breathe; it was the stifling heat. Sweat trickled down the back of her neck, beneath the thick fall of hair.
If she were to get any more boarders, she would need to fix the air conditioning unit. It had been broken for a few weeks. Mrs. Gulliver and Mr. Stehouwer didn’t mind; the heat didn’t bother the octogenarians. Mr. Tremont was younger than them—probably only in his forties or early fifties. But he wasn’t home much. Neither was Stanley, and when the teenager was here, he was usually outside—like he was now.
The kid lounged on the wide front porch. She could see him through the window of her office, which had formerly been the front parlor since its burled oak pocket doors opened onto the wide foyer. Those doors were open, and so was the heavy front door and every window, but no breeze blew through the house.
The air was so still that the sound of an engine startled her. She glanced out the window but could see only the grill of a truck as it pulled up to the house. Then she heard Stanley call out, “Hey, Cody!”
Her pulse quickened more than it had when she’d opened the thick envelope from the lawyer’s office. Then her heart had raced with fear; now, it pounded with excitement.
Just looking at Cody Mallehan was exciting. With his blond hair, clear green eyes, and muscular build he was beyond handsome. He was probably also bad news for a woman like her.
He was a player. Or so her friends had warned her. The few times she’d seen him before today he hadn’t flirted with her, though. Of course, they’d talked business then because he’d brought Stanley as a boarder.
One truck door slammed. Then another opened. Maybe he was bringing someone else to rent a room.
She glanced at her mother’s portrait. Mama would have cautioned her to stay away from a man like her father, who was only passing through. Everyone said that Cody Mallehan grew bored quickly—with women and locations. He wouldn’t be sticking around.
That was good, though. Serena didn’t need him; she just needed the business he brought her. She was too smart to fall for a man like him anyway. She was in no danger of losing her heart; Serena’s only concern was that she not lose her house.
CODY WAS GLAD that he saw Stanley first—sitting on the porch swing of Serena Beaumont’s ridiculously large, yellow-clapboard house. He’d lived in group homes that had been smaller than her place. It was a great boardinghouse.
Not that she had many boarders. The last time he’d stopped by, she’d just had a couple of old folks and Stanley. Probably because it was too far from town. The house was slightly closer than his cabin had been, but the long drive had still given Annie enough time to lick him nearly half to death. He should have made the dog ride in the pickup bed.
“Out!” he told her, pointing at the ground. Finally she leaped down from the passenger’s seat.
“Annie!” Stanley exclaimed with joy. He dropped to his knees and embraced the mutt who jumped all over him, licking his face.
“Don’t act so surprised to see her,” Cody said. “You’re the one who brought her back to the firehouse—after I told you to take her to the humane society.”
“I did,” Stanley replied, quickly and defensively, “when you told me to.”
“That was weeks ago,” Cody said. He narrowed his eyes and studied the curly-haired kid’s face, which was wet with dog drool. Skeptically, he asked, “So what did she do? Break out and find her own way back?”
The dog hadn’t been able to find her own way to the ground from his pickup. He doubted she’d been able to track her way back to the firehouse. Bloodhound was probably the only breed not in her family tree.
“No...” Stanley reluctantly admitted. “I broke her out.”
“Why?”
“Because her time was almost up,” Stanley said.
“What do you mean?” But Cody was afraid that he knew. As if sensing his distress, Annie turned her attention from the kid back to him. She bounded down the porch steps and jumped up on him. Her jowly face and almost soulful brown eyes nearly on the same level as his, she stared at Cody. He pushed her huge paws off his chest, but then patted her head gently.
“They only keep the animals for so long. Then, if nobody adopts them, they put them down, Cody,” Stanley slowly explained—as if he were the adult and Cody the kid who didn’t understand. The eighteen-year-old’s voice cracked when he added, “If they did the same thing with people...”
Cody and Stanley would have been dead long ago, since they’d spent most of their lives in foster homes. That was how they’d met. Cody had been forced to leave their group home when he turned eighteen, but he’d kept in touch with Stanley.
Cody had been adopted once, but adopting him had put a strain on the young couple’s marriage, and after a few years they had returned him to the system—like someone might a dog to the pound. He’d been so young that he didn’t even remember them.
Stanley had been born premature and addicted to crack, so no one had been willing to take a chance on a child who might have lifelong physical and mental disabilities. That was probably why Stanley felt such a kinship with the dog.
Annie whined and pushed her head harder against Cody’s hand. He had a kinship with the damn dog, too. The puppy had been abandoned at the firehouse—just as he had been abandoned as an infant at a firehouse in Detroit. The guys had named her Orphan Annie.
“That sucks,” Cody agreed. “But I don’t know where we’re going to keep her.”
“We’re going to keep her?” Stanley asked, his brown eyes wide with hope.
Cody knew better than to make any promises. “I don’t know if we can...” He didn’t have a place to stay himself, let alone room for a dog. Unless...
As if Stanley had guessed what Cody was thinking, he said, “Miss Serena already told me Annie can’t stay here ’cause she’s not housebroken.”
“Is that why you brought her to the firehouse?”
The kid nodded, and some blond curls fell into his face. He really needed a haircut; Cody would have to bring him by the barber. “Yeah...”
“She can’t stay there either,” he said. “She peed in Superintendent Zimmer’s office.”
Stanley’s brown eyes widened. “How mad was he?”
Braden had actually laughed. But he’d also told Cody to take the dog with him when he left. “I don’t think she’ll be welcome there again.”
“But if we have no place to keep her...” Stanley’s voice cracked with emotion. “And we bring her back to the humane society...”
“Maybe she’ll be adopted this time,” Cody said.
Stanley shook his head. “She’s too big. Nobody wants a dog that big, they said.” His brown eyes filled with tears.
“She
