But she was healthy, and sweet, and beautiful to him, and when it came time to put her on the rescue’s website for adoption, he’d become so attached, he couldn’t do it.
Susan was his and he was hers. For as long as she was here on Earth.
Or he was, for that matter.
“Why are you such a troublemaker, Susan?” he whispered against her soft fur as she curled into him and purred her delight. “For a pet who has everything, including a catio, you’d think staying on this level of the house would keep you happy, Diva.”
“Maybe there’s somethin’ up there we don’t know about, Boss?” Gaffney offered, driving his hands into his slouchy jeans.
“Like what? A tuna factory?” Dex joked. Settling himself at his desk overlooking the backyard, he set Susan on the surface and looked at the stack of incoming bills and sighed.
“More bad news, Boss?” Gaffney asked, giving Dex a slap on the shoulder.
Scooping up the stack, Dex dropped them in a drawer. These kids had plenty to worry about, they didn’t need to worry about him and the exorbitant amount of money it took to run a small rescue.
He’d start up a GoFundMe or something to help get them through the next couple of months, and as long as no serious health mishaps occurred, he just might be able to squeak into the spring before he had to organize some kind of fundraiser.
Dex winked at Gaffney, whose hulking form lingered by the row of windows on the opposite side of the room. “Nope, buddy. All’s well. How about you pull up a chair and tell me all about Idaho State and that full scholarship. Can’t tell you how proud I am of you, man. So proud.”
Gathering up Susan, he cuddled her close to his chest and did what he loved most. Shooting the breeze with the kids surrounded by his rescues.
He’d worry about how he was going to keep the doors from closing tomorrow.
Because time was running out. If he didn’t earn his permanent wings and the right to be an eternal guardian again soon, upstairs was going to want some answers, and if they didn’t get them, they were going to make him give up his earthly possessions to wax the floors and clean the toilets in Heaven, and he’d have to leave the kids and his rescues.
If it was the last thing Dex did, he wasn’t going to abandon the kids and animals who’d already been abandoned plenty in their short lives.
Not if he could prevent it.
Chapter 9
“Hi, Effie.” George waved at the aging eyeball peeking out of one of the more luxurious apartment doors in Mom and Dad’s Place.
She squinted and made a face. “What the hell do you want?”
What did she want? Funny Effie should ask. She wanted a new assignment. Did Atilla the Hun need some Heavenly guidance? He’d probably be an easier assignment than Effie Sampson.
Listen… Dex’s words came back to remind her why she was here.
Sighing, she forced a smile. “I came by to see how I can help you with your trip to Cabo. I’m sorry I was so busy this morning, but I’m available now.”
Effie pushed her wispy gray hair from her eyes, giving George a stern, displeased look down her pointy nose. “And you don’t know how to use a phone?”
George dug the colorful brochures from her big tote and waved them at Effie. “But I brought pictures,” she enticed cheerfully, trying to do that thing where she listened between the lines but all she was hearing was the grind of Effie’s teeth because she was an unwilling participant in human interaction.
Effie sighed through her pinched lips. “Fine. Come in and I’ll look at the pictures. But you can’t stay long. I have things to do.”
George turned up her smile to one hundred watts and slipped in past Effie to find herself standing in a nearly empty apartment.
How strange. Literally, there was nothing more than a folding chair, a blow-up mattress with some neatly folded blankets and a pillow, a couple of plastic cups, and a laptop on her kitchen counter with a Facebook page pulled up.
Effie didn’t have a single picture on the wall nor a dish in the sink. Her stark apartment took George aback for a moment.
Without missing another beat, she asked, “Haven’t gotten around to decorating yet?”
Effie adjusted her green and blue scarf and scowled, making her wrinkles deeper. “That’s none of your business. Now show me the pictures,” she groused.
George pulled the brochures out and dropped them on the flecked granite countertop. “So tell me what you want in a vacation, Effie. Anything in particular you want to see? Sights? The ocean? Or do you just want to lounge by a pool and relax while bare-chested men in shorts bring you brightly colored cocktails?”
Effie captured George’s gaze, her hawk-like eyes, as per usual, annoyed. “I don’t care about a stupid pool or the food or men with no shirts. I don’t even care about my hotel. I just want to be on the beach with the sun shining down on me as the water laps at my toes.”
For a moment, Effie’s words struck George as odd. Effie had never seemed like a minimalist, not if the abundance of rings on her fingers were any indication. Also, Effie had one of the most decked-out apartments offered at Mom and Dad’s. She had the top-tier, two-bedroom, two-bath with all the trimmings.
A master bedroom with a view of the water, walk-in closet with an island, a gorgeous master bath with a shower the size of George’s kitchen and a standalone cast iron tub that looked fresh out of a magazine.
All that, and she claimed she didn’t care what hotel she stayed in?
No, no, Nanette. She wasn’t going to fool George into making a mistake only so she could turn around and torture
