Page 17 of Maverick
Before I forget to tell you, there will be a delivery to your house in a couple of days. The shipping warehouse that my order is coming through asked if we’d split the shipment up between drivers. So one person doesn’t have to lift and carry all that heavy equipment. So in helping them, I was able to get the order to go to eight different places, all the family and then we’ll come by and load it up in a truck bed to take to the shop.” Barkley asked how much more that was costing them. “It is a bit more expensive, but I’d rather have a higher cost on my end than to have men and women breaking their backs to have stuff delivered to me all together. It’ll work out in the end.”
Gracie was forever impressed with this family. They were willing to take a hit, this time in shipping, to help out their fellow man. She’d seen all of them at different points since she’d been a part of it get out of their car and help someone with a flat, pull a car out of a tree if it’s just a finder binder. Even Jenson, who had won the congress seat for their state, was always there to be counted on when he was needed. She could see him, at some point, being the leader of the country. He wasn’t a sap, as some had called him, but a man who got things done.
On her way home, she stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things that they’d needed for their dinner. On Tuesdays, the cook was off, and the two of them usually cooked out or ordered something to be brought to them. But tonight she was going to try and make grilled salmon with rice pilaf.
She was just putting her things on the belt when she heard a terrible screeching sound. Tires. Grace ran out of the store to see if she could do anything, not having any idea what that might be when she saw what the man in the truck had nearly run down—several puppies.
“They just come out of nowhere. I swear, they have a death wish or something. That one there, the black puppy, it seemed to be pissed off—look at it. I can almost understand the thing is telling me to be more careful next time.” She picked up one of the smaller brown ones and held him to her cheek while checking on the other three. “Look, lady, if they were yours, you should take better care that they’re not run over or out in the streets.”
“They’re not mine. But yes, you’re right about better care. This one looks like he’s not eaten in a couple of days. I have a feeling that he’s been going after the food, bringing it home to his family rather than eating it for himself.” The man told her that she was weird. Then Tommy, the young man that worked in the store came out with one of the baskets that people did their shopping in. “Thank you so much. I think we might need another one, however. They’re coming out of the woodwork now.”
There were nine of them. Varying shades of white to black. It reminded her of a post she’d seen once when a person lined them all up, and it looked as if the printer was running out of ink by the time he got to the last one. Her heart broke for the little ones she was playing with.
Putting them in the car, she was determined not to fall in love with them. She’d had a dog once, not too long ago that she had loved more than humans most of the time. Danny, her support dog, had been by her side for most of her childhood and then into her adulthood until he was killed. If she fell in love with these puppies, she’d be raising them all, and she was sure that Maverick would have a fit.
Putting them on the back seat, it was as if they knew that she was going to take care of them. They wandered all over her and the seats, getting into her face and licking her. Once she had her belt on, she put them in the basket and told them that they had to be still or they’d be in an accident with her. It shocked her to no end when the black puppy barked at her, then the others, and they settled down on the floorboard of the seat. There was more room for them there, and they went right to sleep.
Taking them to the only vet in town, she was glad when someone came out to help her cart them all in. Mr. Markus had told her to keep the baskets, he’d not want anyone to use them after having doggies in them, and she was going to donate them to the clinic.
“Mr. Markus called. He said you had hit the mother load of dogs. I didn’t know what he meant until he sent me a picture of you wrangling them.” She was slightly embarrassed but got over it quickly when Jon, the local vet, started sorting them out to be examined. “It’s going to take a while for them all to be healthy enough to give away. You have room for all of them?”
“I’m not keeping them. There are nine dogs here.” He just stared at her. “Maverick will be pissed off if I take them home. Don’t you think?”
“I think that Maverick would go out of his way to find you nine more puppies if he thought that they would make you happy. But we’ll see. He’s on his way here right now.”
She had to think of a good excuse to tell him why she’d picked all the dogs up and brought them with her if she wasn’t going to take them. As soon as he pulled into the parking lot, he got into his back seat and then came at her while snow fell down all around the two of them.
“Honey, you missed one.” The puppy that he handed her was much smaller than the others. He was the only one too that was covered in all the colors, from the black to the bright white. The little guy also had spots of orange and a blueish color that the others didn’t have. “I think he might be the runt.”
“Don’t call him that. You’ll give him a complex. How would you like it if someone called you a name simply because you were smaller than your brothers.” Blackie, what she’d been calling the bossy one, turned out to be a girl, and she let Maverick know that she wasn’t pleased with him either. “You tell him, honey. Tell him we’re not going to be picking on the other, or we’ll take care of him too.”
“You’ve named her?” Grace told Maverick that she couldn’t just call them puppies as there were ten of them now. “But you named that one?”
“Really? That’s all you can focus on. And for your information, I named them all, mister smarty pants. See? The girls are Blackie, Betty, Wilma, Pebbles and Pearl. He eyed her with a smile. “The boys are Dino, Bamm-Bamm, Fred, and Barney. And I think that I’m going to name this one the Great Gazoo. I saw the cartoon this morning when I was walking down the hallway from the kids’ area. Sherm was in there, just watching them with the other kids. I didn’t know that he volunteered at the hospital.” He told her not to change the subject and then asked her who Pearl was. He’d apparently watched the cartoon as well. “Oh, well, Pearl is Fred’s mother-in-law. I think. I only saw the one cartoon, so I could be wrong about how she’s related, but I think I have—why are you laughing at me? It’s a perfect set of names to keep them…not that I’m keeping them. I mean, that would be a lot of work for someone. Don’t you think?”
He kissed her on the nose and hugged her with the Gazoo between them. “What I think is that we’re going to be raising ten puppies in our house and we’ll be all the happier for it. I can also imagine that we’re going to be the most favorite on the block when the kids find out that we have enough to go around.”
Gracie loved this man. While the others were being examined, Blackie kept them in line. She thought that she should change her name, but she’d gotten used to calling her that and didn’t think she’d like it if she had to answer to something else. Besides, she thought all the names from the show were used up in their little family, so she didn’t bother.
They were all healthy, if not a little underfed and dehydrated. Pebbles had a sore foot, but once it was cleaned up and wrapped up for her, she seemed to be as energetic as the rest of them.
By the time they got them all situated at home, food, bowls, sleeping beds, as well as the medication that they needed, she was exhausted. Gracie hadn’t even told Maverick the best news yet. She was afraid that he’d make her take them all back. Once they were in the house with them, she figured it was safe to tell him that—
“I talked to Doc Miser today. He called me, wishing me congratulations. It took a long conversation about breastfeeding and how much sleep we were going to miss before I understood what he was telling me.” She was perturbed that the doctor had told him before she could. “I love you, Grace Strong. I cannot wait to have more puppies with you.”
~*~
Trevor didn’t care for the little girl. He wasn’t one to make snap judgments about people, but there was something decidedly creepy about the kid. Even Sherm, the nicest kid he’d ever met, seemed to not want to have much to do with her. Debra Carter was odd. Not only that but she was snippy, as his mom would call it.
No one knew that the child was with him. Well, not him, but his parents. Sherm was the only kid who knew that she was around, and he wouldn’t tell. He was the most adult child that he’d ever met and trusted him more than he did his own banker.
“She’s weird.” He told Sherm that wasn’t nice. “Well, she is. Last night, I asked her if she wanted to play a game on my reader, and she told me that it would melt my brain. I might be younger than her, but I know better than that.”
“Sherm, you’re younger than I am, and you know a lot of things that I don’t. But you found out her age?” He told him that she told him that she was twelve. “You say that like you don’t believe it. You think she’s older or younger?”
“I don’t know, to be honest. She’s just weird.” Sherm had been telling him that for the past three days. It was like he didn’t know what other label to put on the girl. While Mrs. J had left them notes on the child, there really wasn’t enough personal information about her to be able to know where she came from or how she had ended up at Mrs. J’s home.
Then there was the thumb drive that he’d been given. He no more understood that than he did how a kid could be so smart with the dumbest parents around. Correcting himself. He knew how that happened. Sherm was a product of a good home. Just yesterday, he’d been talking to someone at his office who said that their child had been tested and was considered gifted.