Read Online The Christmas Dog by Melody Carlson - Free Book Online

and took out her old, worn billfold. She pulled out two twenty-dollar bills. She knew that wasn’t much for clothes shopping, but it was the remainder of her December grocery money. Still, she thought that perhaps this month’s budget would need to be increased a bit. After all, she hadn’t planned on having a houseguest. She could make adjustments for it later. It was always such a challenge living on a fixed and very limited income. But she had made it this far in life, and always the good Lord provided.
    “Here you go, dear. I hope you can stretch this.”
    “Now you just go next door and relax, Grandma. Let me take care of everything.”
    Betty closed her purse and nodded. But the movement only made her head throb more. All she wanted was to sit down, take an aspirin, and sip a nice, hot cup of tea.
    Before long, that was exactly what she was doing. And after about thirty minutes, she began to feel more like herself again.
    “More hot water for your tea?” the middle-aged waitress asked.
    Betty glanced at her watch. “Yes, I suppose that would be nice.”
    “Doing some Christmas shopping today?” The waitress refilled the metal teapot, snapping the lid shut.
    “Not exactly.” Betty smiled at her. She explained about her friends’ fiftieth wedding anniversary and how her granddaughter had offered to help with the shopping.
    “Your granddaughter must be delightful,” the woman said.
    “What a relief when so many young people are so messed up. Did you hear the news today?”
    “What’s that?”
    “Big drug bust over on 17th Street. Cocaine, meth, marijuana . . . there were even a bunch of firearms.”
    “In our town?” Betty clutched her coffee mug.
    “Oh yeah.” The waitress lowered her voice. “I actually recognized one of the young men. He’d been in here a number of times. I never would’ve guessed he was involved in something like that.” She shook her head. “You just never know.”
    “No, I suppose not.” Of course, this only made Betty think about Jack Jones again. Suspicions such as these had gone through her head more than once in regard to him. For all she knew, he could’ve ripped the house apart in order to grow marijuana inside. She’d heard of things like that before. And what if he had guns? Oh, it was too horrible to think about.
    But what about that poor dog? Perhaps she’d been cruel to leave him there with Jack. She hoped that Jack wasn’t cruel to the poor animal. And then she thought about her granddaughter and how upset she would be if any harm came to that dog. What had Betty been thinking?
    Betty looked at her watch again. She was surprised to see that an hour had passed with no sign of Avery. She finished the last sip of tea and wondered what she should do. The strip mall wasn’t so large that Betty couldn’t go look for Avery. But it was cold outside. And what if Betty went to the wrong place and Avery showed up at the coffee shop?
    “Everything okay?” the waitress asked with a concerned expression.
    “Yes. I just thought my granddaughter would be finished by now.”
    “Have you tried to call her?”
    Betty frowned. “No . . . but I’m sure she’ll be along any minute now.”
    “Yes, I’m sure she will.”
    But as soon as the waitress returned to the kitchen, Betty began to get worried. Really, what did she know about Avery? She hadn’t spent time with her in years. Betty knew that she’d run away from home. And she hadn’t even called her parents to say she was alive. Then she’d hitchhiked with a friend, gotten her things stolen, and eventually wound up on Betty’s doorstep. Not exactly the profile of a responsible young woman. And not exactly like the picture Betty had concocted for the waitress.
    For all Betty knew, Avery could be involved in something horrible. Something frightening like drugs. And hadn’t Betty just given Avery a handful of cash? What if Avery was long gone by now? What if she’d simply pocketed Betty’s money and