Page 28 of Byte

Byte immediately took the bags from me. “You should’ve let me bring these down for you.”

“I’m not helpless.”

“I didn’t say you were. But you have been sick, and there’s no sense in wasting energy if you don’t have to.”

“Fine,” I huffed. “Would you like to carry me to my car as well?”

“We’re taking my truck.”

“What about my car?” I asked. I didn’t necessarily need it since he drove me everywhere, but I didn’t want to leave it in Croftridge in case something happened to his truck again.

“Flint is going to drive it to your place later. Diesel will follow and drive him back to Croftridge.”

It took me a moment to realize he was referring to James. I wasn’t used to his road name because he’d always been James to me.

While he placed my bags in the truck, I squatted down and hugged the dog who’d been by my side for the last week. “I’m going to miss you,” I said and struggled to hold back my tears.

“He’s coming with us,” Byte announced.

“What?”

“He’s coming with us. We haven’t found his owners, and he barks whenever someone approaches the house. I think he’ll be good to have around,” he said, and opened the back passenger door. “Come on, boy. Let’s go.”

I laughed when the dog didn’t budge. “I bet you’ll get in if I do,” I said and patted his head. Then I got into the front seat while my new best friend dutifully hopped into the back seat.

“You should probably name him,” I said once we were on the road.

“Me? He’s your dog.”

“What?” I asked in surprise. “I can’t have a dog. I’m hardly ever home. It wouldn’t be fair to him.”

“Relax,” Byte laughed. “I was kidding. Well, sort of. He obviously likes you more than me.”

“I mean, I would love to keep him, but I can’t leave him inside for twelve to fourteen hours on the days I work. And even if I didhave a fenced yard, I don’t think I could leave him outside for that long either.”

“What about when you’re finished with school? Could you have a dog then?” he asked.

“Probably. It’ll really depend on where I end up working.”

“How about this? He can stay with me for now. Then after you graduate and start working, if you want him, you can have him,” he offered.

“You’d do that for me?”

“Sure,” he said, like it wasn’t a big deal. “He hasn’t been any trouble, and I kind of like him. Besides, I was planning on keeping him before I knew you might want him.”

“What a lucky dog. He went from having no one to having two people love him.”

“You’re not naming him Lucky,” Byte grumbled.

“I wasn’t going to,” I laughed, followed by a fit of coughing.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just a residual cough. It should go away in a week or two,” I explained.

We spent the rest of the drive trying to come up with a name for the dog, but nothing we thought of seemed to fit him. Before I knew it, Byte was pulling into the parking lot at the hospital.

“This shouldn’t take long,” I told him.

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