Forbidden Falls (Virgin River #9)(104)

“I’ll come to court right after I drop Danielle at school. Nick is going to take the morning off to keep an eye on Trevor. I haven’t exactly taken a poll, but I understand a number of friends will be there—Jack and Mel, Preacher and Paige, Vanni, her father the general. Maybe Shelby and Luke…”

“Oh, get out!” Ellie said. “They don’t have time for that. There’s a wedding happening on Saturday. They have family from out of town coming, and lots to do. And don’t they have Friday-night rehearsal and a dinner? And I’m helping to decorate Saturday morning…”

Jo covered Ellie’s hand and smiled. “Sweetheart, getting your custody resolved is just as important. And your friends are committed to that. We’ll get everything done.”

“I can’t believe it. I was afraid people around here would think the worst of me after what Arnie said.”

“I don’t think so,” Jo said, shaking her head.

“They really plan to go to Eureka for this?”

“Don’t argue,” Jo said. “It’s not a good idea to take chances at this point.”

“I guess you’re right,” Ellie said. Ellie took a deep breath and smiled. “There’s a lot to do between now and Saturday night. This is the opening of the church, a wedding the whole town has been looking forward to, and before we can see that all done, I have to go to court. I might be a little tense.”

“Well, take it easy, honey. We’re going to be fine. I’m sure of it.”

By the time Noah got out to Nate Jensen’s stable and veterinary office, the sun was lowering in the sky, and Lucy seemed to be moving around just fine. But since he’d come this far, Noah decided to proceed with the visit. The vet office attached to the stable was locked, so he went to the house and knocked on the back door. He saw Nate and a woman in the kitchen, apparently having a drink and snack at the breakfast bar; Nate answered the door.

“Hey, Noah,” he said, popping the last bit of a cracker into his mouth.

“I’m sorry to bother you, Nate. Something came up with Lucy and I thought I’d better have you check her out.” Suddenly a chorus of barking came from inside the house and three fluffy, black-and-white dogs with pointy ears came racing into the kitchen. “Whoa,” Noah said.

“Winkin, Blinkin and Nod,” Nate said with a laugh. “Mostly border collie, we think.”

“Donner, Dasher and Blitzen,” the woman said, joining them at the back door. “We call them Don, Dash and Blitz. Hi, I’m Annie, Nate’s fiancée.” She put out her hand. “I’ve heard about you. Nice to finally meet you.”

“The feeling’s mutual,” Noah said. “We had an incident. I got into a little altercation in the church. It wasn’t serious, but a man and I locked horns, grabbed each other, and Lucy bit him.”

“Lucy?” Nate said, looking down at the dog. “Even-tempered Lucy?”

The three almost full-grown pups were busy sniffing her and she was standing stock-still, letting them. The pups were dancing around a bit, whining, stumbling over each other, crowding Lucy.

“The situation must have made her nervous,” Noah said. “Anyway, she latched on to the guy’s leg and the guy kicked her off, throwing her into a pew. She couldn’t get right up and—”

But Nate wasn’t really listening. He crouched near Lucy, in the midst of a throng of prancing pups. And then Lucy got down on her belly and the pups laid down, as well. They continued to sniff while Lucy started to smell and lick them. One of the pups rolled over on his back and Lucy went to work on his closed eyes.

“Isn’t that something, the way she does that?” Noah asked. “Do all female dogs just take over the cleanup on instinct? I thought only cats did that. I’ve seen her do that to another dog in town.”

Nate looked up from his crouched position. “Comet? Christopher’s pup?”

“Yeah. How’d you know?”

Nate stood up and grabbed Annie’s hand. “Silas was training Lucy and she was coming along just great. But Silas also had ranch dogs that roamed pretty free—he kept cows and other livestock. A couple of ’em were border collies. I think if Lucy got friendly with another border collie, these might be her pups.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Noah said. “But she was in an accident. When would she have had pups?”

Nate was shaking his head. “Jack Sheridan found a box of abandoned puppies under the Christmas tree last December. They were too little to be weaned; it was a surprise they survived the cold. I put them at about three weeks old. They had to be eyedropper fed and kept warm.” He chuckled unhappily. “I wouldn’t put it past old Silas. He wasn’t the type to have a litter of eight in his house or likely to go to any trouble to place them. I’m kind of surprised he didn’t drown ’em.”

“Come on,” Noah said. “You think it’s possible?”

The three adults stood around, looking down at Lucy and a big pile of playful pups. Even though they were almost as big as she was, they certainly acted like puppies. Lucy seemed to be on the bottom of the pile, and very content, snarling an occasional warning, nudging them, licking them, pushing them around with her snout.

“The town named them after the reindeer. There were four females in the litter—Dancer, Prancer, Vixen and Cupid. I got these guys because they were left over.” Nate connected with Noah’s eyes. “Lucy wasn’t trying to find her way home,” he said. “She was trying to get back to her kids.”