1 Lost Under a Ladder Read Online Free PDF Page B

evenings, I’d be gone before I had a chance to pay. And if we had dinner together again before I left town—well, that would feel too much like we were dating, even for this short period of time.
    Even so, I stopped arguing. In a way, I would be doing him a favor by going to the hospital to see Martha. He’d already said she was like a mother to him, and I’d agreed, somewhat against my better judgment, to visit her. If she’d asked him to bring me, maybe he would get some kind of brownie points with his pseudo-mom by my showing up. Worth the price of my dinner? That was for him to decide.
    But what happened was not what I’d anticipated. Not in the least.
    I felt sure Justin knew about it, though.
    First, we took Pluckie back to the B&B. Soon thereafter, we were with Martha, who was lying in her hospital bed in a blue and white printed gown looking bright eyed, yet fragile.
    “It’s so good to see you again, Rory.” Her voice was soft as she held out her hands for me to come close and clasp them. She was in a private room, hooked up to an IV and some monitors.
    “I’m glad you’re okay,” I told her.
    “Too bad they don’t let dogs in here,” she grumbled. “I want to thank Pluckie, too.”
    She knew my name and Pluckie’s. Justin must have told her.
    I found out a minute later that wasn’t all he’d told her about me. I also learned why he stood at the door to the room, as if primed to flee—or maybe to keep me from fleeing.
    “Rory,” Martha said, still holding my hands. She had an iron grip for a senior lady still sick enough to be a hospital patient. “I know you’re just visiting Destiny, but … well, I need to ask you a favor. A big one.”
    She paused, as if waiting for me to inquire what it was. I doubted that I wanted to know. My own heart started thumping so hard that I felt glad I wasn’t hooked up to one of those monitors. Otherwise, some nurse might show up to deal with me, stat.
    I definitely had a bad feeling about this. I glanced toward Justin, but he was no help. He appeared to plant himself even more firmly in the doorway.
    I gently started pulling my hands away from Martha. “Er—I’m not really good about doing favors,” I said.
    “Oh, but you’ll like this one,” she said, then coughed a little, turn ing her head to the side so her mouth faced her gown-clad shoulder—as if to remind me of her fragility. She picked up a water bottle from the table beside the bed, took a drink, then looked at me.
    I inhaled, waiting for what she had to say.
    “They tell me I’ll need some rest to fully recuperate,” she continued, “hopefully at home. I’ve got some part-time clerks at my store, but none has much experience or knowledge about running a store with pet products.”
    Uh-oh. I suddenly knew where this was heading. “Well, I’m sure they—”
    “Justin told me you’re an assistant manager— manager ,” she said for emphasis, “at one of those wonderful MegaPets stores.” She smiled, opening her rheumy brown eyes wide in apparent hope. “I would be ever so grateful if you’d manage the Lucky Dog Boutique for me while I get better.”

four
    I felt my eyes widen. My heart rate quickened even more, if that was possible.
    Stay here? Run Martha’s shop?
    But I had a life in L.A. A job that I loved.
    A need to stop obsessing about superstitions, then putting Destiny far behind me. Soon.
    But I didn’t have the answers I’d come for. Not yet. I might never get them, but the likelihood could be even less if I stayed here for only the few days that I had planned.
    My hands were still Martha’s captives. So was my gaze, since I couldn’t quite tear it away from the pleading expression on her tired, aged face.
    I liked her little boutique. I liked her , even though I had just met her, and under especially difficult circumstances.
    And if I said no, what were her alternatives?
    All that swept through my mind in seconds. I waffled, and that wasn’t like me at