Chapter Thirty-Six
The next morning Paige opened her eyes to a child staring at her. Josh scrunched his nose. “I didn’t wake you up, did I? I was being really quiet.”
“No.” Paige sat up alone in the bed and looked out the window. “What time is it?” The sun was already over the top of the barn.
“Almost lunch. Daffodil’s doing great, and we milked the goats with Uncle Sterling. Oh, and Mr. Austin is awesome.”
Paige scratched her head as Josh bolted from the room. It was hard to imagine any child calling Austin awesome. Not that he wasn’t, it’s just most kids didn’t see him that way. She rinsed off her face and changed into a fresh pair of jeans before descending the stairs. Voices drifted from the kitchen, and she peered around the doorway. The wrapped apple crates had been stacked on the center counter, and the kitchen table was covered with a lace cloth. At one end, a single place setting sat unused. Sterling and Linda were standing over by the other side of the sink with their backs to her, working on something. They were the only two in the room.
“Morning, if you can still call it that.” Paige stuck her hands in her pockets.
“You’re up.” Sterling hurried to the table and pulled out a chair. “If you’ll sit, we’ve got a few surprises for you.”
She shuffled forward and sat in the chair. “Sorry I wasn’t there to help with the milking.”
Linda called over her shoulder, still facing the far counter. “Don’t worry. The boys loved it, and Sterling said they finished in record time.”
Opening the oven, Sterling retrieved a plate mounded with steak and eggs and set it in front of her. Paige lifted her fork as he poured a glass of milk.
Not quite meeting her eyes, he said, “When you’re ready, we’d like to share what we’ve been working on.”
Sterling was clearly nervous, which made Paige feel the same way. She took a bite of the steak and chewed slowly, wondering what was going on. She swallowed. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
Linda had a crate in her arms, but her back was to Paige. She turned around, and Paige dropped her jaw. Cradled in the yellow straw were a dozen cut bars of new soap. Linda had wrapped each with rough string like a ribbon on a gift and put a sprig of dried greenery and a little tag on them. The writing on the tag read Daffodil Soap.
“Those are adorable,” Paige said. “Where did you get the tags?”
“Jerry’s,” Linda answered. “Her brother has a die cutter and makes them. I tied them with baling twine. I thought we could change out the greenery depending on the type of soap. For this one I used mint from Mom’s garden.”
Paige held the bar in her hand. “It’s perfect.”
“And it cuts your production time and cost by at least seventy percent.” Sterling sat in the chair next to her.
She wasn’t going to let him get away with this that easily. “Okay, for display purposes the apple crate works, but what about individual sales? Really the bar isn’t even completely wrapped.”
Sterling looked to Linda who ran to the corner and brought out small gift bags of different colors. She lifted a bright yellow one, lined with shredded tissue paper. Daffodil Soap had been scrolled tastefully across the front with her logo of Petunia surrounded by flowers in the bottom corner. There was a lime one for the Lemon Grass Jojoba, a peach for the Apricot Almond Oil, a natural one for the Oatmeal Shea Butter and so on.
“The handwriting is gorgeous.” Paige guessed it didn’t belong to Sterling.
Linda was blushing slightly. “Thank you. When Mom used to make soap, I’d wrap them up for her, so they’d look like a gift.”
“Your dad told me they were unique,” Paige said, trying to be tactful.
“Horrible was more like it, but they looked pretty when I finished with them. It was more about giving a piece of love than a bar of soap, anyway.” Linda smiled, but her eyes grew misty at the mention of her mother. Sterling clasped her hand.
Paige wished she could have met their mother but was grateful for the wonderful legacy she had left behind.
Sterling jolted and slapped both hands on the table. “It’s almost ten thirty. We’ve got to get going, or we’ll miss them.”
“Where? Who?” Paige looked from brother to sister but neither would say anything.
Linda lifted the crate from the table. “I’ll stay here and finish cutting the soap. You two have fun, but make sure you check in the barn on your way out. The boys would be heartbroken if you didn’t.”
Taking her hand in his, Sterling led her out the door. Tyler, Linda’s oldest was waiting for them. Stacking hay bales, he had sectioned off a little room from the rest of the goats where Josh was sitting with Daffodil beside him.
Tyler stood by their side. “Grandpa found an old calf bottle. We fed her once about four in the morning and now. We thought we’d go to eight hours for the next feeding.”
“That’s exactly right.” Paige knelt by Josh who was so focused on his task that he hardly noticed her. Daffodil latched onto the bottle well and had a ring of warm foam around her little white mouth. In her face Paige could see the shape of Petunia’s head but her coloring was more like King’s. She ran her hand along the kid’s soft coat.
“Thank you so much, boys. You’re doing a great job.”
Tyler stood a little taller. “Grandpa’s helping us fix the fence in the back field, so we can separate the milking nannies from the others. We should have it done by tonight.”
“Wow.” She stood and rested a hand on Tyler’s shoulder. “You two keep track of your hours because I intend to pay you. We’ll work out the details later.” Paige could tell Sterling was anxious to go. He kept looking at his watch. “We’ll talk as soon as I get back.” She planted a kiss on Tyler’s cheek and one on the top of Josh’s head before running to Sterling’s side.
Sterling grabbed her hand. “We better hurry.” Together they jogged toward the highway.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
They dashed across the road and toward the cattle gate. The sheriff’s car was parked in front of it.
The lock was open, so Sterling only had to remove the chain. “To the meadow. Austin and Misty are waiting for us.”
A pit settled in her stomach, and she stopped. “I don’t want to go back there ever. I don’t want to think about what happened last night again.”
He put an arm around her and lifted her chin. “They caught the owner of the dogs. Austin was a real hero in this thing, but I want him to tell you.”
Paige remembered the boy’s comment when she first woke up. “That’s why Josh called him awesome.” She took a deep breath. “I’ll trust you on this.”
“You won’t regret it.”
She took his hand, and they hurried to the meadow.
Austin was always a bit of a neat freak, but you’d never guess by looking at him now. His face was smudged with fresh dirt, the knees of his trousers were grass stained, and his hands were caked in mud. Misty was in her uniform but almost in the same condition. Paige could tell by their faces both were exhausted, but they greeted her with matching smiles. Behind Austin and Misty was a shovel and a fresh plot of earth. Paige could guess what it was for before Austin confirmed her suspicions.
“We buried the last of Petunia’s remains,” he said. “When the dogs attacked her, one of them got the microdot stuck to his muzzle, so we could chase them.”
Misty stepped forward. “It was Austin’s computer thing that led us to their owner. He’s being charged, and the dogs are in custody. Because of you all, they won’t hurt anyone else.”
“What’s going to become of them?” Paige asked.
Misty’s face was set, and she looked little like the beauty Paige had seen yesterday. Today, she was serious and responsible. “They are scheduled to be destroyed.”
“No.” Paige turned to Sterling. “I don’t think it was their fault they were starving. Couldn’t you call Kiyo about Best Friends? I think that’s what they do, isn’t it? Rehabilitate dogs
like that.”
Sterling brightened. “Good idea. Misty, can you hold off until then?”
“Sure.” She nodded. “And, Sterling, I dropped that CD off you asked for. Your dad said he’d put it in his office.”
Paige wasn’t sure what she was talking about.
Across the meadow they could hear footsteps and turned to find Jerry holding a flat of lavender petunias. Paige met Sterling’s eyes and couldn’t help herself. She threw her arms around him and kissed him. “You are so sweet. Petunias for Petunia.”
Sterling reddened. “I had to call Jerry about the bags and tags anyway.”
Four trowels hung from Jerry’s belt loops. They all knelt and planted the new flowers together. While on her knees beside Austin, he turned to her. “Another cool thing happened last night. We thought we had lost the dogs' signal. They had gone out of the two-mile radius since we had to follow the roads. Anyway, the beast must have hit an electric fence because it boosted the output. Isn’t that cool?”
Paige nodded without saying anything, not quite certain why this development was so significant.
“Think of the applications on cars, cellphones, pacemakers, hearing aids and children’s clothing!” Austin’s hands were trembling with excitement. “Okay, that last one doesn’t have an electrical source, yet. They could all be tracked.”
Misty turned toward him with a smile. “This man is a genius.”
Paige and Sterling laughed. “We know,” they said at the same time.
Heading back to the house, Paige held Sterling’s hand tight. “I think Misty has a little crush on our boy Austin.”
“Could be.” Sterling said, but she could tell his mind was somewhere else.
“What is it?”
“I made plans for us today. I’m not sure with all that’s gone on that you’re up to them.”
“What plans? Does it have to do with that CD Misty was talking about?” Paige bit her lip. She wanted this to last forever, surrounded with family and people you could count on.
“Yes.” He squeezed her hand. “Tonight’s the dance at the Pit, and I thought we might practice. Misty dropped off some music, and I got the key to the high school gym. What do you think?”
A smile blossomed across her face. “Sounds fun.” She was happy to keep reality at bay for a few hours longer, but in the back of her mind she knew it wouldn’t be kept there for long.
***