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She could live without what the book meant to her hopes for a career. If she had to. The book was important,though.Shewantedthebusinessworldto see that slashing and burning and cutting and firing wasn’t the only way to rescue a failing company. In fact, it was a lousy way to do it. Van had looked for new markets. Then he’d thought smart and spent more to scramble back to a profit any stakeholder could be happy with.
She wished she could walk away from the book with her uncaring nose in the air. But she couldn’t.
Herequallysmartbusinessmanfinallycamehome from his nail-biting negotiations. He had a lesson for her and her article. The other guy thinks he wants X? Persuade him he really wants Y, which doesn’t matter to you as much as X did.
Mary called her agent, mind in a turmoil. They spent the day in video conversations back and forth, eachlookingtheworseformentalwearoneverycall. Mary gave up on trying to blow her hair back out of her eyes and cinched a belt around her head. She ended up blowing wisps that escaped anyway.
What else could the publisher be persuaded to want? Slowly, they figured it out.
The right to publish the book anywhere else in the world. Yeah, it would cost Mary, but the extra royalties meant nothing in comparison with veto power over who appeared in promotions. Movie rights. Yeah, ditto. First right of refusal on her next book. Ouch, that would hurt, but never mind.
It worked. She had a contract for her book. Now all she wanted was Van and the dogs, right after she got a little sleep, which had been in short supply lately.
She got about four hours before her cell phone rang.Shegroanedandlookedattheclock.Twohours before she had to get up and get ready to leave for the airport. Blearily, she groped for the phone.She croaked into it, cleared her throat, and tried again. “Hello.”
“Am I speaking to Mary Samuel?”
“Yes.”
“This is June Cleaver, Ms. Samuel. You don’t know me,butI’mthedenmother,sotospeak,attheHilton Hotel for Dogs in Hanover.”
Dogs. Hotel for Dogs. The dogs were in a boarding kennel? Van must be hurt. What if he was dead? Mary jammed the phone against her chest until she could calm down enough to speak.
“What happened? Is he all right? Are the dogs all right? Is the — ”
“Please Ms. Samuel, don’t worry. No one is dead. No one is hurt. I’m just calling — ”
Mary didn’t hear the rest. She put the phone down and bent over at the waist to get some blood running back into her head. After a few moments, she thought she could pick the phone up again.
“Mrs. — whoever you are — ma’am? I’m sorry. I had to leave the phone for a moment. You’re sure everyone is okay?”
“Yes, Ms. Samuel, and that’s quite all right. I’m sorry I gave you the wrong impression. It’s just that yourhusbandbroughtyourdogsinyesterdaytostay forawhile,andheaskedmetocallandtellyouthat.”
Mary’s heart started to feel as though it wouldn’t pound right out of her chest after all. It left room to wonder what was going on.
“I didn’t know my — husband — was going to bring the dogs in. Did he say why, Mrs. Cleaver?”
“Not really. Well, he did say something about the dogs being a handful, and he didn’t want any accidents to happen.”
Mary went from worry to anger in the flash of a second.
He’d thrust the dogs away to a kennel? How could he do that? Why would he do that? She couldn’t imagine any reason good enough to abandon them. Andhehadn’tevenhadthecouragetocallherabout this himself.
She clenched a fist, trying to send the fury there instead into her voice. “All right, thank you, Mrs. Cleaver.”
Mary fished a hotel pen and pad of paper out of the bedside drawer and took down the name and address of the boarding kennel. She hung up.
She’d known from the start Van would leave her and break her heart. She’d known what she was getting into, and it was all her own fault, and she’d live with the consequences.
But the dogs had done nothing. Absolutely nothing. How dare he leave those poor, innocent dogs and break their hearts?
Chapter Forty
This Is It
M
ARY STOPPED THE RENTALcar at Van’s Fortress of Solitude, as he had originally called it, and let the dogs out. Did he still call it that, when she was supposed to be moving in?
