Page 5 of To Bring You Back
The family—Joe included—focused on Nissa, so Adeline let herself out. She paused outside the door to gulp down her rising grief.
Had Gannon left town as quietly as she’d left Nissa? Had it been harder for him, or easier? She hadn’t seen him or heard rumors about him since their encounter on Main Street. In a town this size, where no one could sneeze without everyone hearing about it, the silence meant he hadn’t been around. Good. Their relationship had resulted in heartache and nothing else.
She’d put so much time and energy into distancing herself from the past, she shouldn’t have harbored fantasies of confronting him once more. The past couldn’t be righted, and she’d spend the rest of her life paying for it, even if Gannon refused to show remorse.
She passed the desk on the way to the exit.
Heather hopped up from her chair. “What do you think of a lab mix?”
Adeline hesitated. Nissa had been a comfort. A dog would be too, depending on what his issues were. Good thing her roommate also had a soft spot for animals.
“He’s older and very mellow, but he’s stressed here.” Heather stepped from behind the desk. “He has allergies, and his meds aren’t enough to control them because of the stress of all the barking and the strange environment. He kept licking his paws. We had to put him in a cone.”
The barking got louder as Heather opened the room with the dog kennels. They stopped at the second chain-link gate, which contained a black dog with a graying face. He ambled forward, swaying as his tail whipped back and forth.
“The cone stops him from licking, but now he’s whining and barking. Poor guy is going hoarse. He needs a calm home environment.”
“I’m not home a lot during the day.”
“He’s used to owners who work.” Heather swung open the door to let Adeline greet him.
The dog sat, the cone framing his sweet face.
She squatted and pet his warm head, her fingers tapping against the plastic.
Heather crossed her arms and leaned against the kennel. “A home will do him good. We’d adopt him out straight from your house to the new owner—less stress for an old dog.”
Adeline looked into his brown eyes, which were edged with black and white lashes. A dog wouldn’t hold her past against her, even if she whispered all the secrets she couldn’t bear to tell another human. “How old is he?”
“Ten. We want to make sure his golden years are as good as they ought to be.”
“What’s his name?”
Heather chuckled. “See the bat-shaped marking on his chest?”
Adeline leaned to see under the cone. A clear white marking stretched over his breastbone, bat-like enough to make the connection. “Don’t tell me he’s Bat Dog.”
“No, but close enough. Adeline, meet Bruce.”
Gannon’s phonesounded and displayed a picture of Harper English. She was requesting a video call. He leaned his guitar against the living room couch. If he’d finally broken past his writer’s block, he’d call her back later, but all he could compose were more songs he likely could never use.
As a never-ending source of drama, Harper might spark an idea.
He pressed the icon to answer.
“Wow. A beard.” Harper giggled. “How manly.”
The week’s worth of growth itched and made him feel like a caveman, but when he went back into Lakeshore tomorrow, he’d rather not be recognized. The trip into town was to see Adeline, and the longer he prevented Harper from learning about her, the better.
He pointed the conversation to her love life instead. “Things with you and Colton back on again?”
She lifted an eyebrow and looked away from the screen. Shadows lurked on her normally even skin, one at the back corner of her jaw, another on her temple.
“Are those bruises?”
She brought her big blue eyes back to the screen. “Maybe if you called me once in a while, you’d know.”
“I’m up here to work. You know that. What happened?”
