Chapter Six #2
With a sigh, Riley’s mother-in-law turned and started walking. Josh followed her to the entry area. The dog trotted right along with them.
When they reached the door, Annette crouched to scratch the animal behind his floppy ears.
“I think you’re going to love living here.
Be a good dog.” The dog whined at her hopefully as she swept to her feet again.
“Well,” Annette said to Josh with a brave little smile.
“You’re a good man, Joshua. I know you’ll do right by my daughter-in-law. ”
He nodded. “Drive carefully, Annette.”
“You have a lovely Easter, Joshua.”
“You, too.” He faked a smile as he thought of Shane hunting eggs at Lenore’s house, celebrating Easter without him.
He’d been invited to join them, of course.
But he’d said he couldn’t make it. He’d learned the hard way that accepting Lenore’s invitations to holidays and family events inevitably led to her finding new and imaginative ways to show him how good life could be if he only would come to his senses and get back together with her.
“You take care, now,” said Annette with a regal nod as she sailed out the door. The dog followed her onto the wide front deck.
“Sit,” Josh commanded.
The dog whined in protest but dropped to a sit. Annette went down the steps, got in her car and drove away.
As soon as she disappeared down the narrow, winding road, Josh said, “Come on, boy.”
With a final plaintive whine, the dog followed him back inside. Josh fixed himself breakfast. The dog watched him as he cooked, so he fixed the pooch a plate, too. A bit later, he let the dog out to do his business. When Josh checked a few minutes later, the dog was waiting at the door.
By that evening, Josh had realized he liked having a dog around, someone to keep him company when he was home alone. Someone to help keep his mind off a certain blue-eyed redhead.
Josh got out his laptop and looked up how to adopt a stray dog—because yeah.
Already he was thinking in terms of keeping the pooch.
He learned he needed to turn the dog in at the local shelter and let the people there know that he wanted to adopt the animal.
If the owner couldn’t be found, Josh would be first in line to claim him.
By Monday, he was calling the dog Roger for no other reason than that Dog and Pooch were getting old. The name seemed to stick. When Josh called, “Here, Roger!” the dog came running.
Josh took Roger with him to Bravo Construction that morning.
Tia, the office manager, took a liking to the guy.
Roger kissed up to Tia shamelessly, giving her long, soulful looks with those big golden brown eyes of his.
The dog clearly adored women. Josh couldn’t wait to see him fall all over Riley.
At noon, when the shelter opened, Tia suggested that maybe Josh ought to just keep him, because whoever had lost him should have taken better care of him.
“Am I right, Roger, honey?” she asked.
Roger jumped right up from his nap in the corner near the door and hustled over to Tia’s desk. He plunked his head on her lap. She made a big fuss over him, scratching his back and fiddling with his ears. Roger ate that up.
“It’s the right thing to turn him in,” said Josh reluctantly. “Just in case there is someone who really cares for him.”
He put Roger in the truck and off they went.
At the shelter, he learned from Marina at the front desk that Roger had been neutered but not microchipped. Given that he had no tags, either, there was no way to contact his possible owner.
“If nobody claims him, I would like to adopt him,” Josh said.
Marina nodded. “The holding period is five days,” she announced, all business. “If he’s still here on Friday, you can come for him at noon.” She handed him a form. “Your application for adoption. Just fill it out now and give it to me before you go. That will speed things up on Friday.”
Josh liked the sound of that. “So you think his former owner is unlikely to show?”
“No way to say for sure. The owner could wander in looking for him. But we have no way to contact this unknown person, so yeah. Your chances aren’t bad.
If you claim him, you will also have to pay for his exam, vaccinations and microchipping.
” For the first time, Marina smiled. “And we are more than happy to accept donations, as well.”
Josh donated five hundred bucks. All those lost and homeless pets could use it. And how could it hurt to kiss up to Marina?
It didn’t seem to hurt at all. Marina’s smile was downright blinding as she explained that five hundred dollars made him a founder.
She took his home address and said he would receive a Founder’s Certificate in the mail—or he could pick it up on Friday.
She added, “We here at Second Chance Animal Sanctuary thank you for your generous support.”
That night, Josh went home to an empty house. He missed Shane. And now he missed Roger, too. Plus, he longed to call Riley.
But then the phone rang. It was Lenore with one of her emergencies. “Shane and I are stuck in the parking lot at Big Country Grocery. The car won’t start…”
“Are you kidding me, Lenore?” He was shaking his head.
“Josh, I’ve tried everything. Just please come and give me a boost or whatever.”
“Are you out of gas?”
“Of course not. I said, I checked everything—and Shane wants to speak with you…”
Shane came on the phone. “Hi, Dad!”
“Hi, son.”
“We need a boost!”
Lenore must have grabbed the phone back. Before he could reply to Shane, Lenore was begging in his ear again. “Please, Josh. We really do need your help…”
Twenty minutes later, he pulled into the parking space next to Lenore’s Telluride.
“Dad! You’re here!” Beaming from the back seat, Shane waved at him.
“Oh, thank God you’re here!” exclaimed Lenore as she emerged from behind the wheel.
It took him a single glance beneath the hood to discover that the negative cable on the battery had somehow been disconnected. He stared at the unhooked cable and stifled the powerful urge to start yelling at his ex-wife right there in the grocery store parking lot.
But no. He’d never been the kind of man who yelled at a woman—or at anyone, for that matter. And he wasn’t starting now. Instead, after a few deep, slow breaths, he hooked the cable back up and had Lenore start the car—problem solved.
Lenore gushed all over him and insisted that he follow her back to the house and have dinner with her and Shane.
“Sorry,” he said. “I’ve got some work I have to take care of at home. I’ll just give Shane a hug…”
Back at his place, he missed Roger and had to constantly restrain himself from reaching out to Riley.
The rest of the week dragged by at the speed of a dying snail.
On Wednesday, Josh bought groceries. He made a stop at Medicine Creek Ranch Supply for dog food and bowls, a leash, doggy treats and toys.
Because he really liked Roger and was damn well thinking positive about the possibility of adopting the dog.
When Friday final crawled around, he called the shelter right when they opened at noon.
Marina answered and said that no one had come to claim Roger. “He’s had his checkup and vaccinations, and he’s been chipped. You can pick him up any time today.”
Josh climbed in his crew cab and drove to the shelter, where Marina handed him his Founder’s Certificate. Roger let out a happy whine at the sight of him.
“Hey there, boy. Ready to go home?” He knelt to greet the dog—his dog now.
After paying the bill and finishing up the paperwork, he took Roger to a couple of project sites with him. The dog was a dream, behaving perfectly on the leash and waiting patiently in the cab when Josh told him to stay.
Things were looking up, no doubt about it. He had a great dog he didn’t have to train—and tonight he would be with Riley. He couldn’t wait to see her. And he was eager to discuss what their next step should be.
Her text came through at 8:30.
Dillon’s in bed now.
He realized he didn’t want to leave Roger alone after five days at the shelter, so he hit the call button.
“Hi.” She sounded so good—a little nervous maybe. “Are you still coming over?”
“Of course. But here’s the thing. I now have a dog. His name is Roger. He’s calm and friendly. And I don’t want to leave him here alone. I just brought him home from the shelter today.”
“He’s calm, you said?”
He looked down at Roger, who wagged his tail and tipped his head from side to side as though trying to figure out what Josh wanted so that he could make it happen. “He’s great, I promise. No trouble so far.”
“Okay, then. Bring Roger with you. I’m looking forward to meeting him.”
* * *
Riley paced her living room floor as she waited for Josh.
She’d missed him over the past six days—missed him a whole lot. Was she getting too attached in a more-than-friends way? It felt like she might be. She had this…yearning. This ache in her heart. To see him. To hear his voice. To laugh with him. To feel his strong arms around her.
Maybe it was the baby coming. All those hormones taking over, bringing on the need to bond with her baby’s father. Just biology plain and simple.
Biology. Yeah. It had to be that.
Because anything more, anything that felt too much like the L-word…
Uh-uh. That couldn’t happen. Not ever again.
When his crew cab slid in at the curb, she was standing at the window, watching the street. He pushed open his door and got out of the truck.
His hat shadowed most of his face, but she would have known him anyway by the set of his broad shoulders, the hard, tapered shape of his torso.
His body was tall, lean and strong. Watching him beneath the glow of the streetlight, she felt a tug somewhere under her breastbone, a lovely, breathtaking ache just to look at him.
This was dangerous. She needed to keep herself in check.