Chapter 4
“If you don’t mind me saying, you’re jumpier than a jackrabbit, son,” Rob said, swiping a half piece of toast over the mess of yolk on his plate.
Seeing Kurt nearly leap from his seat at the sound of a dish breaking in the kitchen hadn’t escaped Rob’s notice.
“It’s a shame they don’t do more for you boys on coming home.
It’s like when you’ve been down in the deep of the ocean too long.
Come up without acclimating, and you burst from inside. ”
Kurt swallowed his last bite of crunchy bacon.
Son. It was likely little more than slang, but nevertheless it scraped his ears every time Rob said it.
How often had he fallen asleep as a kid wishing Rob were his father?
Wished for it in a different way than just wanting a father, any father.
But as Nana said, you make lemonade from the lemons you have.
His grandfather was the best he’d get in that department.
Half of his genes would remain a mystery. That was that.
“You think I have the soldiering bends?” Kurt laughed, half surprised something with such a heavy undertone had tickled his funny bone. “And you’re trying to talk me into working with a bunch of dogs on the verge of exploding exactly as you said.”
The server passed by, refilling their coffee and dropping off the check.
Rob dragged a napkin over the salt-and-pepper stubble covering his dimpled chin.
“I think,” he said after the server left, “that getting on a lumber or road crew out West isn’t going to settle what’s churning under your surface.
And the sooner you deal with it, the better you’ll be.
Take some time. Think it over. I don’t have to tell you how nice it would be to have you here in St. Louis for a while. ”
When Kurt stayed quiet, Rob added, “If donations keep pouring in like this, I’ll double the pay I’ve offered you.”
Kurt swirled the last of the coffee in his cup.
He kept seeing the blond walking over on shaky legs to press that pink sticky onto the pit’s crate.
Kept letting his thoughts sway to how seeing her do it stirred awake something burning hot in his core.
“The thing is, I don’t know—” His mouth stayed open, but no more words came.
Don’t know what? The truth was he had no idea. “I don’t know.”
If it was anyone else, he’d give an adamant no. But it was Rob. “I’ll think about it,” Kurt added, even though he knew the answer. He wasn’t going to get involved.
However, things wouldn’t sit easy with him until he said his piece.
“That girl. I don’t care how many years’ experience she’s had with positive training, most of those dogs are going to need a more assertive hand than she’ll be able to give them.
She didn’t even have the sense not to drag a giant alpha who probably outweighs her into that ragtag mix she’s going to take off your hands.
You have to know that without me telling you. ”
“I do. And that’s why I won’t deliver them to her until I’ve got a trained handler ready to take the lead on rehabbing.
I know he’s not your favorite, but Tommy Sintras is giving it some serious thought.
He’s working over in Kansas City. He called me when he saw the story.
If I’d been able to offer him more, he’d have dropped everything.
From what he said, he’s up to his elbows in pampered, inbred pooches. ”
A rumble of discontent rolled through Kurt’s chest. Tommy Sintras had been in training down in Texas with him.
Tommy hadn’t passed the handler test on the first run.
He’d been too quick to let frustration get the best of him.
Military service dogs needed calm, assertive leadership, not an overly dominant, excitable handler.
“Tommy, huh? Let’s hope he’s cooled off the last few years. ”
“Guys I trust are backing him. Not that I’m saying he’d be as chivalrous or stay as calm as you were about having a mess splashed all over his boots.” Rob chuckled as he pulled out his wallet. “Good thing for that hose, huh?”
Tommy was a player too. There was no reason that should be bothering Kurt, but it was.
Besides, from the little interaction they’d had, he suspected Kelsey would be better at putting Tommy in his place than those dogs.
But Tommy would keep coming back for another shot.
That body and those eyes were worth the effort.
Kurt tried shoving the image of her into the same deep pit where he shoved everything he didn’t want to think about, though it didn’t work.
He hadn’t been that close to a woman in a while.
Unless he counted the mother invasion of last night.
The surface of his hand still tingled from the smoothness of the blond’s arm as he’d kept her from toppling over at the sight of the pathetic pit bull. The citrusy scent of her shampoo circled his nostrils. The soothing tone she’d used with the dogs reverberated in his head.
“You know what I haven’t gotten an update on?” Kurt asked, needing to change the subject. “Soccer.”
One of Rob’s eyebrows shot into his forehead. Rob was fifty-two and still playing on a year-round team. He pretty much lived for two things. Dogs and soccer.
Soccer proved to be the change of topic Kurt needed.
It monopolized the conversation until they paid and headed outside.
They parted ways with him promising to give Rob a call and not to stay a stranger.
He was halfway back to Fort Leonard Wood when he realized he hadn’t been able to put the morning’s events out of his mind for a second.
Why couldn’t his mind grasp that right now, his best chance of feeling good was to take a stab at something else entirely?
* * *
There were butterflies in Kelsey’s stomach the next morning. Half from excitement, half from nerves. Change was hardly something she embraced, but it wasn’t something she hid from either.
She sat at her desk at the shelter, looking it over with a rare scrutiny as she waited for Patrick to finish getting ready to head over with her to the Sabrina Raven estate.
She’d spent most of her waking hours here the last seven years.
Half the letters on her keyboard were so worn they were indiscernible.
The miniature dog and cat glass figurines lining her monitor riser had collected enough dust to dull their colors.
There was a pile of nonessential paperwork off to the right she never seemed to get to.
The faded glass fishing float she’d found as a kid on vacation on the Oregon coast rested by her pen jar.
Kelsey picked up the glass orb, wondering how many years it had been since she paid any real attention to it.
These blue-green antique floats were abundant in the coastline shops but rare to find washed up on the beach.
Her dad had hugged her tight after she found it all crusted with sand while walking the beach.
He insisted it proved she was remarkably lucky.
She wondered if he still thought so, considering she’d only been taking classes part time since dropping out of Truman State University halfway through her sophomore year.
Or considering she hadn’t been on a date in forever, and her career had stagnated four years ago after she was promoted to lead adoption coordinator. In a full-time staff of five.
Ugh, you’re psyching yourself out again, Kels.
Glancing at the dusty framed photo of her family on the far side of her monitor didn’t help ease her nerves.
It had been taken six years ago at her brother Chaz’s wedding.
Chaz, Brian, and her dad were in suits that complemented their well-muscled physiques and dark-brown hair.
Kelsey had been a bridesmaid and was in a fantastic lavender dress.
Wearing it with ample makeup and an updo, she looked more like a younger, taller version of her mother than she typically did.
Her mom, also a natural blond, had a gift for accessorizing that Kelsey probably couldn’t acquire even if she had a degree in fashion.
Even though they had their differences, she loved her family and they loved her.
And over the last couple years, they seemed to have accepted that her job at the shelter wasn’t a phase, and that she and corporate America would never be a thing.
Of her family of five, she was the only one who’d been bitten by the animal bug.
As far as Kelsey was concerned, strong benefit plans and retirement accounts paled in comparison to warm, brown eyes and four-legged affection.
But working at a shelter was a lot different from leading a fighting-dog rehab effort at a secluded old mansion. Her dad and brothers were going to think she was nuts, and her mom was going to worry. And maybe she’d be right to do so.
This was probably why Kelsey had put off telling them last night when she’d gone to her parents’ for dinner.
Chaz was out of town with his wife, and Kelsey’s parents were keeping their four- and five-year-old granddaughters for the week.
Kelsey was crazy about her nieces, so it had been all too easy to keep the attention focused on them and not dive into the news yet.
But maybe she should’ve gotten it over with.
Kelsey gave her shoulders a brisk shake. This thing with the fighting dogs. She could do it. She could run the rehab operation. In the Sabrina Raven estate. She’d even sleep there if she had to. More than enough furniture was still there, waiting for someone to use it.
Okay, so maybe she wouldn’t take it that far.
But she was bound and determined to rock this rehab. She could feel the little breath of excitement that had been building in her stomach. Before yesterday, she hadn’t realized how much she needed to do something gutsy.