Rescued Heart

by Georgia Beers

  Lisa blushed attractively. “It might be.”

  “Just checking. Does she play on our team?”

  Lisa gave a quick nod. “So we’ve been friends for a while. I was working at a vet’s office when Jessica’s grandma died and left her Junebug Farms.”

  “I always wondered how somebody as young as she is ended up running such a large business.”

  “She and her grandma were very close. Did you know her grandma’s name was June? And that Jessica’s grandfather called her his little Junebug? That’s where the name came from.”

  “Aww. That’s a sweet story.” Ashley sipped her coffee, perfectly content to listen to Lisa talk.

  “Anyway, Jessica took over and pretty much cleaned house. She loved her grandmother very much, but said she was a terrible manager of people, that she didn’t hire well, but then couldn’t bring herself to fire anybody. Jessica was a business major in college and she can be really tough. So, she came in, got rid of almost everybody, and then hired a bunch of people she had faith in.”

  “My dad would caution her against hiring her friends, but it seems to have worked in this case.”

  “It has. Which doesn’t mean there haven’t been issues.” The tone of her voice told Ashley there likely was one of those issues now, but she didn’t ask. “But overall, it’s been good.”

  “So…who works there that was her friend first?”

  Lisa gave her a half-grin. “Pretty much the entire board. Me. Catherine and Anna and David. Maggie has known her since Jessica was a kid. The rest, she hired once she took over.”

  “Interesting. And you enjoy adoption and intake?”

  “Very much.”

  “You said you’d been working at a vet’s office. Didn’t you like it there? What made you take Jessica’s offer?” Ashley laid her forearms on the table and scootched her chair closer, shocked by how much she was enjoying watching Lisa and listening to her talk. I could do this all day long.

  “I sort of did what you did,” Lisa began. “I didn’t go to college right away because I was busy taking care of my brothers.” Something dark passed over her face.

  “Are you parents not around?”

  “My mother left when I was eighteen. My dad was a wreck and had no idea how to take care of the house, cook meals, clean, any of that stuff. So I took over.”

  “Wow.”

  With a shrug, Lisa said, “Somebody had to. My brothers were thirteen and eleven at the time. My dad needed help with them.”

  “So you gave up college.”

  “You make it sound more noble than it was,” Lisa said with a quirk of a smile. “But yeah. I got the job at the vet’s as an admin, and that was fine. But after a while, I knew I wanted more. Once my brothers were older and I didn’t have to be quite so present for them, I took some night classes. Like you did. When Jessica came along, the timing was perfect. I was ready for something new.”

  Ashley held up a finger. “First of all, it was noble, so don’t gloss that over. Second, is your mom still around? And third, did your dad remarry?” Part of her knew she might be stepping into too-personal territory, but she was intensely curious. She wanted to know more. She wanted to know everything.

  “One: if you say so. Two: she wasn’t, but has been trying to be for the past year. Three: he did not.”

  Before Ashley could ask her for elaboration, Lisa surprised her completely by reaching across the table and closing her warm hand over Ashley’s forearm.

  “You have goose bumps. Are you as cold as I am?”

  With a slight chuckle, Ashley said, “It’s not just me?”

  “God, no. I’m freezing.”

  “How do you feel about taking a walk in the sunshine?” Ashley gestured toward the windows with her chin.

  “I feel very positive that I’d like to do that.”

  With twin grins, they stood and gathered their things. Two minutes later, they were outside in the blissfully warm afternoon sun.

  “I feel like my skin just went, ‘aaahhhh’ in relief,” Ashley said.

  “Mine, too. I am not a fan of air conditioning. Not when it’s that cold.”

  “Agreed. I read somewhere that the average person sets their air conditioner at 68 degrees. That’s not warm enough for me in the winter. Why would it be good in the summer?” As Lisa chuckled in agreement, Ashley pointed to her right. “This way? I think there’s a little park a few blocks down.”

  They strolled slowly, close enough together for their shoulders to gently bump, Lisa slightly taller. Ashley’s stomach still had that nervous churning going on inside. Being so close to Lisa did that to her, she was now realizing, though why now, she wasn’t sure. Was it because she’d opened some kind of door with that drunken kiss? And Lisa had opened another with the break room kiss? Well, duh, of course they’d opened doors, but did that also let loose all kinds of other things that had been walled up inside her? This sudden, burning desire to know everything she could possibly know about Lisa? The need to inhale her scent on a near-constant basis? The necessity of shoving her hands into her pockets so she wouldn’t just randomly touch Lisa any chance she got? It was all so invigorating, so exciting, and so confusing, wrapped up into one big ball of eager uncertainty.

  “Tell me more about you,” Lisa said as they walked.

  “Me? I’m totally boring. I promise.”

  “I don’t believe that for a second. How come you’re single? When was your last relationship?”

  Ashley felt a wave of panic hit as Carly’s face flashed before her eyes. She could hear the concern in Carly’s voice when she’d called this morning to see if Ashley was still feeling crappy. She’d even offered to come over and play nursemaid. Ashley pasted on a smile and looked off to her right, away from Lisa. “Just haven’t found the right one yet, I guess. But you know what I love? Volunteering at the shelter.”

  She hoped she hadn’t given Lisa whiplash with the sudden change of subject, but Lisa only hesitated for a minute before saying, “Okay. We’ll shelve the relationship talk for the time being. Tell me why you wanted to volunteer at Junebug.”

  “Well, for starters, I love animals. Love them. I really want to have a dog of my own, but my schedule at the bakery can be crazy and I don’t think it’s fair to a dog to leave him home alone for hours and hours and hours. I will have one some day, but not yet. I watched the telethon last year,” Ashley went on, referring to the yearly fundraiser Junebug Farms did in partnership with a local television station. “They talked about how volunteers were always needed and I thought that’d be a good way for me to get my animal fix without actually getting an animal. The fact that Junebug is no-kill was a huge factor for me. There’s no way I could handle dogs being put down.” With a self-deprecating laugh, she said, “Hell, I could barely handle Jax getting a new home. Imagine what a mess I’d have been if he’d been put to sleep.” She’d spoken it all rather fast, hoping Lisa wouldn’t notice that she was babbling.

  “Ashley.” Lisa stopped walking and touched her arm. Ashley stumbled to a surprised halt at the sound of her name in such a tone. It was very unlike Lisa, who was usually no-nonsense. Now, her voice was firm yet gentle, and a little sexy. Okay, it was a lot sexy. “Please don’t be embarrassed by your reaction to that. You have no reason to be.”

  Ashley glanced down at her feet, felt her face heating up. “I did feel kind of silly.” She looked up, looked into the green of Lisa’s eyes. “You helped, though. You helped a lot.”

  “I’m glad.”

  They had reached the park, which was well populated by dog-walkers and families pushing strollers, a few guys tossing a Frisbee, and a smattering of sun worshippers on blankets. Ashley pointed out an empty bench and they claimed it and sat quietly for long moments. Lisa crossed one leg over the other and turned her body slightly so she faced Ashley.

  “So,” she said, then said nothing more.

  “So?” Ashley responded, eyebrows raised.

  Lisa pulled in a deep breath and s
aid, “This is going well. Don’t you think?”

  “This?” Ashley asked. Waving a finger between the two of them, she said, “You mean…this?”

  “Yes,” Lisa smiled while making the same gesture. “This.”

  “I think so, too.”

  “I honestly had no idea what to expect when you asked me to coffee.”

  “No? Well, I honestly couldn’t believe I actually asked you to coffee.”

  “Yeah, you were mad at me.”

  “Yes, I was.”

  “I’m sorry about that.” Lisa grimaced and glanced off at the park. “I shouldn’t have said what I did.”

  “Lisa?” When Lisa looked back at her, Ashley leaned in and kissed her gently. Not hungrily or demandingly, but softly, sweetly. When she pulled back, she whispered, “I accept your apology.”

  Lisa’s cheeks flushed a pretty pink as she grinned and nodded and said, “Well played.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Thursday turned out to be a disaster of a day. It was hectic and long, and by the time two p.m. rolled around, Lisa felt like she’d been at Junebug Farms for three days straight. The medical suite was booked up all day doing spays and neuters—which was a good thing, as it meant all the animals being operated on had been adopted—but it took a lot of coordination and timing. The animals recovering from surgery had to be monitored. The ones about to have surgery had to be monitored (no food or water since midnight the previous night). Five different veterinarians and their technicians rotated shifts at Junebug, and today was Mark Jackson. He was good. Competent. Lisa liked him. He was quick and no-nonsense, but also showed a tender side to the animals, which she found to be all-important. Lisa only had two actual paid employees and both were part-timers. These were the days she realized how important her volunteers were. Ashley and Tammy were both on this afternoon, as well as Bobby Griffin, one of the part-timers. Bobby was good, a vet tech in his late twenties who was amazing with animals and people alike. Lisa wanted nothing more than to hire him full-time, but she couldn’t match what the animal hospital he worked for was paying him and he and his wife had a baby on the way, so it just wasn’t in the cards.

  To make matters worse, Animal Control had called and was bringing in three more dogs seized during raids on a suspected dog fighting ring. Lisa normally had to work hard to school her features, her thoughts, to go into what she called Robot Mode. No feelings. No emotions. Just do the paperwork, get the dogs situated, show them kindness and love (if they’d accept it) and hope Jamie could work some of her magic.

  As would typically happen on a crazy day, one dog was ready to come out of recovery, another needed to be prepped for surgery, and Animal Control showed up at the back door all at the same time. To make matters worse, Ashley had arrived at 2:45 and was her usual, sweet self, but Lisa didn’t have time for pleasantries. The chaos at the back door was loud, and Lisa moved Ashley out of her way so she could get by and jump into the fray. After a few moments of trying not to scare the dog any more than it already was, Lisa glanced up to see Ashley standing in the same spot, riveted, eyes wide with fear. Lisa caught Tammy’s eye and gestured to Ashley with her chin. “Get her out of here. For God’s sake, send her to medical. She’s not going to be any help standing there like that.”

  A flash of embarrassed hurt flew across Ashley’s face, but Lisa didn’t have time to deal with it. Ashley headed off to the medical suite without looking back and Animal Control brought in the next dog.

  It was a mess.

  That was the easiest way to describe it in the aftermath. The dogs were ferocious—which Lisa knew actually stemmed from fear. They were beaten. They were starved. They were expected to fight to the death in order to get any kind of food. The three today showed obvious symptoms of malnutrition and abuse. Open sores. Poorly healed broken bones. Fierce aggression.

  The worst part was their eyes.

  Lisa always tried to gauge a dog’s rehabilitation chances by looking at their eyes. Not directly, no. Direct eye contact was considered a challenge and a dog used to fighting would go for her in a second if she stared too long. But she watched as the gazes darted this way and that, from one side to the other, constantly expecting the next threat to pop up and surprise them. It was frightening. It was also heartbreaking. She could often tell by looking at the eyes if these dogs would be able to be re-homed or...not.

  In this trio, she thought only one had possibilities.

  She hoped she was wrong, but she’d been at this for a few years now. She knew her way around.

  Once the three were into their cages—no easy feat and not done as gently as she liked, due to the new guy at Animal Control. Jeff? Jack? Jerk? Yeah, she liked Jerk. He yanked the dogs around by the leash pole and used a loud, threatening voice. He was much rougher, much angrier than she liked. Jerk’s partner, Kevin, was much more seasoned and he caught the looks Lisa tossed his way. He did his best to redirect the new guy, but this was going to take some time. It took longer than normal to do the usual intake procedures, and once the dogs were caged and somewhat settled, Lisa’s adrenaline flowed away and she was left with anger, exhaustion, and sorrow, her emotions too raw, too close to the surface.

  She knew what she had to do.

  ***

  Ashley felt like she’d been run over by a steamroller. A check of her watch had shocked her by letting her know it was after six. She had no idea how nearly four hours had flown by in what felt like forty-five minutes.

  Bobby Griffin was sitting in the lounge chatting with one of the vet techs when she went in to get herself a cup of coffee. She was actually grateful they were in the midst of a conversation she wasn’t a part of, as she had no desire to talk to anybody at the moment.

  Not even Lisa.

  Her comments had stung. So, Ashley froze. So what? It was a lot to take in. Yes, she should have taken some initiative or at least tried to help in some way, but…nothing she could do about it now.

  She popped a cup into the Keurig and waited for her coffee to brew. Her phone, tucked in the back pocket of her jeans, buzzed, and she pulled it out to glance at the screen. A text from Carly. A sweet one.

  I miss you. Dinner soon?

  Ashley sighed quietly and tucked the phone back in her pocket without responding. She had never moved so slowly with anybody in her life. Intentionally, she knew. She hadn’t even slept with Carly, and that was all Ashley’s doing. Carly would be sleeping over every night if it were up to her. But Ashley kept the brakes on. And Carly let her.

  Ashley hadn’t seen Lisa in more than half an hour, and though the noise had settled to a somewhat less ear-splitting level, it was still loud. So she’d simply grabbed a dog to walk and allowed herself to get away from the dog wing for a little while.

  She’d never seen an abuse case before. And today, there were three brought in at the same time. The dogs were loud and ferocious and so terribly scared, it broke her heart. And she did not like the way that one guy handled them. He was mean and far too enamored of the power he had over them. It made her extremely uncomfortable to watch him, and despite being stung by Lisa’s dismissal, she’d been glad to get away from the whole thing.

  Coffee in hand now, she left the lounge and wandered around to look for Lisa. She needed to apologize for freezing. She wasn’t anywhere in the dog wing or the medical suite (surgery was done for the day). Ashley even went out into the lobby, checked down the hall near Catherine Gardner’s office, peeked into the gift shop. She walked out the front door and looked toward the goat pen. She’d been to the barn during her walk and had seen no sign of Lisa there. With a sigh, she turned and went back into the main building.

  Bill Tracey was coming out of the gift shop carrying a long fluorescent bulb that Ashley assumed was burnt out. When he smiled a hello at her, she asked him if he’d seen Lisa.

  “I think she went down to the basement,” he said matter-of-factly.

  “There’s a basement?” This was news to Ashley. “I’ve worked here for almost
five months and I had no idea there was a basement.”

  When Bill laughed, his eyes squinted and looked exponentially smaller behind his huge, out-of-style glasses. “Oh, yeah. There’s a basement. Not many people go down there besides me.” He explained where the door to it was and she was surprised to note that she’d walked right past it every day she’d volunteered.

  She thanked him and headed toward the door.

  It wasn’t exactly dank and creepy, like lots of basements, but it was nothing special. Ashley descended the narrow flight of stairs to the bottom where she could smell an interesting mix of earth, damp, and dog food. The lighting was dim, limited to several bare bulbs spaced out along the rafters on the ceiling. To the left was a wall of shelving covered with various boxes and plastic storage containers, most neatly labeled. Reading the neat writing, she could see inventory for Maggie’s shop, Christmas decorations, and various printed forms used at the front desk. Along the right wall stretched more shelving and then a small workbench. She assumed the bench was Bill’s domain, judging by the tools, various slabs of scrap wood and pieces of small electronics. On those shelves sat bags and bags of dog food, cat food, and kitty litter.

  Ahead of her loomed a hallway, and she headed in that direction, passing a couple alcoves too small to be called rooms. More bags of food along with stacks of blankets and towels, probably from public donations, lined the walls. As she perused the piles, a sound registered in her ears. She wasn’t sure what it was, a smacking sound of some sort, like slapping or something. Ashley cocked her head and just listened for a moment. It was fairly steady—smack, smack, smack—and she followed the sound down the hall to the end.

  There wasn’t so much a doorway, as the hallway simply opened into an enormous room. It was still very much a basement, with cinder block walls and a concrete floor. It was darker on this end by just a bit, and she squinted to make out the scene in the far corner.

  Hanging by a chain from the ceiling was one of those things boxers worked out on. A heavy bag? Ashley thought maybe that’s what it was called. That wasn’t the surprise, though. The surprise came in the form of the sweating, punching figure with her back to Ashley.