Later that night, Mike lifted the lid off the simmering pot of spaghetti sauce, picked up the spoon, and stirred. The pasta was finished, salads made, and garlic bread sliced. He glanced at the clock—six fifty-eight. Ruth should be here any minute.

Sure enough, the sound of a brisk knock on the door told him his big sister had arrived for the weekend. He placed the spoon on the counter next to the stove and turned off the burner. Pulling free the dish towel he had tucked into the waistband of his jeans, he placed it on the counter as well. A frown creased his brow when he heard Ruth knock again, this time louder than before.

“The door’s unlocked,” he called as he exited the kitchen and headed across the living room to the front door. He gripped the doorknob, twisted it, and pulled the door open. “Since when do you….”

“Happy Birthday, baby brother!” Ruth announced with a huge grin.

“What the fuck?!” Mike growled, raising his arms automatically when Ruth lifted the wiggling bundle in her arms.

“Happy Birthday!” Ruth grinned, pushing past him. “I have his bed and toys out in the back of my car. You can get them while I set the table. Oh, God! That smells so good. I’m starving.”

“No, no, no, no, n…,” Mike was saying before he ended up with a tongue in his mouth.

“Did you make….? Yes! Your homemade ranch dressing. I absolutely adore you!” Ruth said from the kitchen.

Mike stood there trying to glare at his sister. It was hard to do when he had to keep moving his head to avoid the tongue trying to find a way down his throat. Tucking the Golden Retriever puppy under his arm, he winced when it began chewing on his finger.

“Ruth!” Mike growled in frustration. “Please tell me you did not buy me a dog.”

Ruth peeked around the corner. “No, I did not buy you a dog,” she said with a sweet smile.

Her response stopped Mike in his tracks. He looked down at the golden body. A huge dark blue bow was attached to the puppy’s collar with the words Happy Birthday, baby brother printed on it. The puppy looked up at him with eyes the color of melted chocolate, and he could feel its tail knocking against his side.

“Then explain this,” he demanded, absently scratching the puppy’s chin.

“I didn’t buy him. He was given to me, and I am giving him to you,” Ruth stated with a serene smile.

“Semantics. I’m not one of your legal documents, damn it! You know what I meant,” Mike said, walking into the kitchen.

“Where are the napkins?” Ruth asked, opening cabinets and peering inside.

“Use paper towels, they work just as good,” Mike replied in exasperation. “I don’t want a dog.”

Ruth paused and looked at him. Mike could feel his jaw clench and knew he was about to start grinding his teeth. She had that innocent look on her face—the one that meant she was settling in for the kill.

“He is my present to you,” she said in a soft, calm voice.

“I know… but, it—he—is a dog! Worse, it—he—is a puppy! Do you know what puppies do?” he demanded.

“Yes, I know very well what puppies do. In fact, if I remember correctly, they do the same thing that rats do,” Ruth replied.

Mike cringed. Yep, she was moving in for the kill. One mistake! He’d made one mistake fifteen years ago and now it was coming back to bite him in the ass.

“You were sixteen. I thought you would like them,” Mike grumbled.

“You gave me rats for my sixteenth birthday,” she reminded him. “Not one, but two—a girl and a boy. Be grateful you only got one puppy, baby brother. My friend had fourteen more.”

“God, why do women have such long memories?” Mike groaned, turning and holding the puppy up to his face.

“You have to admit, puppies have better smelling breath,” Ruth chuckled.

“He smells like cake,” Mike retorted.

“Yes, well, there is a reason for that,” Ruth laughed.

Mike glanced down at the puppy that was now trying to wiggle out of his arms. “At least she gave me a boy,” he informed the puppy before bending over and placing him on the floor. “This means we are even, right?”

Ruth paused and looked over her shoulder. “Oh hell, no. Not by a long shot. You have about thirty-two more paybacks before I write off that nightmare,” she responded.

“I think we should be even now,” he argued, grabbing a bowl for the spaghetti sauce. “I was able to give twelve of the baby rats away to friends, and let another ten go free, and you gave me two fish for my fifteenth birthday after mom and dad gave us a list of non-acceptable pets. Also, you know that this puppy is going to chew on half of my new furniture, god knows how many pairs of shoes, and leave enough puddles and poop to fertilize half of Lincoln county. I won’t even mention the hazards facing my living room carpet until I get him housebroken!”

“Carpet is bad for your allergies and you were planning on replacing it anyway. Oh, alright. I’ll think about it,” Ruth conceded with a dramatic sigh.

“I don’t have any problems with allergies,” Mike scowled before his expression changed. “I made the homemade ranch dressing and extra sauce for you to take home,” he added with a sly smile.

Ruth bit her lip and contemplated his bribe for a moment. “Well, I guess that is worth a few rats. Okay, we’re even,” she grudgingly replied.

“Thank you for small miracles!” Mike muttered, turning to hand Ruth the bowl of sauce. “By the way, thanks for driving up for my birthday, sis.”

“We promised we would be there for each other, no matter how far away we live,” Ruth said, gazing up at him.

Mike nodded. They had promised after losing both of their parents that they wouldn’t forget how important family was—especially since it was just the two of them now. Mike winced and looked down at the puppy attacking his sock-covered foot.

And if there are two things that his sister is very tenacious about, it is keeping promises and never forgetting anything, he thought.

“I’ll get the pasta,” he said in a gruff voice.

“And cheese,” Ruth reminded him, turning toward the table. “By the way, the reason Charlie Brown here smells like cake is because he ate the one I bought you on the way up here.”

Mike paused with his hand on the refrigerator door and looked at Ruth in dismay. He shot a glance at the puppy that was now attacking the straw on the broom leaning in the corner of the kitchen before looking back at Ruth.

“Please tell me you purchased a kennel for him,” he said.

Ruth shook her head. “Of course not! You know how I feel about caging animals,” she replied.

Great! Just great! he thought with a wince when the broom fell with a clatter and scared the puppy, which took off towards the living room.

* * *

Later that night, Mike lay in bed staring up at the ceiling, absently scratching Charlie behind his ear. The pup didn’t whine when he placed him on the folded blanket on the floor next to his side of the bed. No, the damn thing had stared at him with huge, unblinking eyes and a soulful, lost look.

He had tried rolling over so his back was to the puppy, but he could feel the pup’s eyes drilling a hole between his shoulder blades. Rolling over, he had finally given up and growled for the pup to join him. Of course, it took another ten minutes after that to make Charlie stop licking him and settle down.

Mike drew in a deep breath and released it. He was tired, but his mind was buzzing with everything that he and Ruth had talked about. Mostly, he thought about how the carefully laid plans for his life had changed.

It had been almost two years since he gave up his commission in the Air Force. He had planned to stay in and serve his twenty years before retiring to do some traveling. Somewhere in the mix he figured he’d get married if he met the right woman, but he was in no hurry.

With eight years of service, he was almost halfway to his goal. Everything changed the night he received Ruth’s urgent phone call. Their dad, a career Air Force Colonel, had collapsed. Family needed family and when their dad was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, he had returned home. What neither he nor Ruth expected was that they would be burying both their parents within two weeks of each other, their father from the cancer and their mother from a stroke, less than seven months after Mike had come home.

Mike knew Ruth felt guilty about his leaving the service. The thing was, no one knew exactly how long their dad would last, or that their mom would die so soon afterward. Ultimately, the decision had been his to make, and he realized afterward that it had been the right one. He had been trying to follow in their dad’s footsteps, but in reality, he had grown tired of the confines of the military and was ready for a change.

The position at the Yachats Police Department was obtained through a friend at his mom’s funeral. Two weeks later, he and Ruth had finished packing up all of their parents' belongings and placed the house in Sacramento, California on the market. Afterward, he had headed north. He’d considered Yachats as a place where he could stop and think, a layover for where he was going to go next. With the disappearance of Carly Tate and then Jenny Ackerly, he knew he wouldn’t be going anywhere else—at least not until he found out what had happened to them. He never left anything undone, and he had promised Jenny he would bring Carly home. Now, he felt like he owed it to Jenny.

Rolling over, he wrapped his arm around the golden fur-ball that was now snoring. A chuckle escaped him. He would have preferred a different warm body in bed next to him on his birthday but, as a second choice, it was better than a cold pillow, he decided.

Scratching the pup’s belly, he released a huge yawn and felt the last of the tension leave his body. “Goodnight, Charlie Brown,” he whispered in the dark as his mind finally shut down enough for sleep to overtake him.