Page 54 of Kiss My Glass
Shelby comes downstairs and into the kitchen just as Danny’s dishing me up eggs. He’s been paying attention and they are scrambled and well-cooked. The toast is buttered but not too heavily. He’s made coffee, too, but does not offer it to me again because he knows that if he does, I really will injure him.
“Danny!” Shelby’s hair is all mussed, like she had a rough night’s sleep. “You figured out the coffee maker!”
“Yes, he uttered the correct incantation to unlock its arcane secrets,” I say.
Danny grins at me. “The demon inside it escaped,” he adds, “but that was a price I was willing to pay.”
“Don’t tease, I’m exhausted.” Shelby lowers herself carefully into a chair, holding her bump. “The baby was thrashing about for hours last night.It was like I’d swallowed a disco ball and the soundtrack toSaturday Night Fever.”
Danny, who’s had at least three cups of coffee, suddenly launches into the falsetto chorus from “Staying Alive”.
“Jesus.” Nate’s here, and not looking any more well rested than Shelby. “We could sell you to the army as a sonic weapon. The dogs are howling outside the back door and I don’t think it’s because they’re hungry.”
“Can you feed them, sweetie? I can’t move,” Shelby says. “Well, I can but I don’t want to.”
“I’ll do it,” says Danny.
The dogs used to sleep inside at night but Nate put his foot down when he moved in, saying that sharing a bedroom with four cats was enough. To appease Shelby, he paid Cam to make a luxury kennel for them, so now they have the most comfortable sleeping quarters in the whole vineyard. And having been rigorously trained by Cam and Doug, they’re well behaved enough to be allowed to roam around the property at will. These three are the latest in a succession of rescue mutts that have ended up here. I like dogs well enough but never bonded with any of them the way I did with Ham and Luke. Those guys and I have a real understanding. If my neighbors wouldn’t complain and it didn’t breach a bunch of bylaws, I’d have them in my own back yard in a shot.
Danny, however, obviously thinks the dogs are great. He’s left the back door open, and I can hear him chatting away to them as he dumps kibble in their bowls and freshens their water. The conversation’s pretty one-sided and limited to variations on the theme of “who’s a good boy, yes,you’rea good boy”, but it’s sweet. Dogs know who’s kind and who’s not. They’re smart like that.
I wasn’t aware of having a fond, gooey smile on my face, until Shelby says, softly, “You really like him, don’t you?”
Nate’s rattling around fixing breakfast, so only I hear her.
“I do.” My reply is short and businesslike because I hate being caught out. “But it’s still veryearly days.”
Shelby smiles but she knows better than to push. Danny comes inside and shuts the back door.
“I should get a dog,” he says. “They’re awesome.”
“Take one of those,” says Nate. “Take all of them.”
“Ignore him,” says Shelby. “He’s sleep-deprived.”
“Well, that’snot going to get any better once baby’s in the world, is it?” says Danny, cheerfully.
“Don’t you have somewhere to be? Such as anywhere else but here?” Nate’s clutching his coffee mug with both hands like it’s a life preserver.
“Nope!” Danny pulls up a chair next to me. “I’m gonna help Frankie track down her mom.”
Shelby looks guilty. “I’d help, too, but I’m not sure it’ll be good for my blood pressure.”
“Won’t be good for mine, either,” I say. “But sooner we get onto it, sooner it’s done.”
“How’s your Spanish?” Danny asks me. “Mine’s got better living in L.A. but I’m definitely not fluent.”
“Won’t be readingDon Quixotein the original any time soon,” I reply. “But I’ve googled ‘Do you have Mrs. Lee Armstrong as a guest?’, ‘Thank you’, and ‘Goodbye’, and with luck, that’ll be all I need.”
“How many places do you have to contact?” says Nate.
“Muchos,” says Danny. “That’s Spanish for?—”
“Yeah, I got it.”
“Spain is nine hours ahead, so we’d better get started,” I say. “How about I do Pamplona and you take Burgos? I’ll send you the list.”
“Bueno.” Danny scans his email. “Okay, then.” He starts pressing numbers on his phone. “¡En sus marcas, listos, fuera!Or as you monoglots know it: on your marks, get set, go!”
