Page 26 of Once Upon a Beast

“None. I have no idea where he could be.”

“Damn. Okay, do you at least know which direction he headed?”

Isaac ran a hand through his hair, trying to think back. “I’m not sure. He got outside then started chasing a rabbit, who zigzagged all over the yard, trying to lose him. Last I saw, they disappeared into the woods on the west side of the yard. Toward the next farm over.”

Brooklyn and Del exchanged a look.

“Rex,” they said in unison.

Del started jogging in the direction of the neighbor’s farm and pointed to her niece. “Call your grandpa, then head down to the ditch and make sure Louie’s not in there.”

“On it,” Brooklyn said, her cell phone at the ready.

“The ditch?” Isaac swallowed hard. Did they mean the creek that bordered the back of his yard? The one generally full of water?

Could his dog even swim?

“Don’t worry. If he’s back there, I’ll find him,” Brooklyn said, hurrying off. “Hi, Grandpa. It’s me…”

And just like that, Isaac was left alone again. He tried to stay calm, taking solace in knowing he had two more sets of eyes on the lookout for Louie. But with each passing minute, his fears only grew. What if Louie really couldn’t swim and he’d gone charging into the ditch? Or if he’d taken off one way then changed directions, heading back toward town and its increased traffic? What if they were already too la—

A bark sounded in the distance.

“Louie?”

Two more barks. Isaac spun in the direction of the sound and took off at a dead sprint. Unfortunately, up ahead there was no driveway or worn path, only woods and more woods. Isaac didn’t care, but the woody obstacles slowed his progress.

“Louie?” he called futilely, scrambling as best he could through bramble and underbrush, ducking under limbs and hurdling fallen trunks. “Louie, where are you?”

Another bark sounded, and Isaac swore he saw movement in the distance. He sped up, low sapling branches stinging his skin as he raced forward. Suddenly, he found himself on the other side of the woods that engulfed his yard, standing amid a sea of yellowing knee-high plants. And there, up ahead was Louie, his naughty, reckless, usually lazy-ass dog, being carried by Delaney. The second Louie caught sight of him, though, he leapt from Del’s arms and shot off like a rocket toward Isaac, who knelt to receive his beloved pooch.

“Oh, Louie.” Hugging him was a lost cause. His dog was wigglier than ever, soaking him with a thousand slobbery kisses. Tears blurred Isaac’s vision as a tsunami of relief crashed over him. “I thought I’d lost you, buddy.”

“Not today, you didn’t,” Del said as she drew near.

“Where did you find him?”

“Sitting on the porch at my shop.” She hitched a thumb toward the next grove of trees down the road. “Oak Barrel Farms is in that cluster of trees you see, our family’s farm on the other side of that. Pop’s dog Rex hangs out there, and he loves it when other dogs come around. I figured the two might have run off together to roam, which probably would have happened exceptsomebodyran out of steam first.” Her soft laughter rang out. “That dog of yours was spreadeagle on the porch and didn’t want to budge.”

Isaac swiped a hand under each eye, then pulled out the leash he’d stuffed in his back pocket what felt like a hundred hours ago. He clipped it to Louie’s collar, then he rose and pulled Del into a bear hug. “Thank you,” he said, his words thick with emotion.

Tense at first, her body softened at his words. Slowly, her arms encircled him, too.

“Of course. Helping each other is what we do around here.”

He nodded and made to let go of her but found he couldn’t. Whether from the scare he’d just experienced or the fact that this was the first real, sustained human contact he’d had in months, her touch sent a warmth through him that he hadn’t realized he needed. Instead of loosening his grip, Isaac held onto Delaney Brooks like a man clinging to a life raft, waiting for the adrenaline rush to pass and him to get his emotions under control.

Good grief, was he shaking now, too?

“Hey now,” she said, her voice low as she gently rubbed his back. “It’s all right. We found him. Everything is going to be okay.”

Isaac nodded, still unable to speak, his throat tight with emotion.

“Though an invisible dog fence might be a good investment for the future. Lucky for you, I know a good local landscape company that can sell you one.”

He chuckled at her not-so-subtle sales pitch and drew back to meet her gaze. “Just agoodlocal company?”

“Well, okay, an amazing one. I was trying to be humble for once.”

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