Damn. “He’s not microchipped?”
“Apparently not. Some owners just aren’t responsible.”
“Okay. Of course we’ll house him.” She pushed her walkie back onto her waistband as Pearl, a middle-aged woman who’d been with Sky since she opened, walked up to them.
“Pearl, this is Kristina. She’s new. Do you mind if she shadows you today?”
“Not at all. Come…learn from the master.”
Sky chuckled as she went back inside. She swore she never smiled as much as she did while at work. It was her happy place. The business she’d built not just to service the community but forher.
She’d never thought she’d come back here. But her parents were getting older, and after everything that had happened in Cheyenne, she needed the familiarity. The safety that had started to elude her in Wyoming.
A small shudder ran down her spine as she reached the front desk area.
Dolly was grinning ear to ear.
Sky frowned. “Why are you smiling like that, and why does it make me nervous?”
“I’m just happy.”
“I don’t buy it. The last time I saw you smiling this big, you’d done something dirty with old man Jacobs.” Sky gasped. “Did you do something dirty again?”
“In the five minutes since you’ve been gone? Honey, this body deserves to be loved and that takes time.”
Sky chuckled. “Okay. So what is it?”
“I’m just excited to see who’s going to walk through that door in a second.”
Sky glanced at the door, then back at Dolly. “Well, is it the person bringing in the Dachshund?” A funny feeling began to swirl in her belly. She’d never actually asked who made the request, just assumed it was a deputy or maybe the sheriff. “Who was it who found the dog?”
Dolly’s eyes lit up. “Well, technically, he didn’t find it. Janice on Tenth did, in her yard, and the cranky old woman was too scared to touch it, so she called—”
The door opened and Sky’s jaw dropped.
No…
Becket Hayes.
He wore his work uniform. It cut across his shoulders in just the right way. That, in combination with his day-old stubble, already made him look too freaking good. But today, he also held a Dachshund puppy.
He could be on the cover of a freaking calendar—he was so picture perfect.
An older African-American man stood behind him, but damn her and her inability to take her gaze off Becket.
One corner of his mouth lifted. “Hey, Peaches.”
She straightened her spine. “Becket.”
The guy beside him shifted his gaze between them. “You two know each other?”
“Yeah, Sky here’s my neighbor,” Becket said.
The guy’s brows lifted. “Yourneighbor?”
Why did he say it like that? Like he knew something about her? What had Becket told him?
Dolly cleared her throat. “I’m Dolly.”
