Without hesitating, the dog followed Jackson inside, while Wendy turned on more lights. The cottage was just as messy as they’d left it. She remembered her fear over a possible burglar, but decided a smart thief would probably take one look at this place and run the other way. She went into the kitchen where their sand dollars were still spread all over the place. “What should we feed him?” She opened the fridge and looked.
“How about eggs?” Jackson suggested.
“Eggs?” She frowned.
“Yeah, they’re protein. And if he hasn’t eaten for a while, they might go down easily.”
She couldn’t help but smile. “Since when did you get to be such an expert on dogs?”
He shrugged as he removed the egg carton. “I’ll fix his food for him, Mom. You don’t have to do a thing.”
“Okay.” She stepped back, frowning down at the dog. “He’s really dirty, Jackson. And for all we know he could have fleas or mange or, well, anything. After you feed him, you better put him back outside for the night.”
“Aw, Mom.”
“Jackson.” She put a warning in her tone.
“But he needs a friend right now,” Jackson pleaded. “What if I clean him up?”
“We don’t even have a working bathroom,” she pointed out.
“The shower works okay,” he reminded her.
She rolled her eyes. “Fine, clean him up if you want.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“And don’t make a mess in the bathroom.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t.”
“You’ll have to take complete responsibility for the dog tonight, and tomorrow morning we’ll try to figure out who he belongs to ... or take him to a shelter or something. Okay?”
He reluctantly agreed. Feeling like she might be making a mistake, she went into the living room and let out a long sigh. She’d already started dismantling this room and even painted two walls. But right now it looked disheveled and overwhelming. Besides the rest of the painting, which she planned to attack tomorrow, the wood floors really needed some attention. And she needed to thin out a lot more, including clearing some of the old, bulky pieces of furniture. Somehow she should stage this room, and with no budget to buy anything extra, she’d have to rely on her ingenuity and elbow grease.
But the living room could wait. Right now she needed to focus on her bedroom. After getting the walls painted yesterday, she’d spent several hours scrubbing the soft pine floor earlier today. To her relief, it was dry and looked pretty good. Now she just needed to paint the baseboard and window trim with the white paint. Later she’d get Jackson to help her move the furniture back into place—and call it a night.
Scooting along the floor, she carefully painted the wood trim. She could hear Christmas music drifting in from the living room and knew Jackson must’ve put an old record on. The cheery music combined with Jackson thumping around and happily chattering at the dog filled the little cottage with a sweet, homey sound. Almost like a real family.
She was just putting the lid back on the paint can when Jackson knocked on her door. “Wanna see Oliver, Mom?”
“Oliver?” She cautiously opened the door to see that not only did the dog appear clean and groomed, he had what appeared to be a leather collar around his neck. “Wow.” She knelt down to examine him better and noticed he even smelled good. “How did you—”
“I kinda had to shower with him.” Jackson grinned, and she noticed that his hair was still damp and he’d changed into sweats. “Then I went through that storage room upstairs. Remember I put some of your stuff up there too—and there was an old hairbrush and comb set that I used to comb out his hair. I had to cut some of the mats out.”
“Where did you getthis?” She fingered the soft leather collar.
“It was an old belt that was in a pile of men’s clothes, but it was all worn out where the holes used to be, so I cut it down and made a new hole. I hope you don’t mind.”
“It was probably Poppa’s.” She smiled wistfully. “You’re a clever young man, Jackson.”
“He’s a really good dog, Mom. He didn’t even mind when I used the hairdryer on him.”
“My hairdryer?”
“Yeah, but I took good care of it and put it back in your stuff.”
She stood up and, folding her arms across her front, tried to think of a gentle way to put the kibosh on this dog business.
