This afternoon had been a completely different story, though. Max returned from wherever he’d run off to earlier in the day and given Molly total control over the grant application. It was her baby. Molly would be the author of the proposal, even without the letters PhD after her name. Now, mere hours later, she stood on the sidewalk in front of the Turtle Beach Fire Department’s station on Seashell Drive, ready to make her first executive decision.
Molly smoothed down the skirt of her daisy-print smocked sundress. She couldn’t very well turn up at the firehouse in her mermaid costume, so she’d darted home to change before the appointment she’d scheduled right after Max had given her the good news. Ursula trotted at the end of her leash, tail wagging as they pushed through the firehouse door.
“Molly, hi.” Griff Martin—Caroline’s brother and a firefighter with the TBFD—grinned at her from his station at the dispatch area. He bent to greet Ursula. “You too, you sweet little thing.”
Ursula writhed in ecstasy as Griff rubbed her belly.
“Hi, Griff. Nice to see you,” Molly said, glancing around the immaculate firehouse. “We’ve got an appointment with Sam. Is he around?”
“You’re in luck. He just got back from a call. We had a small fire across the bridge. The rig just pulled into the apparatus bay ten minutes ago.” Griff pushed a button and called Sam’s name over the intercom system.
Molly barely had time to thank him before Sam appeared with his Dalmatian, Cinder, at his side. He held up a hand in greeting. “Hey!”
“Hi,” Molly said as Ursula bounded toward the black-and-white-spotted dog.
Molly always had to do a double-take when she saw Cinder. The Dalmatian’s resemblance to Violet’s dog Sprinkles was uncanny. Spot for spot, they were identical. Both of them even had the same heart-shaped nose. The only way to distinguish one Dalmatian from the other was to pay close attention to their personalities. The dogs weren’t quite the polar opposites that they used to be, but Cinder was still far more composed than Sprinkles would ever be. Case in point: Cinder would nevereversnatch a cupcake from Max’s hand…
Unless Sam told her to do it, which was precisely why Molly needed Sam’s help.
“Why don’t we go chat outside so the dogs can play?” Sam said.
“Sounds great.”
The firehouse had a fenced-in yard out back with a barbecue pit and a real lawn of bright-green St. Augustine grass—a rarity in a beach town where most yards consisted of sand and sea oats. Molly let Ursula off of her leash and she immediately began climbing all over Cinder and tugging gently on the Dalmatian’s ears. The spotted dog had the patience of a saint.
“You’re probably wondering what was so urgent that I needed to meet with you as soon as possible,” Molly said as she took a seat opposite Sam at the long picnic table on the firehouse’s back patio.
Sam’s eyebrows rose. “I’ll admit that I’m rather curious.”
“I’m here to offer you a part-time job in the evenings for the next week and a half.” She offered him an apologetic grin. “For which I can pay you exactly zero dollars. Also, the task involved might be borderline impossible.”
“When you put it that way, how can I refuse?” He laughed, and then he appeared to turn her words over in his head. “How impossible, exactly?”
Molly was simply being honest, but thanks to Violet, she also knew that Sam enjoyed a challenge. Although what she was about to propose might test that theory. “You’re probably more equipped to answer that question than I am. What I’m hoping to do is train some of the dogs on the island to scent track sea turtle nests.”
Sam tore his gaze away from Ursula and Cinder, who’d begun chasing each other around the barbecue pit. He looked at her as if she’d just sprouted anactualmermaid tail. “And you want to accomplish this in a week and a half?”
“Honestly? More like a week.” Molly winced. “I know it sounds crazy, but Violet said you trained Cinder to be a fire safety dog all on your own. She told me that Cinder even makes your bed in the morning and turns on your coffee maker.”
He pulled a face. “I’ve tried to get her to stop with the household chores, but it’s not working. I think she just likes it.”
Weird. If Ursula suddenly started cleaning the house, Molly would have no complaints.
“I never trained her to do those things, just the fire safety stuff,” Sam said.
Molly nodded. “I get it. I never trained Ursula to track sea turtle eggs, but she found five nests yesterday.”
Sam glanced at Ursula and then back at Molly. “That’s seriously impressive.”
“If we can teach other dogs to do the same, the aquarium might have a chance at winning a very generous grant. Frankly, we really need the money. The dogs don’t need to be completely trained in a week, but we need to at least be able to prove that we’re on the right track.” Now that she was saying all of this out loud, the plan seemed completely far-fetched. No wonder Max’s initial reaction hadn’t been as positive as she’d hoped it would be.
The way that Sam was looking at her now didn’t help.
“Things like this take time.” He sighed. “And yeah, I know how to get a dog to do basic obedience and a series of specialized fire safety behaviors, but I’ve never trained a dog to recognize and identify scents before.”
Molly’s heart sank all the way down to her ballerina flats. Sam was the one and only dog trainer she knew. Without him on board, the proposal seemed hopeless.
“Except smoke,” Sam added with a shrug.