A Daughter's Homecoming. Ginny Aiken

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СКАЧАТЬ got it.” Mischief twinkled in the silver-flecked gaze. “On the count of three. One, two, three...go!”

      Quickly and quietly Gabi followed his command.

      The munching continued. A few feet away, she slowed, matched her steps to Zach’s. The pup’s hunger appeared unabated, his burger meal notwithstanding.

      With her bottom lip between her teeth, she stepped closer, hoping the fugitive didn’t make himself sick eating so much so fast. Time to retrieve him, for his own good. She mouthed, Ready?

      Zach nodded. “Grab a bag—I will, too. That’ll flush him out.”

      They reached at the same time, yanked two sacks of kibble out of the way. The munching stopped with a startled yip. Sharp claws scrabbled against sleek concrete floor after a second of silence. Then the filthy scrap of canine darted out from the right side of the rest of the stacked bags. Zach was ready for him.

      “Gotcha!” The shelter director scooped up Gabi’s find, undeterred by the dog’s filthy coat and strong eau de mutt scent, even though his nostrils did twitch.

      “I hate to say it, but I do need to get back to Tony’s.” Her gaze stuck to the little dog. She wished she could—

      No. She couldn’t let herself think like that. For the umpteenth time, she reminded herself that she was in no position to adopt a stray. “What do we need to do next?”

      Zach narrowed his eyes and tightened his lips. But all he said was, “Paperwork. Let me put this guy in his own guest quarters so he doesn’t get away from us again, and then we can take care of the business end of things. You need to know we’re about to have an adoption fair in a week’s time. He’ll be included in it—all the animals in the shelter at that time will be. Are you sure about this?”

      Tears stung Gabi’s eyes once again. No, she wasn’t sure. But she had a lease to honor. And she’d built a whole life somewhere else. She was sure of that. But about the dog...

      She swallowed. Hard. “I’m sure.”

      She hoped.

      * * *

      “Pretty girl, isn’t she?” Oscar Worley, the shelter’s most faithful volunteer, asked Zach a few minutes after Gabi Carlini had left.

      “It’s a he.” Zach held the still-trembling new arrival close to his chest while the sink filled with warm water. “And I don’t know how you can say he’s pretty. Filthy and a ragtag assortment of dog breed parts? Yes. Cute once I wash him? Maybe. Lovable? Of course. But a pretty dog? No way.”

      Oscar tsk-tsked. “Never made you out for a fool, Zach. The girl. That girl’s awfully pretty. She always has been a pretty one, with those big brown eyes and all that dark hair, ever since she was a little thing.”

      Even though he fought it with all his might, the blush reached up to the roots of Zach’s hair. “Ah...well, I...um...paid attention to the dog. I did have a job to do.”

      Oscar laughed. “Fess up, now, boss. I know Gabi and I know you. She’s pretty, you noticed, and it’s perfectly fine if you are drawn to a girl like her. No shame in that, son. None at all.”

      To avoid Oscar’s too-keen gaze, Zach turned off the spigot and plopped his new charge into the warm water. “Now that you mention it, okay—” The pup’s yelps gave him cover, so he cut off his response. He turned to the dog but continued to glance at Oscar as he worked.

      “A man could do worse, Zach,” the older man said. “Much worse. She’s a terrific young woman—smart, hardworking, with a heart as big as our Puget Sound.” He winked. “And pretty.”

      Zach sent his friend a crooked grin. “I think you’ve said it about a dozen times, Oscar. I get your drift. But I’m the last man who’s looking for a ‘pretty’ girl. Not right now, that’s for sure. I’ve got a lot on my plate—too much.” He cleared his throat. “Remember, I’m new around here. Lyndon Point’s counting on me to put the shelter on solid footing, and that’s going to take up just about all of my time. Maybe a couple of years from now I’ll look around for one of these ‘pretty’ girls of yours. Right here in town, too, okay?”

      “Just watch out, son.” The older man ran a hand through his thinning white hair. “The good ones, they don’t come around all that often, you know. If a man’s not paying attention, some other smarter fellow will snap up the one who’s walking by. Right out from under your nose.”

      A squirt of canine shampoo frothed into gunky brown suds on the dog’s dirty coat. It was going to take multiple tries to get him clean. “That’s why I’m not looking these days. Right now, my situation’s not one that lends itself to dating. I can’t afford the time, so I don’t look. That way, the one that gets snapped up won’t cause me any heartburn. I choose to focus on the dogs. And the cats.”

      Oscar reached for the industrial steel bucket on wheels where he’d mixed hot water and the shelter’s pungent antibacterial cleaner, and headed toward the rear section of kennels. “Just make sure you don’t pass up the right one just because you’re still letting what’s over and done with hold you back. Look around you, son. Smell the salt air. Trust God.” He drew a deep breath. “Otherwise, you could wind up filling your days with a bucket and a mop just to get out of an empty, lonely house. Like me.”

      Zach sucked in a rough breath. He couldn’t deny the wisdom in his friend’s words, but although Oscar waited for a reply, he didn’t answer. He knew the older man was right to a point, but he wasn’t ready for a relationship. Not yet. His wounds were too raw.

      And they hadn’t even been inflicted by a woman.

      From his perspective, a romance-gone-wrong had to be easier to overcome. His failure had been greater, went more to the core than a rough breakup ever could. He’d failed in his career, his dream. Ever since the first time he’d helped his mother knead a lump of bread at the family kitchen table, he’d dreamed of owning a restaurant, of becoming a great chef. And he’d achieved it.

      For too brief a time.

      No eatery, no matter how elegant or welcoming or appealing, and no chef, no matter how creative, competent or caring, could succeed if diners fell ill. As they had at his restaurant.

      Salmonella had stolen in on the produce he’d bought from an upscale organic operation, borne by unsterile fertilizer. Meals he’d prepared with those beautiful but invisibly tainted vegetables had sent people to the hospital. He’d endangered their health, their lives. Any of them could have died. It was a burden Zach would bear for the rest of his days.

      No. He wasn’t ready to indulge in the frivolous pleasure of dating a pretty girl.

      And, regardless of how Oscar saw her, Gabi Carlini was no longer a girl. She was a woman, a beautiful woman who loved dogs, in spite of her lease requirements, and pink, a color he’d always associated with sassy, lighthearted fun.

      Did the association match Gabi Carlini, as well?

      Chapter Three

      As Gabi walked back to her parents’ restaurant, she couldn’t help but wonder what Zach thought of her. His steel-gray gaze had strayed toward her numerous times as she’d signed all those forms that turned the stray over СКАЧАТЬ