Chasing Bailey, page 1
part #3 of Lake Harriet Series
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
About the Author
Chasing Bailey
A Lake Harriet Novel
Copyright 2019 © Deanna Lynn Sletten
Kindle Edition
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the express written permission of the author.
eBook ISBN – 13: 978-1-941212-45-5
eBook ISBN – 10: 1-941212-45-X
Cover Designer: Deborah Bradseth of Tugboat Design
Editor: Samantha Stroh Bailey of Perfect Pen Communications
Novels by Deanna Lynn Sletten
The Women of Great Heron Lake
Miss Etta
Night Music
One Wrong Turn
Finding Libbie
Maggie’s Turn
As the Snow Fell
Walking Sam
Destination Wedding
Summer of the Loon
Sara’s Promise
Memories
Widow, Virgin, Whore
Kiss a Cowboy
A Kiss for Colt
Kissing Carly
Outlaw Heroes
Chapter One
Lisa Evans stepped up on her front porch as she juggled her two-year-old daughter, Abby, in one arm and a heavy bag in the other. She clumsily unlocked the front door, stepped inside the refreshing coolness of the living room, and set Abby down while also dropping the awkward bag to the floor. The bag tipped, spilling out Abby’s toys, extra clothes, diapers, and snacks—all the items she needed for a full day at day care. At the same time, Abby ran down the hallway toward the back of the house hollering, “Baywee” in her little girl voice.
Lisa sighed. Another day completed.
She knelt, shoved all the items back into the bag, and turned to set it in the entryway closet. As she did, she caught sight of herself in the mirror. Her long blond hair was falling out of its ponytail and her scrub shirt printed with playful kittens had a big red stain on it. Thankfully, it wasn’t blood like all the kids at school had thought when they’d stared at her with frightened faces. It was juice that had spilled as she’d poured some into Abby’s cup at lunchtime. She was thankful that Abby’s day care was next door to the school so she could eat lunch with her every day. But the stain was just another mishap that Lisa hadn’t planned for.
Lisa walked across the room and dropped onto the sofa. She could still hear Abby pattering around the back of the house, calling out for Bailey. Lisa still had to make dinner, feed the dog, give Abby her bath, and put the little girl to bed. Then tomorrow it would start all over again. Only two weeks into being a working single mother and Lisa was already drained.
Abby came back into the living room and ran toward her mother. “No Baywee!” she cried, her tiny rosebud mouth drooping into a frown.
Lisa couldn’t help but smile at the toddler’s expression. Her round, little face and button nose were framed in silky auburn waves and her big green eyes were what drew the most attention from everyone who saw her. Normally, Abby was a sunny, happy child, but her favorite part of the day was coming home to her fluffy Border Collie. Not having him come running to her as they entered the house had obviously been a disappointment.
Then it hit Lisa. Bailey hadn’t come running with excitement to see them. “Crap!” She scooped up her daughter and headed to the back door that led to their fenced-in backyard. “I’m sure he’s here somewhere,” she said, trying to convince herself more than trying to comfort Abby. She stared out the back door into the yard. Bailey had a doggie door that allowed him to go in and out as needed. But the yard was empty. No dog. Then, Lisa saw the hole.
“Crap!” she said again. Bailey had dug another escape route under their chain link fence.
“Cap!” Abby repeated.
Lisa grimaced. “Abigail Evans. Don’t copy Mommy.”
Abby grinned. “Cap!”
“Oh boy,” Lisa said under her breath. She hurried toward the front of the house again with the intention of putting Abby in her wagon and walking the neighborhood in search of Bailey. But as she entered the living room, there was a pounding on the door. She almost said “crap” again but refrained. She was almost certain she knew who was there.
Setting Abby down on the floor, she went to answer. Sure enough, there stood the hermit from across the street holding her runaway dog by the collar and glowering at her.
“Baywee!” Abby yelled, arms wide open. Bailey pulled away from the man and ran to Abby. She wrapped her arms around her furry friend.
“I’m so sorry,” Lisa said quickly to the man standing in front of her. His expression didn’t soften in the least.
“He was digging in my yard again,” he said. “What is it about my yard that he comes over there to dig? Why can’t he run off to someone else’s yard? This is the third time this month!”
The hermit looked really angry this time. The crease between his brows was deeper than normal. Of course, Lisa had never seen him do anything but scowl, but this was the worst one yet.
“I’m really sorry. I don’t know why he’s running to your yard either. He keeps digging a hole under the fence and I can’t seem to stop him,” Lisa said, which was true. Since she’d started working full time as a grade school nurse, Bailey had begun digging under the fence. Each time Lisa filled in the holes and placed large rocks over the area, he’d find a new spot to dig. She was at her wits’ end trying to figure out how to solve the problem.
“Yeah. So you’ve said before,” the man grumbled. He turned around and headed down the porch steps. “People who can’t look after pets shouldn’t have them,” he said. It was more of a mumble but loud enough for her to hear.
Lisa’s shoulders sagged as she shut the door. She already felt bad enough leaving the dog home alone all day. It didn’t help to be told she was a bad pet parent too.
She turned and there sat Abby and Bailey, side-by-side, both smiling up at her. The sight of them warmed her heart, reminding her why she’d kept the unwanted dog in the first place. When her ex-husband, Andrew, had gifted the black and white puppy to Abby last May, Lisa had adamantly said no. There was no way she could care for a toddler and a puppy all by herself.
“All little kids need a puppy in their lives,” he’d told her. And after only minutes, it was obvious that she couldn’t make him return the dog. Abby fell in love and she and Bailey were best pals from that moment on. But now that he was a gangly five-month-old dog and Lisa was working, Bailey had become more of a nuisance than a playmate. Still, Lisa didn’t have the heart to take Abby’s dog away from her.
“Why can’t you be more like Sam?” Lisa said, shaking her finger at the dog. “He never tries to run away. Sam, short for Samantha, was the beautiful, well-behaved golden retriever next door owned by Kristen and Ryan. Of course, she was also nine years old and well-trained, and poor Bailey hadn’t had the benefit of training yet. Lisa felt lucky he was house-broken.
Bailey cocked his head and stared at her with that silly doggie grin. Lisa sighed. It was difficult being angry at Bailey.
“I know. I know. It’s my fault you’re not trained.” She scooped Abby up as the little girl giggled with glee and headed toward the kitchen. Bailey followed, tail wagging. “Come on, you two. Let’s eat dinner.”
***
Avery McKinnon grumbled all the way across the street to his house. “Stupid dog. Why can’t he just leave me alone?” He strode around the side of his two-bedroom bungalow and grabbed the shovel that stood against the back of the garage. Coming back out front, he began shoveling the loose dirt off the grass and back into the hole Bailey had dug.
“Annoying neighbors and their dumb dogs,” he complained, growing more irritated with each shovelful of dirt. A car door slammed, making him turn to see who it was. The woman who lived next door to the annoying woman with the runaway dog was getting out of her car and lifting a toddler out of the back seat. She looked up, saw him staring, and waved. Avery quickly went back to his shoveling. He didn’t know her name and didn’t want to. He didn’t have time for these bothersome people who had neighborhood parties and barbecues. When he’d moved here a year ago, he’d told the real estate woman that he wanted to live in a quiet neighborhood. No sooner had he moved in than neighbors were knocking on his door, welcoming him. He didn’t want to be welcomed. He just wanted to be left alone.
After he’d shoveled and patted down the dirt, he returned the shovel to its place and went inside his house through the back door. Walkin
As he passed his bedroom on the way to his office, Avery saw his reflection in the dresser mirror. Ugh! He looked awful. His hair was shaggy, and he hadn’t shaved in several days. He glanced down at the flannel shirt he wore over his t-shirt and frowned. What was that stain? Yesterday’s pizza? The stain brought to mind the woman across the street. He was sure he’d scared the daylights out of her with how he looked when he’d dragged her dog over there. Her blue eyes had been wide, and she’d talked in that nervous, high-pitched way women spoke when they were uncomfortable. And talk about stains. What the hell was that red splotch on that silly kitten shirt she was wearing? Did she perform surgery on someone? She’d looked a mess.
A quick stab of remorse hit Avery. No, the woman hadn’t really looked a mess. She’d looked frazzled and tired. She’d probably worked all day and had just gotten home and still had the little girl to take care of all evening. And then there he was, right in her face, complaining about that dog. That sneaky, hole-digging dog that pulled a Houdini and escaped the backyard despite the chain link fence.
“Stop feeling sorry for that woman,” he told himself as he entered the front bedroom that he used as an office. “She should find a way to keep that dog in her own yard.”
He sat at his desk where he’d left his laptop open, the Word file staring back at him. “Now, where was I?” He scowled at the page, trying to remember his train of thought before he’d glanced out the window and had seen the dog digging. Running his fingers though his thick, dark hair, he studied the words he’d written half an hour ago.
“This story stinks!” he declared to the empty room. How on earth was he supposed to write a romance when he was still so angry over that crazy dog?
Taking a deep breath to clear his mind, he let his fingers start typing. Big, blue eyes filled with tears as she gazed up at him. Her long, blond hair had come loose from its ponytail, and her shirt had some unknown stain on it, yet he hardly noticed. All he saw were those full, pink lips on that perfect face and he wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her.
Avery stopped typing and glared at the words on the page. “What the hell is that?” He quickly backspaced through the paragraph, stood, and headed for the front door. He needed to take a long walk and get some fresh air. Maybe then he could sit down with a clear head and get back to work. The last thing he wanted to think about was some blond-haired woman with big blue eyes and pink lips. In fact, the last thing he needed in his life was any woman with any color of eyes or lips. He’d already had a woman in his life and been burned once. He didn’t need to be burned again.
Slamming the front door, he stalked down the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets and his head down. He didn’t want to see any neighbors or smile and wave to them. He just wanted to take his walk in peace.
Chapter Two
Before rushing out the door the next day, Lisa took a moment to stare at the doggie door in the back hallway. Last night, she’d filled the new hole Bailey had dug and covered it with large rocks and stones. But she knew Bailey would find a new spot to dig, and she didn’t think it was safe to let him be outside while she was at work. Yet, she also feared he’d have an accident on the floor if he was left inside all day, and that could trigger a regression in his house breaking. Lisa sighed and made a quick decision to lock the doggie door. She might regret it, but at least Bailey would be safely indoors.
She quickly picked up Abby, her day care bag, and her purse and rushed out the kitchen door to her car parked in the driveway. As she carefully buckled her daughter into the car seat, she glanced over at the light blue, white shuttered bungalow where the angry hermit lived. The house was quiet and there was no movement or lights on inside to show that he was also getting ready for work. She wondered what he did for a living that allowed him so much time at home. “And so much time to judge me,” she mumbled to herself.
“Cap!” Abby said gleefully.
Lisa eyed her daughter. “I didn’t say that, you little monkey.” But she supposed her tone had triggered the little girl’s memory.
Abby grinned at her and Lisa kissed her cheek. It was hard being mad at a sweet face like hers.
Later, at work, Lisa felt like she was going in ten different directions at once. Children came in with fevers and sniffles as harried parents arrived to pick them up. There were medications to distribute to children throughout the day and cuts and scrapes to fix with antiseptic and Band-Aids. The children didn’t come and go in an orderly fashion as Lisa had been used to when she’d worked at a clinic before Abby was born. There had been appointments then; whereas now, it was chaos all the time as if she had a revolving door. She’d always believed being a school nurse would be easy compared to her old job. Boy, had she been wrong. As the day neared its end, she was thankful it was Friday and she’d have two days to recuperate before it all started again on Monday.
Upon arriving home later that afternoon, after Lisa picked up a bag of food from a burger place—chicken nuggets for Abby—and feeling guilty about buying her daughter fast food, Bailey rushed to meet them at the front door.
“At least you didn’t run away,” Lisa said, relieved she hadn’t failed at that today. She set Abby down on the floor near the dog and headed into the kitchen. Immediately, she stepped into a huge puddle.
“Oh, Bailey.” She sighed. Bailey had the good grace to look ashamed for having wet the floor. Lisa felt bad. It wasn’t the dog’s fault; it was hers. No dog should have to wait hours to go to the bathroom, especially a young one.
“It’s okay, boy,” she said, ushering the dog out to the backyard where he immediately did his business again. She returned to the kitchen and wiped up the mess.
Later, after they’d eaten, Lisa walked out into the yard to assess the fence issue. Abby had toddled out with her and was now rolling a huge ball around the grass while Bailey circled her. Lisa grinned at the sight. The first time she’d seen Bailey run circles around Abby, she’d thought the dog was playing. Then she’d realized that because Bailey was a herding dog, he was doing what came naturally to him. Bailey was just keeping tabs on his little friend to make sure she was safe.
Lisa studied the fence line as they played. The fence ran from the back of the house to the garage on the right side, then along the back property and up the other side where it stopped at the back of the house. The back fencing was taller—six feet—with green weave running through it for privacy. The side fencing was shorter with no weave. There were bushes every few feet inside the fence along the left side, and nothing along the inside fencing on the right that ran along their driveway to the garage. That was the section of fence where Bailey had done all of his digging.
Lisa wasn’t sure what she should do to stop him. She’d put large rocks on the spots he’d dug, but there were plenty of open spaces. She really couldn’t afford to place decorative rocks all along there. Nor did she want to do what her ex-husband had suggested—place an invisible fence around the yard that would shock Bailey every time he drew near it. Not only was an invisible fence expensive, she hated the thought of training a dog with a shock collar. Lisa sighed. On her one income and the limited amount of child support Andrew paid, she could hardly afford to do anything to the yard.
“Hi, Lisa. What are you pondering?”
Lisa looked up and saw Kristen coming through the hole in the hedges between their driveways and stopping next to her fence. She had her little blond, blue-eyed toddler, Marie, in one arm and was holding a jar of soup in the other.
“Hi, Kristen,” she greeted with a smile. “Come on in and join us.” She opened the gate latch and let Kristen through. Immediately, little Marie wanted down so she could run over to Abby. They were only four months apart in age and had been playing together almost since birth. The two little girls hugged then started running in circles, falling and laughing before running and falling again in some sort of made-up game. The women laughed along as they watched the girls while Bailey circled them.
