calling at a bad time.”
“Maggie?”
“Yes, it’s me.”
“No, I’m sorry,” Kelly said, trying not to whine in spite of the sob that escaped. “It’s not a bad time at all for me, but it might be for you. I’m having a pity party right now. Why? Why did this rescue have to tank just when everything was coming together? Why? After all the years we’ve been here, I have over three hundred subscribers! They were sending me money every month like clockwork. All the bills were paid. I could finally pay for some of the surgeries I had begged Ted or Justin to do free. That dog with the torn ACL? Three grand to a specialist in New Orleans. Paid!”
She sniffed, suddenly ashamed and so defeated. Why was she burdening a stranger with her problems? Then, words from the mouth of a literal angel.
“Kelly, I want to open a rescue here. That’s why I’m calling you. I never thought about just moving your operation here, but why don’t we do that? Why am I going to reinvent the wheel?”
“Wait. You want to run a rescue? Why didn’t you say anything when we were together?”
“I got inspired for real when we were at Ted’s and I saw the RV. I can get a trailer here so we don’t have to build a barn. What do you say? I’m so mad at myself for not thinking of this sooner!”
Pulling a bucket over, Kelly sat down, staring off into space. Could they really pull it off?
“You mean, just move everything over by you?”
“That’s what I mean. I already have the zoning. You know I have wild horses here, right?”
“I know. I think that’s great. Yeah, by the way, my brother’s wife spilled the beans about Ted. In the middle of Thanksgiving dinner, I find out my boyfriend, quote unquote, is running for the creepiest-guy-of-the-year contest.”
“It’s not your fault,” Maggie said, embarrassed.
“It is, sort of. I’m so sorry. He’s not right in the head, you know that, don’t you? He wouldn’t hurt you. He’d just become a pest. Evidently, Grace Breaux had hired Ted right out of vet school to work at her clinic, and he became such a nuisance that she fired him.”
“Well, that’s not your fault, either. Do you love him?”
“He’s a good distraction from all the crap that is going on, so no, I don’t love him that way. Losing the rescue has about done me in. I had to beg Danny’s father to take him for four days so I could finish up this fiasco. I still have six dogs to deal with.”
“I can take some of them, Kelly. But what do you think about moving the rescue here?”
“Would it still be my rescue? I mean, I know that sounds selfish, but would I still be in charge? The people who support this place know and respect me, is all I mean. I really would hate to lose that, to have to start all over.”
“Kelly, when you get to know me better, you’ll discover that I’m almost pathologically introverted,” she said, laughing out loud. “If you want to run the place, go for it. We’ll have to figure out some way to divide the responsibility, though, unless you want to rent the space from me. If we shared, I’d assume some of the financial burden. I’d be there to do the physical work. There must be other areas that would make it beneficial to share. I was going to contact an attorney Monday.”
They talked about the responsibilities running the rescue would entail, all the things that Maggie had wanted to ask her and the original reason for the call.
“Okay, I accept. You need a trailer, though, right? My father has a double-wide. I’ll ask him if we can buy it if you want. I’m sure he’ll give us a good deal.”
“No way.”
“Oh yes. It’s in St. John’s Parish. He used to use it as a hunting cabin. I just heard him say that he was going to sell the building because he lost his land lease, just like I did. It’s a coincidence for sure.”
“Ask him what he wants for it.”
“I will. You’ll have to have a foundation poured, but you know Steve can do that. He’s amazing with cement.”
“Wow, this is almost falling into place too easily.”
“I have to move all of this stuff into a storage locker, so it’s not easy yet. And now I guess I need to end it with Ted if he’s going to be a