“Well, it’s obvious you’ve won her over.”
He nodded. “Yes, but she needs real food.” He hesitated and looked back at the feedstore and could see the same young man, watching him in astonishment. “I’ll need a large bag of dog food,” he said. “Something extremely high in protein, if you have it. I can give you a credit card, “he said. “I don’t want to leave her or take her inside just now.”
The young man nodded. “No problem. I’ll carry it out. Where to?”
Daniela stepped back, smiling at him. “In my vehicle over here.”
“Doggy!” Sari screamed, clearly on the verge of being upset.
Daniela hesitated, looking at Weston.
He held out his hands. “If you want to be close to the doggy,” he said, “you have to be quiet, and you have to sit nicely.”
Sari looked up at him and reached out her arms. And, just like that, for the first time ever, he picked up his daughter and held her in his arms. It didn’t matter that her entire focus was on the dog at his feet because his entire focus was on her. And that special smell, a sense of holding a small and precious life, that sweet innocence, it was so hard to even understand what he felt, but Sari had just such a sense of wonder and lightness about her.
She bounced on his hip and laughed at the doggy. Shambhala looked up at her, not disinterested but more curious, as if she hadn’t had any exposure to children either.
“You and me both,” Weston said to the dog. He held his daughter firmly but with a little hesitancy. She appeared to have absolutely no fear of falling and completely trusted he would hold her. The trouble was, she was small, slippery and moved very quickly. He knew he’d get the hang of it, but, at the moment, it was like holding a wiggling eel as she kept leaning down toward the dog. He crouched with her in his arms and told Shambhala to guard. Immediately she stood up and sat down, attentive now. But she looked at him curiously, as if to say, Guard what?
It wasn’t the best command Weston could have given Shambhala, but he’d been looking for something to make her pay attention as he held his daughter a whole lot closer.
“Sari, this is Shambhala.”
“Schambach,” his daughter mumbled happily. She clapped her pudgy hands together and waved them in Shambhala’s face.
Shambhala looked at Sari, as if she were an oddity. But Shambhala was completely relaxed and calm around Sari. For that he was grateful.
When he could, he reached out a hand to gently stroke Shambhala’s head and scratch behind her ears. Then he held out one of Sari’s hands for the dog to smell. Shambhala gave them both a good sniff and then lay back down again. He put Sari on her feet, not sure how well she walked, and she leaned forward, reaching for the dog’s ear. He showed her how to gently pet the top of the dog’s head and to stroke Shambhala’s ears. Sari was beyond delighted and chortled happily every time she touched the dog. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but it was obviously something she was desperately enjoying.
But that didn’t mean he knew the dog enough to trust Shambhala with his little girl’s life. He had assumed Shambhala would guard and look after her, but what if the child accidentally hurt the dog? Would Shambhala accept it as a young person’s accident, or would the dog turn on Sari? Again, the dog was an unknown. She might have been well-trained, but she’d also suffered. It was hard to say what the outcome would be.
Behind him, he could hear Daniela’s voice. “Weston, the dog food is loaded.”
“Okay,” he said, standing up with Sari in his arms. Sari screeched and tried to get back down to the dog. “She’s really hung up on Shambhala,” he said.
“But is it safe for her?”
“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “This is the first I’ve met the dog too.”
“That’s the problem,” Daniela said. “I get that she’s well-trained. I just don’t know what she’s like around a child.”
“I know,” he said, “it’s an unknown situation.” As he stepped away, Sari cried out some more. “She’s really focused on the dog,” he said with some concern.
Daniela stepped up to his side, reached out to take Sari from his arms and walked firmly back into the store with the little girl screaming. He looked down at Shambhala, reaching for the rope again. “Come, Shambhala.”
The dog hopped up and walked at his side. Weston walked around the building to where the truck was parked. There he had to make a decision about bringing her inside or putting her in the back of the bed. There was no canopy to keep her in safely, and loose inside the bed of the truck was not something he was willing to risk. But the car seat was in the back seat. Still, that was probably where the dog was better off. He looked at Daniela. “Do you want to move the car seat to the front?”
Daniela frowned and said, “Maybe if you want to put the dog in the back, you should sit back there too.”
He nodded. “That’s a good way to handle this.” He opened the door to the back seat, sat beside his daughter and then Shambhala jumped up on the other side of him.
Daniela hopped into the front and said, “Your credit card and receipt are here, by the way.”
“Thanks, I’ll grab it when we get out,” he said.
She didn’t say anything but started up the engine. “Now that you have the dog,” she said, “what do you want to do next?”
“I want to get a set of wheels.”
“Will you be staying on?”
He looked at her. “Why wouldn’t I?”
Chapter 5
Daniela didn’t know what to say. “I thought you were only coming to get the dog, and you’ve already accomplished that.”
“No, not necessarily,”
