and say hello. It’s fun seeing people from the old days again.” Bea said.

  Mia left the store, walked around the RAV, and got in. Chris looked up from the postcard he was studying. “I’m still curious about the babies “CA” keeps talking about.”

  “Me too, but I have news.” Mia snatched the postcard from his hands, leaned over, and gave him a kiss. “I actually made progress. Bea may have met my dad.”

  “Really? That’s great! What did you learn?”

  Mia explained what she’d learned about Domingo and Gardenia while she drove to the Alpine Grove post office. She parked in the lot and turned to Chris. “Sorry you have to watch dogs again.”

  He pointed at the line that had threaded outside the lobby and into the area where the post office boxes were located. “This might take a while.”

  “Ugh.” Mia leaned over and reached for the glove compartment. “I don’t have anything to read other than the RAV manual, but here’s a pad of paper and a pencil. Sorry about the Gizmo tooth marks, but I bet you can amuse yourself.”

  He grinned as he took the items from her. “It’s so cool that you get that about me.”

  Mia went inside and took her place at the end of the line. She gazed at the posters advertising pretty collectors’ stamps and tried not be too obvious about eavesdropping on the many conversations taking place around her. There was a lot of chatter. Apparently, if you wanted to find out what was going on in Alpine Grove, the post office was the place to be.

  A tall woman with sandy blonde hair was chatting with another woman. She had a somewhat loud voice and Mia caught the name Joel. Maybe that was the same person Kat was living with she’d met the other day.

  The woman proclaimed, “Joel drives me nuts. I mean he’s marrying that woman. You’d think they’d have some type of plan by now. He never tells me anything.”

  Mia couldn’t hear what the other woman said, but the blonde bore a striking resemblance to Joel. Maybe it was his sister. From what she was saying, it sounded like she was angry with him.

  As the woman continued to rant, Mia was even more pleased than usual that she was an only child. Adding a sibling into her already hugely screwed-up family situation would have not helped matters.

  While she waited in line, Mia learned that the sole employee of the Alpine Grove post office was named Ethel and her rheumatism was starting to act up. That was slowing down progress even more than usual because the cold of fall was hard on her joints.

  By the time Mia made
it to the front of the line, she knew far more about Ethel’s health than she wanted to know.

  Ethel shouted, “Next!” and Mia scuttled up to the counter.

  “May I help you?”

  “I need to pick up General Delivery mail for Amelia Riggins.”

  Ethel turned and disappeared behind a wall that divided the lobby from the sorting area. A collective sigh ran through the line. Whenever Ethel went into the back, it could take a while for her to resurface. Mia turned to look at the many eyes glaring at her. “Sorry.”

  Ethel finally hobbled back to the counter with a stack of mail in her arms. She plopped the pile on the counter. “Here you go.”

  Mia collected her mail and left, amid grumblings. The consensus in the line was that she should take care of things like that earlier in the day. Sheesh, how was she supposed to know?

  She returned to the car and deposited the pile of mail in Chris’s lap. “I’m so sorry that took forever. The lady who works there moves like a turtle on Quaaludes.”

  Chris held up ten sheets of paper in his hands, fanned out like playing cards. “I’m creating an Alpine Grove montage.”

  Mia pointed at one of the drawings. “I think that one is Joel’s sister. She doesn’t like him much, but she likes Kat even less.”

  “Wow, you really got the local gossip.”

  “I didn’t have much choice.” She started the car. “Let’s go find that park.”

  While Mia drove out to Farm-to-Market road, Chris thumbed through the stack of mail. “You got a lot of junk.”

  “Probably bills too. I’m expecting some final bills from Windiberg. Oh, and maybe my security deposit, assuming they really give it to me.”

  “Mostly, it’s stuff from financial people. Tax people.” He flipped through envelopes and cards. “Estate planning. Insurance. A lot of people want to help you with money stuff.”

  “Yeah, that’s not a surprise.”

  He paused in his perusal. “Lottery annuities? The lottery? Oh my God, you won the lottery, didn’t you? You actually won the lottery? Is that how you have money all of a sudden?”

  “You got it.” Mia sighed. It was pointless to try to keep it a secret anymore. “Please don’t tell anyone. Every sleazy person comes out of the woodwork when they hear about it. Given the gossip parade at the post office, I can’t imagine what would happen if anyone in Alpine Grove found out. The entire town would know within a half an hour.”

  “I’m floored. I can’t believe this. No one wins the lottery. You’ve got a better chance at being struck by lightning.”

  “Believe me, no one was more surprised than I was. Let’s face it, my life hasn’t been chock full of a whole lot of good luck. The lottery tickets came with the postcards.”

  “No wonder you want to find out more about them.” Chris resumed riffling through the mail. “Hey, this is a regular letter. I think it’s from your dad. The return address says Dan Riggins.”

  Mia quickly took her eyes off the road to glance at the envelope. “Whatever you do, keep it away from Gizmo. He ate the return address last time.”

  Chris looked over the seat at the dogs in the back. “The Great Paper Eater is busy sniffing the air, so I think the letter is safe. When we get to the trail, could you open it? I’m dying of curiosity over here.”

  Mia grinned. “You better believe it. After talking to all these people, I want some answers. Maybe Dad will give me some clue about what’s going on. I think we’re getting pretty close to the park. It should be up ahead a little ways.”

  They turned off into a parking lot for Cedar County War Memorial Park. A bronze statue on a stone pedestal with a plaque below it sat in the middle of a large grassy area.

  Chris handed her the letter. “It’s pretty here. The map says this park is dedicated to the soldiers from this area who fought in World War I.”

  The dogs were milling around in the back seat. Mia turned to look at them. “Just a minute, you guys. I need to read this letter. Then we’ll go for a walk. I promise.”

  Mia looked at the return address, which was a post office box in Santa Barbara. She’d just been right near there. If Gizmo hadn’t eaten that envelope, she could have avoided a whole lot of time running around Alpine Grove. Not to mention the trip to the emergency vet. But then she never would have met Chris. She glanced at him and he responded by raising his eyebrows.

  He gave her the classic charades speed-it-up motion, spinning his index finger. “What are you waiting for?”

  “Sorry.” She ripped open the envelope and pulled out a piece of paper. Even after all these years, she still recognized her father’s handwriting. She read the letter aloud. “Since I haven’t heard from you or Gwen, I assume you decided not to talk to her. I was hoping the postcards would prove to you that it wasn’t my fault. I was trying to do what’s best. I promise I’ll leave you alone now, but know that I’ll always love you, no matter what. I wanted to see you before I go, but I guess that’s not meant to be. At least I know I tried.”

  Chris frowned. “What does that mean?”

  “I’m not sure. Now I know about Gwen, but what does he mean ‘go’? Go where? Or is he dying? Maybe he’s already dead. It almost sounds like there was another letter.”

  “I thought you just got the postcards.”

  “Well, I got the lottery tickets too. The manila envelope was kind of mangled. Maybe Gizmo ate a letter. If the tickets hadn’t been in a separate envelope, he would have chewed those up too. It’s all kind of a blur, since I was in the middle of dealing with cleanup and running Giz off to the emergency vet.”

  At the sound of his name, Gizmo put his head over the seat next to Mia’s face. She put her hand on his muzzle. “Okay, okay, I know. We’re going. But you know this is all your fault, right?”

  Gizmo wagged happily, having accomplished his mission of mobilizing the human.

  Mia and Chris leashed the dogs and they walked into the park. They stopped at the statue and stood in silence reading the names on the plaque for a few moments.

  Chris took her hand and waved their clasped fingers toward the forest. “I think that’s the trail over there.”

  They began walking and Mia gazed at the tree canopy above them. “This is really pretty here. Even though most of the leaves are gone, with all the evergreens it’s still green. I love that about this area.”

  Chris stopped and turned to face her. “Are you okay? That letter was…well…I don’t know what it was. Odd, for lack of a better word.”

  “My father never was much for talking I guess. For ages, he was the steady one. My mom was all over the place. She could be fun and hilarious one minute, then morose the next. I never knew what to expect. But Dad was solid, dependable.” She looked into Chris’s brown eyes and found sympathy there.

  Clearing her throat, she tried to figure out how to articulate her tangled emotions. “I guess that’s why I felt so betrayed when he took my dog Rusty away. Rusty was my best friend. My only friend. And Dad had been the only reliable person in my life. It was like everything fell apart.”

  “What do you think he means about saying ‘it’s not my fault’?”

  “I’m not sure. I guess I need to talk to this Gwen person and find out. Maybe it has to do with Rusty. I mean, I told my dad I’d never, ever forgive him for that and that I would hate him forever. Even for an angry, bratty kid, what I said was terrible. Not too long after that, Dad moved out and my parents divorced.”

  Chris put his arm around her and Mia rested her cheek on his shoulder. He rubbed her back. “I’m sorry. It sounds like your mom had some serious problems. Maybe he had good reasons to leave.”

  Mia lifted her head. “For a long time, I blamed myself for the divorce. I thought that if I hadn’t gotten so mad, maybe my father wouldn’t have left.”

  “I’m sure that isn’t true. That’s a lot for a little kid to take on.”

  “My mom never disagreed with me though. Then because of Howard, we never talked about my fat
her again. If my dad ever tried to contact us, I didn’t hear about it. You pretty much know the rest.”

  Chris nodded. “Howard Peterson shot your mom and then himself.”

  “Yes. On graduation day. But I believe my mother killed herself.”

  “That’s not what it said in the newspaper.”

  “You’ve heard about people who commit crimes so the police will shoot them, right? I have often wondered if my mother did something similar. Suicide by Howard.”

  “You think she would do that?”

  “I can’t be sure, but she was depressed and had tried to kill herself before. When I was little, she tried overdosing on pain medication. I thought she was just taking a nap, and I shook her and couldn’t wake her up. I screamed for my dad, who called 9-1-1. At the time, he tried to downplay it, but as I got older I realized what had happened.”

  “I guess I understand better why you want to find your father now.”

  “I do and I don’t.” Mia wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “When it comes to family, I’m so incredibly screwed up. Part of me hates him and the other part of me still loves him. Maybe it’s because he’s the only family I have left.”

  “I think you’ll feel better once you get some answers.”

  “Will you come with me to talk to Gwen?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Supposedly she lives near Kat. I’ll leave Gizmo at the kennel this time.”

  “That would be nice. I didn’t want to interrupt what you were saying, but I think he chewed up one of my shoelaces while we’ve been standing here.”

  Mia jerked on the leash. “Gizmo, no!”

  The dog wagged and belched proudly. Apparently, shoelaces were quite tasty.

  Chapter 8

  Getting Answers

  After walking around the nature trail at the park, Mia and Chris loaded the dogs back into the RAV for the drive back to the kennel. Mia’s emotions were still tied in knots. Fortunately, Chris seemed to understand her need for quiet and was just watching the scenery go by as they drove. Finally, he picked up the pad of paper and pencil and began doodling something. The fact that he was so easily entertained and didn’t need to talk all the time was helpful because Mia needed to think.