Page 25 of Sneak Attack

Great. Another surprise.

We headed out back. My glass of water warmed instantly from the heat and the smell of food trucks assaulted my senses. But another noise, muffled from the music near the building, but one that always made me smile and my heart tripped over itself echoed in the near distance.

Dogs.

“What is this?” I asked, forcing myself to smile and push down the interaction with Nate.

“This is where I think you can help.” She swung her arm out to several dog pens. Free standing but locked up into octagon shapes and beneath tents, dozens of dogs and puppies played and barked and jumped all over each other. “This is Waggin’ Tails dog rescue. They do rescue events at breweries and pet stores all over. I’d just talked to Sarah, the owner of the rescue, the day before I saw you at the store.”

She started walking toward the animals and my hands were itching to dig into all that soft fur. Lab puppies. Pit mix puppies. There were tiny dogs and puppies I knew would grow to be huge dogs. “They’re running out of foster homes for dogs to go to, so a lot of the new puppies are being boarded at the BarkTown doggy daycare. But they don’t have the employees to watch all these dogs consistently either, so I talked to them.”

She smiled at me, and we stopped at a cage where a girl about my age, wearing a lime green top andWaggin’ Tails Dog Rescuewas written in hot pink, spoke to a mom and a girl about ten years old as they held an all-white puppy save for the black spot around his eye.

“I figured if you were interested in volunteering, you could talk to Sarah. She has volunteers with her rescues going in for a couple hours every day to help out at BarkTown, but with school starting soon, they’re losing their teenage volunteers.”

“You mean, I could sit in a doggy care, play with puppies all day? Sign me up.”

This was perfect. I could go in the mornings, afternoons, evenings. I could work it around when Marley needed me, a couple hours every day. Hell, more if they needed it.

As soon as the mom and daughter walked off to the hand sanitizing area, the girl with blue eyes slightly too wide for her face, cheeks flushed from the heat, and hair pulled back and held in place with a claw clip turned to us, recognized Nora, and grinned at both of us.

“Hey there. You made it.”

She gave Nora a quick hug and smiled at me. It was an easy smile, carefree, and I thanked my lucky stars I didn’t know her. “I’m Sarah. You must be Eden. Nora said she might have someone willing to help us out?”

“Yeah.” I bent over one of the cages and scratched a brown and black puppy. Looked like a hound, a German shepherd mix of some sort. Probably some lab in there too. “I’m a vet tech down in Florida. I’m only here for a few months, possibly the end of the year, but I’d love to help with animals in any way I can.”

They both looked confused. Rightfully so. “I came back to help an old friend. Marley Bickerstaff?”

“Oh. I’m sorry to hear about your friend. Everyone I’ve spoken to loves her,” Nora said, and I could have lived without the pity on her face. “That’s really sweet of you.”

“Thanks. She’s doing okay, for now.” I focused on Sarah. “Nora said you need help at the doggy daycare place? I can come in every day, around Marley’s schedule. She’s sick, but…”

“Everyone knows who Marley is, Eden.” Sarah’s grin was kind, now sad and it didn’t seem right for such a sweet-looking girl to look so sad.

Props to me for being the one to do it.

“How about I go grab us something to eat and you and Sarah can talk? Sound okay?”

Sounded divine, considering no way was my ass going back around the building.

I fished out my bank card, told her to grab me something from the taco truck, whatever sounded good to her and was surprised when I turned back to Sarah, Nate was there.

“If you’re going to be out here, figured you’d need more water.”

He shoved the glass at me like he wanted to punch me, but I took it. “You didn’t have to.”

“Know that. But I’m being dick and I don’t like to be a dick, especially to people who come into my place, unless they ask for it. You haven’t asked for it, but I was surprised to see you. So. Water.”

He nodded at the glass and stomped away.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Nate look like that. How do you know him?”

“Used to live here. That’s all.”

The half-truth burned in my throat. She’d find out eventually. Everyone in town would be talking soon now.

The news wouldn’t come from me. Not before I’d secured what I needed to.

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