Page 47 of Taming Georgia

“I’m fine. I have Cooper, a couch, and a TV.” I motion toward the new setup that I have going in the office. I splurged and bought some essentials since I’m here so often. “We’ll order a pizza and watch some basketball. It will be awesome. I’ll give Luna her second round of meds later and make sure all the dogs get walked again tonight. We’re good. I promise.”

Ethel leaves, and Cooper and I get situated on the sofa. I aimlessly flip through the channels. There’re no good games on. I catch theJurassic Worldmovie.

“You in the mood for dinosaurs?” I ask Coops.

He lets out a loud snore, like a congested pig.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

A bit into the movie, I hit pause, deciding to go check on Luna. Cooper hops off the couch and follows me.

“Do you want to see if she wants to come hang with us in here?” I ask Cooper. I always worry about the new dogs when they first come. I know being in a kennel must be scary for them.

When Cooper and I hang out in the office, I’ll often bring a couple of other dogs up to relax. I wish they could all fit on the couch with us. Every dog deserves to know what that feels like.

I close in on Luna’s cage. I’m startled when Georgia’s bright blue eyes greet me.

“What are you doing here? I thought everyone left.”

“I was just going to go home to read, so I figured I might as well do it here and sit with her. I didn’t want her to be scared.”

Georgia is sitting on the concrete floor, her back leaning against the side of the kennel. Luna’s head, with all the evidence of her past abuse, rests on Georgia’s lap.

“You don’t have a book.”

She holds up her phone. “Kindle app. I always have a book with me.”

“Well, I was just coming to see if Luna wanted to come sit up on the couch with me and Cooper.”

I look to Georgia, waiting for all of my pent-up anger toward her to surface, but it doesn’t come. Georgia makes it impossible to hate her. She’s incredibly annoying in that way.

“We’re watching a movie and going to order pizza. You can come up if you want.”

Georgia laughs. “Was that last part hard for you to say? Your face was all scrunched up, and you appeared to be in pain as you said it.”

I shrug. “It wasn’t easy.”

“Well, even though I know you’re not super thrilled about me joining you, I accept. My ass is going numb, sitting on this floor, and I’m kind of hungry.” She looks down to Luna and gently pets her back. “And I do want to hang out with her a little longer, so she’s not alone, you know?”

I nod because I do.

“Come on, Luna baby,” Georgia says sweetly, encouraging our new resident to follow her to the office.

Luna’s hesitant at first but then slowly follows behind Georgia.

It’s actually pretty impressive that she’s gained Luna’s trust so quickly. I’d never tell Georgia, but she’s a natural with these rescues. They all trust her.

“So, what are you watching?” Georgia asks.

The four of us get situated on the sofa. I sit at one end with Cooper’s head on my lap. She sits on the other with Luna’s head in hers.

“Jurassic World.”

“You mean,Jurassic Park?” she asks.

“No,World.”

She appears confused.

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