“What’s wrong?” She doesn’t beat around the bush.
“Nothing’s wrong. I got your letter today about my brother. I thought I’d call.” That’s a lie. She doesn’t deserve lies.
“Oh, right. Pretty stupid reason to fight, right?”
“No.”
“No? Not stupid to fight over something that happened years before they met?”
“No, I mean, that’s not really the reason I called. Somethingiswrong. I wanted to talk to a friend.”
“A friend. Sure, um, okay. What’s the matter? I’ll try to help, but I’ve got to warn you, I won’t be any good helping you if you’re gonna ask me relationship or woman questions. What I’m trying to say is, if this is about a woman, you’ll want to ask someone else.”
Ignoring all that, I blurt, “My partner was shot last night.”
I hear a gasp, then, “Oh.” Matilda’s voice quavers when she adds, “Are they okay?”
“Probably paralyzed. The bullet went in through his abdomen and out through his spine. He’s alive though.” I pause. “He is so far. He’s still in danger.”
“I’m so sorry, Alec. How are you? What can I do to help?”
“You’re doing it. I just… I just wanted to hear your voice, I guess.”
“You can hear my voice anytime you need it.”
“Thanks.” There’s a long silence until I say, “Can you just tell me about your day? I want to think about something else.”
“My day?” She makes a humming sound. “Well, Shep met his future dad.”
“He did? How’d that go?”
“Awkward, if I’m being honest. From the other times I’ve done this, I’ve found it’s always like that, though. It’s like a first date. Not that I’d know much about those, but what I’ve read and seen in movies, they meet and feel each other out.”
“You’ve never been on a first date?” That can’t be right.
“That’s what you took from all of that?”
“Well, yeah.”
“I’ve been out with people in groups and stuff but never a formal first date. Get what I mean?”
“I get what you mean.” I wish I could take her out. Jesus.What the fuck is happening with me?“Do you think it’s going to work out?”
“Time will tell. We’ve got four more meetings scheduled, each one a little longer than the last. The final one will be just the two of them. Our veteran had to go through training too to learn commands and such.”
“Do you train the vets?”
“No. The organization I work with here in the city does that part of it. Veterans can apply for a canine companion, but there are also people who seek out those vets who would really benefit from a dog.”
“I had no idea.”
“There are many cogs in this process, lots of people who care about the men and woman in uniform.”
“I know.” She’s really got me thinking. “I think I mentioned in one of my letters that I’m contemplating leaving the army.”
“Mm-hm.”
“I don’t want to be a cop.” I know that for sure after last night. I’m done. “Ben, my partner, and I were talking about what you do, and he said he’d love to do something like that after he’s out, and it got me thinking.” Hell, our conversation happened minutes before he went into that fucking store. “What kind of schooling or training would I need if I wanted to train dogs?”
