Good Guys Love Dogs (6 page)

scented conditioner. When she
finished, she wrapped a

towel around Colby's head and led
her to her station up

front.

“So what are we
gonna do today, honey? Louise asked

after Colby settled in the chair.

Colby met her hopeful gaze in the
mirror. “Just the

usual.

“How'd I know you
were gonna say that?

Louise had been trying to talk her
into going the way of

big hair for years. “Men
like a lotta hair, she'd said more

times than Colby could count. “You
walk into a nightclub,

and you gotta compete with all those
Dol y Parton types.

You can't just let yourself blend
into the woodwork.

Like Phoebe, Louise ranked Colby's
lack of interest in

the dating scene right up there with
self-administered

haircuts and chipped nail polish. It
simply didn't do.

Smiling, Colby said, “I
have to give you credit for

trying, Louise.

“Now, Colby, you
know I think you're one of the

prettiest gals around. I'd just like
to pizzazz you up a bit,

that's all.

Pizzazz, as Louise defined it, meant
frosting and a perm.

“Thank you,
Louise, but—

53

INGLATH COOPER

“I know. I know.
You like it how it is. I just thought with

that new man in town, you might have
changed your mind.

Let's see, what's his name? McKlel
an, Mc— Louise

snapped her fingers, searching for
the name.

“McKinley, El en
Ann Edwards offered up from the

next station. “Ian
McKinley.

That name again.

“I shoulda known
you'd have it down pat, Louise said

to the other woman with a chuckle.

“Wel , why not?
It's not as if someone like that moves

to Keeling Creek every day of the
week, Ellen Ann

declared.

“You're right
about that, Louise agreed. “I saw him at

the DMV when I was gettin' my county
sticker, and he was in

front of me. Didn't even mind
spendin' my lunch hour

standing in line. That is one
fine-looking man.

Ellen Ann's nod of agreement carried
with it a look of

wistfulness. She added another
permanent rod to her

customer's hair. “I
saw him out jogging on the way to

work yesterday. All I could do to
keep my eyes on the

road.

“Oh, that's good,
Ellen Ann. Al we need is for you to

run over him.

El en Ann rol ed her eyes at Louise.
“Somebody said

he's from New York.

“City? Louise
asked.

El en Ann nodded again.

“So what's he
doin' here, you think?

“Beats me, but
I'm not complaining.

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GOOD GUYS LOVE DOGS

“Me, neither. If
I didn't already have me a fel a, I'd go

knock on his door and introduce
myself. He's got a boy at

the high school, but nobody's seen
hide nor hair of a wife.

“Now what would
you do with an uptowner like him,

Louise? the customer in Ellen Ann's
chair asked with a

giggle.

“I could think of
one or two things, Louise replied

with a wink and a nod.

The remark brought on a fit of
giggles from the women

around them, all of whom had been
listening to the

conversation.

The woman in El en Ann's chair waved
a copy of the

National Tattler
. “He
might find himself a wife here. I just

read a story about a prince from
some small country on the

other side of the world. He came
over here on a visit and

met some little gal from Kentucky.
Married her and took her

back to his kingdom.

“Sounds like
paradise, Colby said, deciding that the

women of Keeling Creek had been
seriously deprived for too

long. All this fuss over one man
moving to town. Okay, so he

was good-looking. He'd seemed nice
enough earlier, but

from al appearances, he'd fit in
here like the proverbial

square peg in a round hole.

“What I want to
know, Louise went on, “is what

Colby here thinks of him. After all,
she's the one who's free

and single.

“And not likely
to forget it, Colby chimed in.

“I can see why
you're choosy, hon, Louise

sympathized. “The
bachelor pickin's are pretty slim around

55

INGLATH COOPER

here. You better get in on this one.
Cindy Stoneway came in

this morning trying to figure out a
way to meet him. Last I

heard, she'd decided on a flat tire
in front of his house.

“Tell her good
luck for me next time she's in, Colby

said.

Louise brushed the loose hair off
Colby's plastic cape.

“Just don't hold
your breath waitin' for another one like this

to land in Keeling Creek. Might as
wel be holdin' out for

aliens.

“I won't, Louise.
Colby shook her head and smiled.

“I won't.

56

8

y the time Friday arrived, Colby
felt shopworn.

BThe last thing she wanted to do was
go to

Phoebe's and Frank's for dinner. But
Phoebe cal ed that

afternoon for a confirmation. The
clinic had been

swamped and Colby, having no time to
argue, gave her a

hasty, “I guess
so. She would have looked forward to

dinner alone with the two of them.
It would have given her

a chance to talk to them about Lena.
But she knew Phoebe,

and she'd bet her last dol ar there
would be another man

sitting across the dinner table from
her. A new lawyer from

Frank's firm, or someone Frank met
playing golf, or the

brother of someone Phoebe did
aerobics with. Going to

Phoebe's house had become a lot like
facing a firing squad.

The only bright spot in the evening
was that once she'd

given the man the thumbs-down, she'd
have a couple of

months' reprieve before Phoebe got
brave enough to try it

again.

With two children and a farm she
practically ran herself,

Phoebe should have better things to
do, anyway.

57

INGLATH COOPER

Colby fil ed the bathtub, then sank
into the bubbles with

a sigh, rationalizing that if her
first love had been a man like

Frank, she wouldn't be such a cynic
on the subject. But

Doug was nothing like Frank.

They met on her second day at the
University of

Virginia. He'd been the complete
opposite of the boys she'd

dated in high school and competed
with at local 4-H fairs.

He'd grown up in Philadelphia, where
his family name was

written in blue ink on the social
register.

He nearly ran over her in his red
Porsche at a crosswalk

in front of her dorm. He'd been
speeding and barely able

to avoid plowing right into her.
Angered by his carelessness,

she'd been prepared to give him an
earful. But he'd gotten

out of the car, apologizing
profusely. His dark good looks

and polished manners caught her off
guard, and she had

reluctantly forgiven him.

The obvious differences between the
two of them made

her both wary of him and attracted
to him at the same

time. He'd asked her out to dinner
to prove that he was

really sorry, but she turned him
down, tel ing herself she'd

be better off staying away from him.
He was persistent,

though, and one night when he nearly
knocked a hole in

her dorm window trying to get her
attention, she pushed

aside her doubts and went downstairs
to meet him.

From then on, they spent al their
time together. He

treated her well, took her to dinner
at fancy places and met

her at the library every afternoon.
When they ended up

making love in his room one night
after a party where they

58

GOOD GUYS LOVE DOGS

both had a little too much to drink,
it seemed a natural, if

unplanned, extension of where they
were headed.

She attributed her first missed
period to stress. She took

her studies seriously, and she'd
been agonizing over a

couple of classes in which she aimed
to make
A'
s in spite of

the teachers' tough reputations.
Doug had been moody with

her lately, accusing her of caring
more about school than

she did him. He didn't look at col
ege the same way she did,

but then, regardless of what kind of
grades he made, he

would stil have a whopper of a trust
fund waiting for him

when he turned twenty-five.
Flattered to have one of the

most sought-after guys on campus
wanting to spend al his

time with her, she still determined
to make the grades she

needed to keep her scholarship and
get her into the vet

school at Virginia Tech.

When the second month went by with
stil no sign of

her period, Colby panicked. Feeling
sick inside, she made a

doctor's appointment without telling
Doug. Maybe she'd

known deep down what his reaction
would be.

The test result was positive. She
spent three days

agonizing over what to do, stil
keeping the secret to herself.

She final y told Doug one night in
her room. He'd gotten up

from the bed and gone to the window,
staring out at the

campus for several long minutes
before turning to her and

saying, “There's
only one thing to do. It's not too late.

She'd already thought about that,
but it wasn't a

solution she would even consider.
“I can't do that.

“We don't have a
choice, he said, his voice rising. “My

parents would cut me off flat if
they found out.

59

INGLATH COOPER

She'd asked him to leave then,
needing to be by herself.

He hadn't said the things she had
hoped he would say. The

decision tore at her for days. In
the end, she decided that

Doug was right. She would be only
nineteen when the baby

was born. How would she possibly
finish school? What

would her parents say? She could
only imagine their

disappointment.

She got as far as the examining-room
table before the

reality of what she was about to do
hit her. Although she

hadn't yet felt the baby's physical
presence, something

changed within her the moment she'd
learned of its

existence. How could she do away
with something so

precious and fragile? Her reasons
suddenly felt selfish and

shallow.

Doug sat outside in the waiting room
when she ran

from the office. He sprinted after
her, cal ing out for her to

wait. She stopped at the corner of
the street, her breath

coming fast and uneven.

“What happened?
he asked, taking her by the

shoulders.

“I won't do it.

“You can't back
out now, he said, looking incredulous.

“I was only
thinking about myself. About my life. Not

about the baby. Lots of people have
children and still get

through school.

Doug stepped back, his expression
closed. “We agreed.

“No. I won't do
it, Doug. I'm sorry. I just can't.

They drove to the dorm in silence.
He dropped her off

without saying goodbye. She didn't
hear from him for the

60

GOOD GUYS LOVE DOGS

rest of the week. When she went to
her room on Friday

after class, a note from him hung on
the door.

From that moment on, she'd been on
her own.

Looking back, she supposed she'd
thought he would come

around, own up to his share of the
responsibility. But he

hadn't. She'd eventual y realized
that it would have been a

mistake for the two of them to try
to make a go of it for the

baby's sake. After the initial
shock, her parents had been

anxious to help. She got an
apartment off campus,

determined to be independent. She
ran into Doug a few

times during her pregnancy. Their
meetings were awkward,

and he clearly couldn't wait to get
away. Colby wondered

what she'd ever seen in him. She
hoped he would be very

happy with his Porsche and his trust
fund.

The fol owing year, he transferred
to another col ege,

closer to Philadelphia, without once
trying to see Lena. For

the first few years of her
daughter's life, Colby agonized

over what to tel her about her
father when she asked, as she

inevitably would. And she had. Colby
never intended to lie to

her, but when Lena took her initial
answers of “Your daddy

went away to mean he had gone to
heaven, she never

corrected that impression. Somehow,
it seemed a lot more

palatable than the truth.

She hoped Lena would never have to
know.

Glancing at the watch she'd left on
the side of the tub,

Colby got out and dried off. She'd
lingered in the bath too

long, and now she would have to rush
to be on time. But

then, that was what she got for dwel
ing on things better left

in the past.

61

9

fter fixing Lena a hurried dinner
and leaving it on

Athe kitchen table, Colby went to
the bottom of

the stairs and called her name.

No answer. The bass from her stereo
beat a tattoo on