Tara’s eyes dance as she peeks over the rim of her glass at me. “He asked you to join him for dinner.” She takes a sip of her wine, her mischievous smile not dying even for a second. “You forget I saw the two of you going at it last week.”
“Going at it?” Madelyn’s eyes blink wide, mouth popping wider.
“Arguing,” I tell her, rolling my eyes to Tara. “Seriously, Tara?”
She ignores me. “They were so hot and bothered, I honestly thought he’d throw her up against thewindow of my shop and just rail her right then and there. You should’ve seen the way he looked at her.”
“Oh my God!” I drop my head into the hand not holding my wine glass. I groan. “He looked at me with rage.”
“You know what, I heard about that.” Madelyn reaches to the side to land a gentle swat on my arm. “Not from you, I’ll add.”
“Wait.” I lift my head. “Who is in the clinic talking about me?”
Tara doesn’t let Madelyn answer because she points out, “And there’s that wink he shot you at the town meeting.”
I huff. “You weren’t even there!”
“But I heard about it.” She smacks her lips into a smug smile.
“This is why I don’t like small towns.”
“We’re not concerned about whether you like small towns,” Tara begins, but Madelyn finishes, “Nope. All we care to hear is ifyoulikehim.”
At just one look at her bouncing brows, I groan as I drop my head into my hand a second time. “Stop doing that!”
“I can’t.” Madelyn giggles, giving the old dog she found a couple weeks back wandering, most likely dumped by a sorry excuse of a human, a scratch. “It happens when I get excited.”
“You’re not the only one.” I gesture to the dog, whose bushy dark brows on his otherwise sandycolored fur rise in pleasure at the head scratch. He’s gained weight since coming into Madelyn’s care, too. Poor guy.
Madelyn laughs again. “He’s a sweetie, isn’t he?”
“Yeah.” I reach over to give the old boy my own scratch. He looses a doggy grunt of pleasure the moment my fingertips touch the underside of his chin. I ache inside at the thought of what he might have gone through. “Are you keeping him?”
Madelyn sighs. “I wish. You know I would if I could.” Anger flares in her eyes, and for a moment they shine a brighter shade of green than usual. “Senior dumps always kill me. Like—someone loved him his whole life and then—what happened?”
“Someone probably died,” Tara says, always the one to roll out a hard dose of reality.
“Well, you’re just a bucket of sunshine, aren’t you?” I huff, giving Tara wide eyes as Madelyn’s heart practically breaks right there on her living room floor.
“What?” Tara shrugs. “It’s true. It was probably him and an owner just as old. Sadly, the owner went first and all that was left was a family who—” She shakes her head in disappointment. “Well, clearly they fucking suck.”
“I get it.” Madelyn flicks at an angry tear. “It’s hard taking in an animal you don’t want. But damn, to abandon him? Really? He’s a living soul. He feels everything we feel.” She bends forward to press a kissto his head, overwhelmed by her too-big heart. “They’re innocent, like kids.”
“Girl, you’re in the wrong profession.” Tara stretches out on her cushion. “You aren’t capable of distancing yourself like you should.”
“I have love to give them, so I’m giving it until my heart can’t give it anymore.”
“That’s the day you’re gone,” Tara points out, again, bluntly.
Madelyn nods. “Yeah. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
I fold my legs under me, swirling my white wine in my glass. “Is it worth it, Mad?”
Madelyn’s brows pinch together. She keeps at her absent petting of the old dog, who has yet to be named. “What?”
“Lovingso muchwhen it hurts so much?”
Her eyes meet mine and she smiles a soft, pained smile. “Yeah, girl. Love is always worth it in the end.”
