Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 65444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 262(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 262(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
“I’ll pay her bills. Just let me know the total when the time comes.”
“Zach”—he shakes his head, slips off his glasses, and rubs between his eyes—“it’s not as simple as that, son. I’d still need to find her a home, and that’s not an easy task.”
“I’ll take her home, when the time comes, and work on finding her a home myself.”
“You know Steven and Aubrey aren’t going to let you get rid of her once she’s in your house.”
He’s right about that. The kids have been asking for a dog since the moment they were able to string together a sentence, but Tina hated dogs, and I knew if we got one, I’d be the one taking care of it. I always said no in the past for that reason.
“Then I guess it’s their lucky day.”
He looks at me questioningly. “Are you sure you want to take her on? She needs a lot of care. I can give you a discount, but even with that, the cost will still be substantial.”
“I can’t let her be put down,” I mutter. The cost may be a hit to my savings, but I’ll make it work.
“What are you gonna call her?” he asks, smiling, and I look at the dog, her big brown body down flat out on the table, her head to her paws. Her eyes come to me, and her brows lift.
“Penny,” I state, and her head comes off her paws and tilts to the side.
“Penny it is.” Lee grins, clapping my shoulder. “I’ll be in touch after she gets out of surgery and let you know how she’s doing.
“Appreciate it.” I give his shoulder a squeeze then give Penny a rub before leaving and heading out to my truck.
“Tina, give me a call when you get this. We need to talk,” I say, leaving a voicemail as I pull into the station’s parking lot. I sent her a text this morning, telling her to contact me when she had a minute, but she didn’t call me back. I also called her at lunch, and she didn’t pick up then either. Now, she sent me to voicemail after two rings.
Sighing, I drop my phone into the cup holder and shut down my truck, planning on just running in for a minute before heading back out to check on a few things through town.
“Zach, you there?” Darla asks over the CB attached to my dash and I grab it holding down the button.
“Just pulled into the lot. What’s up?” I take my hand off the handle of the door and wait for her reply.
“Aubrey just called. She needs you at home.”
I frown. “Did she say why?” The kids know that when I’m working, if they need anything, they go either across the street to May’s or Aaron’s house unless it’s an emergency.
“Something about your neighbor and Louie,” she says, sounding confused.
“Fuck. Send Paul to my place,” I bark, starting my truck back up and throwing it in reverse. I back out quickly then gun it out of the lot.
As soon as I reach the street, I speed up until I’m in front of the house then slam on the brakes. Hopping out, the front door to my house opens, and Shelby, Hunter, Aubrey, and Steven all step out onto the front porch. I notice Shelby’s dressed much the same as she was the other morning, wearing short sleep shorts, a tank top, and no shoes. Hunter is wearing a hoodie, a pair of sweats, and sneakers. Aubrey and Steven are still in their pajamas, which they would be, since the clock just hit nine and in the summer they don’t roll out of bed until after eleven most days.
“What’s going on?”
“Um,” Shelby mummers, looking like she doesn’t know what to say.
“Louie is in their house,” Aubrey cuts in, and my eyes go to her.
“Come again?”
“Hunter didn’t know about Louie,” Shelby says quietly, wrapping her arms around herself. “He was out on my deck and didn’t shut the sliding door when he came in to eat breakfast.”
“I did shut it,” Hunter defends, looking at his mom. “I shut it behind me.”
“Louie’s in your house?” I repeat in disbelief.
“Well, I don’t know for sure if it’s him, but a bear is in the house. He came into the kitchen when I was setting pancakes on the table. I didn’t stop to ask him his name. I just grabbed Hunter and ran for the door.”
“Jesus.” I look next door, knowing that could have been bad, really fucking bad. Shaking my head, I look at Aubrey. “Gorgeous, take Shel inside and get her something to wear.”
“Sure, Dad.”
She smiles, as Shel mutters, “That’s okay. I’m okay.”
“It’s not even sixty out, baby. You don’t even got shoes on.” Her eyes change ever so slightly before dropping to her bare feet, where she asks, “How are we going to get him out of the house?”