you gave a little of yourself away. Maybe I was wrong; I didn’t know for sure. I’d be disappointed, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they were, indeed, “active.”
Bobby had refused to talk to me about Gabriella having sex. He’d actually said, “I can’t go there. I don’t want to even think about it.”
I wanted to ask Gabby if she’d heard from her dad and see how she was doing, so when I had a break, I entered the kennel, braced for the inevitable bedlam of barking. The noise crescendoed, then quelled when the dogs saw who it was. What I liked about Gabriella and Tyler both was their ability to calm the animals with their presence. A quiet kennel is a lovely thing.
So is a clean kennel. These kids were thorough. I paid them well, but it went beyond that. Good help, real work ethic, was hard to find.
Zayna had had it, damn it. Now I was scrambling to hire a replacement. I couldn’t help wondering about Zayna’s family’s reaction. If her parents were so rigidly disapproving of her acting major, what the hell would they think of her sleeping with an older, married man?
Not my problem, I reminded myself. She deserved whatever hardships they threw at her now.
I was surprised to see dog poop in the three runs nearest the door. The kids should’ve gotten to this by now. Where were they? I saw them outside through the window. Oh, God, were they lost in one of their endless political debates again? It never ceased to amaze me that they actually discussed public policy. They made my high-school self seem so shallow.
Gabby had a beagle on a leash. Tyler had a springer spaniel. The poor dogs, though, were just standing there, bored, looking longingly into the distance.
I went to tap on the window, just to wave, say hi, perhaps jolt them into action, but I stopped with my knuckles a breath from the glass when I registered Gabby’s tearstreaked face.
Oh. Oh, poor Gabby. What a mess we’d made for her.
Comfort her, I willed Tyler. Why was he standing so far from her? Hug her, Tyler.
Gabby moved as if to walk away and Tyler reached out to stop her, which gave me a view of his face—he looked like Gabby had just told him his entire family had died.
Gabby led the beagle away. Tyler watched her go but didn’t follow. Devastation was loud and clear in his hunched shoulders, his frozen spine. The spaniel looked up at him and wagged her tail uncertainly.
What had just happened?
What had I just witnessed?
Long minutes crept by. He didn’t move.
I heard someone ask, “Where’d Dr. Anderson go?”
When Tyler finally walked back into the kennel, I busied myself with an Irish setter, treating her to a cursory exam she didn’t need. I looked in her ears and eyes, not seeing them at all, only seeing Tyler’s wounded expression.
This was about something more than the divorce.
I tried not to worry, but my next appointment was an expectant collie. As I palpated her abdomen, telling her beaming owner I felt four, possibly five puppies, I scolded myself. Don’t immediately jump to the worst-case scenario.
My anxiety ratcheted up several notches when Gabby waited outside my office for a ride home instead of going with Tyler, like she usually did.
When I asked about it, she shrugged and pointed to a red brick building we drove past. “There’s Dad’s apartment,” she said. Closer than I even thought. Depending on what floor he lived on, he might actually be able to see the clinic, an unsettling thought.
We drove home in silence, except for my desperate questions. “You okay?”
“Nope.”
“You wanna talk?”
“Nope.”
I squeezed her knee. She put a hand on mine and left it there while I drove.
After a moment I asked, “Did you hear from your dad today?”
“Nope.” She turned her head, looking out her window, so I couldn’t see her expression.
DURING THE NIGHT I CONVINCED MYSELF I WAS OVERREACTING. They’d simply argued. People argued, right?
Then I heard her vomiting in the bathroom.
When I asked her about it, she denied it. “God, Mom, what are you doing? Spying on me?”
She and Tyler barely made eye contact with each other at the clinic.
I focused on breathing in and breathing out.
I finally broke down and called Bobby. I was furious he’d ignored Gabriella for as long as he’d ignored me. I needed to talk to him about Gabby. If Gabby were in trouble, she’d need him. He’d be there for her