“This struggle of shared personal time is wrapped up in so many other things—religion, tradition, gender roles, and our historically patriarchal society. The generation who raised our parents were well rooted in gender roles. The father was the primary breadwinner, while the mother tended the brood and homestead. But society really began to change during the Second World War, when women were asked to fill the jobs men left behind to go defend the free world.

  “The war ended, the men returned home, and the women received a pat on the head and were sent back to their housewife duties. But some of them refused and stayed in the workplace, even though they were relegated to lower-paying jobs that most men didn’t want. So, while the workplace was beginning its transformation, not much changed at home. Even when women worked outside the home, they were still expected to shoulder most household and child-rearing chores.

  “More experienced in business supply and demand, their male counterparts helped by responding with innovation. They invented, produced, and marketed an array of time-saving devices to make a housewife’s life easier—electric mixers, toaster ovens, Crock-Pots, vacuum cleaners, ice makers, better washing machines and dryers, and handheld hair dryers and curling irons.

  “Now, what about children?” Ming might not be any more qualified than Perry to address this subject, but child-rearing seemed to dominate family schedules.

  “Our parents also still adhered somewhat to their parents’ ‘children should be seen, not heard’ philosophy. The parents didn’t go to every one of their kids’ after-school activities. Coaches, as well as art and music teachers, were responsible adults in charge of the children. Mom dropped the kid off, then ran errands until it was time to pick the kid up, making the most efficient use of her time. Children didn’t meet with special coaches and teachers to improve their skills. Parents recognized that every kid wasn’t going to play in the NBA or be a concert violinist, so the youngsters played outside with siblings or neighbor kids after school. Mom tended to work part-time, and Dad got off work at five o’clock every day. The neighbors came over, and you grilled out on Saturday afternoons.

  “Today, both parents work full-time. Dad, and maybe Mom too, works late, and they call in a pizza or some other unhealthy fast food to be delivered. They pay someone else to chauffeur the kids to practices and lessons. They might even bring work home for after dinner. The kids don’t care because they’re entertaining themselves on their phones, electronic tablets, and laptops with games and social media. They need those devices, you argue, to keep up with schoolwork and technology and the pulse of the society they’ll need to interact with as adults.

  “But these things—high-speed internet, video games, phones, laptops, tablets—cost money. Kids break the devices, and new, updated versions come out every year. So, you work more overtime to pay for them and all the other security and time-saving innovations technology has provided. In the end, you have to ask yourself whether these purchases are helping or tipping the scales of your life even more heavily toward hundred percent work. In fact, the tentative reopening after the pandemic shutdown has a lot of people reevaluating their work situations. More than three percent of the American workforce quit their current jobs last month to begin a new job or search for one with improved working conditions, more pay, and better benefits.

  “Let’s hear your ideas about finding balance in your life.”

  The chat line was humming with responses, and the phone board had calls waiting as Ming’s crew scrambled to screen them for the best responders.

  * * *

  Perry and Julie stared at the long, blue feather tangled in JT’s mustache.

  “I’m afraid to look in the yard,” Perry said. The mole was bad enough. She felt no regret over the unattractive creature that had been digging up her and Mrs. Mayberry’s yards, but she didn’t want to think about JT dispatching one of the songbirds her neighbor lured with feeders full of tasty seeds and colorful little houses nailed along her fence, where they raised their springtime broods. She enjoyed the birds, too.

  “You should do it before Mrs. Mayberry spots the body when she’s filling her feeders,” Julie said.

  Perry suspected the diminutive Mrs. Mayberry had purposely positioned her bird feeders on high posts so she needed a tall stepladder to refill them, which allowed her to look down into Perry’s yard. She was tempted to sunbathe nude just to rattle the nosy old lady. Her condo was on the end, so she didn’t have a neighbor on the other side to spy on her from a second-story window, and Mrs. Mayberry’s windows were positioned so she couldn’t see Perry’s small, square patio. “You go first. I’ll get the poop-scooper from the garage to pick his victim up.”

  The dogs seemed puzzled over the search but joined in to sniff every corner and around every bush, obviously intent on finding whatever the alpha sought. Alas, their search produced only a second feather.

  Julie examined it. “Blue jay or a bluebird. Maybe they ate it. Or maybe the bird just molted a few feathers in your yard, and JT sniffed one out.”

  JT sidled up to Julie at the sound of his name, and she took the feather from his mouth.

  “It was just tangled in his beard and not really in his mouth,” she said.

  Perry was so relieved. She just couldn’t imagine the sweet-tempered JT killing something. He had a goofy side, barking at the clouds when he heard thunder and jumping high in the air to try to catch bumblebees. Fortunately for him, his lunges were wildly off target, and the bees never seemed aware of his pursuit. “Okay. Everybody back inside.” Molly had found something interesting and was intent on digging under one of the shrubs.

  “I think she’s losing her hearing,” Julie said.

  Perry snorted. “Her hearing is selective. Watch this.” She spoke in a normal conversational tone. “Do you guys want a treat?”

  Molly’s scamper across the yard to be the first to the door belied her age.

  Julie laughed. “That little stinker.”

  “Yep. The queen pretty much does what she wants, when she wants.”

  Treats were handed out, and Julie grabbed her laptop. “You want to work down here or up in your office?”

  “I don’t really want to work at all on a Sunday.”

  Julie put her hand on Perry’s forehead. “You must be sick. You always want to work, and you blew off our normal run-then-work Saturday routine yesterday because of that dog-park thing.” Her eyes went wide, and she slapped her hand over her mouth in a dramatic display for a few seconds. “Oh my God. I almost forgot to tell you.”

  “Tell me what?”

  “I think your Ming might be the infamous Dr. Lee.”

  “What? Why would you think that?”

  “What has your digging turned up on Dr. Lee’s background?”

  Perry was reluctant to admit her epic failure to fully research Dr. Lee’s background. Perry’s Timed for Success stats were increasing, but mainly because Dr. Lee’s followers were now joining her podcast so they didn’t miss the back-and-forth argument between efficiency and balance. She’d effectively lost control of her own podcast to the participants who had turned it into a forum for their own issues.

  “I haven’t had time to do much research on the mysterious Dr. Lee.”

  “What? This person who is targeting your podcast and the series on personal efficiency that you planned to use for your third book? Tracking down information on this person should be a priority. I know you like Ming, but have your ovaries short-circuited your brain?”

  “No. It’s just every time I start to look into it, the three terrors here pee on the floor or bring their latest kill into the house or have some other crisis that diverts my attention. But you didn’t answer my question. Why do you think Ming is Dr. Lee? I don’t even believe Dr. Lee is a woman. Only a man could be that arrogant.”

  “I found some message boards from her followers speculating that she’s a doctor right here in Fresno, which makes sense because her podcast website says she’s licensed in California.”

  “That’s circumstantial.”

  “Do you know Ming’s last name?”

  “No. It hasn’t come up.”

  “You slept with her, but you don’t even know her last name?”

  “I haven’t slept with her.”

  Julie sat back, her face a classic display of shock. “You haven’t slept with her yet?”

  “Don’t look so surprised.”

  Julie opened her laptop and began typing.

  “What are you doing?”

  “You might be avoiding it, but I’m going to find out everything this woman’s been doing since she enrolled in kindergarten.”

  “For heaven’s sake—” Perry’s phone buzzed with a text.

  Ming: Do you like sushi, and can you and the pups be ready in twenty minutes?

  Perry: Yes! And yes. Where are we going?

  Ming: It’s a surprise. Jeans and a T-shirt. Might need a jacket for after dark. And pack an overnight bag for you and the dogs. I’ll have you back early enough for work tomorrow.

  “Okay,” Julie said. “From that big grin on your face, I’m going to guess that was a text from a certain doctor you seem gaga over, and we’re not going to be working this afternoon.”

  “Nope. We won’t.” Perry didn’t try to hide her glee. “She’s picking up me and the dogs in twenty minutes. AND, I’ve been told to pack an overnight bag.” She jumped off the bar chair she’d been sitting on and performed a brief, hip-rotating dance while chanting, “She likes me, she likes me, she likes me.”

  Julie ignored her premature victory dance, peering at her laptop as she maneuvered her cursor and clicked several times. “Hey, look here. Does this look like Ming?”

  Perry looked over Julie’s shoulder at a college-yearbook website. The photo Julie pointed to was a young woman with Asian features, long, straight bangs that almost hid her eyes, and dark hair that hung forward to obscure the contours of her chubby face. It could have been Ming, about fifty pounds heavier. “No. That’s not her.”

  “The caption says Ming D. Lee.”

  “Lee is like the most common Asian name ever. Anyway, what does it matter if it is her?”

  Perry could see that Julie was making a decision as she stared at her.

  “Are you familiar with Podcast Prattle?” Julie asked.

  “That podcast that talks about other podcasts? Of course. Rayna Shine—is that a fake name or what?—is the host. Getting a mention on that woman’s podcast is money in the bank.”

  “She wants to have you and Dr. Lee on her podcast. The fuss between your followers has caught her attention.”

  “Hell, yeah. Book it. Any time, any place.”

  “What if Ming is Dr. Lee? You wouldn’t want to get blindsided.”

  “She’s not.”

  “This student fits the timeline of the credentials listed on Dr. Lee’s podcast website.”

  “I’ll ask for her last name today, okay? But that’s not her.”

  “Why don’t you just ask if she’s the host of Finding Natural Balance?”

  “She knows my last name and what I do. If she was my evil rival, don’t you think she would have said something by now?”

  “Maybe, maybe not.”

  Perry stared at Julie. Why was she pushing this? “Are you jealous?”

  “I’m just trying to save you from getting hurt. I’ve never seen you so enamored with anyone.”

  Julie was right, but she wasn’t about to admit it. She’d completely lost focus at work because all she could think about was Ming. And, to be truthful with herself, she’d discouraged potential adopters for the dogs yesterday because, once the dogs were gone, her excuse to see Ming would disappear, too.

  “I’ve posted the dogs’ photos on a bunch of social-media platforms. JT has received lots of pings. Tucker got a handful. Molly, not so much. Her age puts people off. As soon as you’re ready, we can set up a day of meet-the-pets to decide who will get them.”

  “Nobody wants all three?”

  “A few said they could maybe take two, meaning the two boys.”

  “Put the responders in a spreadsheet, and I’ll look at them.”

  Julie closed her laptop. “Will do, Boss. I’m going to head out and work from my own home office.”

  “Take the day off. You deserve it.”

  “Thanks, but all this work will just be waiting for me Monday…on top of the usual hectic Monday workload.” Julie gave her a brief hug. “You have fun.”

  Chapter Ten

  It’s not officially mine until my former partners add their signatures to the contract and transfer the first payment into my account so I can close on this property Wednesday, but all the pieces are lined up to fall into place.” Ming watched the emotions battle across Perry’s expressive face and wondered again if she was aware how much her features revealed.

  “It’s beautiful property, Ming. But I see a lot of work here.”

  “I see a lot of potential and, finally, a labor of love instead of just labor. Because that’s what my life has become, Perry. I’ve been going to work every morning lately because I have patients scheduled, not because I look forward to seeing them.”

  They both turned as a dusty pickup came slowly down the drive toward them.

  Perry spun around, scanning the yard. “Where are the dogs?” The words were barely out of her mouth when a chorus of barks and yaps drew their attention to three dogs speeding their way from the barn.

  “Doing what that pack does best. They were hunting for vermin in the barn.” Ming laughed when Perry put one hand over her chest and the back of her other hand against her forehead. “They’re going to be my death if they keep killing things in front of me, but I wouldn’t want them to get run over.”

  She waved at Ben as he stopped and grinned at her before climbing out of his truck. Molly and JT raced to him, but Tucker took up position halfway between Ben and Perry. Ben removed his Stetson and carefully let them sniff his hands, then scratched ears until everyone was satisfied that he was a friend. He finally stood and pulled up the gaiter around his neck to mask his mouth and nose.

  “People are careful around here, so you’ll want to put your mask on,” she told Perry. They both had masks in their pockets because they were careful, too.

  Ben approached slowly with one eye on Tucker, and Ming knew he was reading the same body language she was—Tucker was intent on protecting his alpha, and a nervous dog was like a scared young soldier with a quick trigger finger. “Call Tucker to you and slip his harness and leash on him until we’re sure he won’t go after Ben.”

  “Thanks,” Ben said. “I’ve got a Jack myself. They can be fierce protection against strangers, and I’d like to leave here with my saggy butt in one piece.” Ben stepped closer once Tucker was leashed, his smile showing in his eyes. “Come out for a last inspection before the closing on Wednesday, Dr. Davis?”

  “Please, it’s Ming.” She shook his offered hand. “We’ll be neighbors in a few more days. This is my friend, Perry Chandler. I’m so excited that everything is working out, I wanted to show her the property. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “Not at all. I’m glad I caught you. I’ve got a few messages I can give you now instead of Wednesday.” He shook Perry’s hand, and they laughed as they both pulled hand sanitizer from their pockets. “I guess we could forgo the handshakes, but that just doesn’t feel natural to me. I’d rather go ahead and shake, then sanitize.”

  “I’m with you,” Perry said.

  Ben took a plastic Ziploc bag from his pocket, opened it, and offered it to them. “Turkey jerky. Make it myself. If you don’t want to try it, I won’t be offended, but I’m thinking it might help me make friends with your guard dog here.”

  They each accepted a piece, and Ben took one himself before squatting and offering a small bit to Tucker, who refused until Molly and JT both ate a piece and looked for more. He chewed and swallowed it, then edged closer for seconds. “Like that, did you?”

  “Yeah. That’s really good,” Perry answered.

  Ming and Ben laughed, but he gave her another piece before handing out seconds to the dogs. He stood after Tucker sniffed his hand, looking for a third piece, and licked it. They were friends now.

  “Your limp is almost gone,” Ming observed.

  “Yeah. My back feels so much better. You’re pretty good with those needles, Doc. And I’m happy that soon I won’t have to drive to Fresno when I need a treatment.”

  “You won’t have to drive to Fresno ever again if all goes right tomorrow. And there’s no reason it shouldn’t. They just have to put their signatures next to mine on their own offer.” She wanted to hug him because she could feel the open-armed welcome of this community deep in her core. This place, these people felt so…right. “You said you have messages?”

  “I do.” Ben replaced his hat to shade his eyes from the sun. “My cousin, Ross Cutter, is a contractor. He says he can meet at your convenience to give you an estimate on renovations to the house and get a team right on them. I’m not saying this because he’s my cousin, but he’s in such demand he’s been turning down projects.” He gestured to the house. “He’d be honored to be the one to update the old family homestead, though, just so he’d know it was done right. He’ll give you a good price, too.”

  “That would be amazing, Ben. Tell him I’d be willing to drive out tomorrow afternoon or anytime Tuesday or Wednesday after the morning closing. I saw my last patients Friday in Fresno, so getting this place up and running has my full attention now. I also need to talk to whoever has been maintaining the fields.”

  “That would be Collin Cutter.”

 

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