Page 33 of Yolo

He paused for so long that I started to reach out to find him, to see if he was paying attention to me, when he said, “You get that Trance has dogs, right?”

“Yeah…” I agreed.

“Well, what you don’t know is that Trance trains dogs for multiple purposes,” he started, but it was Oakley who took it over.

“Dad used to train just police dogs. Then he met my mom, and she had issues with seeing, herself—still does sometimes, as a matter of fact. Anyway, Dad’s dog, Radar, was retiring from police work, and started helping her when she needed help navigating life. Radar was a badass dog. And slowly over the course of years and years, Mom convinced Dad to start training different kinds of dogs. The ones that flunked out of his police program are then reconsidered for medical dogs. Some get to be seeing-eye dogs. Others get to be diabetic dogs. It all just depends on how we think the dog will best fit. Dad actually has a dog that we think will be perfect for you,” Oakley explained.

My mouth fell open.

He’d brought me to get a dog.

If that wasn’t the sweetest thing that had ever been done for me…

I didn’t know what to say, to be honest.

I was flabbergasted.

Garrett didn’t even know me all that well, and the man had already done more for me in the short amount of time we’d known each other than Joseph had the entire time we’d been together.

The sound of cursing in German had my head picking up despite the overwhelming need to throw myself into his arms.

If I could even find him to throw myself into his arms…

“Dad, you have visitors!” Oakley called out. “How about you stop cursing and get over here.” She lowered her voice. “That’s German, right?”

She said it in such a way that I felt like she wasn’t expecting anyone to answer, but I did anyway.

“German,” I confirmed. “Who’s he speaking to in German?”

“That’s my dad, Trance. He’s speaking to his new dog. He’s from Germany and he’s grumpy and annoyed all the time. We’re hoping by bringing him here, he’ll become more settled. He’s not too sure about the United States yet.” She giggled.

“At least when your dad was cursing he did it in a gentle way,” I admitted. “I doubt the dog would’ve taken it for a punishment or anything.”

“Oh, no.” She snorted. “My dad is a big softy when it comes to the dogs. Now, if it’d been his kids being obstinate, he’d have no issues calling us out on our shit.”

“What’s the dog’s name?” Gee asked from my side.

“Mister,” a harried-sounding man said as he got closer. “Not that he responds to it at all.”

I smiled at the annoyance in the man’s voice.

“Mister,” I mused. “Is that the dog’s original name?”

“No,” the male who’d done the speaking in German said. “His name is Panzer.”

Trance said the name in German, making me smile. “German for Tank.”

“It is,” Trance confirmed. “That much I was able to figure out on my own. I now know a whole twenty-nine words in German, thanks to adding his name to the list.”

I dropped down to my haunches and held out my hand and said, “Hallo süßes Ding.”

“Dog liked that,” Gee said. “You speak German?”

Did I speak German?

That was funny.

“I do,” I confirmed. “I also speak Russian, Arabic, Swedish, Spanish, Latin, and I’m currently learning Japanese and Hindi.”

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