Page 10 of Mountain Rescue
“My mother, wife, girlfriend, or chef. Yeah, yeah. Got it. Doesn’t mean you get away without doing your share of cooking in our relationship. I mean, I’m an enlightened guy and all, but I do expect my woman to do her fair share.” Wait for it...and there it was. Flames in those whiskey eyes.
“We. Do. Not.” She poked him in the chest on that last word. “Have a relationship. Not even in your wildest dreams.”
His dreams sure as hell would be a vast improvement if they were of her. He’d riled her up enough. Any more and he’d be going too far with the teasing. Time for a peace offering. He went to the refrigerator and peered at the contents. “How does an omelet sound for lunch? I make a mean one.”
When she didn’t answer, he glanced back at her. She was staring at him as if trying to solve a calculus problem. “What?”
She shook her head. “I can’t figure you out.”
“I’m just a simple man. Nothing to figure out.”
“Uh-huh. If that was true, I should be able to feel you.”
“Feel me? Sugar, you’re free to feel me anytime you want.”But you’re the only one.He didn’t think she’d meant that literally, so another puzzle to solve.
“That’s not... Forget it.”
“Hey, you want that omelet or not?” he called as she walked away. She didn’t answer, and he heard her bedroom door close. “Guess not.”
He made a sandwich instead, and after eating, knocked on her door. “I’m heading over to Jack’s. You want to come?”
She opened her door. “No, and don’t be telling Jack I’m here.”
“Copy that. You going to be here when I get back, or are you planning a disappearing act?” He really didn’t want to have to track her down, but he would if he had to. No way he could sit back and do nothing knowing she was alone and fearing for her life.
“I’ll be here.”
Seeing the truth in her eyes, he managed to nod a second before she closed the door in his face. He chuckled as he headed for the Jeep. He was curious to see what Operation K-9 Brothers was about.
“This isn’t anything like what I envisioned,” Dallas said after a tour of the place. Funny thing...he hadn’t frozen when Jack and Noah gave him man-hugs on arrival. He’d known it would be different with his SEAL brothers, but he felt guilty that he’d turned to a rigid board when his mother had wrapped her arms around him the minute he’d arrived home.
Noah nodded. “Yeah, I was pretty impressed myself on first seeing it.”
The place was beyond what Dallas had imagined. He’d expected something along the lines of an animal shelter, a building and some cages. Truth be told, he hadn’t been looking forward to seeing that part of Jack’s operation. After experiencing Hotel Hell, he would have wanted to open the doors and free anything—animal or human—confined to a cage.
Instead, the dogs here were housed in individual kennels, part concrete flooring with a roof, and part an open grassy area. They had plenty of room to move around, their water bowls were clean and full, and they had food in their bellies. They even had beds that appeared to be more comfortable than the paper-thin pallet he’d been given. Best of all, they looked happy.
There was a large fenced-in area where several dogs were playing with each other, and the building housing the puppies had even been climate-controlled.
A few yards away, a woman missing an arm leaned over and praised a dog. A man stood a few feet away, and Dallas wondered if they were together. How did all this work, anyway? “Is that dog hers?”
Jack nodded. “Yeah. Rebecca took Cricket home with her for the first time last week. She’s back for a little follow-up training.”
“Tomorrow we’ll take you on a tour of Operation Warriors Center,” Jack said. “I think you’ll be impressed with our plans for that. But today let’s go meet your dog.”
“My dog?” He backed up a step. “I don’t want a dog.” He was barely able to take care of himself.
“Good luck with refusing. Didn’t work for me.” Noah gave a sharp whistle, and a dog raced toward them, skidding to a stop in front of Noah. “Meet Lucky.”
“What is it?” It looked like a collie mixed with...who knew what? The dog had one brown eye and one blue eye, and he stared up at Noah with total adoration in those odd eyes.
Noah laughed as he leaned over and gave the dog’s chin a scratch. “Pretty certain it’s a dog, but I’ve never been sure.”
The last time he’d seen Noah had been when he’d shipped out after failing to find a bomb and the bomb maker hiding in a room he’d thought he’d cleared. The man who’d left to return home had been devastated by his mistake. He’d withdrawn into himself and his eyes had been haunted. The haunted look was gone, and he was back to the Noah before that ill-fated mission. Dallas wasn’t buying for a minute that a dog was responsible for Noah putting his demons to rest.
“I’m going to head over to the site,” Noah said. “The building inspector will be there in an hour.”
Jack nodded. “You’re not expecting any problems, right?”
