Grace Anne - By Kathi S. Barton Page 0,36

was mean to her and then she got this phone call and whoever it was made her sad, then she held my hand and told me that she was going to miss me.”

Michael could hear the tears in his son’s voice and took a deep breath. “Okay, son, let’s start over. Who did you find and who wanted to throw them out to die?”

Seemed a reasonable place to start, but apparently not to his son. “She’s going to leave us. Are you going to let her go? I love her, Dad, and I don’t want her to go away.”

He figured he was talking about Grace, but wanted to be sure. “You mean Grace? She’s not going anywhere, Trace. She and I are working on a deal that will give her a better place to work and I’ll have—”

“You’re not listening to me. She got this phone call and I think that person…hang on, the doctor wants to ask me a question.”

Michael stood up. His son was at a doctor’s office. He grabbed his coat to go to him when he realized he had no idea where he was. The last he’d heard he was with Grace. He sat down hard, thinking something had happened to her. When Trace came back on the line, Michael was ready to scream.

“They wanted a name to call him. I hope you don’t mind, but I’m calling him Walter. They said he need a good name and Grace said I should add something distinguished to it. So his name is Walter Stuffinpuppy the Fourth. Is that okay with you?”

Michael laid his head on his desk. “That’s fine, son. Where are you?”

“At the vet.”

Michael waited for more, but apparently he was waiting in vain. “And you’re there with Grace and Walter?” Again, a short, to the point answer. “Can I speak to Grace, you think? Or can Walter come to the phone?” At this point, he would talk to anyone to figure out what was going on. His son’s laughter caught him off guard.

“Walter is a dog, Dad. Grace is out in the lobby with my coat. I left her my stuff so she couldn’t leave me. She said she was going to have to leave us, Dad. I don’t want her to.”

Neither did Michael. He stood again and walked toward the door. “What vet are you at and I’ll come and get you both…well, all three. And then we’ll talk about Walter and his new owner.” Trace giggled again. “I’m assuming you’re his new owner, right?”

“Yeah. I couldn’t let them throw him outside in the rain, Dad, and the vet says that he’d got a cold and needs some TLC. I had to ask him what that meant and I’ve got plenty of tender loving care for him, I promise.”

Michael didn’t doubt it. “Does Grace know that you called me?” At his son’s ‘no’ he grinned. “Don’t tell her. She and I will have a long talk when I get there. And son.”

“Yeah, Dad?”

Michael grinned bigger when he heard the suspicion in his son’s voice. “If Walter isn’t house trained, you’re cleaning up his messes.”

Michael called his mom next. “Can you call Markus for me and tell them we’ll have to meet tomorrow? I have something to do and it can’t wait any longer.”

“Yes. I’ll call him now. Is there anything wrong? It’s not the deal, is it? Oh Michael, tell me what I can do to fix it.”

He pushed the button to the elevator to go down to his car. “No, nothing to do with that. It’s Grace and Trace.” He liked the sound of that. “Trace apparently found a dog and someone he loves more than me.”

“He doesn’t love a dog more than you. He may say that, but he doesn’t. I remember once when you claimed to love the lady across the hall from us more than ice cream. It didn’t last. The next time I went to the store and got you your favorite, Miss Too-tight-dress was history.”

Michael laughed. “If I remember correctly, I only loved her for her cookies. Back then I don’t think I would have noticed how tight her dress was. No, it’s Grace. She told him she was leaving and he’s decided that he loves her too much to let her go.”

His mom snorted. “Well, at least one of you is smart enough to know a good woman when he sees one. Tell Trace that his grandmother thinks he’s the smarter of the two of you and