Page 56 of Show Me How to Heal
“Nah.” I shook my head. “I won’t let you.” After all, I knew he really, desperately wanted one. And, personally, I thought it’d do him good.
We exited the car and Luke immediately grabbed my hand, holding on tight as we walked toward the front door. Luke had left the crutches at home today. Apparently, his PT had told him he should be fine without them if he didn’t try running a marathon right away. He still limped, the stiffness in his knee obvious, but he had his hands free while walking, which meant we could hold hands.
And damn, I hadn’t even realized I’d been missing that. But I did. The first time he’d casually grabbed my hand while walking to Kickstart, it had been like a lightning bolt shooting through my body, every nerve ending tingling. I hadn’t known a single touch of hands could have that effect on me, but it was with Luke.
My sweet, troubled Luke.
It was louder in the building housing the dogs than I remembered. Fucking loud. A cacophony of barking and yowling, scratching and whining. On the left and right were the kennels, one after another, and each and everyone seemed to be occupied by a poor creature waiting for their forever home.
My heart hurt seeing so many dogs waiting for people to take them in.
Luke swallowed, his hand almost crushing mine, as his head turned from left to right and back, his eyes darting around, unable to focus on anything for more than a second.
“Okay,” John, the shelter employee, said. “I’ve got a few dogs in mind that I think might be a good match. Would you prefer a bigger or smaller dog?”
“Bigger,” Luke said, eyes shifting to me for a moment until I gave a barely there nod. Damn, he was serious when he’d said that one day he wanted it to be our dog.
“Great. Okay, we’ve got one right over here. His name’s Gus.” He waved at a kennel and almost immediately, a white streak shot towards the kennel doors, barking loudly. “He’s two years old, a mixed breed, and…” The loud barking drowned out John’s words.
One look at Luke told me this was not the dog for him.
John seemed to pick up on Luke’s reluctance within seconds. “Okay… so… maybe you’d prefer a quieter dog?”
Luke nodded hesitantly.
“I don’t mind barking in general, but… he was jumping against the kennel doors, and that’s like a big no go for me. If a dog his size jumped against me…”
I squeezed his hand. He was right, of course. Gus was a big dog. Not on the bigger side, but full-on big dog.
“I understand,” John said, walking past a few kennels containing smaller dogs.
“And you said he’d come to work with you?”
“Yeah.”
“And you work in retail, so… no dogs that are overly territorial,” he said quietly, talking to himself rather than us. He ran his hand through his salt and pepper hair, his eyes glazing over for a moment. “Maybe…” He took a couple of steps more until he stopped in front of another kennel. “That’s Lilly,” he said, pointing at a dog I couldn’t see.
I stayed a few steps behind Luke and John so the dog would see Luke first. No matter what he said, for the foreseeable future, it’d be his dog, not mine. He needed to get along with his dog.
But that didn’t mean I wasn’t curious. Because I was. Luke’s face was so… unresponsive right now. He’d been a ball of nerves and excitement all week long, so seeing him that impartial was freaking me out a little. I’d almost expected him to walk from kennel to kennel to look at every single dog, excitement sparkling in his blue eyes.
“Lilly’s a little older. She’s already five years old and a very, very calm dog,” John told us while Luke nodded along.
I couldn’t hold myself back any longer and stepped up to Luke, grabbing his hand, and giving it a light squeeze. Lilly was still lying in her dog bed on the other side of the kennel, not so much as raising her had to acknowledge us. “Maybe try going a little closer to the grate,” I urged him.
Luke gave me a short glance before doing as I suggested, walking up toward the kennel, squatting down, and extending his hand.
“Hey, Lilly,” he said in a soft quiet voice, but the dog didn’t really react. The only evidence that she’d heard him at all were her twitching ears. “I’m Luke, and I’d really like to get to know you.”
Yeah, no, it wasn’t super adorable seeing your boyfriend trying to coax a shy dog out of her shell. Nope. And if the butterflies in my stomach were going wild… well, he was my boyfriend after all.
Unfortunately, it was very obvious that Lilly wasn’t charmed by Luke at all. After a couple of seconds, she even turned her head in the other direction, practically dismissing us.
“Uhm…” Luke got up to his feet, his lips slightly tipping downwards. “I don’t think we’re a match.”
“She’s very reserved… we could try going into our meeting room so you could meet her in a calmer environment, if you want to,” John said.
Luke sighed, pursing his lips. “I’m not sure. I always thought people and pets need to click, to find even a small connection, and it’s… not there. I’m sorry. Do you have any other dogs that come to your mind?”
