A Convenient Proposal(52)

As she picked up her medical bag, Arden cleared her throat. “I didn’t know doctors made house calls anymore.”

Her throaty laugh filled the room. “This is a small town. We do favors for each other. Dr. Jake came to my place when our Great Dane puppy got into a fight with a stray dog. I couldn’t manage my eighteen-month-old daughter and an injured animal. So when he called, I was glad to return the favor.”

“Igor.” Arden sat up suddenly, then fell back with a groan as the room whirled. “Did Griff find him? Is he back?”

The doctor put a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll find out. You stay in bed and keep calm.”

Mrs. Campbell came in a few moments later. “Griff is out looking for Igor,” she said, smoothing the pillows and blankets. “I’m sure he’ll be back any minute now.”

“But it’s late, isn’t it? What’s the time?” Arden wanted to see the clock, but her head was too heavy to lift.

“Don’t worry, sweetie.” A soft hand brushed the hair off her forehead. “Everything will be okay. Just relax.”

“I can’t lose him,” Arden fussed. “He’s all I have….”



GRIFF’S THIRD TRIP into the woods felt like an exercise in futility. After eight hours, Igor could be anywhere in the county. And Griff would prefer to be sitting with Arden, watching her sleep.

As his mom had pointed out, though, Arden would feel better when the dog came home, virus or no virus. So here he was, fighting brambles, tramping through mud and wearing out his voice calling for the truant animal.

“Igor. Igor, come home, buddy.” His dry mouth couldn’t send out much of a whistle. “Damn it, Igor. Come. Now.”

He heard his dad’s voice, over to the south, and an echo from Kathy’s husband, calling off to the north. They could cover the ground faster this way. What would happen if they didn’t find the dog, though, would be his responsibility alone.

The Campbell portion of the forest ended on a ridge above a deep, brush-filled ravine. The wooden fence marking the boundary line wouldn’t have kept a deer or Igor on the property.

Griff stood on the edge, staring down into the gully, as his dad came up beside him. “I haven’t been down there. The sides are steep.”

“That’s Fletcher property,” Jake said. “They do some trapping.”

Jim joined them. “The little guy could have stepped in one.”

“So could we,” Griff pointed out. “But I guess there’s no other choice.”

Soil had washed down the walls of the narrow valley, leaving slippery rock and gravel exposed. The trees seemed to grow just far enough apart to avoid being used as handholds. Only a few steps down, Griff found himself on his butt, sliding sideways into a thorn bush.

“You okay?” his dad called.

“Yeah.” Braced on his downhill leg, Griff wiped his scraped and bloody palms on his jeans. “Be careful, though.”

At the words, he heard Jim fall in turn. Moments later, the sound of tumbling rocks came from the other side. “Dad?” There was no answer for way too long. “Dad, are you there?”

“Hell, yes,” Jake growled.

“Are you hurt?”

“No. But I’m too old for this.”

“We’re all too old for this,” Jim yelled back.

They reached the bottom without breaking any bones. Griff turned to look back the way he’d come. “And we thought getting down here was the hard part.”

The afternoon sun had passed beyond the rim above, leaving the bottom of the ravine in twilight. Stepping carefully, peering at the ground in order to see a trap before he tripped it, Griff continued to call for Igor. But as the minutes passed, then an hour, his hopes began to die. If they hadn’t found him by now…

He hated the image in his head of Igor, voiceless, stuck or trapped or somehow unable to travel, marooned all night in the woods. Not too many hunting animals would be out this time of year. But a hungry coyote would be glad for easy prey.

“Getting dark,” his dad called. “We’d better start back.”

“Agreed,” Jim yelled.

“But…” Griff sighed. “Okay. Let’s shift about a hundred feet to the left as we go, to cover different ground.” For him, that meant more difficult traveling, including a minigulch or huge ditch, depending on your definition. Visibility decreased to almost zero, which he didn’t realize until he walked into a tree.