Chapter 10 #2
There’s a container off to the side and I quickly grab some of the contents inside. Taking a deep breath, I turn to Lawson. “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be, I guess.”
Not bothering to hold in my squeal, I push through the final door. The cacophony of excited yelps and barks fill the air and I giggle, eyes dancing over the rows of kennels.
“I don’t know if I can do this, Syd.”
I glance up at him and bump my shoulder into his arm. “I know you can.”
“You’ve always had too much faith in me.”
“No, I haven’t. I tell you that you can’t do things all the time. Things you usually end up being able to do anyway.”
He smirks. “I just like proving you wrong.”
I gasp and point at him. “I knew it!”
He chuckles, and his tense shoulders seem to relax the longer he’s in here.
I turn fully to him. “You can do this, Lawson.” His dark eyes hold my stare and I knock my arm against his. “Plus, you won’t be in this alone.”
“Oh yeah? Plan on signing the papers with me? Seems like an awfully big step, sunshine. Sure we are ready for that?”
My cheeks heat and I shrug. “Yeah, well. If you want me to, then I will. But either way, I planned on stealing them for snuggle dates anyway.”
“Using me to get cuddles, sunshine?”
My eyes widen. “What?”
He blanches, as if he’s realizing what he just said. “Nothing.” He clears his throat and motions towards the kennels. “What’s the plan here?”
“I say we start on the left and make our way over. Thoughts?”
“Whatever you say, boss.”
“Ooo, boss.” I tilt my head back and forth. “I like the sound of that.”
“Okay. Okay. Don’t let it go to your head.”
Laughing, I grab his hand and pull him towards the first row of kennels. “Come on, let’s go find your next best friend.”
We look at every single kennel, have heated debates over some, and practically run screaming from others. I cry about how cute one after the other is and Lawson does his part in reminding me that we can’t take all of them, no matter how much I plead.
Through it all, he doesn’t do more than scratch a head here or toss a treat there.
No melting under the adorableness of puppies.
No longing looks towards any we’ve seen so far.
Nothing.
He hasn’t felt a single connection to any of the hundreds of dogs we’ve passed in the forty-five minutes we’ve been here.
We’re on the last row, in the darkest corner of the shelter, when I look up at him with slightly worried eyes. “Well? Anything?” He shrugs and I sigh. “Okay. These are the last few kennels. Maybe your other half also likes lurking in dark scary corners.”
He huffs a laugh at that and I smile.
“We each have one more treat. I think we should save them for, you know, the one.”
His eyebrow raises. “The one?”
I nod, looking at him over my shoulder. “Exactly. The one.”
I turn and my eye catches on a shadow in the third to last kennel. I stop dead in my tracks and watch the darkest dog I’ve ever seen stare at me with its golden eyes.
Silently I walk over to the kennel door and tilt my head. My mouth pops open when he follows the motion, titling his own in return.
I laugh under my breath and squat down, threading my fingers through the chain. “Hi there. Aren’t you a handsome boy?”
Slowly, he sticks out his nose and sniffs my fingers. I pause, entranced as he takes his time with each knuckle before looking up at my face and nudging his cold nose against my skin.
Without looking away from him, I lift my hand up and unlock the kennel.
“Sydney? What are you doing?”
“I just—”
“That girl said we should go get her if we wanted to see anyone.”
I roll my eyes. “It’s fine. I have a good feeling about this one.”
“Yeah, so did the frog when he agreed to let the scorpion ride on his back.”
I ignore him as I stand and move to swing open the door.
“Sydney,” he hisses, hustling forward.
I drop to my knees in front of the midnight-personified dog. “Hi, buddy,” I whisper and slowly raise my hand.
The dog cautiously sniffs my outstretched hand. There’s a slight swish in his tail before he stands and shuffles towards me. I hold my breath as his cold nose moves over my entire front, ending on my face. I smile when his head moves back and our eyes connect.
There’s a heavy pause as we watch each other, but I don’t shy away as the feeling in my chest grows. The feeling of how right this is.
And he must feel it, too, because the next thing I know, his tail is going wild and he is tossing his paws over my shoulder. A giggle bursts out of me as he gives me kisses all over my face.
The door creaks and the dog pulls back, looking up over my shoulder. I do the same and smile up at the man staring down at me in a mixture of shock, awe, and something else I can’t quite decipher.
I wrap my arms around the fury, friendly beast in front of me. “This is the one.”
His dark eyes dance over me and then the dog. Crouching down beside me, he lifts his hand and lets the dog smell it.
A deep chuckle rumbles through his chest and into my arm when the dog nudges his hand for pets. Lawson holds out his treat, which he eagerly accepts, licking his entire palm clean afterwards.
His eyes slide to me, roaming over my face before moving back to the dog. He threads his tattooed-fingers through the thick fur and smiles. “Yeah, this is.”