are you Mr. Hinton? Thank you so much for agreeing to interview me. I would just absolutely love to have this job! What a great house!”
“Come on in.” He gestured the new applicant into the entryway. “Susan, I’ll be in touch.”’
“I hope so,” she murmured as she brushed past him and out the door. “But I’m not holding my breath.”
The next Thursday afternoon, Sam arrived at the turnoff to his brother Troy’s farm with a sense of relief. His sister was right; he needed to take a break from interviewing nannies during the day and working late into the night to make up for it. But he was desperate; Mindy’s last day of school had been Tuesday, and without a regular child care provider, he’d had to stay home or use babysitters who weren’t necessarily up to par.
Mindy bounced in her booster seat. “There’s the sign! Look, it says D-O-G, dog! But what else does it say, Daddy?”
He slowed to read the sign aloud: “A Dog’s Last Chance: No-Cage Canine Rescue.”
“Cuz Uncle Troy and Aunt Angelica and Xavier rescue dogs. Right?”
“That’s right, sugar sprite.” And he hoped they could rescue him, too. Or not rescue—they had too much going on for that—but at least give him ideas about getting a good child care provider for Mindy for the summer.
“There they are, there they are! And look, there’s baby Emmie!”
Sure enough, his brother and sister-in-law stood outside the fenced kennel area. He parked, let Mindy out of the car and then paused to survey the scene.
Troy was reaching out for the baby, all of two weeks old, so that his wife could kneel down to greet Mindy with a huge hug.
The tableau they presented battered Sam’s heart. He wanted this. He wanted a wife who would look up at him with that same loving, admiring expression Angelica gave Troy. Wanted a woman who’d embrace Mindy, literally and figuratively. Seeing how it thrilled Mindy, he even thought he wouldn’t mind having another baby, a little brother or sister for them both to love.
This was what he and Marie had wanted, what they would have had, if God hadn’t seen fit to grab it away from them.
He pushed the bitterness aside and strode up to the happy family. “How’s Emmie? She sleeping well?”
Troy and Angelica looked at each other and laughed. “Not a chance. We’re up practically all night, every night,” Troy said, and then Sam noticed the dark circles under his brother’s eyes. Running a veterinary practice and a rescue while heading a family had to be exhausting, but though he looked tired, there was a deep happiness in Troy’s eyes that hadn’t been there before.
That was the power of love. Troy and Angelica had married less than a year ago and instantly conceived a baby, at least partly in response to Angelica’s son Xavier’s desire for a little sister. They’d even gotten the gender right.
Sam renewed his determination: With or without God’s help, he was going to find this for himself and Mindy. He didn’t need the Lord to solve his problems for him. He could do it on his own.
“Where’s Xavier, Uncle Troy?”
Troy chuckled. “It’s Kennel Kids day. Where do you think?”
For the first time, Sam noticed the cluster of boys on the far edge of the fenced area. It was the ragtag group of potential hoodlums that Troy mentored through giving them responsibilities at the kennel. Amazing that his brother, busy as he was, had time to work with kids in need. Or made time, truth be known, and Sam’s conscience smote him. He ought to give more back to the community, but he felt as if he was barely holding his own life together these days. “Who’s monitoring the boys? Is that Daisy?”
“Can I go play, Daddy?” Mindy begged.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not safe, honey.”
“But Xavier’s over there.”
“Xavier’s a boy, honey. And...” He broke off, seeing the knowing glance Troy and Angelica exchanged. Okay, so he was overprotective, but those boys were playing rough and Mindy, with her missing hand, had one less means of defense.
And one more reason to get teased, in the sometimes-cruel world of school-aged kids.
Mindy’s face reddened and she drew in a breath, obviously about to have a major meltdown.
Sam squatted down beside her, touching her shoulder, willing her to stay calm. He was so tired after another late night working, and he wasn’t that great about dealing with Mindy’s frequent storms. Didn’t know if there even was a good way to deal with them.
“Hey!” Angelica got a little bit in Mindy’s face, startling her out of her intended shriek. “I know! Why don’t you and your daddy go ask Xavier to take you down to the barn? He can show you the newest puppies. You can stay outside the fence,” she added, rolling her eyes a little at Sam.
“Okay! C’mon, Daddy!”
Thank you, he mouthed to Angelica, bemused by the way a little girl’s mood could change in a second.
“Not sure if you’ll be thanking me in a minute,” she said with a chuckle.
She must mean his ongoing battle with Mindy, the one where Angelica and Troy were staunchly on Mindy’s side. “We’re not getting a puppy!” he mouthed over his shoulder to Angelica, keeping his voice low so he wouldn’t reawaken Mindy’s interest in the issue.
But as he and Mindy approached the group at the other end of the fenced enclosure, Sam wondered if Angelica might have been talking with Daisy...and if her joke about him not thanking her might have meant something entirely different.
Because she was there.
Susan, the firebrand waitress and job candidate he hadn’t been able to get out of his mind for the past four days.
Who was she to tell him he wasn’t raising his daughter right?
And what on earth was she doing here?
The answer, apparently, was that she was working with the kids, because she was squatting down beside one of the smaller boys, probably seven or eight years old. From the boy’s awkward movements, Troy guessed he had some kind of muscular disorder.
And Susan was helping him to pet a pit bull’s face.
Sam shook his head. Of course she was. The woman obviously had no common sense, no safety consciousness, no awareness of what was age-appropriate. If that kid’s parents could see what she was doing...of course, given the nature of Kennel Kids, the boy might not have involved parents. Still, Troy or Angelica ought to rein Susan in.
At that moment, she lifted her head and saw him. Her mouth dropped open, and then her eyes narrowed as if she was reading his mind.
“Xavier!”
