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I’ve already looked online and found a special backpack for carrying small dogs. If he gets tired on our hikes, I’ll just pop him into that. He weighs hardly anything.
It’s a warm day, and even with the windows open, I work up a bit of a sweat, carrying boxes and running up and down the stairs. By mid-afternoon, most of my stuff is unpacked, and what isn’t can wait. I’m ready for lunch, but first I want a shower. I head upstairs and take my shirt off just as my phone rings.
It’s a number I don’t recognize, but thinking it might be the owner of the house, I pick it up.
And immediately regret it.
“Jerry? Oh, thank God you picked up!”
She’s the only person who ever called me Jerry. I’ve never liked the nickname, but on her lips, it sounded sexy. At first, anyway. Now it sounds like fingernails on a blackboard.
I ought to hang up. That’s what my lawyer would tell me to do, but anger surges past reason. “What the fuck do you want, Christine?”
“Oh, baby,” she sounds like she’s on the verge of tears. Crocodile ones, as I know from experience. “I hate hearing you so upset. I just want to talk.”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” I tell her.
“Sweetheart, you’re literally pressing criminal charges against me.” The tears have vanished and she’s moved on to a cross between sarcasm and exasperation.
“That would be on account of you literally being a criminal,” I remind her, not bothering to point out that it’s the credit card companies, not me, who are prosecuting her. “And don’t sweetheart me.”
“I made some mistakes.” She sounds humble and pleading now. “But that doesn’t make me a bad person.”
I’m already halfway downstairs and heading for the refrigerator. I can tell this conversation is going to call for a beer. I have a nice bottle of whiskey in a box somewhere, but I’m not going to waste it on Christine, even at a distance.
Downstairs, Jackie is sitting in front of the back door, thumping his tail. With one hand still on the phone, I push the door open without paying much attention. The yard is fenced in, so there’s nowhere for him to go.
“You took out six credit cards in my name that I knew nothing about, racked up almost a hundred thousand dollars-worth of debt, and cheated on me. You didn’t just do those things by accident, Christine, and yes, they do make you a bad person.”
“Jer, I know if we could just meet in person, maybe get a drink together, we could sort all of this out.” Silky and seductive now. “It doesn’t have to be this difficult.”
A year ago, that voice made me putty in her hands. Even six months ago, after I’d found out what was going on, I was such a wreck that I probably would have let her hypnotize me into meeting up and maybe even into helping her out. That’s one of the reasons I took a job four hours away, to put myself beyond her clutches once and for all.
Now that voice just pisses me off.
“We’re done, Christine.” I’m kind of proud of myself for managing to sound firm but not angry. You’re not making me lose control again. “You don’t want to go to jail, then cut a deal with the credit card companies and pay all the money back. It’s that simple.”
“But Jer—”
I hang up and quickly block the number, then stand there for a moment in the kitchen taking deep breaths as the blood pounds in my ears. It pisses me off that the woman can still get under my skin.
I open the fridge and grab a bottle of beer then drop it as a piercing female scream from outside makes me nearly jump out of my skin. Fortunately, the bottle bounces and rolls on the linoleum floor without breaking.
I spin around in the direction of the scream and find myself looking at the open door that Jackie just disappeared through.
Oh, shit.
The neighbor must be home—and from the sound of it, she’s terrified of dogs.
9
BLAZE
I’m on my lounger in the backyard in my new pink bikini, and Chief Wainwright is fading in and out of some hazy nap-time dreams.
It’s like he’s trying to tell me something. I can’t quite catch the words, but he sounds very manly and in charge, and it annoys me and turns me on at the same time.
Then suddenly, the way things happen in dreams, he’s right up next to me. I can feel his warm breath on my neck, and desire blooms, deep and unexpected, in my belly.
