Daydream Retriever (An Alpine Grove Romantic Comedy Book 10) Read online

  “So you’re going to die?” Jonah leaned back away from her in his chair. “Jeez. Cancer. The Big C. That’s scary. Bev didn’t say you were dying.”

  “Well, everyone is going to die someday, and it’s not like I’m going to keel over and cork off right this second. I had surgery and radiation and received the all-clear.” Lisa turned her palms up toward the ceiling. “I mean, you’re going to die eventually too, you know.”

  Jonah looked toward the door. “I guess. Uh, I just remembered something. I’ve got to…um…go to an appointment early in the morning. Ski lesson. Yeah, a lesson…because like I said, I really stink at the whole skiing deal. So I have to get up really early.”

  “But we haven’t even ordered.”

  He stood up. “I’m sorry, I totally forgot about this lesson when I talked to Bev about meeting you today. So give her my regards when you see her, okay?”

  Lisa stood up. “I will.” When she called her friend and read her the riot act.

  Jonah put on his coat and scurried out of the restaurant. It was quite possible that Lisa had set a new record for scaring off a man. The word “cancer” seemed to cause an unprecedented flight response. It was a good thing she’d sworn off men, since she seemed to have a unique ability to repel them.

  Having lost her enthusiasm for Italian food, Lisa gathered up her purse, left a tip for the glass of water she’d had, apologized, and left the restaurant. She drove to the grocery store, picked up a to-go Caesar salad, and went to Bev’s house.

  She stalked from the sidewalk up the neatly shoveled walkway to the house and pounded on the door.

  Bev opened it and her jaw dropped. She peeked around Lisa into the darkness. “Where’s Jonah?”

  Lisa walked past her and into the house. “I don’t know. That little piggy went wee-wee-wee all the way home.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I didn’t do anything.” Lisa dropped the salad on the kitchen counter. “Why do you always assume it’s me? He left, so I went to the store and got a salad. I need some sustenance before I kill you. That was the worst date ever. What were you thinking?”

  “He was cute and seemed nice enough.” Bev put her hands on her hips. “All right. What did you say to him?”

  “Nothing! We were talking, and he mentioned that sometimes his allergies turn people off.”

  Bev slumped her shoulders. “Oh no. You didn’t go all hypochondriac on him, did you?”

  “I might have mentioned I wasn’t feeling well.” She shrugged. “And I might have mentioned the cancer.”

  “You convinced the guy you’re at death’s door and now you’re wondering why he ran away?”

  “He said I was intense. What’s that supposed to mean?” Lisa looked around the kitchen. “You know, it’s awfully quiet here. Where is everyone?”

  “Kevin is at a meeting, and the boys are chained to their chairs in that bedroom until I say they can come out. We’re having a homework situation.” Bev snatched the salad off the counter. “That looks good. So, okay, spill your guts about the date. You know you want to.”

  Bev split the salad onto two plates and they settled into eating while Lisa described her short-lived evening with Jonah. By the time she was done, they were both laughing, and when Lisa left, she felt a lot better about her pathetic excuse for a date. She warned Bev not to fix her up again, but the admonishment would probably fall on deaf ears. Bev was determined to get Lisa out of the house and “into circulation,” as she called it.

  The next morning Lisa returned to the kennel to pick up Harley, who seemed no worse for the experience, but eager to join Lisa wherever she might want to go.

  The owner of the kennel was considerably less lively. Kat looked like she’d hadn’t slept at all. Was she wearing the same clothes she’d worn the day before?

  Lisa took Harley’s leash and cleared her throat to get Kat’s attention. “Thank you for taking him. I hate to ask, but is something wrong?”

  Kat jerked her head toward Lisa. “What did you say? I guess I was spacing out. I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

  Lisa narrowed her eyes. Was this woman on drugs? If so, Lisa certainly didn’t want to bring Harley here again. “Do you have insomnia?”

  “Sleeping is no problem when I get the chance to do it.” Kat motioned in the general direction of the house. “But I’m writing a book. I have a deadline and I stayed up most of the night writing.”

  “I should probably be going now and let you get back to it.”

  Kat bent to ruffle Harley’s ears. “You still have one more free day of boarding. Let me know when you want to use it.”

  Lisa nodded. “I will.” Writing all night? That sounded like something Cheryl might have said back in high school, during the Great Science Fair Project Crisis of 1994. Although Lisa’s daughter had been a master at homework avoidance, it seemed procrastination didn’t have an age limit.

  After Harley left, Kat slowly meandered back to the house. Although Lisa had been polite, she’d given Kat a look like it would be a cold day in Neverland before she’d consider bringing Harley back.

  Now even her dog-boarding clients were noticing that Kat was acting like a zombie. Great. This horrible book project was screwing up her business in addition to her home life. It wasn’t a shock that she looked like death. Writing until three in the morning didn’t do much for a girl’s appearance. By that point, Kat had been writing so long that she could barely see straight and had staggered upstairs to bed.

  The morning had not gone well. At the horrible buzzing of the alarm, Joel had leaped out of bed and slapped the button to turn it off. The air temperature had been something south of freezing, so Kat had nestled back down under the covers.

  Because she’d been so focused on writing, Kat had failed to remember to put wood in the stove the night before, and that had led to waking up in a house that felt like an igloo. All they needed were some penguins to complete the arctic ambiance.

  When she’d stumbled out to the kitchen, she’d been distressed to discover Joel wasn’t around. Where was he? Where was the coffee? He always made coffee. After she descended the stairs and meandered through the sea of canines to Joel’s office, she’d found him squinting at something on his computer screen.

  Kat knew better than to interrupt the nerd when he was nerding, but the lack of coffee had made her unusually bold. Or stupid. So she’d tapped on the doorjamb lightly, smiled, and wished him a good morning.

  He’d clicked something, pushed back the chair, and stood up. “I restarted the stove.”

  After a curt exchange about the lack of coffee and heat, Joel had stalked by her and gone upstairs. Kat hadn’t been sure how to respond to his uncharacteristically surly mood, and when the kennel buzzer rang, she’d dashed outside to deal with Harley.

  Because of Joel’s earlier irritability, Kat was dreading the mood she was likely to encounter back in the house. Something odd was going on with him. She removed her jacket, wandered into the kitchen, and discovered he’d disappeared again.

  She opened a cabinet and pulled down some coffee filters. Joel walked back to the kitchen from the bedroom and she waved a filter at him. “I’m sorry I forgot to put wood in the stove last night. I think my brain self-destructed from too much writing.”

  He took the filters from her and set up the coffee. “Yeah, there’s been a lot of that.”

  “I know. Harley is already out of here, so today all I have to do is revise the new chapters, then send them off to the publisher in the morning. And after that, only one more deadline!”

  “I’ve got to meet someone this morning, so I won’t be able to do dishes and whatever.” He waved a hand toward the mountain of dishes in the sink. “But by my calculations, I’m ahead by twenty-seven dish washing events, so I think I’m covered.”

  Kat raised her eyebrows. Okay, Joel was analytical by nature, but this was new. What was going on? “Do you actually keep track of when I do the dishes? Is there some spreadsheet
you have that I don’t know about?”

  “Not when you do dishes; when you don’t do them. It takes me three times as long to do dishes by myself versus when we do them together.”

  “Did you time it?” Kat pointed at the counter. “It wouldn’t be a problem if we had a dishwasher. I’m not sure where we’d put one, but it would be great to have a modern labor-saving appliance.”

  “And of course, I’d have to install it, right?”

  “I suppose so. Past experience has shown that it’s better if you deal with construction projects. Would that be a problem? You’ve torn up these cabinets before. With all that practice, you should be good at it.”

  “Yeah, because of the dachshund that got stuck. I remember.”

  Kat narrowed her eyes and tried to read his expression, but it was impassive. When he was extremely upset or angry, he had this way of letting his face go blank and speaking in a controlled, reasonable voice. Although Kat understood that it was a defense mechanism, trying to argue with a monosyllabic robot could be frustrating beyond belief. “Is something bothering you? What’s going on?”

  “Nothing. I have to get ready to go.” Joel grabbed a mug and poured some coffee into it. He gestured with the mug in the general direction of the stairwell. “Don’t forget to put wood in the stove this time.”

  Kat clamped her mouth closed to prevent a snotty rejoinder from leaping out. Turning to lean against the counter, she stood motionless holding her mug as he disappeared down the stairwell.

  Although she was probably asking for a fight, the curiosity was getting to her, so she followed him down the stairs. “Where are you going so early?”

  He grabbed a book from his desk and threw it on a pile with a thump. “Town.”

  “I figured as much. Who are you meeting?”

  “No one you know.” He collected his wallet from a drawer and shoved it into the back pocket of his jeans. “Just someone I went to school with.”

  Kat leaned against the door. “Did I do something? You’re being weird.”

  “No, I’m not.” He downed the last of his coffee with a gulp. “I’ve got to go. I’m late.”

  Kat reached out and grabbed his arm as he went by her through the doorway. “Stop for a second. Why are you so angry at me? I know I haven’t been much fun to be around because of the book and not sleeping. But that’s not new. What happened in the last day? What is going on with you? I mean, even with everything we’ve dealt with since we’ve known each other, you’ve never been like this. Well, except maybe once.”

  He stopped and looked down into her face. “Like what?”

  “Angry? Frustrated? I’m not sure. But you’re the most patient person I know.”

  The hard look in his eyes softened slightly. “Thanks. It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

  “You do realize who you’re talking to, right? I worry about everything.”

  He gave her a quick kiss. “Don’t. I have to go.”

  Kat watched him go up the stairs and pressed her hand to her stomach as the knot tightened. Whatever was going on, it definitely wasn’t nothing.

  After Lisa got home with Harley, she settled into calling more contractors. She was striking out as far as finding anyone who wanted to work on this remodeling project. It was either too large, too small, they were already working on something else for the winter, or they weren’t working at all.

  Another issue was deciding on the new decor. Over the years, Lisa had made decorating choices for her own house, but because it was her house, she simply selected colors and fabrics she liked. It turned out that other people in Gleasonville shared her taste, so when she and Mike put the house up for sale, they’d had an offer within a week.

  This remodeling project was going to involve redoing everything, and it wasn’t her house. After Lisa had the ugly carpet ripped out, inevitably she would need to put something else down. There would be new paint, new counters, and new cabinets. Did Larry and her father really expect her to make all these decorating decisions herself? She didn’t feel completely comfortable with the responsibility. If she made bad choices, the house wouldn’t sell. Her mother was going to have a heart attack about the remodeling work, but if the house didn’t sell, her father would be angry too.

  She picked up the phone and called Larry at his office. Brigid answered the phone and quickly shuttled her off to Larry.

  Lisa ruffled the fur on Harley’s neck. “What is going on there?”

  “I’m having a bad day,” Larry said in a glum voice.

  “It’s only nine fifteen.”

  “Believe me, I’m aware of that fact.” He paused and there was a muffled shout before he came back on the line. “Lisa, I just thought of something. You could really help me out here.”

  Lisa frowned. It was unlikely she was going to like this idea. “Actually, I called to talk to you about colors and flooring options. What does Dad want? Shouldn’t we talk about this? It’s his house and his money, after all.”

  “Anything you can buy through the hardware store is fine. Dad doesn’t care. Could you do an errand for me today?”

  “I suppose, but why me? You have an assistant.”

  “I have to file papers with the court and Brigid has a lot of cleanup to do here.” He paused and then said more loudly, “And then she has to take that dog out to the ranch.”

  “Cleanup?”

  “A dog vomited in one of the file boxes. I don’t know how long it will take to deal with this mess, so I need you to take some papers to be signed at Snow Grove.”

  “I don’t want to go there.”

  “Lisa, that was a million years ago. It’s a big mountain with ski runs on it. You spent much of your youth there. I mentioned the possibility of you doing errands for me previously, and I need your help today. It’s an emergency.”

  “All right, fine. I guess I can do that, if it’s that important.” Harley stood up and gazed at Lisa, looking concerned. “It’s okay, Harley.”

  “Whatever you do, do not bring that dog into the office. That’s the last thing I need. Listen, I’m late. Stop by here and Brigid will hand you the papers. You need to drop the package off with Sean Jenkins at the resort by noon.”

  “That’s not much time to get all the way out to Snow Grove.”

  “You have plenty of time, if you leave now. I have to go.”

  It was unlike Larry to sound so upset about work, especially with her, so Lisa figured the errand truly was important. She somewhat reluctantly gathered her things and loaded Harley into the old pickup for the quick trip to Larry’s office. If she was lucky, it was early enough that she might be able to get a parking place right in front of Larry’s office, so she could keep an eye on Harley.

  As she slowly drove down the main street, a car pulled out of a spot near the law office. Lisa did a reasonably competent job of parking the truck, but it was exhausting. The manual steering meant that parallel parking was quite the workout, reminding her that she really needed to get back into shape. Visiting the mountain would be a distressing reminder of how much she’d changed.

  “Be good Harley. I’ll be right back, and then we’ll go visit a lot of snow.” Harley wagged his tail and stood up on the seat, watching as she closed the truck door and walked around the vehicle to the sidewalk. Noting the anxious expression on the dog’s face, Lisa shook her index finger at him. “Sit down. You’d better be good. No eating the truck!”

  Lisa opened the door to the office and found Brigid at the desk, looking upset. She shoved a lock of red hair behind her ear, picked up a manila envelope off the desk, and handed to Lisa. “Here you go.”

  “Thanks.” Lisa quickly stole a glance around the office. It didn’t smell good in here, but the offending dog was nowhere to be seen. “Do you know when Larry will be back? I need to talk to him.”

  “Later this afternoon.” She stood up. “I have to deal with a dog. Do you have what you need?”

  “Yes, and Harley is outside in the truck, so I sh
ould go.”

  Brigid’s tense expression relaxed slightly. “How is he doing?”

  “Great, so far. I think he likes me. He follows me everywhere and loves sleeping on the foot of my bed.”

  “That’s wonderful. I knew he would do better in a home environment.” Brigid grabbed her coat off a hook and followed Lisa out the door. She waved at Harley, who had his nose pressed up to the passenger door window of the truck. “Look at that face! Thank you again for being such a great foster mom and for delivering those papers. I really appreciate it.”

  Lisa nodded and walked back to the truck. She felt like she was turning into a slacker. Everyone was so busy and yet she was unemployed, living in her parents’ old house, and sleeping in her childhood bed. Somehow it seemed as if she were going backward in time, as if she’d never been a grown–up, contributing member of society with a husband and kids.

  Harley stared at her expectantly through the window. Now Lisa’s primary job was to be a foster mom to one slightly neurotic Labrador retriever. She opened the door of the truck and shoved Harley over to the other side. “Okay, let’s go!”

  The Snow Grove ski resort was located southwest of Alpine Grove and Lisa knew every inch of the journey. For years, she and Bev and other kids had carpooled to the mountain, their parents taking turns shuttling them up the winding road to the resort in the wee hours of the morning so they could practice. The kids had started competing in children’s events at the age of six, then graduated to more and more competitive racing, gliding seventy-five miles an hour on skis pointed straight down the mountain.

  The Snow Grove Ski Team, or SGST, competed in slalom, giant slalom, and downhill. The resort had let the ski team kids access the slopes early in the morning before general opening so the kids could work on speed training. Once Lisa had gotten a taste for going fast, it had become addictive. For years, she had dreams about flying through the slalom gates, the wind whipping her face. It was an adrenaline rush like nothing else she’d ever experienced.