Love Gone to the Dogs (16 page)

Scrambling up the wobbly contraption, Leah reached the third step from the top and tried to grab her grandfather's legs. Her fingers were inches away from him. She should have called for an ambulance before dashing out to attempt a rescue. How was she going to save him when what she was standing on was shaking more than her body, which was saying a lot at the moment?

She climbed up to the next step and grabbed hold of Gramps' legs. There were several feet between him and the top of the ladder. She thought about yelling for help and hoping someone other than Ned or Madge would come to their rescue. Then she decided she could handle this on her own, because frankly she didn't think it would be wise to call anyone to come to their assistance. Her family had already filled its quota of emergencies for the year, possibly the decade.

"Gramps, when I get you down, we need to talk."

"Well, girl, you sure are taking your sweet time about it. Are you sure you have a good grip on me? I'm gonna let go—"

"No! Not yet," she yelled, only to feel her grandfather release his hold on the branch and slide down toward her, at first slowly, then suddenly, quickly.

His feet hit the top of the ladder, and then he began to topple backward. Leah clutched him around his thighs and held on, praying they both didn't go over. He wobbled, flapping his arms to get his balance, like a baby bird trying his wings for the first time.

"Well, if that ain't a pretty sight."

Leah peered around her grandfather, who was finally steady on the ladder. Ned's head appeared over the top of his eight-foot fence, a smug expression on his face.

"This is what happens to people who try to spy on other people," her neighbor said in a voice as smug as his expression.

"I wasn't spying on you. I was bird watching. I wouldn't waste my time with the likes of you." Gramps managed to sit down on the top of the ladder and twist around to look at Ned.

"Bull. We both know what you were using those binoculars for." Ned gestured toward the broken pair lying on the ground not far from them.

"Speak for yourself. Unlike other people I know, I use my binoculars for bird-watching, and you can't prove otherwise."

Ned's smile totally radiated malice. "I don't have to prove anything. You'll be gone soon, and not my concern."

Ned's head disappeared before Leah could say anything. But she heard the threat in the man's voice and knew disaster was indeed about to strike. The hairs on the nape of her neck were sticking straight out, sending out an alarm she couldn't ignore.

"Don't worry, girl. There isn't anything that obnoxious man can do to us." Her grandfather began to descend the ladder.

Leah was never so happy to put both feet on the ground, but her happiness was short-lived as Gramps hobbled over to the broken pair of binoculars and checked them out, one lens falling to the grass. "What were you thinking? And don't give me the line you were bird watching. You wouldn't know a cardinal from a sparrow if they both came up and flapped their wings in your face."

"Do I detect a note of hostility in your voice?"

Leah leaned back against the ladder and crossed her arms, ready to do battle with him. He just had to learn to curb his impulses. "Gramps, what am I going to do with you? You can't spy on our neighbors."

"Tell that to Ned. He has it down to an art." Her grandfather smiled, a gleam dancing in his eyes. "You want to know why Ned has a eight-foot fence around his property?"

"No." Leah began to fold the ladder and carry it back toward the house. People were supposed to learn from their mistakes, but she had decided her grandfather was the exception. He would never learn.

"Are you sure? You aren't gonna believe what the man does."

"It's none of our business."

Her grandfather stepped into her path and forced her to stop. "He sunbathes in the nude. Which, I might add, isn't a pretty picture. Thank God he does have an eight-foot fence. The town doesn't need to be exposed to that kind of thing."

"Gramps, now the man will never leave us alone."

"Girl, have you ever wondered why this house came so cheap?"

Leah frowned. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"You have to admit that Ned Shiplock isn't anyone's idea of a perfect neighbor."

"True. The word perfect couldn't possibly be used in connection with that man," Leah said with a laugh. She wondered if Ned had been nude when he had looked over the fence at them a few minutes before. All she had seen was his head from the neck up, and a bare arm when he had gestured toward the binocu
lars. The thought of that man without clothes turned her stomach, and she quaked, pushing the image from her mind. Indeed, no one needed to be exposed to that kind of thing.

"You see. You can still laugh. You have a beautiful laugh. I bet Shane has noticed that."

"Gramps," she said, a blush suffusing her face. "You won't take my mind off that talk we need to have. What am I going to do with you?"

A frown added several more wrinkles to his aged face. "You don't have to do anything. In case you haven't noticed lately, I'm a big boy." He began to walk away from Leah, his usual shuffle more pronounced. "I'm going to see Margaret. I know I'm appreciated at her house."

"Gramps, Margaret is at work. It's in the middle of the day," she replied, not having anything better to say as she watched him head for the back door.

He glanced over his shoulder, a smile of pure devilment on his face. "She's getting off early today. We have plans to make."

"What plans?" Those words always sent a streak of dread through Leah.

"You remember the trip we're taking in a few weeks? I'm thinking of moving in with her to see if we'll be compatible. You know we'll be sharing a small cabin on the ship for a month. Neither of us wants to discover we get on each other's nerves and ruin this vacation."

Before Leah could reply to her grandfather's latest news, he had opened the back door and disappeared inside. Oh, great. She could hear the gossip now. As if her family hadn't already given the local grapevine enough to talk about since their arrival. Worse, she could just imagine Shane blowing a gasket and leading the mob to run them out of town.

Leah trudged back into the house, trying to decide if she should warn Shane about this latest development with his mother and her grandfather. The phone began to ring the second she stepped inside, and she didn't have time to formulate a plan of action. She was too busy recovering from the shock of learning that both her sons had been suspended from school for fighting.

"Joey was fighting, too?" she asked the principal to make sure she heard the woman correctly the first time.

"Yes, he jumped on one of the boys' backs and began hitting him."

"Who started the fight?"

"That doesn't make any difference, Mrs. Taylor. Everyone involved will be suspended for three days so tempers can cool off."

"How did it start?" Leah asked, clenching her jaw as well as the phone.

"Sam called Bobby Meyers a name, and Bobby hit him. Then several other boys joined in."

"What did he call him?"

When the principal told Leah, she wanted to strangle her grandfather for exposing the boys to that kind of language. She flushed with anger and embarrassment. "I'll be there to pick both of them up."

The whole way to the school Leah kept telling herself that boys fought all the time and that was a part of growing up, but she knew that Bobby was the police chief's son, and this whole episode wouldn't set well with the man. When she saw the squad car out in front of the school building, Leah had the strong urge to keep driving until she reached the next state. She was afraid this would get blown out of proportion because of everything else that had happened in the past two months.

Her fears, she discovered when she entered the principal's office, were well founded. There were four other sets of parents in the room, all of them angry, three of them blaming the whole affair on Sam. Her nerves were stretched taut by the time she got her two sons to the car. She was sure that in the future the police chief would be driving by her house a lot and not because he wanted to make sure she was safe. She would have to be careful and not even go a mile over the speed limit.

When they arrived home, Leah sent the boys into the house. She sat on the porch swing, trying to decide what to do about Sam and Joey. She hadn't said anything to them because she was afraid she would ground them for the rest of their lives. She needed time to calm down, to figure out the rest of her life. She didn't like this confusion reigning supreme in her mind. She didn't like the feeling of dependence she was experiencing where Shane was concerned. She had learned a painful lesson from her first marriage: never depend on anyone.

Burying her face in her hands, she tried to remember a time when her life was simpler, when she didn't have so many problems. But all she could focus on was the anger emanating from the three families in the principal's office.

"Are you all right?"

Leah's head snapped up, and she stared at Shane standing in front of her, looking positively divine. She wanted him to hold her, to make all her problems go away, to take care of the situation because she was just plain tired of dealing with one crisis after another.

"I'm fine. I couldn't be better. Why did you ask?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe that woebegone look on your face made me wonder if something was wrong."

"Did someone call you?"

"Why would anyone call me?" Shane sat next to her on the swing, their arms touching.

The ache to be held grew, but Leah didn't say anything. She needed someone who could commit, on whom she could depend to be there for her beyond tomorrow, who didn't have his wife's picture on his desk, who wasn't still wearing his wedding ring three years after her death.

"Why, Leah?"

"Sam and Joey got in a fight at school today with Bobby Meyers and a few of his friends. They are all suspended."

"I wonder if that's why Chief Meyers wants to see me tonight."

Leah stiffened. How could things get any worse? "He does? This is a school matter, not a police matter." Even as she said those words she knew that when it came to your own children there were no boundaries for a parent. If the chief wanted to take it further, he would, and in a small town where she and her family were the strangers, they were an easy target for harassment.

"It may be something else."

Leah slanted a look at Shane. "You don't believe that any more than I do. When's the tar and feathering?" She forced a lightness in her voice that she didn't feel. Shane was being placed in the middle, with the town on one side and her and her family on the other.

"High noon tomorrow on the courthouse lawn." He took her hand in his. "Seriously, what happened?"

"Bobby made fun of Joey, and Sam came to his defense. Then, when Sam needed some help, Joey came to his aid. Of course, I forgot to mention that before the fists started swinging Sam called Bobby a few choice words that would burn any grown-up's ears. All that was thanks to my grandfather."

Shane squeezed her hand, then brought it up to his mouth and kissed each finger. She wanted to melt into the wood of the swing. Didn't he know she was vulnerable right now and couldn't cope with his sensual onslaught, his tender brand of comfort? She drew in a deep breath and held it.

"Things will be better tomorrow morning after everyone has slept on this. People will see that boys will be boys, and life will return to its dull, uneventful routine."

"And I suppose you believe in the tooth fairy, too."

"Don't tell me there isn't one. I don't want to know."

Leah turned so that she faced Shane, his smile, his scent momentarily distracting her. "I know Joey is different. He isn't into sports. He likes chess, computers, books. But is that any reason for children to make fun of him? I know it hurts Sam more than Joey, because my youngest is usually oblivious to things around him. People, especially children, aren't the most important thing in his life."

"I can't tell you it's easy raising a child like Joey, but then I don't think it's easy raising any child. They all have problems." Shane trailed his finger down her jaw line, stopping at the base of her throat as if he were checking her pulse rate.

In reaction to his caress her pulse sped. "I know. I think if it weren't for Ned—"

Shane placed his fingers over her mouth to still her words. "Don't, I repeat, don't let that man get to you. He isn't worth it."

"Aye, aye, sir. Anything else?"

"Mmm. Let me think on that one. I wouldn't want to let a compliant moment pass."

She laughed. Shane could do that to her in the middle of a serious situation. "Why are you here, Dr. O'Grady? I thought house calls went the way of regular health insurance."

"I forgot something this morning at home. I came to get it and saw you out here on the porch. Even from a distance I could tell something wasn't right."

"It must have been my hangdog look."

"Dead giveaway every time."

"Well, I appreciate the cheering up. I needed it." She tried to put some distance between them by scooting back against the side of the swing and bringing one leg up, while facing him. "I don't want to keep you from your patients."