Free Stray Hearts by Jane Graves Page B

apartment!”
    “Evicted?” Matt cringed at the image that came to mind—piles of rubble and settling dust, with Rambo cavorting in the aftermath. “What happened?”
    Kay’s eyes narrowed with fury. “He broke a vase.”
    “A vase?” Matt had expected something a little more structurally undermining. “That’s it?”
    “Oh, it wasn’t just any old vase. It belonged to my landlady. It sat on a little mahogany table in the entry hall. Mrs. Dalton’s Great-Aunt Helen shipped it to the States during the London Blitz of World War Two so it wouldn’t get broken. Did you hear that, Matt? So it wouldn’t get broken /”
    “Still, it’s just one vase—”
    “One eight-hundred-dollar vase!”
    Matt winced. “Oh, boy.”
    “I know what it’s worth because Mrs. Dalton told me. Repeatedly. With tears in her eyes. You’d think it held her dead husband’s ashes or something, the way she was going on. I’m already way behind on my rent, and with the eight hundred—” She paused, and for a moment Matt thought she was going to cry. “Mrs. Dalton suggested that perhaps it would be best if I moved out.”
    A fifty-dollar donation, and now this. Matt’s evening was complete.
    “And I had no idea where you were or when you’d be back,” Kay went on. “For all I knew you had a date—” she paused and eyed him speculatively “—and you weren’t planning on coming home at all.”
    Matt had to smile at that one. He only wished his love life was as active as she seemed to think. “You’re right. I did have a date. In fact, I was surrounded by women all night. I’m a pretty popular guy, you know.” With the over-sixty crowd.
    Kay stared at him for a moment as if she half believed him. Then she waved the thought away with a sweep of her hand. “Never mind. I’m not the least bit interested in your love life. All I wanted to do was watch—”
    She stopped suddenly, her anger momentarily suspended. Then she dropped her gaze and looked away. “Watch what, Kay?”
    She let out a breath of disgust, then turned back around with her chin raised defensively. “Something on television.”
    “Television? You mean you dragged this one-dog destruction team home with you so you wouldn’t miss a television show?”
    “It wasn’t just any television show! It was When Zombies Attack !”
    “Like that makes a difference?”
    “Yes! I wasn't about to miss an episode just because of that dog!”
    “If it was so important, why didn't you record it?”
    Her eyes narrowed and her mouth scrunched up with annoyance. “I forgot. So if I hadn't brought him home with me—”
    “You wouldn't have gotten kicked out of your apartment.”
    Kay’s lips tightened. She glared first at Rambo, then at Matt. Finally an expression of complete disgust flooded her face. “Oh, all right! It was a stupid thing to do. But that doesn’t lessen your liability in this situation.”
    “Excuse me? My liability?”
    “Yes! He’s your dog!”
    “He’s not my dog! He’s—” Matt stopped. She was right. Rambo lived at the shelter, for which he had total responsibility. “Okay, technically he’s my dog, but he didn’t get to your apartment building by himself, did he?”
    Kay took an angry step forward. “Look, I’m not going to foot the bill for something your dog did. My sister’s an attorney, and a pretty wicked one at that. If I have to—”
    “Oh, will you stop it? Is that the only way you people know how to solve problems? By dragging someone to court?”
    “Don’t you understand? I don’t have eight hundred dollars! I barely have eight dollars! When I move out, Mrs. Dalton will keep my deposit as a down payment on the eight hundred and the rent I still owe, but that means I won’t have any money for a deposit on another apartment. Before this is all over with, I’m going to be sleeping at the bus station!”
    Even though she had the approach of an attack dog, Matt was beginning to feel sorry for her. After all, she’d