Page 7 of Silver Secrets

“Oh, okay. Yeah, next time.”

“Gage?”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks for stepping in. And for the invite.”

“Anytime, Red. I hope you know that.”

She sighed, and he realized he’d used her nickname again.

“Shit, Sloane. I’m sorry. I’m trying to remember that you don’t want to be called that anymore. I’ll be better about it from now on. I promise.” Her eyes searched his, for what, he didn’t know. Gage rapped his knuckles on the table twice. “I’ll see you later.”

Gage turned to walk away, but Sloane’s voice calling out his name stopped him after only two steps.

“Yeah?” he answered.

“I was in a bad mood the other day. You don’t… you don’t have to stop calling me that.”

Four

Sloane opened the door to the Silver Springs Animal Rescue, expecting to hear the calm sound of music that always greeted her, along with a bark or two from one of her feistier furry friends. Instead, a red-faced Ellie, manager of the animal shelter, ran by her in a panic.

“Oh, thank god you’re here! I wasn’t sure if you were coming in tonight or not, but it’s all hands on deck right now.”

“What happened?” Ellie looked absolutely frazzled, which wasn’t unusual for the softhearted woman. There was always a new animal in need. Some precious stray that stole Ellie’s heart and put a hurting on her capacity. She’d heard Ellie recruited her son, Elias, to build more kennels on the small property just so she could help more.

“Darius decided to go after a skunk who got into the puppy park.”

Sloane’s eyes widened as she watched Ellie scoop bottles of shampoo off the storage shelf.

“Let me guess, it wasn’t just Darius who got sprayed?”

“No. And I need to call Dr. LeMott to come get the skunk. Elias was able to trap it, but we’ve gotta make sure there isn’t a rabies concern.” She dumped the bottles of shampoo into Sloane’s hands. “You might as well throw that apron on and get back to the bathing station. Courtney’s back there right now. I’ll call Andrew and get him over here to get the skunk.”

Sloane chuckled as she balanced the apron and shampoo bottles in her arms. It was the type of thing she loved. A project to dive into with anticipated treatment plans and a hopeful outcome.

Her smile was truly genuine as she opened the door to the bathing area.

“What do we have going on in here?”

A completely soaked from head to toe Courtney looked over her shoulder right as Darius shook, spraying the room with cool droplets of water and suds.

“Darius!” Courtney whined. “Why are you like this?!”

“Here,” Sloane set the bottles of shampoo down, reaching for a towel that had only gotten slightly damp from the shake shower, and tossed it over to her friend. “Why don’t you work on Betty?”

The small all-black Pomeranian, who was the second half of the shelter’s odd couple, shook in the corner.

“She smells terrible.” Sloane shook her head as she pressed her hands down Darius’s back, encouraging him to sit. “Don’t even try to tell me it was her fault, big guy. I think this one is all on you.”

His big brown eyes sparkled with mischief and Sloane could have sworn his chest puffed out a bit. She slowly began massaging more shampoo into his long fur. “You better hope we don’t have to shave you. That skunk was not worth all this trouble.”

“That’s what I tried to tell him.” Courtney rolled her eyes and laughed. “You should have seen it, Sloane. It was like something right out of a cartoon!”

“Ellie looked like she’d been electrocuted when I walked in here. I figured it had to be something truly wild this time to get her so worked up.”

“God, I’m just glad that skunk didn’t get me. Elias is back, could you imagine how embarrassing that would have been?”

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