1 #3
He laid the animal on the stainless-steel surface and slipped his arms out from under the dog as the first girl and another technician began their work.
Then he backed slowly toward the lobby, his presence no longer necessary.
He caught one last glimpse of the girl in pink before the door swung shut between them, and the unsettled feeling grew inside his chest. Who was she?
And why did he feel like he should already know?
The wheels in his brain spun slowly, asking the question over and over, though the answer seemed to hover just out of reach.
“Will you try to find his family?”
Jonah’s voice cut through Drew’s distraction, and he turned toward where his cousin was standing at the reception desk holding a clipboard.
“Yes, of course. We’ll scan for microchips,” the receptionist assured him.
“Good,” Jonah replied. He looked down at the paperwork again, and Drew stepped up to read over his shoulder. The first words that jumped out at him were “financial responsibility.”
“Told you so,” he muttered in his cousin’s ear, but the younger man shrugged him off.
“Do you know how much it might cost?” Jonah asked.
“Well, it depends on what’s wrong with him. Surgery, of course, would be expensive, but if he just needs fluids and rest, that’s different. That much could probably be covered by our Angel Fund,” the woman explained.
“Angel Fund?” Jonah repeated.
“Jay, just sign it . . .” Drew grumbled. There was tension building behind his breastbone, and all he wanted was to escape the building as quickly as possible.
“I mean, I don’t want them to—”
Drew reached around his cousin and snatched the clipboard from his hands, cutting off his protest. Then he scrawled his own signature and phone number on the bottom line.
“Thanks,” he told the woman, handing everything back to her.
Then he clapped a hand on Jonah’s shoulder and steered him roughly out the front door.
“Hey, what’s your deal?” Jonah asked, but Drew ignored him.
The girl floated back through his mind as he reclaimed his keys and climbed behind the wheel, cranking the ignition as if it had wronged him somehow.
He didn’t like things that made him feel stupid, and just then, he felt like the world’s biggest idiot for not being able to solve a puzzle whose answer had been literally staring him in the face.
He shook his head in aggravation. Why couldn’t he figure this out?
Ten minutes later, a song came on the radio that stopped his thoughts in their tracks—a song about a wild soul just looking for adventure, one that always reminded him of green eyes, freckles and a hypnotizing laugh.
His hand had already moved to turn it off, but for once his fingers froze above the radio dial.
Surely not . . .
There was no reason she’d come back!
The mystery girl’s face came into startling focus in his mind’s eye, and he scanned it for clues. Green eyes with a hint of brown around the irises, freckles that dusted her cheekbones and made a tiny triangle at one corner of her mouth—a spot he’d always wanted to brush his fingers over.
It couldn’t be! And yet, somehow, he knew it was.
Savannah!
Savannah stroked her hand down the pit bull’s neck and gently scratched the loose skin behind his ears.
“Hey, buddy. You’re gonna be just fine,” she crooned.
The dog weakly thumped his tail against the metal floor of the isolation kennel.
He was already more responsive now that he’d cooled down and had his veins pumped full of fluids, but he wasn’t out of the woods just yet.
“I’ll give you a bath a bit later. Would you like that?” she asked, and the tail thumped again. “Yeah, I bet you would. I bet you’re a handsome fellow under all that dirt, aren’t you? Aren’t you a pretty boy?”
The dog flicked his tongue out and licked the inside of Savannah’s arm, and she chuckled softly.
“Good boy,” she murmured. Then she withdrew her hand and closed the kennel door.
“You just lie here and rest, and I’ll be back in a little while, alright?
” The dog’s tongue lolled out and lay against the metal that supported him, and his sides rose and fell quickly as he began to pant once more.
He was a lucky little rascal; another half hour in the sun, and he would have been a goner.
If not for Drew.
Savannah wiped her hands on a towel and stared thoughtfully into space.
She’d recognized him instantly. The lanky teenager she’d known before may have vanished, but the young man who’d stood in his place had the same intense blue eyes, still shadowed by the brim of the same well-worn baseball cap. She’d have known him anywhere.
Though, to be honest, the glow-up was real! Now he was tall. And filled out. And had delicious-looking scruff along the line of a jaw that definitely hadn’t been there when they were kids.
She smiled to herself, but the expression quickly faded when she thought of the way he’d looked at her—like she was something he’d have liked to scrape off his boots. She knew she’d never been one of his favorite people, but she’d also hoped seven years might have softened his opinion a little.
Apparently not.