Page 37 of A Summer Mismatch
“That doesn’t seem insurmountable,” Walt offered. “Businesses split apart all the time.”
If only it had stopped there. “It got personal. Horace was upset. He felt betrayed. So he sent out a mailer to… I don’t know, I swear it was everyone in California, about why they couldn’t trust Foundational Homes.
“And Smitty retaliated with a huge Foundational Homes billboard right outside the BeamTech Homes office. And these antics continued every year until Horace retired.” Winnie felt dizzy at the end of her explanation, and she didn’t know if it was because dredging up this whole story was so stressful, or if it was something else.
Either way, she held still and breathed deeply to even out her heart rate.
“When we retired, I believed we were finally getting some peace from all of this.”
“Wow,” Rosa finally said. “That’s bad.”
“Yes,” Polly agreed. “This is not going to be easy.”
Tears sprang to Winnie’s eyes. Polly dug a tissue from her pocket and handed it to Winnie.
Nancy stood and placed a hand on Winnie’s shoulder, and then looked out at everyone. “I know what we have to do,” she said, so grimly that Winnie was sure she was going to say that they had to move on to someone else’s grandchild. She wouldn’t blame them for giving up. Maybe they should move on and come back to Winnie when things calmed down a little.
Nancy let out a deep breath. “We’re going to have to matchmake Horace and Smitty.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Logan
Adiawasn’tactinglikeher usual self, and Logan was trying not to worry too much. She had less energy, and when she did her morning training the last couple of days, she didn’t seem as engaged as usual. When Logan rechecked her bloodwork, it had come back with a slightly elevated white blood cell count again.
Kai and Logan spent the morning trading off observing her and Raza in the hot, humid air. Logan’s icy water bottle had become his close companion.
June and Lulu seemed to sense that something was wrong with Adia and had wanted to remain close to her side the whole day. But until they knew exactly what they were dealing with, and if it was contagious, he couldn’t risk exposing June and Lulu more than they’d already been, and he made the hard call to quarantine her.
“Her TB test came back negative,” Logan told Kai, who sagged with relief on his bench in front of Adia’s stall. Kai loved these animals just as much as Logan did. They had a way of wiggling right into your heart and not letting go. When Logan had things to talk through, he usually did it while in close proximity to Adia, who loved the sound of his voice more than any other elephant.
“Maybe it’s the new food,” Kai suggested. Adia listlessly swung her trunk as she listened to them talk.
“It could be,” Logan said. “I don’t want to switch her off of it, though, because her weight and her labs have improved since being on it.”
“It could just be a common cold, and she’ll get over it on her own without our fretting,” Kai said with a sideways glance.
Logan knew that a cold was the most likely culprit. Elephants could get sick, just like humans, with things like the flu, colds, rashes, constipation, and pneumonia. Some illnesses required intervention, and some he just kept an eye on.
He was in that middle ground with Adia, where it was too soon to intervene with medication, but he was on edge waiting to see some improvement on her own. He’d gone ahead and prepared an herbal supplement that might help with any discomfort she might be having, and planned on giving it to her that evening with her dinner.
“She’s going to be okay,” Kai said firmly.
“I know.”
But neither of them took their eyes off her, both still feeling raw from Matis’s death.
“If we’re both here, who’s with Raza?” Logan asked.
“Ryan.”
“Ugh.” He was going to get Raza all worked up, and Logan was going to have to calm him down, which would take time away from staring at Adia and… doing nothing really. Just willing her to get well. But it made him feel better to be there, just in case.
“How’s Willow?” Kai asked. He stretched his arm out, his snake tattoo looking red from the sun.
“She’s… surviving.” When Logan had dropped off the kids and Gatsby, she’d been thrilled to see everyone. But the bags under her eyes were going to require longer than two nights of sleep to go away.
Even though it was a Sunday evening, Jordan was at work again. Logan doubted he’d spent more than a few minutes with Willow all weekend. He clenched his jaw, wishing his brother-in-law could see how much Willow was struggling.
