JayB shook his head. “We don’t offer paid sabbaticals.”

  “Walter told me we do, and he owns the place. You’re just the dog walker. You’ve never once commented about my hair, and I changed it twice in the past week.”

  “That seems … true.”

  “At last, you admit something! You’re like prying teeth.” Maddy stood and I lazily regarded her. “I’m dismissing this conversation, now, but don’t think it won’t return when you show up to apologize. FYI, I like tulips. Or jewelry.”

  Maddy left the table, and I put my head back down.

  Dear Diary:

  Every time my person speaks, his voice stirs a love within me. It’s a different sort of feeling than what I experience when I think of Phoebe—this is the pure devotion a dog has for a person.

  I suppose I could find fault with some of his choices. Having a cat live with us, putting her food out of reach, inviting Spartan into our pack to live with us. These cause me aggravation. Or I could dwell on the wonders he has brought into my life: Phoebe, chicken treats, our new place of so many dog parks, car rides.… But truthfully, none of that really matters. JayB is my person, and that’s more important than anything else.

  I think of Odin, of the deep, aching wound within him. I cannot imagine what it might be like to have a person and then lose her.

  I wish there was something I could do to help my dear friend Odin, but a dog lost is a dog lost until he finds a way to open his heart to another person.

  Love,

  Clancy

  Sixteen

  Later, JayB talked to a woman who cried and several other men and women, and finally sat with DesMoines.

  “So, hey, DesMoines,” JayB said wearily, “kind of a weird day.”

  She shuffled her feet. “You could say that. I’ve seen weirder, though.”

  “I’m going to speak to Walter. Obviously, if Savannah will take her job back, the position is still open for her. I think I’m also going to ask her to agree not to pursue any other remedies against the organization or Maddy or anybody in management, and, in return, give her a settlement of some kind.”

  “Seems fair,” DesMoines agreed slowly. A long silence followed.

  “I would like to offer you a bonus as well. You’ve had to put up with a lot of tumult over the past several days while the restaurant transitions away from how it has always worked, toward one that’s more…”

  “Insane?” DesMoines suggested.

  JayB laughed.

  “I was wondering if you were going to talk to me.”

  JayB looked wary. “Oh?”

  DesMoines nodded. “You’re the only one of your crew with any sense, far as I can see. You and maybe that Alana. So, tell me the truth, please: should I be looking for another job? I don’t want to stay where I’m not wanted, and I for sure don’t want to find myself suddenly unemployed.”

  JayB gave her a level look. “My honest answer is, I don’t know. Maddy’s going to be on … on leave, but I don’t actually know how long my dad will want to fund the business. He’s got lots of money, you know, but he gets impatient. If you’d give me a printout of all of our financial statements, vacation schedules, anything you’ve got, it would help. I can promise that if we’re shutting down, I’ll make sure you get a generous severance. I’ll get on it as quickly as I can, try to figure out what’s going on.”

  “What’s going on is, your father bought into a money-losing business and made it worse.”

  After that, we took a car ride! But we parked at home and I resigned myself to seeing and smelling Kelsey. Then JayB surprised me by walking from the driveway up to Odin’s house. Alana answered the door when he knocked.

  “Hi. So what was the big problem at the restaurant?” Alana asked, letting JayB, Spartan, and me inside.

  Odin flapped his tail briefly when he saw me, but elected to stay in his dog bed. I’ve had naps like that. You get so involved in being comfortable, it just isn’t worth it to get up for anything short of a meal. Spartan ignored Odin completely.

  “The biggest problem was Maddy, but luckily she’s gone on sabbatical.”

  Alana gave him an odd look.

  JayB nodded. “Yeah. So, I know that you’re not really interested in doing this kind of thing, but I wonder if you’d do me a big favor and look through all these reports and see if you can make sense of the numbers. I haven’t looked at financial statements since a class in college.”

  Alana tilted her head. “I thought the restaurant was just something on the side until Rodney could fire up the bulldozers.”

  “Yeah, that was Plan A, but it turns out the property isn’t zoned for anything except a dilapidated restaurant with a huge piece of land that’s divvied up into small, fenced-in ostrich pens.”

  “Huh.” Alana reached for the sheaf of papers. “Is it possible that this’ll all unwind over the business license? I’ve heard of businesses that can’t get to that final stage. It happens in California a lot, and if you can’t transfer the business license, you can’t keep running the operation, and all bets are off.”

  “That makes a lot of sense, but if I know my father, he waived any right to cancel the deal under any circumstances, including having a huge meteor wipe out the building.”

  Alana smiled. “Well, it’s going to take me a while to figure all this stuff out. It’s a big favor, so”—she gave him a speculative look—“maybe if you buy me that dinner you promised…?”

  Odin and I lifted our heads at that wonderful word. Even Spartan seemed to be paying attention.

  JayB grinned. “Deal.”

  A short time later, a woman came to the door and handed over some wonderful-smelling sacks. Odin and I gave this development a lot of consideration. JayB and Alana sat at the table and talked and laughed. Spartan watched the gaiety from the corner.

  “You know,” Alana observed at one point, “your restaurant—”

  “My dad’s restaurant,” JayB interrupted.

  “Okay. Your dad’s restaurant could use a menu reboot. Nothing wrong with burgers and fried chicken, and I actually like the veggie stir fry, but why not branch out? Did you know DesMoines managed a Cajun restaurant for ten years?”

  “I had no idea.”

  “Yeah. In New Orleans, so she must know what she’s doing. Why not add a little gumbo?”

  “That’s a great idea. And maybe barbecue?”

  “Oh, I would not try barbecue in Kansas City. That’d be like taking hockey to Canada.”

  “I think that’s what Rodney’s doing right now.”

  Alana laughed. “But seriously, maybe add some spice to, I don’t know, the lasagna.”

  “Cajun lasagna?”

  “I don’t see why not. Get a reputation for something besides empty tables.” Alana tossed down chicken pieces, even throwing one across the room to Spartan.

  I was starting to adore Alana.

  “So,” she remarked, “your girlfriend called me.”

  JayB sighed. “Could we call her something else?”

  “All right,” Alana agreed, smiling. “Maddy called me. She said she needed to warn me that you’re not spontaneous.”

  “That’s not true. I plan to do something spontaneous Tuesday.”

  Alana laughed.

  Later, the paper bags were stowed away, and JayB and Alana moved about in the kitchen, mostly silent while water ran, occasionally bumping into each other and smiling.

  “Well, hey,” she offered, “I’ll walk you home.”

  “Thank you. This is a pretty high-crime area.”

  Alana laughed. We headed outside. Odin and Spartan and I dutifully lifted our legs. Night had fallen, and with it had come some warm, moist air, hinting at impending summer. It was the kind of night that gave a dog energy, and Odin and I both responded, stepping briskly, smelling eagerly, hoping to encounter a creature to hunt, or a dog to inspect.

  Suddenly, Alana stopped. “What’s that?” She pointed to a space between houses filled with shrubbery. In among the bushes, I saw some bugs.

  “Oh! Those are lightning bugs,” JayB replied. “Have you never seen them?”

  “They’re real,” Alana exulted with a squeal. “They’re really real!” She dashed across the street and JayB and our pack of dogs quickly followed. She stopped and gazed into the bushes with wonder. “I thought,” she explained in a tremulous voice, “that fireflies were only in Disney movies. I didn’t realize they truly existed.”

  “Really?” JayB responded.

  “They’re magic. Look at them!” Alana turned to JayB with shining eyes, and I felt something strong rise inside JayB and come off his skin … something like joy.

  “This is the most wonderful night,” Alana whispered.

  They spent several moments cupping their hands and looking into them. “It’s like a miracle,” Alana breathed. She looked up at JayB and he gazed at her, and they both smiled.

  I wagged when she stepped into his arms and they kissed, the bugs flashing all around them. When they parted, though, I felt Alana’s mood change. She stepped away, and when JayB reached for her, she backed up even farther.

  “I’d better say goodnight,” she whispered.

  “Alana…”

  She shook her head, reaching for Odin’s leash. I watched her leave and felt JayB’s mood change.

  Human beings are utterly baffling.

  The next several days were so similar to each other that I accepted them as how life would be from now on. Spartan still lived with us, watching me from hooded eyes, barely reacting to anything except for his bowl of food, set out by my person at mealtime. Spartan did sniff and mark whenever I did, but he took no joy in it. It was merely the mechanical reaction of a male dog to a provocative scent.

  We did not see much of Odin, for some reason. JayB took us to Odin’s house one time, and I was curious to see how awkward he and Alana were with each other. The breezy, happy exchanges had been replaced with silences and averted glances.

  As we were leaving Odin’s house, Alana spoke: “JayB.”

  He turned with a questioning look.

  “We’ll … talk.”

  We had apparently forgotten the way to the old dog park—instead, we now took car rides to our new, personal dog park. Phoebe and Spartan and sometimes Millie and Tillie romped in the big, fenced-in spaces, though Phoebe had far more energy than any of us.

  DesMoines paid more attention to me than to the other dogs. Her hands were strong but gentle as they stroked my fur. She had figured out that (probably unique to me, as a dog) I really liked bacon. She often gave me a crumble or two.

  Maddy often came to see me as well. While JayB was speaking to people, she would go up to him and hug him from behind and he would stop talking for a minute. At one point, they were sitting in the shade under a tree at a wooden table, and JayB said, “Maddy, why are you here every day? I thought you’re on sabbatical.”

  Maddy shrugged, “I see myself more as a paid consultant now. I’m the only one with any experience in the underworkings of the restaurant. Certainly, you don’t know anything about it.”

  “Well,” JayB acknowledged, “I suppose that’s true, although I do have DesMoines.”

  Maddy rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. She’s always working. You can’t trust that type.”

  One morning, we stopped to pick up Odin, and Alana invited us inside and gave me a turkey treat. She gave one to Spartan as well, but I couldn’t really complain about that. I’ve noticed that most people treat dogs equally. She was probably hoping Spartan would change expression, but he never did.

  “Well, I have news,” JayB announced.

  Alana raised her eyebrows.

  “The business is all his now. The restaurant, I mean. It got transferred over to Walter’s name. He’s now Kansas City’s newest and most inept restaurateur.”

  Alana smiled. “I finally finished going over the books. They’re a little … well, let’s just say they haven’t been kept very up-to-date, but it was easy to piece things together once I understood the system. There are some pretty big issues.”

  “You seem really stressed,” JayB observed.

  She shook her head. “It’s not about that. I’m in the offer/counter-offer period of selling the house. It’s weird because, where I’m from, you put a house on the market and all of your offers come in higher than the asking price. That’s not what’s going on here, and I don’t know anything about selling houses. I just want the whole thing to be over, you know?”

  JayB nodded.

  Alana was silent for a moment. “So, back to the restaurant. I don’t know if you knew this, but Walter and Rodney and Maddy have salaries. Really big salaries. Money that can’t be justified by cash flow. Taken together, it’s by far the single largest expense.”

  “That sounds about right.”

  “Yeah. So, the place is running solidly in the red, but it wasn’t always. When you go back and look at the books from a long time ago, it was actually making money. A lot of money. It had customers. There’s huge capacity in that dining room, plus the deck and patio seating when the weather’s nice. All you need now is to reduce your, let’s call it executive overhead, and get some people in the door. Maybe advertise. There needs to be a hook. The way it is now, there’s no particular reason for people to go there. You might as well put up a big sign that says ‘Food.’ Put some pizzazz into marketing, so people get curious and want to check it out.”

  “Pizzazz,” JayB repeated dubiously. “Man, that is not me. I can hire staff, I can maintain systems, but I don’t know how to generate pizzazz, attract patrons. And Walter sure doesn’t.”

  Alana laughed.

  “Rodney’s still mining gold, which is a good thing. DesMoines is like me—she can keep the operation running, but attracting customers isn’t her thing, either. To succeed, this business needs a really flexible thinker, a person who’s innovative, who can improvise, good on her feet, creative, someone with that spark.”

  Alana shook her head, a small smile on her face. “You know, JayB, I love how you listened to me about what I really want in a career, but I’m not staying in Kansas to help run a restaurant. I can’t. I’m selling the house and going back to California.”

  JayB nodded but didn’t say anything.

  Alana sighed. “Okay. About the elephant in the living room.”

  “That’s not an elephant, that’s a shar-pei.”

  Alana smiled, but her smile quickly faded.

  Dear Diary:

  I have been unable to conquer the moving chair.

  The two times I’ve tried to climb up on it, the chair has run from me as if alive, forcing me to trot along on my hind legs to keep up. Eventually, when it hits the wall, it stops, but by then I’m so far from the counter where Kelsey’s food sits that getting on the chair would make no sense. (I know because I tried it. Both times.)

  I am doing that now. I am pushing the chair and it is moving at random, scooting across the floor. Kelsey watches inscrutably with slitted eyes. I imagine that seeing a dog exert such power must be terribly intimidating and she is frozen in shock (otherwise, she would flee the room and go live with someone else).

  Spartan is in the other room, walled off by a new gate in the doorway.

  I’m on a different trajectory today, scooting across the floor, the chair swiveling slightly so that I am disoriented when the thing finally stops, but then I smell it: Kelsey’s fishy meal on the counter.

  I’m right where I want to be.

  How did this happen?

  Scarcely daring to believe it, I nimbly leap up on top of the chair. It swivels, then stops, and now the counter is an easy step. I claw at the slick surface, and then I’m up!

  I lower my face to the small bowl of delicious, fragrant morsels. I’ve done it! Kelsey will never again enjoy a meal in this house.

  If only Phoebe could see this, she would be amazed.

  This is going to work!

  Love,

  Clancy

  Seventeen

  Alana sighed. “I am so sorry about how I kissed you the other night.”

  “I’m not.”

  “I didn’t mean to lead you on. I was just caught up in the moment.”

  “I don’t feel led on. Is that why you’ve been avoiding me?”

  Alana glanced away unhappily. “I’m just not good at things like this,” she finally explained in a small voice.

  “Things like what?”

  “You know. Confrontation. Disappointing people.”

  JayB watched her until she met his gaze. “It would be more disappointing to me if you stopped seeing me just because of a kiss.”

  “Okay,” she whispered.

  “Okay,” he agreed.

  I yawned, thinking that if we were going to stand around like this, I might as well take a nap.

  “So,” Alana announced in a more business-like tone, “once the restaurant is current with your suppliers, you won’t be on a cash basis. Do you understand what I’m saying here? Right now, you’re cut off. Nobody’s extending any credit because you fell so far behind on your payments. Not Walter’s fault—it was under previous management that all this happened, but the upshot is that you’re having to buy your supplies from the grocery store, which is a recipe for disaster. You need wholesale prices. Does that make sense?”

  “It does, but it won’t matter if we don’t get butts in the seats.”

  “That’s true. Well, the land must be worth something, even with the zoning. If Walter decides to shutter the place, cut his losses, he won’t be out everything.”

  JayB was shaking his head. “My father might be a lot of things, but heartless isn’t one of them. I think he’d spend every dime he’s got to keep from laying off the staff. I admire that. Last place I worked, the CFO acted like the people were no more important than, I don’t know, bugs.”

  “Except the one who punched you in the nose,” Alana reminded him with a smile.

  “Oh, her? She was irreplaceable. Had a left jab like Tyson Fury.”

  “Well, I don’t know how rich Walter is, but even Powerball isn’t an endless pile of money. And didn’t you say he split it with everyone from his work? So yeah, he might actually spend every dime he’s got.”