Nubbin but Trouble by Ava Mallory Read Free Book Online

signaled for Barney to follow me  out the door, but as usual, he looked at me and closed his eyes, apparently opting to stay in Colorado and relax from his ultra exhausting trip.
     
    “You need some help with the dog?” Mack asked, reaching down to hoist my chubby dog in his arms.
     
    I nodded, explaining, “We're still getting used to each other. He hasn't really learned to follow commands yet.”
     
    “He probably thinks the same thing about you,” Mack grumbled. “You can't teach an old dog new tricks. You see, we are the ones that taught all the younger ones how to get by,  so you're just going to have to learn how to appeal to him the way he's used to it. Do as he wants you to do or at least let him think that you're listening to him. I don't care what anyone says, all dogs are males in spirit. You gotta treat him like you'd treat your husband. Make him think he's smart, even when you both know he's not.” Mack chuckled.
     
    I opened the cage for him to put Barney in and turned to shake his hand. Mack shook his head. “Nope. Give me a hug. Let me send you off properly. I don't want to live with any regrets, if something goes wrong on the roads. Be well. Be safe and, if the roads get too bad, get off of them.” He hugged me in a grandfatherly kind of way. I almost cried at the kind gesture. I needed that hug.
     
    Jimbo stood in the doorway, holding the door open, looking up at the gray skies. “More rain is coming. Be safe, little lady. We'll see you on your way back.” He waved.
     
    I didn't hesitate. I started the engine and backed out of the parking lot, ready for the next leg of my trip.
     
    “Okay, Barney, here we go again. You keep me awake and I promise to not drive off the road and kill us both.” I said, hoping that my words weren't going to come back to haunt me.
     
    *
    The last thing I expected when I left the diner was to still be on the road four hours later, but as luck would have it, that's where I was, driving at a snail's pace somewhere between nowhere and nothing on a snow-covered highway in Nebraska, I think. You see, I don't really know where I was because the last time I could actually make out any words on a highway sign was just about the same time that I left the diner. No one ever said I was the smartest cookie in the world, but I'm sure more people than just myself would agree that my quest to find a man, who by all accounts, didn't really want to be found, wasn't the brightest idea. What did I know about driving in a blizzard anyway? Just because I happened to drive in one once before and survive, didn't mean that I was going to survive this time around.
     
    "Sorry, Barney," I said for the thousandth time after swerving dangerously close to the drop off on the side of the road. Snow tires or not, my car wasn't equipped to deal with inclement weather - yet another very important reason that I had no business trekking on these roads.
     
    Keep it steady, Mercy , I thought to myself. At the rate I was going, I figured, we'd arrive at our destination somewhere around menopause or thereafter. Why couldn't Nubbin have taken off when spring actually arrived and not now that a new era of winter was to begin?
     
    "I think we need some music, don't you," I asked my sleeping dog. Combined, he'd probably slept for more than twenty-four hours over the course of the last day and a half. Part of me was upset; the other part of me was so jealous. Sleep sounded so enticing.
     
    I turned the radio on, completing forgetting that Western Nebraska radio stations only offered two types of music: country and western. Get it? Not country and western, but a country station and a western station. Who knew they were two different things?
     
    In between the strumming of the guitars and the foot tapping 'make you wish you'd never fallen in love' playlist, an announcer came on and spoke in his low monotone voice, nearly lulling me to sleep as soon as he began, and filled in his listeners about