Carly held up her hands. “I agree but slow down. You’re making my head spin.”
“Don’t have time to slow down. Too much to do. I need to talk to Graham’s builder about the floor plan. They’ll be in contact with us today and will come and measure what we have here. You should be getting an email sometime this morning with the plans so we can see what we’re getting.”
She tapped her finger on her lip. “Check and see what else we need. We can’t move in without the place being ready. Can you imagine all the animals in one big shed?” She shuddered as she recalled the phone call last night from Graham.
“Girlfriend, you need to slow down or you’ll make yourself sick.” Carly shook her head but Ruby didn’t have time to slow down or be ill. Not if she wanted to make the best move for the shelter.
But what about her? What did she want besides finding the animals a permanent home they could afford? She wanted Simon back but did she have the nerve to go and fight for him or had that ship already sailed? He said he was happy with friends when she asked him. Maybe that’s all he wanted now. She’d walked away once before and left him. What guarantee did he have that she wouldn’t do it again?
Chapter 11
“Excuse me, ladies.” Graham stepped away and left them to talk as he answered a call.
Ruby let her gaze roam over the property again, still in disbelief that it was theirs. One more move and that would be it. She couldn’t wait. Carly tucked her arm through Ruby’s and leaned her head on hers. “You deserve it, kiddo. You’ve worked so damned hard at this.”
“We both have. If it wasn’t for you coming on board after college and taking over the books, I doubt I would’ve got this far. It’s like a dream, you know. I thought we’d always be fighting for what we needed. And here we have Graham and Laura who want to hand us whatever we want. It’s taking some getting used to.”
“I know. But I’ve been checking things out and he’s above board.” They watched the man in question talking on his cell again. “Been into property for years and years. Happy to donate to charities too but the last few years since their son died, he and his lovely lady have been almost in hiding.” Carly sighed. “Did you know he and Simon have some property deals together? Apparently Simon’s dad and Graham are old school friends.”
Alarm bells rang in the back of her mind. “No, I didn’t know that.”
Carly shrugged. “Doesn’t mean anything other than I think that only makes him more trustworthy. At least in my book. As much as Simon may have pissed you off, he can be trusted. And if he’s a friend of Simon’s dad, you can’t go wrong.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Graham slid his cell into his pocket and walked back over to them. “Do you want to go over anything again or are you happy with what the builders are doing?”
“I’m all good, thanks. They seem to be doing everything we wanted and more. I think I should be back at the shelter packing up. Getting everyone over here is going to be a major mission.”
Carly spoke up. “Depends on how many dogs we manage to adopt out. So far it’s looking pretty good. Four went yesterday plus a cat found its fur-ever home. I have appointments booked for three more viewings tomorrow too. Thank goodness for Wes and Paul. That video has had so many hits on social media, it’s insane. People have been sharing it everywhere.” She paused for breath and fanned her face with her hand. “But to answer your question, we can call for volunteers to help move the animals. People with crates for the smaller dogs and cats. Confident handlers for the bigger dogs. I can start a spreadsheet now and hopefully by the time the move comes around, we’ll have enough people.”
Graham smiled. “Give me the details of what you need and I’ll get Laura onto it too.” He handed over a business card. “My private email address is on here. If you and I could share a spreadsheet, it might make things easier, Carly.” He paused a moment. “Listen ladies. I have to say this again because I don’t know if you understand how important this is to me. If it wasn’t for the work you both do, I wouldn’t have my wife today. I mean that with every fiber of my being. Losing our son was incredibly difficult. Even though we knew he wasn’t going to make it to his twenty-fifth birthday, we never gave up hope that a miracle would come along. Little did we know that the miracle we needed would happen after his death.”
Ruby swallowed down the emotion.
“If it wasn’t for you holding an open day, I doubt Laura would still be with me. So when I say you can have anything I can give you, I sincerely mean it. I will do anything I can to help. No questions asked.”
Ruby pulled a tissue from her pocket and dabbed her eyes. “I’m so glad we were able to help and when Laura feels ready, I’d love to welcome her and help choose another fur baby.”
“Thank you. I’ll make sure she knows. It’s something we’ve been discussing.” He waved his hand at the property. “I’ll have
