Part 4
“Because the people who took your money concealed her pregnancy,” Mara said. “And because you have a right to know she and the puppies are alive.”
Denise did not speak for several seconds.
Her husband’s voice sounded farther from the phone. “Ask if we can see her.”
Darren carried the tablet near Haven’s pen. The shepherd lifted her head as Denise called the name Sage. One ear moved, but Haven stayed beside her puppies.
Poppy was sleeping across Finch’s back. Kepler lay outside the pen, his nose resting between his paws.
Denise covered her mouth. Frank removed his glasses and rubbed them against his shirt.
“We bought her a bed,” he said. “Ridiculous thing. Too big for the room.”
The bed appeared behind them, gray and untouched.
Their contract described Sage as a five-year-old spayed female who preferred a quiet home. Frank had suffered a stroke the previous year and still tired easily. He and Denise wanted an adult shepherd they could walk without managing puppy training.
Cody had sent photographs, veterinary notes, and videos. Some were genuine. The spay certificate was not.
“We weren’t shopping for an easy object,” Denise said. “We could handle problems. We just needed to know what they were.”
Elena explained that Haven could not be separated from the puppies and should not travel while they were nursing. Even after the litter was weaned, ownership would remain disputed until the county determined whether the Nolan contract or Big Sky’s surrender rights controlled.
Darren disliked hearing Haven discussed as a claim. He disliked more that his own foster application would become one of the claims competing with it.
“She’s settled here,” he said. “Moving her again—”
“Not now,” Elena interrupted. “No one is proposing that tonight.”
Denise heard the unfinished sentence.
“You want to keep her.”
Darren looked at Haven before answering. “Yes.”
The word was too quick.
Frank leaned toward the screen. “So do we.”
There was no villain on the other side of the call. Only two people who had made room in their house and been lied to.
Mara arranged for the Nolans to review the corrected records with independent counsel. They planned to drive to Helena in two days, weather permitting.
After the call, Darren went outside to split wood.
He worked until the cold entered his gloves and the clean rhythm of the ax stopped helping. Kepler sat near the porch, refusing to return indoors without him.
Elena came out wearing Rebecca’s old canvas coat. Darren had offered it when her own coat got wet at the railcar, then forgotten she still had it.
“Saving Haven does not give me the right to decide where she belongs,” he said.
“No.”
“You could have taken longer before agreeing.”
“You did not need comfort. You needed the answer.”
He planted the ax in the block.
“Cody said I was turning an emergency into a purpose.”
“Cody uses true things as shields. That does not make every true thing he says false.”
Darren looked toward the cabin window. Haven’s dark shape moved behind the glass.
“What if he was right about that part?”
“Then you find out whether you can care for them when the emergency is boring.”
Elena handed him a clipboard containing the county foster requirements.
The back room needed a washable floor covering. Cleaning supplies had to be moved. A section of fence had sagged near the cottonwoods. Poppy and Finch would need vaccinations, socialization, training, and homes chosen for temperament rather than sentiment.
Haven might remain wary around vehicles and enclosed spaces. She could develop complications from malnutrition. No one could promise an uncomplicated life.
Darren read the list twice.
Then he carried the ax to the shed and began with the fence.
Elena inspected his work the next morning. She found the latch secure, the puppy pen anchored, medications locked away, and feeding logs arranged by time and weight.
“This is not a test of your ability to label folders,” she said.
“It should be.”
“It is a test of what happens when Finch eats one.”
As if summoned, Finch urinated on the edge of Darren’s boot. Elena laughed hard enough to lean against the counter.
Darren stared down at the puppy.
“Hostile act.”
Finch yawned.
Later, while Haven slept, Darren poured coffee into two mugs. Elena chose a blue ceramic one from the rear of the cupboard.
Rebecca had bought it at a church sale because the glaze reminded her of deep water. Darren had not used it since her death.
Elena noticed where he was looking. “Should I take another?”
“No.”
She waited until he sat before lifting the mug.
“Thomas had a blue signal lamp,” she said. “He repaired railroad equipment. After he died, I left his office exactly as it was.”
“How long?”
“Nine years.”
Darren did not offer advice.
“My staff thinks the door sticks,” she continued. “It doesn’t. I lock it.”
Rebecca’s boots still stood beside Darren’s back door. Her gardening gloves remained in a coffee tin above the workbench. He had told himself objects stayed because they were harmless.
“I eat standing at the sink,” he said.
Elena waited.
“There are four chairs at the table. Rebecca picked them. Sitting in one by myself felt worse than not sitting.”
“So you stopped.”
“I got efficient.”
Elena ran one thumb over the blue glaze. “Grief likes an efficient house.”
From Elena, holding Rebecca’s mug while Thomas’s locked office waited across town, the words sounded tired rather than practiced.
Mara arrived with legal forms that afternoon. Big Sky’s attorney had asserted ownership of Haven and challenged Darren’s foster application. The Nolans’ contract might supersede both claims, but only if they chose to enforce it.
Darren read the pages.
“What can I do?”
“Show the county that you can provide care,” Mara said. “And decide whether you intend to oppose the Nolans if their contract is valid.”
He looked at the line marked APPLICANT POSITION REGARDING PRIOR ADOPTION AGREEMENT.
Elena took Haven outside on a leash, giving him privacy without announcing it.
Darren imagined the south window empty again. He imagined removing the puppy pen, washing the blankets, and putting Rebecca’s blue mug back where no one touched it.
Then he remembered Denise asking why no one had told them the truth.
He wrote slowly.
If the Nolan agreement is found valid and they choose to accept Haven and her puppies with full knowledge of their medical and behavioral needs, I will not oppose transfer. I will assist with continuity of care.
His signature looked unfamiliar at the bottom.
Darren set down the pen. For the first time since opening the railcar, he had done something for Haven that might take her away from him…
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