Page 78 of Mia Amata

Allen watched the lights go off in the house when Megan went to bed. He had watched the dog tracking his trail through the trees, then sitting at the shore looking across at him. Sure, the dog probably caught his scent, but there was no way the dog could possibly know where he was now. There must have been a reason the dog was staring over toward where Allen was hidden, some bird flying overhead or a deer moving close by.

Just a coincidence had to be. He would have to be careful because when he followed the dog back up to the house, he caught Megan staring across the lake also like she could see something. He knew that wasn’t possible, but when he left the blind he checked it over, tightening up the coverings, adding some extra branches to make sure.

Heading back to the cabin, he lit the fire, grabbing something to eat. Sitting down while he ate, he pulled out his cell phone and looked at the pictures from Megan’s desk. The folder contained information for a company that did legal transcription for clients. It appears that Megan is working at home for them, some online company.

He looked over all the material, finding nothing there that really interested him. He then looked at the pictures of the planner he had found. It looked like her so-called husband was due back on Saturday. She had a couple appointments the following week, but nothing too interesting.

Until he turned to January. It appeared that she was going to be alone again for a period of two weeks in January. She wrote on her calendar ‘Jacob work conference’ drawing an arrow covering two weeks.

She had noted his flight information, so Allen knew exactly when he was leaving and coming back. He started to smile. The lake would definitely be completely frozen by then, he had time to put the final touches to his plan. Laying down to sleep, he knew that he finally had a timeline to do things, so he needed to rest up. He wouldn’t have to make a trip over to the house again until the day he put his plan into action. Until then, he had some things to do around here though to get ready for Megan. He fell asleep with the plan starting to come together finally.

Chapter 27

The week seemed to pass by slowly, but finally, Jacob came home. I was very glad to see him, I really did miss him while he was gone, but I made sure to downplay exactly how much, so he wouldn’t feel guilty that he had gone. I had made lasagna for our supper on Saturday night; as a rule, our Saturday night get-togethers with Randy and Josh were off on a Saturday when one of the guys had been gone for a few days, so it was just Jacob and me. While we were eating, Jacob filled me in about all the training. He was so excited about what he was learning, about the chances his new position was going to give him. Jacob asked me questions about how things had gone around the house, including how my work went for the week.

I told him about Lucky’s strange behavior when I let him outside. Lucky had continued running down to the beach every time, looking across the lake, almost like he was watching someone or something. “Probably found a deer trail in the trees, following the scent down to the water.” Jacob shrugged. “Probably,” I agreed. Lucky also continued his relationship with the baby. “Wait until after supper, I’ll show you how Lucky interacts with the baby.”

“He is still doing that?” Jacob raised his eyebrows.

I nodded, “He is. It is really cute. It is like they are communicating with each other.” I smiled. “Interesting. I know some dogs are protective of babies after they are born, but I have never heard of a relationship like this before they are born.” Jacob looked thoughtful. “Lucky must be more in tune with the baby because of his loyalty to you. He is a very smart dog.”

I started cleaning up after supper. “He really is. You know, when I watched him sitting down looking across the lake, I swear for a moment or two…” I hesitated, then shook my head. “No, I must have imagined it.”

Jacob brought some things off the table to the counter. “You swear what? Did you see anything?” He looked at me intently.

“Well, a couple of times I swear I caught a glint of like a reflection, you know like when the sun hits a window just right? The first time I just figured I imagined it, but I’ve seen it a couple of times. No one lives across the lake from us, right?”

Jacob shook his head, picked up some more dishes from the table, and carried them to the counter. “No, that side of the lake is all national forest land. Several years ago, they leased some of it out just for hunting, but they stopped that when there was a problem with poachers. I suppose there could be someone hunting illegally over there. Maybe I should check it out.”

“I probably just imagined it. Maybe it was some icicle or something. I just thought it was odd it seemed to be exactly at the same time Lucky was staring across the lake.”

We let the subject drop, settling down on the couch together. I lay down with my head on Jacob’s lap. He watched as Lucky walked up to us, putting his head on my belly. Jacob laid his hand on my side to feel when the baby kicked. The baby would kick, and in return, it seemed, Lucky would wag his tail, making little noises in his throat. This continued until the baby settled down, and then Lucky lay on the floor next to the couch. I looked up at Jacob, he looked amazed. “I’ve never seen anything like that before. He is communicating with our daughter.”

“I wonder if it has been the baby all along,” I said.

“What do you mean? That instead of being loyal to you, it has been the baby? How could he have known about it before he could feel the baby kick?” Jacob asked.

“I don’t know, but maybe he sensed I was pregnant and is protecting the baby instead of me,” I replied.

“I think he would probably protect both of you should he have to. It will be interesting to see their interaction after Jayden is born.”

“I agree,” I said. “But right now, I have something else on my mind.”

He looked down at me, “Oh? What would that be?” I sat up and started to kiss him. “Why Mrs.Vance, are you trying to seduce me?” He said smiling.

“Is it working?” I asked. His answer was to pull me onto his lap where I could tell for myself it was working. I looked at him all innocently, “Well, Mr.Vance, I hope you brought some protection, so I don’t get pregnant.” He looked at me, immediately starting to laugh. We got up, walking arm-in-arm to the bedroom.

***

Allen saw Megan greet Jacob when he got home from his trip, saw them sitting down to eat a meal together, and then worked together to clean up afterward. She must be getting lazy, he never helped her clean up, that was her job. Men should never do a woman’s work. They aren’t good for much else, let them do the things they were made for. He also saw the two of them going to bed early.

His rage came back with such intensity he almost lost control. Soon, he thought, very soon my darling Megan, we will be back together again. She would learn Allen was a man of his word, the hard way. He would have plenty of time to make sure she got the message. He went back to the cabin and started to work.

He worked most of the night and slept for a couple of hours. Then, in the morning, he went back to work. He would go to the blind later if he finished his work around the cabin in time, but he really needed to finalize his plan and work out all the exact details. He couldn’t afford to make any mistakes. Going around behind the cabin, he checked on the car. It was well-hidden, the current snowfall was helping to hide it even better than he planned.

No one would be able to see it behind the cabin until they were right on it, even then they may not notice it unless they walked smack dab into it. If the snow kept up, it would make the car completely invisible. He went into the cabin, took off his coat, grabbing the shovel. He had some more digging to do. He made several trips from inside the cabin out to the trees, dumping buckets of dirt.

Once he finished with all the digging, he had a little construction work to do. He sawed and hammered the rest of the day, well into the night. Finally, hot and dirty, he surveyed what he had accomplished, immensely pleased with a job he felt was well done. He was exhausted but washed up, ate something, and then finally crawled into his sleeping bag, falling sound asleep within minutes.

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