Page 87 of Second Time Around
Chapter 16
Kyra woke up Sunday morning with the kind of hangover that meant you’d broken up with your boyfriend the day before. Dragging herself out of bed, she stood in the shower for twenty minutes before she could open her eyes more than a slit. As she dripped on the bathroom tiles, she swallowed three painkillers. Then she looked in the mirror.
And winced. The shower had cleaned off the streaks of mascara she’d seen in the restroom mirror last night after she’d cried on Cleo’s shoulder for an hour. She hadn’t intended to spill her guts to her fellow bartender, but she’d bought Cleo a drink after closing to celebrate the giant tip a couple of businessmen from Peoria had left Kyra. She’d joined Cleo, and the alcohol had made her feel so much better, she had a couple more. That was when the crying started.
However, the exhausted circles under her eyes weren’t coming off with soap.
She really wished she’d never run into Will in Ceres. Oh God, now she wouldn’t be able to go back there, just in case he showed up on another tour of inspection. Another misery to chalk up to his account.
No, that wasn’t fair. She’d done it to herself. Which made her feel worse, not better.
She toweled off, threw on flannel pajama pants and a T-shirt before dragging herself into the kitchen to drink a bottle of water. She should have done that last night before she went to bed.
Now she had a whole day off to wallow in how alone she was. She could throw herself a solitary pity party because there was no one here to care what she did. This was one of the times she really missed her mother. Even if she didn’t understand Kyra’s ambitions, her mom loved her and would comfort her when she cried.
Kyra thought about asking her landlady for a home improvement project to take her mind off Will, but Gloria was too sharp not to realize that Kyra was upset about something. And she wouldn’t hesitate to ask if it was Will. Not to mention Kyra’s head was pounding in a way that made concentrating difficult.
She could try to read one of the books that were piled on her bedside table, but she suspected the words would swim around on the page in front of her bleary eyes. At least the hangover caused so much physical pain that it masked the emotional pain of Will’s absence. Sort of.
She pulled another water out of the fridge and shuffled into her living room to try watching television as a distraction. As she settled onto the sofa, she heard the ping of her cell phone coming from the backpack she’d dropped in the hallway in last night’s drunken stagger to the bedroom. It wasn’t Will, so why bother to get up? But she heaved herself off the sofa to retrieve it.
It was a text message from Emily.Sorry to bother you on your day off but we have a situation with Felicia and Shaq. Could use your input, if you wouldn’t mind coming in for a powwow at noon.
Emily never disturbed the staff on their days off, so this had to be bad.
I’ll be there,she responded, glancing at the phone’s clock. She had an hour to clear the haze out of her brain.
Time for coffee and burnt toast.
When Kyra walked into the director’s office at the center, Emily gave her a sharp look but didn’t comment on her pallor or general air of desolation. Kyra was grateful but even more worried. She lowered herself gingerly into the chair in front of the desk. “What’s going on?”
Emily clicked a few times on her laptop and then turned it around for Kyra to look at. The photo was of a child’s bloody forearm and wrist.
Kyra winced. “Ouch! Please tell me that’s not Felicia. It looks horrible.”
“Davina Gibson sent it, claiming that Shaq attacked Felicia. She’s at the emergency room now. I wanted to go be with her, but Davina says she doesn’t want anyone from the center near her daughter. She was pretty upset, and who can blame her? Poor little Felicia.”
Kyra glanced at the photo again and wished she hadn’t. She could see the tooth marks now that she knew what she was looking at. One wound was so deep that bone showed through. “I can’t imagine how much that must hurt.”
“Diego somehow persuaded her to let him get Shaq from their neighbor and take him to Dr.Quillen’s,” Emily said. “He’s distraught about the whole thing. He thinks it’s his fault because the kids wanted to take their dogs home like he does. That breaks my heart, too.”
Kyra frowned, fighting her way out of the hangover fog. “I just can’t believe Shaq attacked Felicia. That dog is a lover, not a fighter.”
“Diego says the same thing, but he’s a kid and biased by his love for the animals. I wanted to get your clearheaded take on Shaq.” Emily’s usually serene expression was grim. “He might have to be put down.”
Kyra gasped at the idea of the big, affectionate dog being killed. “How soon?”
“I’m not sure yet. We’ve arranged to have Dr.Quillen kennel him until further notice, so he’s no longer with the kids. His junior kid, Min-joo, is going to be heartbroken, but I can’t let her even visit him.”Emily squeezed her eyes closed for a second. “This is my worst nightmare come true. We try to vet the dogs so thoroughly, to make sure this wouldn’t happen, but I knew it was a possibility. You can’t predict the behavior of animals. I shouldn’t have allowed such a big dog in the program but he seemed so gentle. Felicia fell in love with him at the shelter and pit bulls don’t get adopted much, so I thought ...” Emily spread her hands in a gesture of regret.
Kyra thought of Shaq lolling on his back in the yard while she chatted with Greg Ebersole, of Shaq leaning against her thigh for a head scratch the first time she’d ever met the dog, of Shaq wearing a bow tie at Max’s induction party. “There’s no way Shaq would attack Felicia. There’s not a vicious bone in his body. I need to talk to her.”
“Her mother has pulled her out of the center,” Emily said with a shake of her head. “She made it very clear that none of us should come near Felicia. She says she’s hiring a lawyer.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
Emily massaged her temples. “Max wants to hire the big law firm his company uses, but I don’t know if that’s a good idea. Our insurance company should deal with this.”
Kyra frowned. “Don’t insurance companies usually settle to keep legal expenses down? Some people would see that as an admission of guilt on the part of the center, so I think that could endanger the K-9 Angelz program. Not to mention that it wouldn’t save Shaq.”
