"Are you Caleb?" Henry asked, standing up and speaking in a voice deeper and more serious than usual.
"Oh, my gosh, you scared me!" the guy said, exclaiming with a hand to his chest. It was a young man, and he was standing near the door when Henry showed himself. His face turned red, and he made a look of confusion.
"Are you taking care of the dog, bro?"
"You mean PJ?" Henry asked, annoyed.
"Yes, this dog. You're not the person who lives here, are you? Caleb said it was two girls."
"No, I do not live here. I just came by. You're not Caleb?"
"Me, no. I'm Matty. Caleb's my boy, though. That's why I'm doing this for him. Did you already let the dog outside thismorning? Are you taking over? I could show you where the food is. Did you find it?"
"Wait a second, where's Caleb? I thought he was going to have the dog with him—that the house would be empty."
"No, the dog's here," he said hesitantly, looking at Henry like he wasn't making sense. "And you're here."
Henry would have liked very much to have popped that guy in the face with his fist in that moment, but he kept his composure.
"I know the dog is here and I'm here," he said. "But I was under the impression that it was going to be with Caleb for two months while his owner is out of town."
"Oh, yeah, I know, but Caleb had to go out of town, so I'm the new babysitter." He laughed. "Are you renting this place or something?"
"No, the owner is… my friend."
"Oh, well, yeah, this works out great, then. It's honestly a hassle for me to do it. If you're going to be here, you could take over."
"What's a hassle? Caring for the dog?"
"No, no, that part of it's fine. The dog's sweet. It's not that big of a deal. It's just feeding it and letting it out to pee twice a day. The thing is, I live and work in Broadmoor, and it's a thirty-minute drive for me to get over here. That's the part that sucks. I'm coming over here twice a day, morning and afternoon. To be honest, I just did it once yesterday, and he's obviously fine. Don't tell Caleb, because he said I should try to come twice."
Henry's heart sank at the thought of PJ being in a kennel all day and night.
"When's Caleb coming back?"
"Four days. There are just two left, though, after today. He had to run down to LA. I'm on day two, so all I have left istomorrow and the next day. If you're going to be around for a couple of days, I could just tell him someone else is doing it."
"And what exactly do you do with the dog?"
"Oh, he's good at staying in the kennel. I just let him out to pee and feed him. I'm here for like five minutes, max. The biggest hassle is driving here, like I said. But if you're going to be here anyway..."
The guy was looking at Henry like he was trying to sell him on the idea of taking over. Henry's patience had been tested from the minute he came inside.
"Yeah, I'm going to look after the dog," he said calmly. "I don't actually have your friend Caleb's number, though. If you'll give me that, I'll call and work it out, no problem."
The guy breathed a relieved sigh and let his shoulders slump dramatically as if it was a gigantic weight off his shoulders. "Oh, thanks so much, bro, yeah, of course I'll give you Caleb's number."
It was 10am when Bailey woke up and came out to the living room.
Henry had already been on a long walk with PJ. He wasn't much for sitting around and watching television in the middle of the day, but his work at the farm was not remote, so he had nothing productive to do while he was waiting for his sister to wake up. He was hanging out with the dog and watching sports recaps on television when his sister walked out there.
PJ jumped up and went to meet Bailey, and she grinned sleepily as she stooped down to pet him. "Hey, you little fireball. You're still here?"
"He's ours now," Henry said.
Her gaze snapped up to meet his.
"Not ours, but… what I mean is that we're in charge of him. If that's okay. I hope it is."
