Glacier House

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 3

Jen woke to find her dog CD, l*****g her face. This l*****g her face was a new habit of his. She decided that he felt her sadness and wanted to keep her going. She struggled to get out of bed. It seemed every day was a struggle. She and Zack had worked together to break up the trafficking ring. Six months later they were married and two months later she found out she was pregnant. They had been ecstatic and had told everyone. Five weeks later she lost the baby. It had been several months, but she still felt just sad. She and Zack talked about it often. They each were struggling in their own way.

She passed the picture of their wedding. Zack stood tall, over 6’ and she was 10 inches shorter. They were smiling at each other when the photographer snapped the picture. She smiled. It had been a wonderful day with friends and family witnessing their vows and celebrating with them. She sent up a quick prayer of thanks to Zack.

She stood at the sink and looked into the mirror. She saw the dark circles under her eyes. Her hair looked oily and unkempt. She looked like she was 50 instead of 30. She had not taken time to fix her hair or her makeup for several days. She took a deep breath, “You are right, Lord, it is time to get my act together.” She got into the shower, and washed her hair. As she fixed her hair and put the finishing touches of makeup on, she realized she was feeling better.

She had been trying to keep busy. She had been helping Jake line up some fundraising for Glacier House and was keeping up with the contract work she did for Homeland Security and running the short-term, long-term rental office her Nana had left her. Everything was just so difficult. Maybe having Jake and Trevor here and seeing Glacier House become a reality would help.

She took CD for a walk before getting ready for the day. They walked for 20 minutes as CD wound around the neighborhood looking for squirrels or cats or just looking. Halfway through the walk, they ran into their new neighbor, Pat, trying to wrestle an office chair out of the back of her SUV. They walked over to help her. When they finished taking it into the house CD sat and wagged his tail, waiting to be petted. She laughed, stroked his soft fur, reached into her pocket, and pulled out a dog biscuit. CD did a quick bark and inhaled the biscuit in two breaths. Jen thanked Pat and she and CD finished their walk.

When they arrived home Jen made the beds in the two guest rooms. She put the ingredients in the crockpot for the tortilla soup for dinner. She looked around and everything appeared to be ready for Jake and Trevor.

After Jen had been shot when she was in Afghanistan, she decided to get out of the service and come home. When she had been shot, her best friend had been killed and his service dog had been injured. After recovering for a couple of months, she decided to get out of the army and found out her friend’s dog, CD, (Charlie David) was being retired. She was able to pull some strings and had been able to bring him home with her. Her great-grandmother, Nana had died a few months before she was shot and left the business she had started. It was a short-term, long-term rental. Whitefish was near Glacier Park, so there was a lot of demand for short-term rentals. There weren’t many houses available to rent so the long-term rentals had a little turnover. When her father found out she wanted to live in Whitefish, he signed over the house to her. His grandmother had left it to him, and he was living in Texas with his new wife.

The day Zack and his agency had taken down the human trafficking ring, the brother of someone she had reported for selling weapons, had shot her. CD had stopped him from shooting her a second time.

Jen had worked in intelligence and there had been some threats to her life, so when she moved in, she built a safe room. She was able to take a space of about eight feet by ten feet and with some creative decorating, had made it so no one would know it was there. It had two entrances. One disguised as a bookshelf in the family room and the other through the master bathroom. The room had several monitors and computers. This is where she did her work for Homeland Security.

Currently, there wasn’t a lot she was doing for Homeland, so she finished her work in a couple of hours. Jake had said he and Trevor would be there mid-afternoon so she decided to go to the rental office and take care of anything that needed her attention. She would be home in plenty of time.

She called Zack.

“Sweetheart,” he answered.

“You left early and didn’t wake me up.”

“You were sleeping so soundly and looked so sweet, I didn’t have the heart to wake you. I came in early so I could get some things out of the way so when Jake gets here, I can help him.”

“I’m headed to the office; I should be back in an hour. Jake should be here in the early afternoon.”

“I should be home around that time too. I love you.” After disconnecting, Zack sat and looked out the window. He was concerned about Jen. Both of them had been devastated when they lost the baby. After a couple of months, Jen seemed to be getting a little better. Then, for the last month or so she seemed to be tired all the time. He was concerned she might be headed for a major depression. He sent up a quick prayer for her while he continued clearing his desk. He was going to take the next week off to help Jake so he needed to get some loose ends tied up.