Wayward, page 18
She stood there, just staring at me.
“Ada?”
Nothing.
I cleared my throat and tried again. “Ada?”
Her inhale of breath was loud. “Oh, Maks, I think that’s an utterly marvelous idea. We could call it the Libby Farley Animal Sanctuary.”
“Yes, we could,” I agreed. “And we could use your potter’s mark as the logo.”
She gasped and ran back, Misha right behind her, and flung herself at me. “Oh, I knew it,” she said, arms wrapped around my neck, holding on. “I knew you were the one, Maks. I knew you were supposed to be my caretaker, my home’s caretaker, and now the caretaker for my land. Most importantly, for Libby. You’re going to give my baby her legacy, and she loved animals more than anything.”
“Not true,” I whispered into her ear. “She loved you most of all.”
She was sobbing then, and I hugged her tight.
“I forgot to ask you this morning, how did you know about Libby?” she asked once she could breathe, pulling tissues from the pocket of her sweater. I would need to start carrying some. I was thinking there would be a lot of crying going on.
“Mr. Raleigh told me. He’s a very nice man.”
“Yes, he is. A lovely man.”
Misha was dancing around, trying to get up, whining, but surprisingly, Eugenia bent and scooped him up. I saw her pet him, and he, in turn, licked her nose.
“Eugenia?” Her mother sounded shocked.
“How is he so impossibly cute,” she grumbled like she wasn’t happy about that at all, and then her eyes lifted to mine. “And who are you?” The disgust in her voice was easy to hear.
I grinned slowly. “Who are you?”
She exhaled an annoyed huff of air. “My friends do call me Genie,” she confessed, glaring at me. “And I happen to have a degree in marketing.”
“Really? How interesting.”
Her long, drawn-out sigh sounded so very exasperated.
I decided to meet her halfway. “Could I interest you in a job here, with us, and give you a break from whatever you’re doing in California that maybe isn’t really for you?”
“How do you know it’s not for me?” she snapped.
“Just a hunch.”
She growled then. “Who are you?”
“I’m the caretaker here,” I answered, offering her my hand. “And we’re gonna have a lot of room, Genie Farley.”
She groaned like she was just so fed up with me, but took my hand anyway, and her grip was firm and warm. She looked like I thought Ada probably had back in her Studio 54 days, with her long, thick ash-blond hair, bright china-blue eyes, and golden tan.
“And we’ll even pay you,” I said, chuckling, noting that she was still holding my dog.
“God,” she grumbled, reaching down to take off one of her heels, then the other, and then wheeled around and headed back to the car. “I need to return to the airport, Davit,” she called over to the driver. “I have to get home and pack.”
“Eugenia!” her mother yelled after her.
“Hey, lady,” I called over.
She rounded on me, her eyes shooting daggers.
“Could you give me back my dog?”
“No,” she yelled, spinning around and stalking away.
“We can make her a suite,” Ada announced, sounding excited. “She could choose her paint color and what she wants in there—oh,” she gasped, and then ran toward the car so she could talk to Eugenia.
The young woman, who hadn’t yet gotten into the car, dropped her shoes, put my dog down very gently, told him to go to his daddy, and then held out her arms for her aunt. They hugged tight, and I was thinking that sometimes life came knocking, and when it did, you had to take a chance and jump. Eugenia was doing just that. I’d done the same, so I got how it could be both terrifying and thrilling.
“Go home, Mr. Farley,” I told him as Misha reached me. I picked him up and put him back in the sling. “The gravy train is over, so I suggest you make other arrangements. We’re going to open a sanctuary.”
He was horrified, if the look on his face was any indication, and Mrs. Whitmore-Farley started shrieking that all of us were insane. Into that scene came Gale, coming up the drive, turning into his carport and parking his cruiser.
I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he began walking over to us. I was utterly riveted. He was the same man who had kissed me goodbye that morning, yet for whatever reason, it felt like I hadn’t seen him in years.
“We had a report of some kind of situation out here,” Gale announced, reaching me and putting a hand on my shoulder. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Deputy Chief Malloy. I appreciate your concern.”
He squinted at me. “Knock it off.”
I couldn’t help smiling.
“Answer the question,” he said, his fingers in the hair at my nape, treating me, whether he realized it or not, like I belonged to him.
“I’m fine.”
“Well, Sage Tucker called in, and he was quite worried.”
I looked over at Sage and his buddy, who had another, smaller python that they were carefully putting into a bag.
“That’s them, Deputy Chief,” Sage called over, pointing at the Farleys. “They were screaming at Maks for no reason.”
Gale took a breath and cleared his throat. “Is that a python?”
“Actually, this one’s an anaconda,” Sage replied happily. “Dude, we’re so pumped! There’s a sanctuary in Ontario that’s the perfect place for this guy!”
“Oh, that’s where those went,” Ada said with a sigh. “Someone dropped them here, and I had them in a box by the radiator to keep them warm, but they all got out.” She smiled at me. “They were much smaller back then, you understand.”
Of course they were.
“You know, I always wondered why I didn’t have mice or rats in the house,” she said turning to me. “That’s probably why, don’t you think? The snakes.”
God. “Probably. Yes. And we need to put in a gate out front,” I told Ada. “If people are going to dump things, I want to see what kind of animal it is.”
“Whatever you think, dear.”
Gale cleared his throat. “I told you there were snakes.”
“Yeah, but I thought you meant like king snakes or even rattlesnakes or something of that size. Those are not what I was expecting.”
“I was kidding,” he snapped, bending over and taking deep breaths.
“There was a caiman in the basement.”
“I don’t know what that is, but I can’t imagine it’s good.”
“Like a smaller alligator.”
“They’re actually more closely related to crocodiles,” Sage’s buddy said as he walked by, carrying one of the bags. “I’m Barnaby Reilly,” he said, offering me his hand. “Thank you again for calling us. This has been the most amazing day, Mr. Gorev.”
“I’m so glad. And call me Maks.”
“Awesome.” He took a step closer with the squirming bag. “You know, my band is playing at the Well on Friday. Maybe you—”
“He’s busy,” Gale said quickly, straightening up. Then noticing that the bag was still twitching, he bent over again.
“Okay, cool,” Barnaby said, still smiling at me, before turning to Gale. “You know, it’s not gonna bite you even if it gets outta the bag.”
“But it won’t get out of the bag, right?” I asked.
“No worries, Maks. I wouldn’t let it hurt you.”
“Thank you.”
“Could you take the snake away already?” Gale was clearly annoyed.
Barnaby gave me a head tip, then left, and I crouched down beside Gale. “Breathe, baby.”
“Shut up,” he groused at me. “And he’s too young for you.”
“Yes, I’m aware.”
“He thinks you’re flirting with him, but you’re just being nice.”
“I try to be nice to everyone now.”
“Well, stop.”
“Pardon?”
“Don’t smile so much,” he ordered, sounding ridiculous, which was absolutely charming.
“I need to speak to you,” Mr. Farley yelled at me.
“Not now,” Gale and I said together.
“And I’ll work on being more of a dick,” I lied, enjoying how irritated he was, unable to control my grin.
“I thought you were supposed to be scary.”
“Pardon?”
“You said people were afraid of you.”
“They used to be.”
“I might enjoy that,” he grumbled.
“No. You’re too nice of a guy yourself.”
“I can be mean too.”
Doubtful. “I’m sure you can,” I placated him.
He met my gaze. “The baby was good.”
I put my hand in his hair loving the feel of it sliding through my fingers.
“Okay,” he said, straightening up and turning to the Farleys. “Now, who are you two, and why’re you yelling at Maks?”
Which basically closed the door on their visit.
“Oh, Gale,” Ada gushed happily when she returned from speaking to Eugenia. “Guess what we’re going to turn all this land into?”
Gale started praying under his breath.
“What is he saying?” Ada asked me.
“He’s saying please God, don’t let it be a snake sanctuary.”
“Oh, heavens no, but yes, a sanctuary, for dogs and cats.”
“Thank God,” he rushed out, reaching over to pet Misha. “I hate snakes.”
“Well, I don’t hate them,” Ada said, “but really, is this the best climate for them?”
“No,” he insisted. “Not at all.”
She only smiled at him.
ELEVEN
“You know,” Ada was saying as she and I walked together toward the bungalow two weeks later, Misha running in front of us, or more accurately, bounding, as he was leaping in little arcs, “the house is so very big, perhaps instead of having you and Misha live out here, the two of you should move in with me, and we could offer the bungalow as an incentive for the vet we’ll hire and keep on staff.”
“That’s a very kind offer, but we’re going to have Dr. Coleman be our vet,” I explained. “We’ll partner with his clinic, which will help make certain that it remains in our community, which benefits not only us, but others.”
“So then each new dog or cat we get in will go to Dr. Coleman’s clinic?”
“Exactly. But I do think the bungalow can be made into the office and perhaps a place to keep animals who need to be quarantined. Once we break ground on that, we’ll make certain we fence the entire area from where the barn is back to the edge of the property.”
“Why not from where the drive begins at the frontage road? All that land is mine.”
“And what does Gale own?”
“Oh, I see what you’re saying. His piece is strange. It’s that square the house sits on and two acres back.”
“Okay. So we need to start, in my opinion, from the barn.”
“Well, you know best.”
“I don’t think that’s true, but it’s sweet of you. What I do know is that we need to have a conversation with a reputable builder, and they’ll be able to tell us what can be zoned for residential and what can be zoned for commercial. Our sanctuary will be a bit different as we’ll be a nonprofit, so I’m fairly certain we can put a nonprofit near a residence, but again, a builder who knows all about permits and what can go where will know precisely what we can do.”
“You’re so clever, Maks. I really am so fortunate to have you here.”
“Keep that in mind, please, when we start to have conversations about the house.”
“That doesn’t sound ominous at all,” she grumbled.
I smiled at her. “Here’s the thing. You have so many salons in the house and little puzzle-box rooms that fit together, and I’m wondering if a more open layout might be better, especially if, let’s say, Eugenia stays long-term, has a family, or if there are other people whom you might want to invite down the road.”
“You mean friends in need or other relatives.”
“A generational home. That’s what my mother had growing up, and she loved it. Her grandparents on the ground floor, then her parents and she and her brothers, then unmarried aunts and others above them.”
“That sounds lovely.”
“Your folks are gone—”
“Thank God.”
“Ada, that’s not nice.”
“Oh, Maks,” she said with a shiver. “If you knew them, you’d be happy too.”
I couldn’t very well argue the point with her about parents since my father was the devil incarnate. “Did you like your grandparents?”
Her smile was instantaneous. “I did. Especially my mother’s mother.”
“There, see? I miss my mother every day, and my grandmother, and I mean this in the best way when I say that you remind me of them.”
“Oh, Maks, I take no offense. I’m sure your grandmother was charming.”
“She really was and—what is that?” I yelled at Misha, seeing him shove his nose into the dirt. “What’re you doing?”
Letting go of Ada’s arm, I bolted over. Apparently, he’d found an anthill. “No,” I said, picking him up and tucking him against my chest. “We don’t know what kind of ants those are. What if they can kill you?”
“I don’t think we have mutant ants here, darling.”
I wasn’t convinced. I steered Misha in a different direction, and off he went, getting the zoomies now. Until a few days ago, I’d had no idea what those were. Gale had to explain, having had cats when he was growing up that did laps around the house at three in the morning. It was one of the many things we’d discussed on the phone late at night since he’d been gone.
There had been a law-enforcement training with the ATF that he had to attend in Denver, and then a similar one at Langley right afterward. He’d originally scheduled them back-to-back to get them done and to have a vacation from Rune. Being back in a city would have been fun for him especially since he might have even met someone to spend time with while he was there. But now, everything was different. He didn’t want to be away from Rune. Or more precisely, me. He wanted to be home. And now, coming up on two weeks, he was climbing the walls. I was too. I missed him, more than I thought I would, and was counting the days until his return.
“Anyway,” I told Ada, “you need to give the house some thought. The architect is coming tomorrow, along with a landscaper to take pictures and give us quotes.”
She nodded.
“Then on Friday, the new temporary roof is going up, since we don’t need water damage, but I don’t want to put on a whole new one if the architect can put in a widow’s walk.”
“That makes sense.”
“We had all the paintings moved, and I found a Chagall in the blue salon.”
“Oh, I’m glad it’s still there. Oscar loved him.”
“Also, there are a lot of closed boxes on the third floor, and if there’s no mold or bat shit on them, you’ll be able to look through them. But if they’re compromised, they’re all going in another dumpster trailer, and that’s off-limits, okay?”
She nodded. “How do we feel about Chinese food?”
“Will it be delivered, or are we going to get it?”
“Delivered, of course. And speaking of, I had my regular grocery delivery put in your refrigerator and cabinets, so we’re all stocked up.”
“You mean your new delivery that I made you set up?”
She waved her hand dismissively.
I knew if I didn’t say it was time for lunch, she wouldn’t eat. It was the same with breakfast. If she made it for me, she’d eat too, but for herself she’d say she wasn’t hungry. Only when I made a point of reminding her did she eat. I couldn’t imagine a time when Gale and I wouldn’t be sharing meals with her. Not that I was complaining. You couldn’t ask for a more entertaining breakfast, lunch, or dinner companion than Ada Farley. The stories were simply amazing. She knew everyone. It was like breaking bread with Diana Vreeland, whom my mother had known back in the day.
Later, waiting for the food, I was dozing on my bed when Gale called.
“I was worried you were blowing me off tonight.”
“No,” he grumbled. “I was going to surprise you that I was home, but I’m stuck sitting out here in front of some kind of Addams Family gate!”
I lost it.
“It’s not funny, Maks! The hell is this thing?”
“It’s a wrought iron, and that’s Ada’s potter’s mark in the middle.”
“What is it supposed to be?”
“A sun, of course, for Summerland Drive.”
“Well, in the dark it looks like a giant scary mask.”
I chuckled.
“Could you stop laughing at me and open the gate so I can drive down and see you?”
“You have your own fob. It’s here on my nightstand, waiting for you.”
“I don’t want it on your nightstand. In fact, I want you and Misha to meet me at my house right now.”
“We just ordered Chinese food, so you’re going to have to wait.”
“No, no, I don’t wanna wait. And I’ll cook for you instead.”
“You’re not cooking your first night home,” I said, smiling into the phone.
“Fine, I’ll have Chinese too, but I want to see you.”
“That can maybe be arranged,” I baited him.
“Oh, honey, please,” he said, his voice cracking. “I’ll be right there, but I’m dying to see you. A lot of the guys I was there on the training with, they’ve known me a long time, and they said they’d never seen me so excited to go home.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes,” he ground out. “Dying to see you.”
“Same for me so…yeah. I’ll meet you at your place.”
He was silent.
“What?”
“Can you open the goddamn gate?”
I groaned. “It’s been opening. It just takes a minute. The guy’s coming back tomorrow to reset it.”
His growl of frustration was adorable.
Walking out to the living room, I let Ada know that I was running over to Gale’s place and would bring him and the food back with me.
