by Magan Vernon
I was still running on adrenaline as Luka and I ran back to the shelter where a smiling Aubrey was waiting for us in her office.
Pixy barely looked up from his perch where he was sleeping at the corner of her desk, but as soon as I came in, Aubrey raised her head, a small gasp emitting from her lips.
That was when Pixy let out a little snort and Aubrey sprang into action.
“Is everything okay? Did Luka get hurt?” She rounded the large oak desk, Pixy barely stirring and Luka already making himself comfortable by curling up on one of the many pet beds littered across the floor.
“He’s fine. But city council man Adrian Chase is anything but.”
Aubrey’s shoulders relaxed as she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back against her desk. “I may be married, but I do know the man is more than fine, even with those Dwight glasses.”
Heat flushed in my cheeks, my heart still pounding in my ears. Now was not the time to talk about how incredibly good that man’s body felt when I was pressed against him.
“Attractiveness doesn’t make him any less of a jerk. Did you know he wants to build a strip mall a block from here? Exactly where the park proposal is?”
She blinked hard, pushing off the desk. “That’s where the strip mall is going? I thought it would be near the highway. When the hell did that happen?”
Each word blended into the next as she talked, pacing in front of her desk.
NOW she finally got it.
“I have no clue; I just know that stupid Adrian Chase said that was where his new strip mall was going. I mean, that spot is literally perfect for a dog park. Why would we need another coffee shop or nail salon when we could keep a beautiful green space?” I shook my head, my heart thumping in my ears.
Maybe a few days ago if someone told me we’d have a closer Starbucks to the house I might have done a little dance and forgot about the fact that there was one only a five-minute drive into the city.
But now it was personal.
This was MY project and I wasn’t going to let some guy ruin it. Just because he had a smile that belonged on a dental commercial.
Nope. Wasn’t even going to think about how long it had been since I got laid and what that one little look was doing to the butterflies in my stomach.
“Okay, we need to go over our options. Come up with a plan.” Aubrey nodded, her eyes focused on the floor and I swore I could see smoke coming out of her ears.
“Yes, exactly. What’s the plan?”
She raised an eyebrow, slowly looking up. “I didn’t say I had one, yet. But we can do it. We just...”
She glanced around as if the answer would somehow be in the framed photos of her kids in their matching soccer uniforms or one of her diplomas.
“You know what?” Her head jerked up and she grabbed her purse off the desk. “Let’s go for a walk, clear our heads, and see the park for ourselves so we can come up with some points to bring up to city council.”
I pulled my shoulders tight to my neck.
If this guy was on the city council and had his mind made up, how the hell were we going to change that?
I sighed.
This was also the internship that could open future doors for me, if I failed at this, what did that say my future resumes and employment?
I’d be back working at that new Starbucks down the road, living in my parents’ pool house forever.
Not. Going. To. Happen.
“Okay. A walk it is.”
“Come on, Pix.” Aubrey grabbed a leash from the desk and the goat immediately hopped up from his bed, stretching like a cat that just got into the sunlight.
“We’re bringing Pixy?” I asked, even though it was a silly question since she was already hooking a harness over his torso.
“Well, yeah, he needs a walk too and he’ll be the best judge of things. An animal always gives the best opinion of their surroundings.”
I couldn’t argue with someone with ten years’ experience and a law degree, but the logic on that one was far from making sense.
Still, we needed to figure this out, so I reluctantly followed her out the back door and down the sidewalk.
“See the yard back here?” Aubrey pointed her free hand toward the small are of chain-length fence.
It was a small square with a swatch of grass lining one side, cracked cement, and a small patio cover on the other part. If it were for rent it would probably get a few million in the city, but outside here? It looked more like a sad driveway in a back-alley bodega.
“That’s the only real play yard we have for the dogs. Sometimes we have as many as forty dogs in the shelter, all using that same little play area.”
I blinked hard, trying to imagine even more than one dog squatting on the dying grass.
“Aside from the conference room, it’s the only place we have to do introductions when people want to adopt dogs, too. Unless we want to walk the dogs a mile or two in the heat to the nearest park, but even then, it isn’t fully fenced so we can’t let the dogs run around.”
“So, what do you do if this park doesn’t pass?” I asked the question that was weighing heavily on my chest.
She shrugged. “Keep doing what we’re doing and hope maybe we can eventually add on.”
As we rounded the corner, I glanced at the buildings surrounding the shelter.
There were a few grassy areas, but mostly those were to pretty up the store fronts for a dentist office or esthetician. Nothing that would work to take a dog out to have them roam around.
My parents’ two little chihuahuas could probably eat the grass in a matter of a few hours if they really wanted to.
“Can’t Mr. Chase just put the strip mall somewhere else? There’s enough infrastructure and he doesn’t need the grass.” I threw my hands up, as if it could encompass the rows of buildings we passed along each palm-lined sidewalk.
“That’s what we have to convince him of.”
Aubrey finally stopped in front of a rusted metal gate, a vinyl sign read ‘Keep out, property of Parks and Recreation’.
The lot behind it was a square dirt mound, surrounded by more sidewalk, leading up to a neighborhood of quaint bungalows.
There were a few patches of grass and a smattering of trees, but nothing else that jumped out and said, ‘ideal location for something that the Parks and Recreation Department would need to put a fence around’.
“So, this is the spot. It used to be a large pit, but then too many kids started daring each other to jump into it, got injured, and the city covered it up.”
“This...is where you want the park?” I asked, trying to imagine any bit of green in this area, aside from the weeds.
She pointed a manicured finger through the fence. “I mean, we’d need to obviously raise some funds for a new fence and sod, but just imagine all of the space. We wouldn’t even need to fence it all in and keep part of it as a dog park, add a nice little swing set for kids, some benches, and tables for picnics. It could be a real little oasis in the middle of the city.”
If I squinted really hard, maybe I could pretend the weeds were grass and the fence wasn’t so rusted that it glinted a bright red color against the sun.
“How much would the shelter need to raise to be able to do all of that?” I asked quietly, trying to do the math in my head.
My parents had turf near the pool for the dogs and that was at least ten dollars a square foot. Plus fencing. Plus the equipment for this place?
As I rattled off numbers in my head, Aubrey’s voice sliced through my thoughts. “Sixty-thousand to get it started, plus the cost of maintenance”
“And...how much does the shelter have now?”
She pressed her thumb and forefinger together, forming a circle with her fingers.
“Zero?” I choked out.
“Dogs medical bills, plus our own building maintenance, and Emma as an employee take up most of what we bring in. I was just lucky you were willing to come on as an unpaid intern, or else...
” her words trailed as she looked back to the rusty fence.
For one of my last semester classes, we had to come up with a successful business plan and implement it in a virtual environment. I successfully came up with an online video monitoring system for dog parents to keep an eye on the fur babies while at work. The project netted me an A and the eye of Aubrey, who after I told her about it during one of her Starbucks runs, immediately offered me this job.
I guess I should have asked more questions, like how much of a budget I had, for starters.
“Okay. Yeah. Um. We might just need to get creative, especially if we figure out how much Adrian Chase is planning on buying the lot from the city for. Do a cost benefit analysis. Maybe even survey some other people around the area, people with families, seeing if they’d rather have a park to take their kids here or another building.”
Aubrey’s hand squeezed my shoulder and I finally relaxed the tension gathering along in my neck. “I knew you were the best person for this job.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Did anyone else apply.”
She laughed. “No, but that’s because you should have had it all along.”
I blew out a slow breath. “We’ll see. You might not be saying that if I can’t figure this out.”
She smiled, squeezing my shoulder again before dropping her hand. “You will. Now come on, it’s almost quitting time and I’m going to put in a to-go order at Vinny’s.”
“That’s right around the corner isn’t it?”
She nodded, already starting back down the sidewalk. “Yeah, which makes it the perfect place to stop for a drink while we wait for my order.”
I glanced down at my watch, a chill creeping down my back. “Um...well...it’s almost five, but I probably shouldn’t have a drink while on the job.”
“My best ideas always come after a few drinks and you’re almost off the clock, so it’s a win-win for both of us.”
I glanced back at the mound of dirt again, trying to imagine it as a green space with dogs and kids running around.
It was going to take a hell of a lot more than a bunch of puppy dog eyes and sixty-grand to turn this place around.
Was I really up for this challenge?
“Are you coming?” Aubrey yelled, as Pixy pulled her along the sidewalk.
I tried to push through my mental fog and forced a smile. “Yeah, coming.”
Chapter 4
Vinny’s was a staple of the neighborhood for as long as I could remember.
Every Friday night, my dad used to come home with one of the brown boxes, a picture of a mustached man on the cover as the warm smell of mozzarella and marina wafted from inside.
My parents’ house was a few blocks over from the squat, stucco building, the only change to the exterior in the last twenty years being the small covered patio in the back where Audrey and I now perched on a set of bar stools. Vinny’s nephew, Frankie, stood behind the bamboo bar shaking us up a few limoncellos.
“Oh, don’t forget to put in my to-go order too,” Aubrey tapped her finger on the granite bar top.
Frankie smirked, barely visible behind his burly beard. “Don’t worry, Mrs. Aubrey, we’ve always gotchu.”
Frankie looked almost identical to his uncle, but with less gray hair. Both squat men usually covered in flour from their slicked back hair down to their massive biceps, each one covered in fur and tattoos of the Italian flag.
“You’re the best, Frank. How’s your Mom? She still doing good with the Pekinese?”
He laughed as he set down two martini glasses, filled to the brim with bright yellow liquid.
I’d never seen such a heavy pour and knew I should probably stop at one if I wanted to get home tonight.
“Ma loves little Gnocchi. She even got her a dog stroller from Amazon so her little paws didn’t need to touch the pavement on walks.”
Aubrey’s genuine smile bloomed. “I’m so glad she finally adopted her. I think Gnocchi was definitely the right pick.”
“Yeah, maybe next time though you could swing her toward one of them bulldogs or something instead? Ma might love the stroller, but Pops said people are looking at him funny when he walks Gnocchi down to the bodega with him.”
“You know...” I interrupted, swirling my finger around the cool glass. “If there was a dog park near here, you wouldn’t have to worry about the hot cement on Gnocchi’s feet.”
His dark gaze turned toward mine.
If I hadn’t known Frankie all of my life, I might have found that flare of his nostrils intimidating.
But it was the exact same thinking face he’d had since we were in Kindergarten. The teddy bear of a man hadn’t changed a bit and I could read him like a book.
If only everyone were that easy.
“Yeah...you know that would work out for Mom and Pops, but how the hell would that happen around here? Adrian Chase was yapping in the bar about putting a new strip mall in that empty lot on Center street and that’s the only thing in this neighborhood that hasn’t been bought up for a nail salon or doctor’s office.”
My fingers tightened their grip on the glass as the hair raised on the back of my neck. “Adrian Chase?”
Frankie hitched a thumb behind him at the screen door. “Yeah, in there now, probably still flapping his lips to anyone who will listen.”
A million thoughts raked through my brain as a cold chill crept down my fingers, now tightly entwined with the cool glass.
The man who was standing in the way of the biggest obstacle of this internship was only a few feet away.
My heart thumped hard against my chest as Frankie kept talking but I only got every other word, most of them of the swearing variety.
“Hold on, Chance is calling me,” Aubrey’s voice pushed through my fog as she bounced off the bar stool.
But even as her words echoed, there was a part of my brain that was fixated on one thing: Adrian Chase.
I didn’t even realize my hand was moving until my glass clanked against the counter and Frankie stopped ranting to grab it. “Need a refill, Miss Melanie?”
The lemon liquor burned down my throat, sloshing in my belly as I stood up.
“Yeah but put it on Adrian’s tab and tell Aubrey I’ll be right back.”
I glanced over my shoulder, her back to me as she leaned against the railing, deep in conversation that had something to do with the color of a berry that a kid ate.
She might give me hell for this, but I figured it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission.
Swinging off the stool, I scooted past the umbrella cloaked tables and through the back swinging door of the restaurant.
The burst of cool air conditioning attacked my face and I sucked in a deep breath through my nose.
But that was the only bit of calm I had before I spotted him at the end of the polished bar.
His hand gripped around a half-empty pint glass, the sleeves rolled up and his jacket swung over the chair.
His smile highlighted those high cheekbones and were those freaking dimples he was flashing at the waitress?
Dammit. Stop. Checking. Him. Out.
Frankie emerged from the kitchen, holding another full martini glass that he slid in the empty spot next to Adrian’s chair before he looked over at me with a two-finger salute.
Adrian’s gaze went from the still talking waitress down to the glass then slowly raked through the bar until his eyes were combing over me.
I squirmed, shifting my weight from one shoe to the other, trying not to let him see my nerves.
I had absolutely no plan on what to say, but there was enough limoncello coursing through me that I’d be able to get something out.
With all the strength I could muster, I barged through the space between us then leaned on the stool next to him, trying to ignore how good his woodsy cologne smelled. “You need to drop your proposal for the empty lot and give it to the animal shelter.”
He nodded for a second, slightly narrowing his eyes before he shoo
k his head, that smile splitting across his face.
“Yeah that’s not going to happen,” he muttered before taking a swig of his drink.
“It is if you want to get re-elected.”
I grabbed my own drink, taking a big gulp and hoping the liquid courage could do something before I lost my nerve.
He raised an eyebrow, leaning his chin on his hand. “And tell me, how would denying the members of this community and neighborhood a new coffee shop and other amenities do not get me re-elected.”
I plopped down on the bar stool, racking my brain for everything Aubrey and I had just talked about, and even Frankie, trying to ignore the heat that radiated off his body that was not doing favors to my already thumping heart.
“There is a Starbucks five minutes from here, but you know what there isn’t that close? A green space. Somewhere not only dogs, but kids could run around. Have you seen this neighborhood? Hell, even just this restaurant.”
I held my hand up, taking another big swig of my drink as his eyes darted behind those wire-framed glasses, hopefully noticing tables filled with booster seats.
“So, what you’re saying is we need to put in a fast food place with a play area?” He raised his eyebrows, that smirk visible behind his frosty glass.
“What? No. That’s the opposite of what this neighborhood needs.”
“And tell me, is it, Melanie? How do you know what this neighborhood needs?”
“Because I’ve lived here all my life. Right up the road on Maple. When I was younger the only park we had was going to the school or the minimal bit of turf in the backyard. Hell, even just walking my parents’ dogs or any dog for that matter, and they’re going to find the first palm tree they can that’s sort of green to relieve themselves. Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if they had a spot they could run and an area for kids to play too?”
I let out a breath, hoping my rant got through his thick head as he stared at me, nodding slowly.
I sucked down the rest of the drink, my brain now fuzzy. At least it was better that the adrenaline coursing through me was from anger and not whatever else was going on with the fluttering in my chest from that damn smile on Adrian Chase.
