“Thanks,” I blushed. “We’ve very excited. He promised me a big house, out in the country. Huge garden. Barn. Plenty of chickens…”
“Chickens?” Sawyer murmured dreamily. “We’re getting chickens?”
“Oh yeah,” I went on. “Ameraucanas, Australorps, Rhode Island Reds…” I sighed, lost in my pretend dream. “I want a whole coop of fuzzy, fluffy Silkies. And goats, too. Little ones though — maybe even the fainting kind. You ever see those?”
Sawyer was too deep in his happy place to answer. Carter was already in the laundry room, and Bodie was still presumably in his office, working on his computer. For the next minute or so I enjoyed the silence, going over the success of the adoption event in my mind. My brain tended to tune out the chaos. It focused instead; on the highlights and happy moments.
“You know, your boss Monica thanked me a whole bunch of times,” said Carter, reentering the room with a clean white T-shirt draped over his shoulder.
“She did?”
“Yup,” he nodded. “She seemed happy. I think today was a big hit.”
He poked his head and arms through the garment, then pulled the fabric down over his sculpted body. I watched closely, lamenting the loss of his abs.
“Today was great,” I confirmed, distractedly. “It was one of the best events we’ve ever had.”
“Might be a good time to ask for a raise, then.”
I laughed. “You so know what the word ‘volunteer’ means, right?”
“Are you kidding?” he smirked. “I watched you today. That place would be screwed without you. You pretty much ran the whole show.”
“You guys did pretty alright yourselves,” I shot back. “You set things up, you broke them down, you helped get all the animals in and out of the van…”
“Maybeweshould ask for a raise,” Sawyer mumbled.
“Because of you, a whole bunch of dogs and cats are sleeping in brand new homes tonight,” I beamed. “Feels good, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah,” admitted Carter, after a pause. “I guess it does.”
“Hell, Grizz even adopted Gizmo.”
At that, Sawyer’s head nearly spun all the way around. I laughed so hard I nearly fell over, that’s how long I’d been waiting to drop the news.
“Grizz adopted acat?” Sawyer balked. “Does that man even have a house?”
“Yeah, seriously,” Carter agreed. “I thought he just climbed out of a storm drain every morning.”
“Well, he gave us an address,” I shrugged.
“Might want to check that address,” Carter chuckled. “It’s not like—”
A loud noise from outside stopped him, mid-sentence. It was followed by the sound of a large diesel truck chugging off into the distance.
“What the hell was that?”
Almost immediately, Bodie came bounding in. He drew back the curtain to the front window, and peered outside.
“Your truck is back,” he said, turning to look at Carter.
Carter couldn’t possibly look more confused. He didn’t know what to say.
“That’s good,” Sawyer said hesitantly. “Isn’t it?”
Bodie shook his head slowly. “No. It’s not.”
We rushed outside; to the curb. In the silence of the empty street, all three of them stood with their hands on their hips.
