A Daughter's Homecoming. Ginny Aiken

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СКАЧАТЬ front door’s motion sensor chimed, alerting them to the arrival of a potential rescuer. “Gotta get back to work,” she said. “I hear the boss around here is a tyrant.”

      “Get out of here,” he said, laughing. “You run this place more than I do.” With the lightest touch, he picked up the hurting dog and placed her on the grooming table in the middle of the room.

      As he worked on her coat, he couldn’t stop thoughts of his last rescue from entering his mind. Gabi Carlini’s terrier mix was one special character. The pup had stolen the hearts of everyone at the shelter with his antics and sweet nature. Still, he kept trying to escape at every turn, even after the shelter staff had fortified his kennel to where the thing rivaled Lyndon Point’s Animal Control truck.

      At the oddest moment, they would find him either in the storage room gnawing at the sacks of kibble or stuck under the latest addition to the chain-link fence around his outside run. He was one determined little guy, all right.

      Brought in by one determined woman. Gabi had called every single day since the night of the great escape, just to check on her rescue. Zach knew she didn’t intend to keep the pup, but in his mind, he was hers. The dog seemed to agree with Zach.

      As soon as she’d appear at the shelter to visit him, the terrier would dance and bark with more enthusiasm than any other dog in the shelter had displayed to date. As soon as he was set free, he jumped à la hoops star, bounding around Gabi until she picked him up and hugged him. Then he returned the favor by licking her face all over.

      That dog was hers, no matter what she said.

      And she was that dog’s human. No matter what she said.

      Anyone could see it. She lit up as soon as she saw the little rascal and even more when she cuddled and played with him as though she’d owned him from birth. Although shelter policy mandated the guests be kept leashed during any and all visits, the escape artist showed no interest in going anywhere but to Gabi’s side when she showed up. Zach suspected they could have gotten away without the leash.

      Maybe. He was a terrier, after all. Zach wasn’t about to test the well-known terrier bolting instinct, at any rate.

      As he reached for the clippers, he heard a familiar voice out front. At the same time, an equally familiar volley of barks sounded from the kennel side of the building. Gabi had arrived, and her dog knew it.

      Even though he shouldn’t, he scooped up the new stray, who’d been shaking since he’d set her on the grooming table, and held her close as he returned her to her kennel. It wouldn’t hurt her to relax a little and, instead, would help her handle the upcoming ordeal much better.

      And if he told himself that enough times maybe he’d convince himself he was being strictly altruistic here. Truth was that while it would benefit the anxious dog to calm down before going through the extensive grooming, he wanted to see Gabi again. She didn’t draw only her rescue—she also drew Zach, like a steak did a starving stray.

      As soon as his charge had curled up on the hammock-like bed in her kennel, he shook off the worst of the dog hair from his blue scrubs and hurried to the kennel side. He found her inside the playroom, where potential adoptive families had the opportunity to interact with the hopeful adoptees.

      “Hey there,” he said as he closed the door behind him. “How’s your buddy doing today?”

      She arched a graceful brow. “My buddy? He’s not mine, but yours—temporarily.” She turned away from Zach and stared out the room’s glass wall, as he’d noticed she did every time either one of them mentioned the stray’s ownership situation. “He’s going to be a hit at the Adoption Fair.”

      Zach tamped down the flare of irritation. “He sure is, and he’ll soon have his own family loving him like he deserves.”

      Although she tried to hide it, he saw her wince. “Yeah, that is what he really does need.” She swallowed hard, squeezed the furry toy in her hand to catch the terrier’s attention and then turned to face Zack. “How are the arrangements for the event going? Is everything all set up?”

      “Pretty close. Claudia just heard from the mayor. He signed off on closing the street for the day.”

      “Oh, wow! You really plan to do this up, don’t you?”

      “I’d like to turn it into a seasonal thing, but I have to prove it’ll be a plus for the town. This is only the first one for us.”

      “Sure, but I also know Mr. Mayor quite well.” She grinned. “Ryder’s a lifelong friend, and even my six-degrees-of-separation distant cousin. He’s not dumb. Once he sees how well this goes, he’ll jump right on the bandwagon with you. If he hasn’t already.”

      “Well, he signed off on everything I needed.”

      She raised her shoulders and grinned. “Told ya.”

      Zach was charmed. He couldn’t tear his gaze away from her sparkling eyes and animated features as she played fetch with the dog. It wasn’t just her natural beauty that drew him. Gabi Carlini radiated a vibrancy he’d never encountered before. Even her thick, wavy hair seemed to bounce with that same energy.

      He crossed his arms. “Tell me. Am I wrong, or have you been here every single day since you brought him in?”

      A rosy tint brightened her cheeks, and she tossed the end of her ponytail over her shoulder. “Um...pretty much.” She jammed her hands into her khaki shorts pockets, then gave him a narrow-eyed stare, a mock-stern expression on her face. “I want to make sure you’re doing your job. Gotta do some quality control where my foundling’s concerned, you know?”

      Zach struggled to hide a wince. Anytime anyone brought up mention of doing a job right and quality control, his skin felt itchy. The memories of his restaurant were still too raw and close to the surface, and quality...well, it wasn’t always as easy to control as one would think.

      He ran a hand through his hair. “We do try to do our best here, and I think we succeed.”

      She glanced back through the room’s glass wall and down the aisle of cages, clean and well kept, as he tried to maintain them at all times. “I’d say your best is excellent. There are some real horror stories out there about animal shelters.”

      A flare of irritation burst inside him. “Don’t believe everything you read. I’ve volunteered at shelters ever since I was in junior high. Can’t even remember how many of them by now. I’ve never been in one that resembled any of the atrocities you read about in the media. I know the bad ones exist, but not all are bad.”

      “Whoa! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m glad you’ve had such great experiences over the years. Is that why you decided to go into— Are you a vet?”

      Great. This was going from bad to worse really fast. “Uh...no. I’m just someone who loves animals, have done every kind of job a shelter could throw at me, and found I was good at running one.”

      She didn’t reply right away, and he cringed. Now that he thought of it, his explanation sounded really lame. What kind of idiot just sort of bumbles out of career disaster and into running an animal shelter?

      A failed gourmet chef and restaurateur kind of idiot, that’s who. He sighed. “Well, it was great to see you again. I have a new intake who needs a СКАЧАТЬ