Free Heaven Sent Rain by Lauraine Snelling Page A

him to feed Downmutt and he will go with you. And will you buy something for him to take to his mother for supper, please?” Although they probably still had most of that chicken.
    “Yes ma’am. At your service.”
    “Thank you, Hal.” Her throat clogged and all she could do was sniff. “And incidentally, why aren’t they bugging you, like we asked? You’re the one who always knows the right thing to say.”
    “I’m not photogenic. Or intriguing. Or the boss of the company that’s going to cure the world of diabetes.”
    She sighed. “How could such a thing get so twisted?”
    “Don’t worry, Dinah. It will blow over. The press has a very short memory. I’ll take care of the dog thing. How you’ll get to work tomorrow is another story.”
    “We’re supposed to pick up the dog in the morning.”
    A sigh from that end. “I see.” She thought she heard him mutter “Please, God, get us through this” as she hung up.
    Pacing the living room, she called herself all kinds of names (unjustly; it wasn’t she who’d stretched the truth beyond breaking), peered out from a crack in the blinds to watch the mob below. The police had backed them off the property, but they still crowded the sidewalk. Was this what a shark feeding frenzy looked like? Maybe she should just go down there, talk to them, answer what questions she wanted to. Or maybe Hal could set up a time in the morning for a press conference. After all, what could they do but harass her? She had nothing to hide.
    And a worse thought struck. If they were so cavalier about the truth, would they listen to what she said? Almost surely not. They would twist her words into whatever they thought would shock and intrigue. She had released a product that could be beneficial. She could see that the unvarnished truth would not be glitzy, sensational, or even newsworthy.
    Surely Hal had thought of all this. He of all people understood. They’d discussed it. But his dire predictions dealt primarily with pharmaceutical companies who might feel threatened by her product if it reduced the need for their lucrative drug regimens. The other side of her mind asked gently, Is Hal known for overstatement or understatement? Had he ever made a bad judgment call?
    Of course he had; no one could live in this world without making mistakes. She just had no immediate recollection of any in the time they’d worked together. Or she’d just never heard about them. There were lots of plausible answers.
    She peeked out the window again. Had the crowd thinned a little? Another news van pulled up, this one with a satellite dish on the roof. The side was emblazoned with an ad for the local technical college.
    Waiting was worse than anything. Pacing, checking email, pacing, checking the window, pacing. What was the matter with her? This was insanity.
    “Ah, darlin’, you need to be prayin’.” Her gramma’s voice slid around her, warm and comforting like the shawl she sometimes used to snug Dinah to her side. She’d not heard that voice for twenty years, ever since the day Gramma went into a diabetic coma and left. Dinah had sat weeping at her bed. She had quit praying that day. Praying to a God who claimed to be real and wasn’t was not only a waste of time but a fantasy that she no longer bought.
    The only one to depend upon was herself. Immediately names and faces bombarded her. True, she depended on her whole team. More family than business colleagues, together they had accomplished the miraculous on so many levels. She knew there was no way to repay them but to keep on creating products so that all their jobs were secure.
    Snatching up her ringing cell, she saw Hal’s number and hit the answer button. “Are you okay?”
    “Of course I am okay, and here is a young man who wants to talk with you.”
    “Dinah?”
    Her day brightened instantly. “Hi, Jonah. How is she? Did she eat?”
    His grin swam through the ether to her. “We can pick her up after ten in the morning and