Kelsey nodded. “Yes, please.” The pit bull was staring straight at her with his good eye, and she couldn’t look away. He was a beautiful silver blue with a white patch on his chest running up his chin, only it was stained yellow-red in patches. Kelsey hoped from disinfectants used in surgery. He released what sounded like a sigh and turned back to the dish of water, tentatively lapping up some more.
The others started to move, but Kelsey stayed and fumbled through her purse. Kurt stopped and waited, like he’d been assigned Kelsey duty. After a few feet, Fidel and Rob stopped too. Finally, her weak fingers clasped hold of the pink stickies, and she pulled one off the top.
She headed over to the pit’s empty crate and pressed it on top. “When he’s ready,” she said. “I’ll take him as soon as he’s ready.”
Chapter 4
“If you don’t mind me saying, you’re jumpier than a jackrabbit, son,” Rob said, swiping a half piece of toast over the mess of yolk on his plate. Seeing Kurt nearly leap from his seat at the sound of a dish breaking in the kitchen hadn’t escaped Rob’s notice. “It’s a shame they don’t do more for you boys on coming home. It’s like when you’ve been down in the deep of the ocean too long. Come up without acclimating, and you burst from inside.”
Kurt swallowed his last bite of crunchy bacon. Son. It was likely little more than slang, but nevertheless it scraped his ears every time Rob said it. How often had he fallen asleep as a kid wishing Rob were his father? Wished for it in a different way than just wanting a father, any father. But as Nana said, you make lemonade from the lemons you have. His grandfather was the best he’d get in that department. Half of his genes would remain a mystery. That was that.
“You think I have the soldiering bends?” Kurt laughed, half surprised something with such a heavy undertone had tickled his funny bone. “And you’re trying to talk me into working with a bunch of dogs on the verge of exploding exactly as you said.”
The server passed by, refilling their coffee and dropping off the check. Rob dragged a napkin over the salt-and-pepper stubble covering his dimpled chin. “I think,” he said after the server left, “that getting on a lumber or road crew out West isn’t going to settle what’s churning under your surface. And the sooner you deal with it, the better you’ll be. Take some time. Think it over. I don’t have to tell you how nice it would be to have you here in St. Louis for a while.”
When Kurt stayed quiet, Rob added, “If donations keep pouring in like this, I’ll double the pay I’ve offered you.”
Kurt swirled the last of the coffee in his cup. He kept seeing the blond walking over on shaky legs to press that pink sticky onto the pit’s crate. Kept letting his thoughts sway to how seeing her do it stirred awake something burning hot in his core. “The thing is, I don’t know—” His mouth stayed open, but no more words came. Don’t know what? The truth was he had no idea. “I don’t know.”
If it was anyone else, he’d give an adamant no. But it was Rob. “I’ll think about it,” Kurt added, even though he knew the answer. He wasn’t going to get involved.
However, things wouldn’t sit easy with him until he said his piece. “That girl. I don’t care how many years’ experience she’s had with positive training, most of those dogs are going to need a more assertive hand than she’ll be able to give them. She didn’t even have the sense not to drag a giant alpha who probably outweighs her into that ragtag mix she’s going to take off your hands. You have to know that without me telling you.”
“I do. And that’s why I won’t deliver them to her until I’ve got a trained handler ready to take the lead on rehabbing. I know he’s not your favorite, but Tommy Sintras is giving it some serious thought. He’s working over in Kansas City. He called me when he saw the story. If I’d been able to offer him more, he’d have dropped everything. From what he said, he’s up to his elbows in pampered, inbred pooches.”
A rumble of discontent rolled through Kurt’s chest. Tommy Sintras had been in training down in Texas with him. Tommy hadn’t passed the handler test on the first run. He’d been too quick to let frustration get the best of him. Military service dogs needed calm, assertive leadership, not an overly dominant, excitable handler. “Tommy, huh? Let’s hope he’s cooled off the last few years.”
“Guys I trust are backing him. Not that I’m saying he’d be as chivalrous or stay as calm as you were about having a mess splashed all over his boots.” Rob chuckled as he pulled out his wallet. “Good thing for that hose, huh?”
Tommy was a player too. There was no reason that should be bothering Kurt, but it was. Besides, from the little interaction they’d had, he suspected Kelsey would be better at putting Tommy in his place than those dogs. But Tommy would keep coming back for another shot. That body and those eyes were worth the effort. Kurt tried shoving the image of her into the same deep pit where he shoved everything he didn’t want to think about, though it didn’t work. He hadn’t been that close to a woman in a while. Unless he counted the mother invasion of last night.
The surface of his hand still tingled from the smoothness of the blond’s arm as he’d kept her from toppling over at the sight of the pathetic pit bull. The citrusy scent of
