Who’s a Good Boy: Dog in This Fight #1 Read online

  The next few hours were spent getting ready, fielding a million phone calls from Ella after I told her what I was doing, and daydreaming about what might happen. At precisely four o’clock, I heard a car approaching our house and slipped out the front door.

  Jeff parked his dad’s car and stepped out while I did my best to not let my smile reach the insane proportions of this morning. He’d managed to remove all the grease and dirt from earlier and was now filling out a t-shirt and jeans instead.

  “Right on time,” I said.

  “I left early in case traffic was bad,” he joked, circling around to the passenger side and reaching for the door.

  “Such a gentleman…”

  “Ha! It’s not that, there’s just a knack to this door. Check it out.”

  He lifted the handle and yanked, the door remained firmly shut. Next he lifted his leg and thrust his knee forward, hitting the door with a solid thud. The door opened. He gestured inside.

  I laughed. “OK… anything else I need to know about this car?”

  “There’s a spare steering wheel in the glove compartment. We keep on losing them when they fall off and go through the hole in the floor. If I scream ‘wheel’ I’ll need you to grab it for me.”

  I managed to hold in my giggles long enough to make sure there weren’t actually any holes in the floor, stepping into the vehicle. Jeff closed the door behind me and returned to the driver’s seat.

  “So it’s safe?” I asked.

  Jeff looked at me and smiled in a way that made my breath catch in my throat. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  Fifteen minutes later, we were on the outskirts of the next town over. I looked out of my window and read a sign as Jeff pulled into a small parking lot.

  Wilcox Petting Zoo.

  “A petting zoo? I didn’t even know this was here,” I said.

  “We got a flyer in the mail last week. It just opened. The door works just like one on a real car from the inside, by the way.”

  Sure enough, I had no issues, and followed him into the reception area. The woman behind the counter greeted us with a smile.

  “Hi folks! Indoor petting area, farm tour, or both?”

  “We’ll get the works, and I’ll have a… uh… root beer,” Jeff said, pointing at the display refrigerator behind the woman. “You want something to drink?” he asked me.

  “I’d love a water, if you don’t mind… I was going to bring one but I forgot.”

  I stepped closer to the counter and brushed against Jeff with my elbow. He glanced down at me as the woman retrieved our drinks from the fridge and didn’t move away.

  When the woman turned back, I saw her name badge said “Brenda” on it. She set the drinks down on the counter and Jeff slid my bottle of water in my direction.

  Brenda brought up a pink wristband. “Ladies first.”

  I held my arm out and she stuck the wristband on, then repeated the process with Jeff. Brenda then pulled out two small sacks, each about twice the size of our drinks.

  “What’s this?” asked Jeff.

  “You can feed most of the animals on the farm tour. Their areas are marked with ‘Please Feed Me’ or ‘Please Don’t Feed Me’ signs. They’re reasonably self-explanatory.” Brenda grinned. “But this food isn’t for the babies indoors, OK? No matter how cute they are.”

  “Got it,” I said. Jeff nodded.

  “OK, right through there, you’ll find a guy named Andrew who will help you with anything you need with the indoor petting area. You’ll want to leave around forty-five minutes to make it around the track on the farm tour, so make sure you head out by quarter-to because we’re closing at five-thirty today.”

  “Thanks,” said Jeff.

  Jeff held out my feed-sack while I put my water into my handbag and then we walked in the direction Brenda indicated to the indoor petting area. A man, Andrew no doubt, excused himself from a family of five and came over to us.

  “Hi folks! First time?”

  “Yeah,” said Jeff.

  “OK. Well, we’ve got some lambs over here, some kids over here…”

  The three little kids from the family of five looked over at us.

  “I mean the baby goats,” continued Andrew. “You can just lean over the fence and they all love a good pet. Careful with the goats though, one of them has got springs for legs and he’ll jump up at you. He’s the bounciest thing I’ve ever seen, off the ground, the walls, his brothers and sisters, he doesn’t care, he just likes to jump. Or, you can take a seat and I can bring over any of the little ones we’ve got. Hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, even a very friendly rat.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  Andrew wandered back to the family to swap out whatever the children there wanted to pet next when he saw the two of us gravitating towards the lambs. The little sheep scurried over to us when we dangled our hands over the fence and it was cuteness overload while they investigated our palms for hidden food and pressed themselves into our pats and scratches.

  It was easy to spot the bouncy baby goat, he jumped on the back of one of his siblings and spring-boarded off, sending the other kid into a barrel roll. I hung my head well back from the fence when petting them, but Jeff nearly received a friendly head-butt.

  By the time we’d finished with the sheep and goats, the family was just moving on, despite the children’s protests. Andrew farewelled them and brought a little blanket and a rabbit over to us.

  “Care to take over?” Andrew asked.

  I nodded. “Yes please.”

  “Take a seat.”

  I sat down and Andrew laid the blanket over my lap, then placed the rabbit on top of the blanket. Jeff sat next to me and leaned in to stroke the rabbit.

  The firm muscles of his upper arm against mine contrasted against the pure luxurious softness of the rabbit’s fur. I stole glances at Jeff out of the corner of my eye and breathed in his cologne with the earthy undertones of all the animals around us.

  Andrew cleared his throat.

  “Huh?” I said, looking up.

  “I said, take a little lettuce. It’ll make sure he keeps still.”

  “Oh, sorry.” I took the leaf of lettuce he offered and held it in front of the rabbit’s face.

  His little nose twitched and he nibbled at the lettuce like he was rationing it out. For my part, I was more engrossed by the contact with Jeff.

  With my misconceptions swept away and my guilt about them also finally fading, I was finding the boy next door more than a little interesting. Not only was he not an animal abuser… he’d even make a petting zoo a first date.

  Of course, it didn’t hurt that he was easy on the eye. Especially yesterday when he had his shirt off. Or this morning in the singlet. Or like now when he had a smart-casual look going. I gulped and tried to concentrate on the rabbit, while at the same time leaning against Jeff a little harder.

  Each soft furry animal placed in my lap would have melted even the most blackened of hearts, although I had to pass on the rat. By the time we headed past the sign that said ‘This way to the farm track’, I was smiling from ear to ear.

  Sitting on a perch next to the door was a big white cockatoo, with a sign attached to said perch that said “Say Hello”.

  “Hey buddy, do you want a pat on the head?” asked Jeff.

  “RAWK! I wouldn’t,” said the Cockatoo.

  Jeff snatched back his already-extending hand and the look of shock on his face was the funniest thing I’d seen in months. I doubled-up laughing and held on to Jeff’s arm to keep myself upright.

  Andrew cracked up too. “Chester! Be Nice!”

  Chester the cockatoo gave Andrew a “you’re next” look while Jeff and I walked outside. When the giggles cleared up, I was still hanging on to Jeff’s arm.

  We found the track that led around the farm and followed it. After a few steps, Jeff moved his arm to put it around my waist, but a little higher due to how much taller than me he was. I could have rested my head agains
t his shoulder. After a few more steps I did just that.

  This is my spot.

  It was hard to believe it had been less than an hour since he picked me up. I was already this close to him, physically, and I would have sworn on live tv that I could feel the click, click, click as our spirits fit together perfectly on some higher level. It just felt so right.

  “So what made you think of a petting zoo?” I asked as we walked.

  “Chopper. He gave you a four-point-five-star review on your skills, so I thought this might be one of your strengths.”

  “Out of five?” I asked.

  “Yep.”

  “Where did I lose my half star?”

  “Not sure. It’s just his policy to never give full marks. Like, there’s always room for improvement, you know?”

  “Fair enough.”

  Jeff’s arm tensed up a little. “Not too bad a choice then?”

  I sighed contentedly. “It’s great, I love it.”

  His arm relaxed again. “I’m glad, I wasn’t sure…”

  “Why not?”

  “You know…”

  “Know what?”

  “Well… you know… you’re Hazel Rivera.” The fingers on his far side hand spread out and twinkled a little around his grip on his feed-sack. “You’ve got a reputation of your own.”

  I craned my neck up and pulled away a little, perplexed. “What reputation would that be?”

  “You’re… Your family and the Poppletons basically own the whole town. I know you are, or were at some point, close with James. He used to never shut up about you being his girl, except for the time I socked him in the mouth. Anyway… I’m not like him, I had to pick you up in my dad’s car instead of my own Porsche. I had to bring you somewhere like here instead of an expensive restaurant. I suppose… I don’t know, it feels like you might live in a different world.”

  I stopped walking and Jeff’s arm slipped off as he took another step and a half before stopping and turning back.

  “OK, first of all… ew. I was never ‘James’ girl’. I’ve never even been on a date with him, no matter how much our parents socialize, and how much he butters up my dad.”

  “Oh…”

  “Second, I’m not what everybody wants me to be. I don’t want to live in a different world apart from everybody else.”

  “I can see that now. For what it’s worth, I’m glad I was wrong. The real you is a lot better. Forgive me?”

  I tried to maintain an indignant face, but a smile cracked through. “OK.” I stepped forward and reclaimed my spot with his arm around me. “But you owe me brownies.”

  Jeff sucked air in through his teeth. “That might not be the best idea.”

  We walked on, through some free-roaming chickens. A tired-looking old farm dog passed us going in the other direction, and ignored both us and the chickens completely.

  For a moment I seethed inwardly. I’d never had any clue that James was going around telling everybody I was his girl. What in the hell was that all about?

  I shook it off. Tonight was about Jeff and me. Maybe next time I met James I’d sock him in the mouth myself.

  “What was it you and James fought about?” I asked.

  Jeff’s arm tensed up again. “Uh… it’s nothing.”

  “Nothing? Was it worth getting kicked out of school over?”

  Jeff pondered for a few seconds. “Yes it was. I guess I mean it’s nothing you’d want to hear about.”

  “If it was worth it, then it must have been important. Hey.” I nudged his arm with my head and he looked down at me. “I’m the kind of person you can tell things to.”

  His eyes, so piercingly green that they reminded me of a cat, regarded me for a while and then closed as he took a deep breath.

  “Well… we’ve never seen eye to eye. He’s always been an asshole as far as I’m concerned. Just… that day was a hell of a day.”

  “What happened?”

  “Ugh,” he groaned as if dragging the words out was an effort. “I had an argument with my dad. I was all messed up. He… he told me why my mom left. Y-you sure you want to hear this?”

  It was a little more personal than I’d thought a schoolyard fight would be, but I nodded. “If you can.”

  Jeff sighed. “He said she left because he was a drunk and he… he hit her. She just up and left one day when I was three, only heard from her a couple times since then.”

  “Sorry,” I said.

  Jeff shrugged. “So, of course I decided to press him on it one morning before school and he caved in and told me everything. We had a bit of a scuffle and I left for school, all messed up like I said. Sure enough, the second I walk in the school grounds, who’s the first person I see?”

  “James Poppleton III?”

  Jeff nodded. “And on that day, out of all the days, he says he heard my mom left because she got a taste for sucking truckers off at the diner by the highway and decided life as a hitch-hiking cum dumpster was better than staying with my dad and me. Talk about timing. Took a few guys to pull me off him that morning, I tell ya.”

  “Holy shit…”

  “I know… I told you it was nothing you’d wanna hear.”

  “It’s not that… it’s just… wow.”

  On our right-hand side, in a field of what appeared to be at least ninety percent pure mud, were some pigs. We stopped and looked at them for a while, but the sign on their fence said “Please Do Not Feed Me!” so we kept our hands to ourselves.

  I gave Jeff a little squeeze around the waist. “Thanks for telling me that.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. It makes me feel kinda special. I’m glad I was wrong about you too. How are things with your dad now?”

  “They’re good. We’ve… we’ve made our peace.”

  “Does he still…”

  “Drink? Hit?”

  I shrugged. “Yeah, either.”

  “No. He’s changed, I think. Do you think people can change?”

  “I dunno. You gotta hope so, though, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Did he ever hit you?”

  “No. I mean, that morning he’d have a pretty solid self-defense argument, but other than that, no. He’s always just been… Dad. A pretty good one, I thought. I don’t remember much from when my mom was around, but none of it was… you know… violent. All that stuff was kind of above my pay grade I guess.

  “I heard he used to drink. That’s why he lost the vineyard, right?”

  “And why your family bought it. Yep. That’s why he works for you guys, but he kept the house and a little bit of land around it, cleared up the debts with the money.”

  Jeff and I followed the track around the farm. I didn’t want to let go, and he didn’t seem to want to either, so we had to adopt a kind of teamwork approach to feeding the animals. First, I’d hold my feed sack open for him to pick from, then he’d hold it so I could have a turn.

  We went through all the sheep, llamas, donkeys, horses and a solitary emu that I was too scared to feed.

  “That son of a bitch pecks like he means business,” said Jeff, shaking his hand after feeding it.

  It was an awkward way to walk around and feed animals. Kinda awkward, but kinda perfect too.

  The last stop on the farm tour was a goat that bleated at us like long lost friends, propping its front hooves up on the fence.

  “This has got to be Jumpy’s dad,” said Jeff.

  “Definitely.” I pulled the last handful of feed out of the sack and held it out for Jumpy Senior, who gobbled it up in recorded time, then looked at us with comical expectancy.

  “Selfie op! Quick, get on the other side.”

  Jeff and I posed with Jumpy Senior and laughed when we saw the goat’s tongue was hanging out one side of his mouth. We took another so all three of us had our tongues out to the side.

  There was a container for empty feed-sacks, so we put ours in and wished Jumpy Senior all the best before heading back through another do
or that took us through the main reception. We washed our hands in the bathrooms and then left out the front to the parking lot.

  “Can you stop here?” I asked when Jeff pulled into my driveway.

  “Sure, why?” Jeff said as he stopped.

  “My parents will be back in the house now, I just want to avoid the Spanish Inquisition, you know?”

  “I get it. I dodged one myself this morning. What are you up to tonight?”

  “I’m going out with Ella. That’s why I wanted to do this earlier.”

  “So…”

  “I had a great time.”

  “Me too. Could I get your number?”

  “Oh? What would you want with that?” I teased.

  “Just to arrange a suitable time to bring your plate back. Or… ask you out again?”

  “Those both sound awesome.” I gave him my number and he put it into his phone. “See you when I see you.”

  “Have a good night, Hazel.”

  I smiled shyly and stepped out of the car, walking towards my house. After only a few steps, I heard Jeff step out too.

  “Hey!”

  I turned and Jeff walked up to me until he was close enough that I could smell that cologne again. I licked my lips, my heart fluttering.

  Jeff touched my hips gently and bent down slowly. I turned my face up and our lips met. It wouldn’t have surprised me if fireworks went off above us at that point. I swayed against him, a little breathless when he rose to his full height again.

  “Talk soon?”

  I nodded and didn’t touch the ground all the way to my front door. I wondered if Jeff had the same problem with the car.

  Homecoming

  Jeff - AFter

  Part of me never thought I’d see this place again. Most of me. The whirling part of my brain that always picked away at different scenarios that would allow me to come home had gradually become quieter and quieter until it was just a numb area at the back of my head.

  The phone call I received last week had spread that numbness even further, spread it to the part of my brain responsible for self-preservation. The same phone call eliminated the other reason for staying away too, and did it with the efficiency of four words.

  I’m sorry. He’s gone.