Before I can answer, he hands me a nylon leash and says, “Bring him on out.”
I can’t help it. I throw my arms around his neck and hug him hard. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
I slip the lead around Hank’s neck, and he glues himself to my leg. Holden is still rubbing the Beagle. He stands reluctantly, following me through the door.
Kenny closes it and clicks the latch back in place. Patsy looks at Hank Junior, then up at us, her brown eyes suddenly sad, as if she knows she’s being left. Clearly, not for the first time.
Holden points at the orange card with her name on the kennel door. “What does that mean?”
“Today is her day since nobody came for her,” Kenny says, his voice flat now, as if he’s had to practice saying these things without emotion.
“You mean she’ll be put to sleep?” Holden asks, disbelieving.
“Yeah,” Kenny says.
Holden’s face goes white as chalk. I know in my heart how hard it must be for him to come in here in the first place and all the bad memories it must bring back. I kneel down and stick my hand back through the door to rub Patsy’s head, feeling sick all the way down to the bottom of my stomach.
I don’t see any orange cards on the other doors. I open my mouth to ask what her adoption fee is when Holden says, “Can I adopt her?”
Kenny glances at his watch. “The front desk people won’t be here until eight. The euth tech usually comes in at seven-thirty.”
Holden actually looks like he might pass out. I feel sick myself, but I put a hand on his arm, maybe to steady us both.
But his voice is strong when he says, “I don’t care what the fee is. I’ll put it on my credit card. Let us go on and take her. I promise I’ll give her a good life.”
Kenny glances at Patsy, then back at Holden, and hands him another nylon lead. “Y’all come on, so I can at least fill out the paperwork.”
We follow him to the front office where he opens a drawer and pulls out two forms, one for me and one for Holden. I fill out the paperwork for Hank’s release, waiting while Holden finishes the application for Patsy.
“The adoption fee is fifty dollars,” Kenny says.
Holden opens his wallet and counts out the cash. I notice he has one dollar left.
Kenny takes it and says, “All right, then.”
“Thank you, Kenny.” Holden shakes his hand.
“For her sake, I’m glad y’all were here,” Kenny says, walking around the desk and reaching down to rub Patsy’s head. She looks up at him and wags her tail as if to say thank you.
“I’m happy for you, girl,” he says, a rasp to his voice.
“Thank you so much, Kenny,” I say and give him another hug.
He nods and walks us to the door. We step outside into the crisp morning air, Hank Junior and I climbing into the truck from the passenger side, and Holden picking Patsy up and putting her in from his side.
He backs the truck out of the spot, throws a wave at Kenny, then looks over at me and smiles. A really happy smile. I smile back, and as we roar off down the drive, it feels as if we’ve just done something as miraculous as cheating death. Which I guess we actually have.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Holden
She’s got her head on my thigh. How the heck is a guy supposed to resist that?
I stroke her back with my right hand, and if the snoring is any indication, it’s not long before she appears to be fast asleep.
“She knows,” CeCe says, studying me from the other side of the truck.
“What?” I ask.
“That you saved her life.”
“How do you know?”
“They just do. Hank Junior was the same way the day I got him out of the pound.”
“I can’t even imagine that someone could leave her in a place like that.”
“Me, either. Thank you for getting her.”
“If I hadn’t, you would have.”
She smiles at me, and it feels good to know we have this in common.
“Not sure what Thomas is gonna say about our new roommate.”
“He’s a softie like you.”
“Oh, you think I’m a softie now, do you?”
“Yeah,” she says with a smile that reaches her eyes. “I do.”
I don’t know that anyone has ever looked at me the way CeCe is looking at me now. I just know it feels good to have her approval. At the same time, I realize I probably shouldn’t let myself dwell on that. That there’s trouble down that road if I do.
“They might need to go to the bathroom,” CeCe says.
“Yeah,” I say and pull over at the next turn. We get the dogs out and walk them to a grassy spot where they both immediately do their business. We let them sniff for a couple of minutes and then get back in the truck.
A mile or so down the road, we pass a little country store with its lights on. I slam on the brakes. “Coffee?”
“Oh, my gosh, yes,” she says.
I throw the truck in reverse and then swing into the parking lot. “Y’all wait here,” I tell the dogs. They both wag their tails and stretch out on the seat as if they plan to get some shut-eye while we’re gone.
The store is everything you would think a country store might be. The smell of homemade biscuits and coffee greets us at the door. Three older men in bib overalls sit on a wooden church pew across from the coffee pots, sipping from their cups and talking like they’ve got the world’s problems to figure out by noon.
CeCe and I both choose a large, mine black, hers with cream. I find myself noting the choice for future reference and at the same time wonder what I’m doing.
A large lady with heavily teased hair greets us at the cash register. “Y’all out mighty early,” she says, smiling like she’s happy to see us.
“Rescue mission,” CeCe says.
“Ah,” she says, winking at me. “Fun stuff.”
CeCe looks like she’s going to add something, then thinks better of it. She insists on paying for the coffee. “You might need that last dollar for Patsy food,” she teases.
“Hope the tips are good tonight,” I say.
“Y’all enjoy your morning,” the cashier calls out as we head back through the door.
Patsy and Hank Junior barely glance up as we climb in the truck. “They look like they could sleep for days,” I say.
“Who could blame them?”
We drive for a few minutes, silent while we sip our coffee. With CeCe, there’s no feeling of having to fill the silence with small talk. I have to admit I like that. It’s not something I’ve experienced with anyone other than Thomas.
We round a curve, and the view opens up with a valley sloping down to our right.
“Let’s pull over for a minute,” CeCe suggests.
I turn the truck onto the gravel edge that looks as if it’s been put there for people to stop and enjoy the view.
“That’s just crazy beautiful,” she says, opening her door and sliding out.
I follow her to the front of the truck. She climbs onto the hood and looks out at the valley below us. I step up and sit next to her. “Yeah, it is,” I say.
The trees have that new leaf green that I imagine artists must yearn to get exactly accurate. A big red barn sits out to the right, and I can see horses grazing behind the white board fencing surrounding it.
“So are you,” I say, the words slipping out before I can edit them.
CeCe looks at me, her eyes questioning.
“Crazy beautiful,” I add.
She looks down, and I can see the color come into her cheeks. When she looks up at me, I reach out and touch her face with the back of my hand. I hear her short intake of breath, and it matches the electricity that zips through me from the softness of her skin.
We study each other for what feels like a good while, and without censoring what I’m feeling, I lean in and kiss her. It starts out light and testing, but then just as quickly ignites into something completely different. I snag
her waist with one arm and reel her in to me. She opens her mouth beneath mine, and we kiss like we’ve both been waiting for it all our lives.
If so, it was worth every moment of the wait. If for nothing else, then to hear the raspy way she says my name now.
She slides her arms around my neck, and I haul her in closer, slipping my hands up the back of her shirt and under the lacy bra beneath. Her skin is like silk, and I have never wanted to touch anyone the way I want to touch her now.
I feel myself losing control and start to pull back, but CeCe presses her hands to the back of my head and deepens the kiss. We’re both breathing like we just ran here from downtown Nashville, and I know if we don’t stop now, there won’t be any stopping at all.
I untangle myself and lie back on the truck hood, staring up at the morning blue sky and breathing hard.
“I’m sorry,” CeCe says, lying down beside me, her voice regretful.
“I’m not,” I say.
“You’re not?”
“How could anyone be sorry about a kiss like that?”
She lets out a breath of what sounds like relief. “I thought I might have—”
“You didn’t,” I say. I sit up then and pull her up beside me.
“You’re not the kind of girl a guy should take advantage of, CeCe.”
The look on her face makes me smile.
“Yeah, right now, I kind of wish you were, too,” I say.
“You’d never take advantage of anyone,” she says. “But then I don’t imagine you’d have to.”
“Thanks, I think,” I say, grinning.
She smiles at me then, and there’s no denying the spool of feeling unraveling between us.
We study the view for a few moments before I say, “CeCe?”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t make a habit of leading a girl on when I’m seeing someone else.”
“Are you leading me on?”
“I don’t really know what I’m doing.”
“It’s okay. Neither do I.”
“Is there someone in your life?”
She shakes her head. “No one serious.”
“Has there been?”
“Sort of.”
“Which means?”
“Not serious enough for me to stay in Virginia.”
I put my hand on the back of hers and lace our fingers together. “What do you really want out of this town, CeCe?”
She considers the question and then looks at me. “Just a chance to do what I love to do. You?”
“The same.”
“You think anybody ever comes here just because they want to be famous?”
I laugh a short laugh. “Ah, yeah.”
“That I don’t get,” she says.
“What is fame, anyway? People knowing who you are, seeing your face on the cover of some rag tabloid with whatever skeleton you happen to have in your closet peeking out?”
CeCe laughs. “Success, I get. That just means you get to do what you love because you’ve found a following of people who love the same thing.”
“Which is not that easy, apparently.”
“No one ever said it would be easy.”
“But we’re here, anyway.”
“Yeah. We’re here.”
She’s looking at me again with that look in her eyes, and I feel something low inside of me shift, like I might have crossed a line I’m going to have a whole lot of trouble stepping back from. I rub my thumb across the back of her hand, and then let go.
She slides off the hood and jumps to the ground. I follow, glancing over my shoulder. Hank Junior and Patsy are sitting in the middle of the seat, her head resting against his shoulder. “They look like a couple,” I say.
CeCe smiles. “Yeah, they do.”
“We better get them home.”
She nods, and I like knowing that word includes all of us. Home.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CeCe
It’s almost eight a.m. by the time we park the truck in the back lot of the apartment complex. We get out and let Hank Junior and Patsy have a few minutes in the grass before we head up the stairs.
I’m so tired I feel like I can barely stand and at the same time so wired with feeling that I hardly know what to do with it. Has it really been less than eight hours since we left here last night looking for Hank? It seems like a lifetime has taken place since then.
Hank and I follow Holden and Patsy up the stairs, and I can’t help but stare at his wide shoulders. My lips tingle with the memory of his kiss, and I have to stop myself from reaching for his shirt tail and pulling him to me.
At the apartment door, he sticks the key in the lock, then turns to me. “Weird as this sounds,” he says, “it was kind of great being with you last night.”
“Yeah,” I say, “you, too.”
He leans in, and I start to close my eyes in anticipation of his kiss. Just then, the door jerks open, and we both jump back from one another.
“Hey, you two,” Thomas says in a tight voice I don’t recognize. “Been wondering when you were gonna get back.”
From behind him, a girl steps out, the look on her face clearly one of confusion. “Surprise,” she says, only the word is flat, like a balloon somone has just let all the air out of.
“Sarah,” Holden says, sounding as stunned as he looks.
“She drove all night to get here,” Thomas says. “Isn’t that something?”
“Is everything all right?” Holden asks.
Sarah glances from Holden to me, and her blue, very blue, eyes start to well with tears. “I thought it was,” she says.
“You got a dog,” Thomas throws out, as if looking for a diversion.
“Yeah,” Holden says. “Her name’s Patsy.”
“A dog,” Sarah says. “Wow. I didn’t know you were—”
“It was kind of spur of the moment,” he explains.
We all stand there for a few seconds like frozen popsicles, none of us sure what to do or say next. Holden moves first, stepping in to the apartment to put his arms around Sarah and hug her.
I watch, unable to move. Hank Junior whines and looks up at me, as if asking what this means. I don’t dare look at him, sure I’ll burst into tears if I do.
Holden steps back from the hug and waves a hand at me. “Sarah, this is CeCe. CeCe, Sarah.”
We look at each other and smile, and I feel sure mine is as wobbly as hers. “Nice to meet you,” we both say at the same time.
“So,” Thomas says, “what a night, huh?”
“Yeah,” Holden agrees, running a hand across the back of his hair.
“I bet Sarah would like to hear all about it,” Thomas says. “Why don’t y’all take the bedroom for some privacy, and I’ll get the lowdown from CeCe out here?”
Holden looks at me, and I immediately glance away since I have no idea what to do with any of this. I feel as if a wrecking ball just landed in the center of my stomach.
“Ah, okay,” Holden says. “Anything you need me to get out of your car, Sarah?”
She shakes her head. “Thomas already brought it in for me.”
“You mind feeding Patsy when you feed Hank?” Holden directs the question to me.
“Sure,” I say, super cheerful. “No problem.”
Holden nods and walks down the hall to the bedroom. Sarah follows him. I stand perfectly still until I hear the click of the lock. Only then do I unhook Hank’s leash and let out all the air in my chest.
“I’m real sorry, CeCe,” Thomas says.
“You don’t need to be,” I say, assuming he’s talking about Hank Junior, but suspecting the apology encompasses Sarah’s arrival as well. “It all worked out.”
“Tell me about it?” he asks, heading for the kitchen where he pulls two bowls from the cabinet and gets the dog food out of the pantry.
While Hank Junior and Patsy scarf up their food, I lay out everything that happened at the pound, including Holden’s adopting Patsy at the last minute.
/> “I’m glad,” Thomas says. “She’s a cute little thing.”
“I think she and Hank are in love.”
Thomas smiles and then looks at me, the smile fading, “That got a little awkward out there.”
I start to act like I don’t know what he’s talking about and then just as quickly realize how unbelievable I would be. “Yeah,” I say.
“He really didn’t know she was coming,” Thomas says.
“Apparently.”
He leans against the sink and folds his arms across his chest. “Holden is a lot of things, but he’s never been a player. I think you kind of caught him off guard.”
“Timing has never really been my thing.”
“They’ve been together almost two years. I don’t want to see you hurt, CeCe.”
“She’s beautiful,” I say. “Really beautiful.”
“So are you,” Thomas says.
I start to shake my head, but he adds, “You are. It’s just gonna be that timing thing.”
I feel the tears start to well up, try my best to stop them, but they roll down my face like a faucet’s been turned on inside of me.
“Hey, now,” Thomas says, walking over and pulling me into his big embrace.
My tears get his t-shirt all wet, and I start to apologize, but he shushes me, rubbing the back of my hair. “I’m sorry for the hurt.”
“I’ll get over it,” I say.
“You’re strong like that,” he agrees.
I want to tell him that I don’t want to be strong. I want to march down the hall to that bedroom, pound on the door and beg Holden to give what we’d both felt this morning and last night a shot.
But I don’t. I just press my lips together and nod. Because, what else, really, is there for me to do?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Holden
I stand under the shower spray way longer than I should, considering that Sarah is in my bedroom, waiting for me to come out. I let the water pummel my face into full-out awake until all threads of fatigue have dissolved.
When I can avoid it no more, I get out, dry off, put on sweat pants and a t-shirt, then open the bathroom door.
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