Free Hide & Find (Mayfield Cozy Mystery Book 3) by Jerusha Jones

for someone else—” Tears tracked down her cheeks. “It would be a form of redemption for me. Please, Nora, let me do this.”
    “Do what?” I had to force the words past the tightening in my own throat.
    “Live with Tarq.”
    Gravel spun up inside the wheel wells, and I yanked Lentil back onto the pavement.
    “Close your mouth.” Loretta braced herself against the dashboard and giggled through her tears. “Not like that . He clearly needs someone to look after him. Around the clock, not just sporadically. Cooking, cleaning, making sure he sleeps and doesn’t overexert himself, driving him to appointments. I probably wouldn’t be as agreeable a companion as his old dog was, but I’d do my best. If he needs someone to nag him, I can do that too.”
    I nodded slowly. There really was no question about Tarq’s need. It was glaringly obvious with just a single glance at him or his living arrangements.
    “Yes?” Loretta’s face brightened.
    “You know he’s going to hate it. And become even more obstinate and grouchy. Two women ganging up on him and telling him what to do.” I shook my head. “He’ll resent the intrusion, the assumption he’s not able to care for himself, the — well, the whole situation. And he’ll have every right to feel that way.” I slanted a worried look at Loretta. “I don’t know how he’ll treat you, what he’ll say.”
    “I’m tough,” Loretta piped. “If the path you’re on doesn’t have any obstacles, then it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.”
    “Uh-huh.” I choked back a chuckle, imagining Tarq’s response to an onslaught of Loretta’s snappy quips. The irascible lawyer versus the incorrigibly chipper mother-in-law. Let the battle begin.
    Loretta and I stopped at the general store and went on a mega shopping spree. I wasn’t going to release her into the wilds of Tarq’s cabin without proper survival gear.
    Etherea Titus, store proprietress and encyclopedic archivist of all things May County, bristled with undisguised curiosity, but I managed to pay out of my dwindling supply of cash without revealing the intended destination of all the new goods. I couldn’t avoid Etherea and Loretta chatting it up, however, but it was probably too late to prevent their exchange of juicy tidbits anyway because of Gus’s earlier taxi service for Loretta. There’s not a person or vehicle that passes through this shared four-way stop that isn’t observed and speculated upon.
    I was pretty sure Loretta would fall under the same protection umbrella I had, though, with my nosy neighbors looking out for all of us and ready to lend a hand at a moment’s notice.
    When Lentil’s bed was loaded to the gills with mops and buckets, chemicals of the sanitizing variety, even a couple gallons of paint, and warm bedding and pillows, we made our way home where we bolstered ourselves even further with a heavy pot full of Clarice’s fragrant stew, Loretta’s small travel case, and Emmie.
    I wrapped an arm around Emmie’s shoulders as she snuggled into my side and we bounced back over Mayfield’s cratered driveway. I’d missed her. When would I be able to stop doing grown-up things and spend the day playing with her?
    Although she didn’t know it, Emmie was along for moral support. I figured Tarq wouldn’t yell at us in front of the child. I’d also slipped Loretta one of my burner phones and given her the number to reach me at if she needed reinforcements in the future. I didn’t want her to think we’d abandoned her to her fate out there in the boonies.
     
    oOo
     
    Tarq was surprisingly docile, and I think it was because he was in incredible pain. His breathing was shallow, and his skin even more yellow than this morning.
    Emmie sat at the kitchen table with him while Loretta and I shuttled in the supplies. She’d drawn a picture of Ollie for him — a younger, happier Labrador next to a gurgling stream with butterflies circling his head. Maybe it was her idea of doggy