Blaze Read online

  “I don’t remember her,” Camilla said sadly. “He told me that she died in a car accident two years ago.”

  “She not only was into show dogs,” Blyth said, “but she was a model. She’s in all kinds of pictures around town. She never charged anybody, so a lot of them took advantage of that. Her only request was, if the photos could handle it, that she have a dog with her. Because that’s how she wanted to be known, as the dog lady.”

  “Oh, wow, that’s an interesting thing,” Camilla said. “Now that you mention it, I think I’ve seen her.”

  “You’ve seen her,” Blyth said reassuringly. “You’ve seen her lots. She’s on the library billboard thing there because she was a patron. She’s got a picture at the dance hall because she and her husband were crazy dancers. I can’t remember all the places where her face is, but you have definitely seen her around this town.”

  “I’m sure I’ll look for it now,” Camilla promised. “But for the present, back to work. Where are we?”

  Blyth pulled out her iPad and started ticking off boxes. “We’ve got the cutlery and the dishes. We’ve got the centerpieces. We’ve got the tablecloths. We’ve got the candles,” she said. “We’re waiting on the flowers.”

  “They aren’t coming today though, right?”

  “Nope, but we have the dress rehearsal tomorrow night, and we need the flowers for the entranceway. There is a problem, though, with the bouquets.” Blyth winced as she looked up. “Right. There’s always something.”

  Camilla looked at her assistant in horror. “You can have problems with the flowers on the altar. You can have problems with the flowers at the dress rehearsal. You cannot have problems with the flowers in the bouquets.”

  “I know that,” Blyth said. “I’ve got several calls in. We’re trying to see if we can get something, but Lizzie wanted that tiny pink baby’s breath. And apparently the pink didn’t come in, so the florist only has white.”

  Camilla slowly rubbed her temple, feeling a headache coming on. “I need to call her then. That won’t work. We must have pink. Remember? That was the one thing Lizzie said was nonnegotiable.”

  “Nonnegotiable per the bride is one thing, but nonnegotiable when we can’t get it two days out is an entirely different thing,” Blyth said.

  “I know,” Camilla groaned, staring up at the ceiling. She opened her arms as if to say, Why?, and then said, “Let me talk to the florist. There might be a way.”

  “You call her,” Blyth said. “And I’ll start unpacking this stuff.”

  Nodding her agreement, Camilla pulled out her phone and called the florist. “I know what you’ll say, Camilla,” Wanda said. “But there’s no help for it. I can’t get any pink in. I can’t get it in today. I can’t get it in tomorrow, and I can’t get it in Sunday.”

  “In other words, it’s not happening. Is that what you’re saying?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Spray paint?” Camilla asked.

  After a bit of silence at the other end, then Wanda laughed. “Oh, my God, is it that big a deal?”

  “It’s not supposed to be nonnegotiable,” Camilla said, “but, of course, it is. Right? It’s one of those things you can’t get, that, of course, I need.”

  “I’ll take a look. I don’t think I can even dye them.”

  “We’ve got to try. Obviously spray paint is not the best option.”

  “I’ll consider it,” she said. “I don’t know what I’ll do, but I’ll find a way.”

  “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Camilla sang out before hanging up. She danced around to see Blyth staring at her.

  “Did you just say, spray paint the baby’s breath?”

  “One must do what one must do.”

  Blyth shook her head. “That’s almost sacrilegious.”

  “What am I supposed to do?”

  “I don’t even want to think about it, but you could tell the bride that she can’t have it.”

  “I’d rather die,” Camilla stated. “You know she’d kill me.”

  “This is why you don’t do weddings.”

  “Which is why I didn’t want to do this one,” Camilla said.

  “Too bad you didn’t listen, isn’t it?”

  Blaze was still chuckling as he headed toward his father’s place. He didn’t remember Camilla growing up. He’d ask his dad about her.

  Finally the turnoff came up ahead, and he turned on his flasher and made the turn. The road was rutted more than he expected, but then again Mom always bitched about the road and how it upset the dogs to get bounced all over the place. She was the one who had the grader come in once a year to clean it up. Obviously Dad hadn’t.

  Blaze still chuckled to himself when he pulled up in front of the huge log house. His dad’s truck was there, and his heart hitched when he saw the place where his mom’s SUV should have been parked. He sat here for a long moment staring at it and then pushed open the truck door and hopped out. He could hear dogs barking in the background, but then when had he not been home to the sounds of dogs barking? This had been his mom’s life. It had been his dad’s life. Blaze just didn’t know if it was currently part of his dad’s heart anymore. The loss of a loved one often changed everything.

  He took the front steps two at a time and pounded on the front door and then reached for the handle and pushed it open and stepped inside. “Hello?”

  A yell came from the back of the house. He walked through and stepped out onto the huge veranda that floated down the whole back of the house, and there was his dad, standing out in the yard, two dogs at his heel, a ball in his hand, idly throwing it for them.

  His father turned and let out a whoop that had all the dogs clamoring. The two dogs at his side raced toward Blaze. He didn’t know these two, which meant the old two he’d seen last were gone. His dad grabbed Blaze and hugged him tight. “Jesus Christ, you’re a sight for sore eyes,” he said. He stepped back, gave Blaze a hard shake and then hugged him again.

  Blaze wrapped his arms around his dad and just held him close. The two men stood like that for a long time. When Blaze stepped away, his father wiped the moisture from the corner of his eye. “I’m sorry, Dad.”

  His father just nodded. “I’m not exactly sure what you’re sorry for, but we’ll shelve it for the moment. It’s damn good to see you.” He stepped back, looked his boy up and down, and Blaze grinned.

  “It’s really me.”

  “All in one piece?”

  “What’s left of me, yes. I might have lost a few pieces,” he said.

  His father’s frown was instantaneous. “I knew about a lot of it,” he said. “You were having surgery, and you were in rehab, and we talked on the phone but with your mom’s accident …” His father’s voice trailed off.

  “I know. I couldn’t come for the funeral. I’ve been healthy for quite a few months now. At least I was physically, but I was struggling with that whole ‘What will I do with my life?’ thing, and I didn’t want to come home when I didn’t have any answers.”

  “Home is where you come when you need to figure out answers,” his father said. “But I won’t chastise you for that now. I’m just too damn glad to see you.” He walked inside and said, “Come on. Let’s put on some coffee, and we can sit outside and shoot the breeze.”

  Knowing his father just needed a bit of time to settle down, Blaze let Dad brew the coffee while Blaze studied the living room. It didn’t look any different. Mom’s throw blankets were on the back of the chairs, and her pictures were all around. He walked over to one he didn’t think he’d seen before and studied it. “She was really beautiful, wasn’t she?”

  “She was, indeed,” his father said, his voice thickening. “Inside and out. A lot of people tell me it’s supposed to be time for me to get out there, try dating again,” he said, “but I can’t do it. She was the one and only love of my life, and I just don’t think anybody else out there is someone I care to spend time with.”

  “I don’t think you’re supposed to
go out looking to replace Mom,” Blaze said gently. “I think you’re supposed to look for companionship, hoping to find a friend, somebody you can talk to, maybe do things with.”

  “I haven’t done that either,” his father said. “The trouble is, I know I need to. It’s been two years, and I’ve still got everything exactly the same, and I need to move on, and I need to let her go.” He stopped, put down the can of coffee and looked over at Blaze. “But I just can’t.”

  “I’m not pushing you to,” Blaze said, stepping forward. “When you’re ready, you’ll do it. And, if you’re not ready and if this makes you happy, tell everybody pushing you to shove off.”

  His father’s face lit up with a big grin. “Damn, it’s good to see you. That’s exactly the attitude I’ve been looking for. Somebody to support me rather than telling me how it’s good for me to get out there and do things.”

  “Hey, I’ve had more than my share of that too.”

  His father’s face lost its mirth. “I can imagine,” he said. “That’s a hell of a scar you’re sporting.”

  “I know. A piece of jagged metal from my accident.”

  “Are you looking into getting it fixed with plastic surgery?”

  “No,” Blaze said. “I’m waiting until people just accept this part of my face and stop looking at it. Speaking of which, I just met some ditzy female who didn’t seem to even notice.”

  “You met somebody already?” His father looked up at him and frowned. “How?”

  “Her Mustang had a flat tire on the road,” he said. “Camilla somebody-or-other.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out her cards. He handed one to his dad.

  His dad started to chuckle. “Oh my, Camilla is a special case.”

  “Maybe,” Blaze said. “But honestly, she seemed to be exactly who she was, and that’s a bit different.”

  “She is something. She’s full of heart, full of humor, and just sometimes I think she’s from a different planet,” he said, as a nice way to putting it.

  “You mean, other than the fact of Mars and Venus?” Blaze said, referencing that old book about the differences of the sexes.

  “Exactly,” his dad said. “Camilla knows a lot of people in town. She’s heavily involved and apparently doing all these events,” he said, dropping her card on the counter. “And you won’t hear anything bad about her. Her sisters and her mom, now, that is a different story.”

  “Not quite the same?”

  “Those three are more after a solid match that would move them up the food chain,” he said succinctly. “Your mother never did like any of them.”

  “How long have they been in town?”

  He shrugged. “No clue. They might have arrived just about when you were leaving.”

  “I certainly didn’t recognize Camilla. I did see Slim though.”

  “Slim’s a good guy,” his father said. “He’s taken over the family business.”

  “Good for him,” Blaze said. “He didn’t look a bit different.”

  “No, Slim’s still pretty much Slim. And you,” his dad said, turning to him. “Are you the same inside?”

  “No,” Blaze said easily. “Neither are you. We can’t go through the things we go through and still be the same. The core of who we are is there, but every day we’re a different person because we adapt and adjust to the new reality of a new day.”

  His father nodded and said, “Very true, very true.” He poured a cup of coffee for each of them, handed one to Blaze and said, “So, you didn’t tell me that you were coming. Are you staying? Are you here on a mission? Are you working? What’s going on?”

  His father led him outside to the big bench on the porch, and they sat down. “It’s a long story,” Blaze said, “but let me see if I can give you the shorter version.” And he explained about Solo.

  “Oh, interesting,” his father said.

  “And oddly enough,” Blaze said, “Camilla said she ran off the road and hit whatever gave her a flat tire because she avoided a shepherd running across the highway.”

  “Or she just wasn’t looking,” his father said with a chuckle. “But the mention of the dog is possible. I have heard about a shepherd around these parts. Any idea how long Solo might have been here?”

  “About four months,” Blaze said. “I was hoping you would know something about her.”

  “Can’t say I do,” he said. “I do know a lot of the dogs around here. But you know what it’s like. Lots of dogs run loose here. We keep trying to fix the problem, but most of the way they get fixed is with a bullet.”

  “I know, but I’m hoping not to do that or to hear that has happened in this case.”

  “She really served our country?”

  “She really did,” Blaze said. “So did I. And I got rescued, and I’m starting to feel like maybe I have a purpose again, so I would like it if Solo could be rescued and could also feel like she has a bit of a purpose again too. If nothing else, she’s owed a decent life for what she did for us.”

  “Damn,” his father said. “To think a dog brought you back.” He started to chuckle.

  “What’s so funny about that?” Blaze asked.

  “I figured it was the dogs keeping you away,” he said. He motioned out to the pens. “I’ve got twenty-two dogs right now. And I know it’s not always been your thing, so I figured you were afraid of coming home and being roped into the family business.”

  “It’s not that at all,” Blaze said. “I’ve come to enjoy the truly finer things in life, and that means space, animals and home,” he said with a smile. “But I also needed a purpose and a reason to come home that wasn’t because you wanted me here. It needed to be,” he said, “and I don’t mean this in a bad way, but it needed to be because I wanted to come home.”

  His father’s piercing gaze met his. “So, are you here because you want to be, or are you here for the shepherd?”

  Blaze looked at him and chuckled. “Honestly, I’ll say both. The last thing you need is another dog. But she’s a lost one, just like I am, and, if you’re willing to take me back home, maybe you’ll be willing to take her too.” He had no intention of letting Solo suffer any longer if he could provide a permanent solution.

  “If she comes with you and that’s the package deal,” his father said, “it’s done. You’re more than welcome, both of you. But you’ve got to find her. You’ve got to track her. You’ve got to train her, and you’ve got to look after her.”

  The two men looked at each other and grinned. “Just like the old days,” Blaze said, remembering his childhood and his request to have dogs of his own.

  “That’s what life’s all about,” his father said. “It’s all about things going around and coming around.”

  “I’d like to think I’m home, and I’ll find something here that makes me feel that way,” Blaze said.

  “In that case, you should probably invite Camilla out because the best way to feel at home is to have a girl.”

  “Advice from my dad, look at that.”

  “Hey, if you can avoid her mother and her sisters, Camilla is gorgeous,” his father said. “She’s unique, and I’m not sure that’s bad. Plus, she’s a good-hearted person. You could do a lot worse.”

  “What’s with her family?”

  “Remember how your mother hated Lily?”

  Blaze frowned but nodded.

  “That’s Camilla mother.”

  Blaze just shrugged. “Water under the bridge, right?”

  “And they moved off to California years ago.”

  “So, you won’t be too upset that I’ve already asked her out for a lunch date then, right?”

  His father looked at him and shook his head, slapping his thigh. “Wow, you haven’t even been in town an hour, and you’ve already hooked the most eligible female. Way to go, way to go.”

  “Most eligible? How do you figure?”

  “She’s slim. She’s pretty, and what you didn’t know is she’s got money. Big money. The thing about her is, you�
�d never know it.”

  Chapter 3

  Camilla worked her way through her to-do list, trying to keep the stress and the stomach knots at bay. She’d been through this enough times that she knew there was a system and that the system worked. She’d worked hard to make that system work. She and Blyth worked hard for the rest of that evening. Only as she was packing up with a sigh of satisfaction at how much she’d managed to get done did she suddenly freeze. “Oh, my God!”

  Blyth said wearily, “Now what?”

  “Oh, my God. Did you mean that his mother, the model, the one with the dogs I couldn’t place was Enid?”

  Blyth’s face slowly broke into a huge grin. “You finally remembered?” she crowed.

  “I didn’t make the connection right away. You don’t understand,” Camilla cried woefully. “That’s not a good thing. Enid and my mother hated each other. Why couldn’t she have been somebody else?”

  “What difference does it make?” Blyth said. “Your mother’s not here anymore.”

  “Sure, but she has spies everywhere,” Camilla said with a wave of her hand, as if Blyth’s concern was nothing. “You know that.”

  “You have to stand up to your mother sometime,” Blyth said unexpectedly.

  With a dark look in Blyth’s direction, Camilla turned her back and said, “I’ve been standing up to her since forever. It doesn’t make any difference. My mother is a force unto herself, and it’s rarely in a nice way.”

  “Yep, that’s why she and Enid didn’t get along. Your mom didn’t see the point in having dogs, thought dog shows were useless and hated the fact Enid’s face was all over town.”

  “Of course, because my mother prides herself on her looks and thought she should have her pictures all over town.” Camilla shook her head. “Why me?” she muttered. She remembered many of the conversations now about how Enid shouldn’t be in those photographs, shouldn’t be on those posters, shouldn’t be the leading face of this or that. Her mother had had a major case of jealousy against Enid, and, as Camilla thought back on it, she wondered just how deep it went. There’d never been any mention of a son or maybe a brief statement saying he’d gone into the military, whereas her mother had prided herself on her three daughters who were all, in her mind, successfully married—except for Camilla of course.