Again, Luke's pretty green eyes found mine in the rearview mirror. He didn't say a thing, but the subtle nod of his head felt a lot like encouragement. Hoping like hell that I wasn't about to ruin the tentative balance we'd just found between all of us, I gently placed my hand over Violet's, wrapping my fingers around her palm.
Such a stupid little thing, holding a woman's hand, but with a teenager sitting right there and judging me for it, it felt like the grandest gesture I'd ever made my entire life. This was my girlfriend. Those were my boyfriends. Together, we were happy, and Faith knew about us. This was okay, andIwas not going to be the reason why this all fell apart. No, I was doing nothing but making sure we stayed together.
Faith's eyes jumped to my hand, the girl smiled, and then she leaned forward and started telling her dad about how she wasn't sure what color she wanted her dog to be. That was it. Her big reaction to me holding Violet's hand was to smile. I let out a relieved sigh - trying to keep it subtle enough so that no one else would notice - and felt all the tension leave my body. This was okay. It was working. Most of all, we were getting a dog!
For the rest of the way there, we heard all about how she was going to teach it to play fetch and other games. She asked at least three times if we were sure we would be okay taking care of the dog while she was at school. It was like she was trying so hard to be mature and responsible and yet the little girl inside her was still demanding to be let out. Personally, I liked it best when she let herself just be a kid.
When we got there, it was nothing but a large, boring brick building. The five of us climbed out and headed for the doors en masse. Violet caught my hand again after only a step, lacing her fingers between mine. Luke pulled Faith against his side, then dropped his arm around her shoulders. Ash simply moved back to walk on Violet's other side, letting the father and daughter lead us where we were supposed to go.
Inside, there was a plain reception desk with a normal door behind it, a large metal door on the wall towards the back, and a stand with some flyers across from the desk. Nothing else. The older woman sitting behind the desk looked up and smiled, revealing a set of neon orange earplugs. Even in here, the muffled sound of the dogs barking would probably get old very quickly.
"Can I help you?" the woman asked.
"My daughter wants to adopt a dog," Luke said.
The woman's response was simply to reach down, grab a clipboard and a pen, then pass them to Luke. "If you'd like to go ahead and fill this out, I can get started on approving everything. You should know that there's a three-hundred-dollar deposit required for all necessary vet care - which includes spaying or neutering - and a twenty-five dollar fee for adoption."
"So three hundred and twenty-five bucks for a dog," Ash asked.
"Yes, sir," she said, "but most of that is for the animal's medical care, not our fee."
Ash waved her down. "I actually thought it was rather affordable," he assured her. "Was not complaining at all."
But Faith was bouncing on the balls of her feet with excitement. "Can I go look at the dogs while Dad finishes filling that out?" she begged.
"I'll go with her," I offered.
Luke nodded, so the woman got up and gestured for us to follow. Ash and Violet moved to Luke's side, most likely because Ash was going to offer to pay and Violet wasn't really the get dirty kind of girl. She could fake it, but I knew that if given the option, she would always choose to avoid dirty and overly loud things. She would also deny it if asked.
But Faith was on cloud nine. When I headed towards the doors with her, the girl reached out and grabbed my hand, towing me along like I was moving far too slow. The receptionist reached for the door, then paused, offering us one last word of advice.
"It gets very loud in there," she said. "You can look at any dog through the kennels. I don't recommend trying to pet them, because some may bite. If you see one you're interested in, get the number on the front of the kennel and bring it back up here. We can then tell you if there's a problem with it, what breed and age we think the dog might be, and anything else. If you're still interested in it after that, we can arrange for you to have a meeting with it in the secure room."
I looked down at Faith. "Got your phone? Because we're going to need to keep track of all these numbers. I've got all day to make sure we get just the right dog for you."
I had never seen her grin this big, but she pulled out her phone and nodded. "Okay. And then you can help me decide which one's going to be perfect, right?"
"I will do my best," I promised, and then nodded for the woman to open the door.
Sure enough, the moment the door was open, the sound was overwhelming. Faith didn't seem to care at all. Still holding my hand, she moved forward, dragging me along with her. The kennel area was nothing but a long hall with chain-link gates on either side. Lots of them. Behind those were the dogs.
Most of the kennels held anywhere from two to four dogs. Some of them were big, some little, some old, and some young. None of them looked clean or pampered, but Faith didn't seem to care. She wasn't looking for something little to shove in her purse and carry around. This girl was looking for her next best friend.
As we made our way to the far end, plenty of the dogs jumped up on the chain-link and barked at us. A few of them looked like they were trying to be aggressive instead of playful. Surprisingly, Faith didn't stop when she saw the first cute thing. She went all the way to the end, then turned around and started making her decision on the way back.
It was too loud for us to talk, but she pointed to a kennel on the left. I tugged her that way, and the pair of us stood in front of it as I tried to figure out which of these three dogs she was interested in. At the back was a funny-looking black-and-white dog, cowering away from the others. I reached up to tap the number on the kennel, and Faith typed it into her phone.
Then we went to the next, then the one after that. She looked at older dogs and younger dogs, all of them were about the size of a Lab. From what I could tell, she didn't have a color preference, but she did like the dogs with shorter hair more than those with long hair. We were almost halfway up the hall again when something on the far side made her hurry over.
This time, she crouched in front of the chain-link gate and just pointed. The first thing I saw was a filthy little white dog. It had curly hair like a poodle, but clearly was not a puppy or a purebred. Then I realized there was someone else in the cage with it. Lying on the little dog bed at the back was a puppy. It was red all over with big floppy ears and bright gold eyes. The thing's tail was wagging so hard it was smacking the pillow, but the puppy was too shy to come over to the gate.
I just looked up and got the number from the kennel: forty-two.
Chapter Ten
Luke had just finished filling out the paperwork to adopt a dog when Faith and Cy came back into the reception area. The door opened and the sound of the excited mongrels in there worked better than any announcement system I could think of. Faith stepped through it, holding out her phone with quite a long list of numbers on it.
"Okay, we narrowed it down to twelve," she announced.
