When Tomorrow Comes, page 15
Baye whirled around, heat infusing her face. “Teague!”
Connie burst out in a hearty laugh and crossed the room to give Baye a one-armed hug. “It’s all right, sweetie. We’re all family here. She has a hard time knowing what should stay private. Juice or coffee?”
“She is my girlfriend.” Teague’s tone was matter-of-fact.
A different kind of warmth filled Baye’s chest every time Teague said that. She kissed Teague’s cheek as she settled into the chair next to her. “Yes, and you are mine.” She smiled at Connie. “Can I have both?”
“Yes, you can,” Connie said as she placed a large bowl of fruit cubes between them. “Y’all go ahead. I ate hours ago when I got up to feed the dogs and give Badger his medication.”
“Bless his heart. He’s such a brave little guy,” Baye said. Her heart had been in her throat when he bit the bear. She was sure the bear would turn and grab him up in his jaws.
Connie sniffed, her eyes tearing a bit. “Yes, he is. In fact, I better go check on him to see if he needs to go out.”
“Remember, the vet said to put him on a leash outside,” Baye said. “He needs to walk to keep from getting stiff, but he shouldn’t run until the stitches heal a little.”
“I remember,” Connie said, waving over her shoulder.
Baye took a large bite of her omelet. “Oh my God. This is so good.”
“Yes,” Teague said. “She has cooked for my family since I was a child.” She stopped eating and stared at her plate. “Sometimes when I was little, I wished she had adopted me instead of my parents. They were good to me, but when they found out that I was different from other children, I think my mother regretted having me.”
“Oh, honey. My parents were great, too, but I just wore them out.”
“Are they still alive?”
“Yes. But I only talk to them a few times a year.” She couldn’t tell Teague that they’d taken out a second mortgage on their house to bail her out of financial trouble about seven years ago and she hadn’t paid back any of it. They both had to postpone retirement to make the payments. She’d distanced herself from them since because of the shame she felt. She wanted to be better. To do better. Teague had learned to manage her disability, so maybe she could, too.
They finished eating, and Teague cleaned up after them while Connie was walking Badger.
“So, what’s on your agenda today?” Baye asked. “Should I go home so you can work?”
“I would like to see what progress you have made finding suitable homes for my animals.”
Shit. “Um, sure. We can take our coffee out to the terrace, and I’ll give you a summary of my progress. I don’t have my notes here, so I can’t really give you details.” She’d done little more than browse the web and solicit interested people through social media. She received hundreds of instant messages from all over the country but hadn’t read many of them. She planned to make a spreadsheet of the offers for Teague to review, but she’d spent the past week getting high and sulking about Teague’s behavior when she was working.
“Then we will go to your house.”
“NO. I mean, I haven’t had a chance to clean it up.” Think fast, think fast. “It’s a mess because I was depressed after you threw me out of the cottage because you were working. It was like you had forgotten who I was. I was devastated.”
“I am very sorry, but your house should be clean now.”
“What? Do you employ elves that go around and clean other people’s houses?”
“Not elves. I asked Connie to send our cleaning agency to your house yesterday afternoon as an apology for my behavior. I forgot to tell you because the bear distracted us.”
“Really?”
“I always tell the truth.”
Baye was delighted. “Yes, you do.” She laughed and kissed Teague’s cheek. “Like you telling Connie we were late to breakfast because we were having shower sex.”
“It is the truth.”
Baye had to laugh again at the puzzlement on Teague’s face. If she ever suspected her of cheating, all she would have to do was ask. Teague would surely answer truthfully. She kissed her again, this time on the lips. “Yes, it is. Let’s go see what my house looks like clean.”
* * *
“Wow. I can’t believe this is the same house my grandmother lived in.” Baye was amazed by the job Teague’s agency had done. Not only had they cleaned up Baye’s mess, but they had also removed years of dirt wedged in cracks, covering baseboards, collecting on ceiling fans, darkening tile grout, and clinging to walls. “It’s spotless. Even the air in here smells clean.”
“The report Connie received said the filters to the heating and cooling system were black with dirt and mold, so they also cleaned your ductwork.”
“Uh, what’s ductwork?”
Teague’s eyebrows rose in an incredulous expression. “Do you even know where your fuse box is?”
“What?” She made an impatient noise. “Just because I’m a lesbian doesn’t mean I’m handy with tools and such. I do know that every house has an electrical box. I’m just not sure where mine is.”
“Noted.” Teague’s smile was wry.
Baye spotted Tommy and John out by the dog pens. Maybe she could distract Teague from checking her progress on rehoming her pets. “Hey, we should update John and Tommy on the bear situation. You know, find out if they’ve seen any sign of the bear prowling around the kennels.”
Teague looked through the window, too, and nodded. “We should let John know about the three people tracking the bear. I would not want him to shoot salt at them if he sees them in the woods behind the kennels.”
Shoot salt? She had no idea what Teague was talking about, but she’d go with it. “Right. I was thinking the same thing.”
Tommy and John were swapping out dogs to give all of them time in the play yards. The pool had been a big hit, so there was now one in each yard.
Baye was surprised to see Buster, the hugely muscular pit bull, playing in the yard that held a dozen small dogs. “John, is it wise to let him in with the little dogs? He could snatch one of those chihuahuas up and kill it with one shake of his head.”
“Oh, no!” Tommy said. “Buster won’t hurt any of them. He likes them.”
John chuckled. “We actually have a lot fewer dustups with him in there babysitting.”
As if on cue, a chihuahua guarding a small ball jumped another that walked too close. Buster was there in an instant, sticking his big head between the two. This move stopped the assault, but the angry dog went after his perceived thief a second time. Buster, tail wagging, gently wrapped his jaw around the tiny dog’s shoulders, picked him up like a puppy, and walked across the yard to plop him down in a far corner.
“She’s being a bad dog, and Buster has put her in time-out,” Tommy explained. “Now, he’ll play with her until she isn’t mad anymore.”
Baye watched in amazement as the big dog licked the tiny dog, then lay down and rolled onto his back, inviting the chihuahua to climb on him and playfully nip at him. “That is so sweet.”
“You should keep Buster to help manage the other animals and guard the kennels,” Teague said.
“Could we? I’ve never had a dog of my own.” Tommy looked hopefully at Baye. “He could sleep with me at night and listen for bears and help with the other dogs. He’s really good.”
Baye, of course, melted and instantly wanted to grant Tommy’s request. Teague was more practical.
“You would have to bathe him every week, maybe more often if he gets muddy or rolls in something stinky.”
“He loves a bath,” Tommy said, his eyes glowing.
“You will be responsible for feeding him, keeping his nails trimmed, and making sure he goes outside to potty,” Teague said.
The big man grinned. “I already do that, and he never goes potty inside.”
“Also, I do not want you to bring him up to my barn until I can meet you there and make sure he is going to be okay around Mac, Cappie, the rabbits, and the chickens. I will need to introduce him to Lucky and Asset, too, so they will not think he will hurt the sheep or goats.”
Tommy nodded. “Yes, ma’am. Can we do that soon?”
“How about tomorrow? Leave him here with John when you come over to feed and put everyone in the barn tonight.”
“Okay.” Tommy began to rock back and forth with excitement.
Baye added one last condition. “You have to ask John if it’s okay for you to have a dog. You live in his house.”
“John, please, can Buster be my dog and live with us?”
John scratched at his beard stubble as though thinking it over. “You’ll have to wash your sheets and blanket every week if he sleeps on your bed, and you’ll have to vacuum the rugs and clean the floors every other week. Dogs shed their hair and track in dirt a lot. I can mark it on your chore calendar for you.”
Tommy nodded vigorously.
“Then I guess Buster can live with us.”
Tommy nearly knocked John over with a bear hug. “Thank you, thank you.” Then he rushed to Baye and hugged her. When he looked at Teague, Baye thought she was going to run from his exuberance. “Miss Baye said you don’t like to be hugged unless it’s her doing it. So, can she hug you for me?”
Baye laughed at the relief on Teague’s face as she smiled and nodded. “I can do that,” she said, then gave her a long, firm hug. “You have to come up to the house after you put the dogs back in their kennels and sign Buster’s adoption papers so he will really be yours.” Ah. Another delay. Maybe Teague will forget reviewing her rehoming project today.
Tommy hesitated. “Do I need money to adopt Buster?”
Baye smiled at him. He really was a kid in a man’s body. “Nope. You get the employee discount, which means Buster is free.”
* * *
“So, I posted on multiple social media platforms to solicit applications from suitable pet lovers, and I got hundreds of responses. I’m printing the emails and copying the instant messages so I can enter them in a spreadsheet to filter out the best prospects.” She sent several of the emails to the printer to demonstrate. “I’ll send emails to the best ones to get more detailed or missing information, so we can narrow them down even further. I’ll weed out, of course, any that reply from outside the United States.” Baye paused and looked up from the email account she’d set up just to collect responses. “Should I narrow it down to the East Coast or just to the Southeast?”
“No,” Teague said. “Anywhere in this country…and maybe Canada.” She went to the printer and scanned a couple of the emails.
“I’ve been working on setting up separate spreadsheets for Asset, Lucky, Mac, Cappie, Snow, Leo, the chickens, the rabbits, the goats, and the sheep. I have so many emails, it will take a while to input the information into the spreadsheets.”
Teague looked puzzled. “I am paying you five thousand a month. You can hire someone to help you with the mundane tasks like inputting information.”
Baye was surprised. “Oh. I hadn’t thought of that.”
“You could post some flyers around the university campus to find a college student who needs a summer job. You should post flyers in the building where they teach statistics. Those students should be accomplished at spreadsheets.”
“That’s a great idea.” Baye kissed Teague on the cheek. “That’s why you’re a genius.” She debated, then decided to voice what had nagged at her from the beginning. “Can I ask a question?”
“Of course.” Teague didn’t look up from studying the categories on the spreadsheet.
“Why don’t you just set up a trust for someone to live in your house and care for the animals after you, uh…are gone? They could live out their lives in the home they’ve come to know.”
Teague sat back. “My estate has been passed down through three generations of Maxwells by a transfer-on-death deed stipulating that upon the owner’s death, the estate is automatically transferred to the nearest blood relative in the Maxwell family. I have no heir, so the estate will automatically go to my male cousin, who is allergic to both fur and feathers.”
“I see. What if your animals simply came to live with me? You know I love all of them.”
“I do not see that as a viable solution because of your proximity to their current home. You would be constantly retrieving them from the estate because they would seek to go to their old home at every opportunity.” She paused. “And, given your, um, lax housekeeping, this house would not be a safe environment for Max or Cappie.”
Baye stiffened. “I just kind of let things go when I get depressed. Then when things pile up, I’m too overwhelmed to know where to start cleaning up. I can do better.”
“And I can start hugging every person I see.” Teague’s tone, her fleeting gaze were kind. “We both have to face the reality of our struggles.”
Baye didn’t like it, but Teague was right. Even if she could afford to hire a housekeeper, they wouldn’t be with her twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year. Teague’s obsession with neatness and routine created the ideal environment for the inquisitive parrot and monkey. Even when Teague was in manic work mode, she kept them with her in the cottage to tend to their basic needs.
“I thought you would be farther along on the project,” Teague said. “We’re going into the second month.”
“Well…”
Teague’s phone rang, and she glanced at the display. “It is the hospital.” She accepted the call. “Hello…yes, this is Teague Maxwell…I can be there in ten minutes.” She nodded as if the person on the other end could see her. “Thank you.” She ended the call. “I have an ultrasound of my heart scheduled for next week, but they have had a cancellation and want me to come now.”
Baye stood when Teague did. “Do you want me to go with you?”
“No. It will not take long, and there is no sedation involved. Results will not be available until tomorrow.” She started for the door, but Baye stopped her for a long kiss.
“Will you call me when you get home?”
“Yes.”
Chapter Fifteen
Take off your shirt and bra and put on this gown so that it opens in the front,” the ultrasound technician said before drawing a curtain around the space that contained a chair and a large hamper for discarded gowns. “Just come on out when you’re ready.”
The gown didn’t make sense to Teague. The minute she lay down on the bed, the technician would open it and expose her breasts anyway. Why couldn’t she just shuck off her shirt and bra and lie down? She and the technician were the only ones in the room. She sighed and did as instructed anyway. She was grateful the gel the technician spread on her chest was warm, but the slide of the ultrasound wand against her skin made her grind her teeth and clinch the sides of the table. She closed her eyes and imagined Baye was holding the ultrasound wand, not some women she met five minutes ago.
“Is your doctor looking for something specific?” the technician asked.
“Yes. We are looking for any indication of an aneurysm.”
“Gotcha. I didn’t have the full order handy since we bumped up your appointment. Thanks, by the way, for coming in so quickly.”
“You are welcome.” Teague waited impatiently. Just when she thought she was about to jump off the table and flee, the technician began to wipe her chest with a towel.
“All done.”
“What did you see?”
“Oh, I don’t read the results. A doctor will do that. Someone should call you tomorrow with them.”
“You do a lot of these tests?”
“Yep. I’ve been in this lab for the past fifteen years.”
“So, you should know if you see an irregularity. What did you see?”
“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to tell you. You appear to have a perfectly healthy heart. That is not a doctor’s opinion, though, so you should wait for him to call you after he’s read the ultrasound.”
“Thank you.”
* * *
“We’re taking the first step in collider technology that will make the huge rocket boosters obsolete. Nuclear fusion and the theoretical quark fusion are useless unless we figure out how to construct a collider small enough to be mobile. Think flux-capacitor and warp-drive engineering. It’s all theory right now, but we need help working on the mathematics to lay the groundwork,” Dr. Robert Turner said.
The idea was intriguing, even enticing. It was the exact problem Teague had privately been exploring for years in her spare time. “I appreciate your faith in me, but this is not something I can work out in a few months, or even a year, and give you definitive results,” she said.
He laughed. “You are brilliant, but I wasn’t proposing that. We want to hire you to lead a team of scientists on this project long-term.”
“I work alone, Dr. Turner. You know that. And I will not relocate.”
“I’m aware of your personal challenges, Dr. Maxwell. I’m asking you to pinpoint the hurdles to this technology, then recommend teams of scientists to focus on specific problems. You would be the puzzle master, fitting together the pieces they produce. You would be expected to meet periodically—maybe a few times a year—with the teams that you assign to individual projects.”
“Why do you want me to lead this study?”
“To be frank, Dr. Maxwell, we both know your brain is wired a bit differently. While you might see that as challenging, NASA sees it as an asset. We need someone who can look at the map and see a different, unexpected route to the solution. Does that make sense?”
“Yes.” She was excited by the challenge, but something she couldn’t yet define made her hesitate. She’d worked on several projects for Dr. Turner and respected his expertise. They were more than acquaintances but not really friends. She didn’t have friends. “I will consider your offer, Dr. Turner, and give you an answer within the week. Will that be sufficient?”
