Bottom Line: Callaghan Brothers, Book 8 by Abbie Zanders Read Free Book Online Page B

cancer, Mom,” she said through clenched teeth.
    “Don’t be ridiculous.  Of course he didn’t.  My point is that bad things happen, Mary, whether we want them to or not.  Often without warning.  It is exactly why you need to grab as much of life as you can while you can.  Life is too short, too unpredictable to spend it alone.”
    “I’m not alone, Mom,” Mary said, the familiar argument weighing on her already-weary soul.  “I have Max.”   Besides , she added silently, it’s not as if there were many offers.  
    “For God’s sake, Mary, he’s a dog .” 
    Mary looked over her legs at the huge mass of yellow fur currently resembling roadkill.  On his back, belly bared to the world, his long legs protruded out at odd angles that would have been painful for a dog with proper hip sockets.  His big head hung off the side of the sofa, lips pulled away from massive, gleaming white fangs by gravity, eyes rolled far back in his head, lost in some utopian doggie dream.  Max was so much more than a mere dog.  He was the only other living soul to which she felt inexplicably linked.
    He was also the primary excuse Mary repeatedly used to decline her mother’s frequent pleas to visit her in Florida.  There were other reasons, too, not the least of which was her mother’s unerring ability to get on her last nerve in record time.  She meant well (at least Mary kept telling herself she did) but she and her mother had very different opinions on what a woman needed to be truly happy. 
    “You need a vacation,” Cat said, right on cue.  “Book a flight and put him in a kennel for a few days.  It will be good for both of you.” 
    Max in a kennel?  Only over Mary’s dead, lifeless body.  The look of utter betrayal in Max’s eyes alone would be enough to kill both of them.  As if sensing he was the topic of conversation, he rolled over onto his side and looked at her.  Those big brown eyes sought her out.  Once assured that she was near, they closed once again in slumber.
    “Not happening, Mom.”  Mary wondered, not for the first time, if she was adopted. 
    “Bill has a son about your age,” she said, switching gears without warning.  “His second divorce is almost final, and he’s got a good job.”
    Oh, hell no.  The last thing she needed was her mother setting her up on blind dates. 
    “No, Mom.  Not interested.  And who’s Bill?  What happened to Carl?”  Every few months it was a different name; Mary didn’t even bother trying to remember them anymore.
    Catherine Murphy exhaled heavily in sufferance, refusing to be sidetracked.  “You need a man, Mary.”
    Mary sighed; clearly her mother had reached the end of her patience and was abandoning all precepts of subtlety and going for an all-out attack.  “No, I don’t.”
    “Well of course you do,” Catherine clucked.  “Everything in life is better with a man by your side.”
    It wasn’t that Mary disagreed, exactly, but unlike her mother, Mary didn’t believe that just any man would do.  It had to be the right man.  Mary closed her eyes and prayed for strength and patience.  Another flash of golden hair and glowing eyes filled her mind’s eye, this time accompanied by a pang of longing.  She immediately opened her eyes and tried to dispel the image.
    “You don’t have to marry him, honey, if you don’t want to be tied down just yet.  You don’t want to scare him away anyway.  Just let him adjust your attitude a little, and if it’s good enough - ”
    “Mom, I have to go.”  There was no way she could listen to her mother drone on and on about the benefits of sex on a regular basis again.  She just didn’t have the strength.
    “Mary, don’t you dare hang up on me!  You need to - ”
    “I love you, too, Mom.”  Mary ended the connection and turned off her phone, tossing it on the counter to avoid the ten or so callbacks she’d get in the next few hours.  Leaning back in the recliner, she exhaled