Page 22 of Surge

He blinked. Then hesitated. “Are you sure?”

About helping him with the leg? “Absolutely.” About going off halfway around the world with a grumpy Bear? Not so much.

“Well,” he said, “I trust you, Delaney, so if you think you can do this, then I’m proud of you. And I know where Heath lives if anything happens.” He grinned. “Seriously—congratulations to you and Surge.” Dad looked up at her. “So, I guess this means you got him past his nonreaction.”

“I did.” Mostly. She didn’t want to talk about the whole middle school faux pas. She and Heath had dealt with that, anyway.

Dad pulled out a handkerchief and pretended it was good enough to wipe her mud off himself.

“Let’s eat!” Delaney jogged to the back of the 4x4 and pulled out the bag of sub sandwiches and chips.

And dog food.

“I just saw that sticker on your Jeep,” she said as she handed Dad the food.

“Oh, the Prosthetic Rated sticker?” He reached into the Wrangler for the cooler of soda they’d brought.

“Yeah.” She poured Surge’s kibble out in the high grass near the table, and he gladly went on a hide-and-seek game for it. Delaney slid onto the picnic bench across from Dad.

“How’d you afford to get it prosthetic rated when the insurance wouldn’t pay for a new prosthetic?”

“It wasn’t much money. Off-Road Sports and Repair only charged me the price of a fancy cup of coffee.” He tapped his fingers on the table, then stood and got out the ball launcher from the Jeep.

He walked away and played with Surge. She sat at the table, looking at her sandwich. Drank her Dr. Pepper.

A couple minutes later, Surge sought the perfect spot to do his business, and Dad walked back over and sat back down with a huge sigh. “Why are you doing this mission for me, when I’m content?”

“I love you.”

“Me, you too. But that doesn’t answer why.”

She pinched her lips. “I want to go on this mission to do this for you.”

He shook his head hard. “The money is yours.” He reached across the table for her hand. “The mission is yours too. Given to you by Heath. If you want it.”

Her head dropped. No. She wasn’t a droopy kinda gal. She lifted her head and looked into Dad’s eyes.

He tilted his head. “Okay.” He sipped his water. “How was the scent demonstration?”

Dad read her well.

She sighed. Surge quit chewing the KONG and sat up to reach her face and cover it with dog kisses. She massaged her buddy’s muscular shoulders. “I froze.”

Dad snorted. “What do you mean?”

“Surge refused to seek. We had to leave.”

“You got stage fright? Or Surge did?”

She nearly spat out her sip of water around a laugh. “No. I froze, unable to pull him out of his nonresponse.” Caused by the sneaky noise from sneaky Heath’s phone.

He shook his head. “You don’t freeze, Delaney.”

“I did at the middle school.” Just like when that creep had robbed the store.

“No. You don’t freeze,” he repeated. “Heath wouldn’t have given you Singapore if you did.”

“He does call me Maverick.”

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