Her shift kept her busy today, barely having time to eat a protein bar at her desk, but she wanted to eat in the dining room tonight. She had reached the buffet line right at a lull in the dinner crowd, grabbed a tray, and looked at all she had to choose from. She loaded up her plate, snagged a bottle of water, and found an empty table outside on the deck.
Just as she neared her table, she looked up to see Stan with this little white bundle of something in his arms. She immediately put her tray down on the nearest table and walked over to see what it was. And then exclaimed when she realized it was a puppy. “Oh, my gosh, what is it?”
“A Great Pyrenees,” he said. “It was brought in after the mother was hit by a vehicle and didn’t make it. We’ve got three of these guys,” he said, holding it out.
It was the calmest little laid-back bundle of love that she’d seen in a long time, and she immediately wrapped it up and cuddled it close. It leaned into her embrace. “He’s so beautiful,” she whispered.
Immediately Stan handed her a bottle and said, “He’s hungry too.”
She laughed and offered the bottle to the little one, and he suckled quite contentedly. “Oh, jeez, how old is the little guy?”
“The best we can figure is about three weeks,” he said.
“And why did you bring him up here?”
“Searching for volunteers,” he said. “I’ve got two more guys to feed.” He looked around to see if anybody else was close by.
“I can come down later too, when he needs another feeding,” she said.
“They all need feeding,” he said, “so, when you come, bring somebody with you,” he said with a grin.
The bottle was soon empty; then she handed the puppy back to Stan and said with a smile, “You could have done that yourself.”
“I could,” he said, “but it’s a rare experience to see a puppy like this.”
“I’ll keep that in mind when I come down. Let’s see. What about eight o’clock tonight?”
“Eight o’clock would be good,” he said. “No doubt somebody will be ready to be fed by then.” Still laughing, he walked over and poured himself a cup of coffee. Then, with the beautiful little critter curled up in his arms, Stan headed back down to the animal clinic again.
She sat down to her plate of cold food with a smile on her face. Her table wasn’t empty now. Lance had somehow moved in while she’d been busy with the puppy. She looked over and said, “You could have fed that little guy yourself.”
“I wanted to,” he admitted, “but you looked like you were having way too much fun.”
“I absolutely was,” she said, “but you can come down with me at eight tonight, if you want, and we can feed them again.”
He nodded, the slow smile on his face just breathtaking.
And once again she realized it was another boon to her to see his progress, even just this way. He was opening up, unfolding before her eyes, becoming so much more of a person who she could spend time with than the original near stranger who had moved in here not long ago. He was so much more approachable now.
He motioned at her tray and said, “Your food’s gone cold.”
“It has,” she said, “and I didn’t even wash my hands,” she said. “So that’s also a no-no,” she said, “but I’ll have about half of this, and then I will go clean up.” She quickly ate through her plate, then realized that he wasn’t eating. She stopped, looked at him, and asked, “What about your dinner?”
“Dennis is bringing me something,” Lance said.
Following the motion of his head, Jessica looked to see Dennis, walking over and setting a plate of ribs in front of Lance. He studied the ribs heaped high on his plate with joy.
She looked at it, looked at Dennis, and said, “I didn’t see any ribs over there.”
“Leftovers from lunch,” he said. “But then you probably didn’t get lunch, did you?” And his disapproving tone was impossible for either to miss.
“Possibly not,” she said, “as it’s been crazy busy today.”
“Of course,” he said. “Your dinner’s already cold.”
“My dinner is fine,” she said. “I got to pet and to feed a puppy,” she said, “so that’ll always take precedence in my world.”
Dennis nodded. “I heard three of them were down there. That’ll keep everybody going for a few weeks.”
“Stan said the mother didn’t make it,” she said.
“That’s always sad, but we’ve got to get the puppies through six more weeks or so until they can eat on their own,” he said. “Then I’m sure they’ll find homes to be adopted out too.”
“Is that what Stan does down there?” Lance asked.
“Stan is the vet who runs the clinic. They do a lot of volunteer work down there,” she said. “And Dani is up for rescuing any animal.”
“Which is hard to argue with,” Dennis said. “It’s always nice to know that we’re helping the animals. And, if you’re going down to feed the puppies tonight,” he said, “check in with me, and maybe I’ll be free to go along too.”
“I’ll do that,” she said. And, with that, she stood and grabbed her plate. Dennis tried to take it from her hands, and she shook her head. “You don’t have to take my dishes too,” she said. “Sit down and relax a minute.”
He chuckled. “It’s really not a hardship,” he said. “I do it all day long.”
“I know,” she said. “So right now, I’ll do it.” And, with a big smile, she walked over and placed her dirty dishes down, then headed home.
Chapter 6
The next few days, like every day, were full and packed. When she passed the hot tub
