As if my heart wasn’t already full, it’s now bursting at the seams.
“Hi! I’m Rachel, the volunteer coordinator.” She shakes my hand. “Bianca, right?” I nod. “Great, you came at just the right time. We’re always severely understaffed during the summer.” She passes by a hand sanitizer station and I quickly follow after her. “Alright, your attire is absolutely perfect. Closed-toe shoes always along with clothes you don’t mind getting stained.” She smiles at some of the girls who pass by us, who look at me with curious stares. “You’ll get a free T-shirt when I can go find one for you. Let me know the size.”
I nod as she writes it down on her clipboard and starts explaining all the steps to follow every shift.
Clock in on the computer in the break room.
Find a team member who needs assistance.
“Now, I saw on your application you’re wanting to volunteer for our vet office, right?”
“Um, yeah. I’m going to college for animal science in the fall, so I wanted to get some experience under my belt.” She smiles and pushes through a door to the kennel, and my heart breaks and repairs itself at seeing all of the furry faces.
Compared to some of the other places I visited, this was the only one near me that doesn’t euthanize any of their animals. Skipping past a bunch of them, she seems not to want to stop as she’s explaining everything. But we pass by the last kennel, and my heart expands that much more at the sight of a golden retriever sleeping on a bed with a blanket.
“Sam,” she says, and points to his doggie card.
My eyes run down everything. The number seven pops out and I look at her in shock. “He’s seven years old?”
She nods with a sad smile. “Yeah, he’s been here for a while, the owner’s wife passed away and he couldn’t take care of him after, so he dropped him off here.” My heart breaks for Sam, and I knock on the kennel door softly. He raises his head, looks at me curiously, then sleepily puts it back down.
“He’s tired.” She checks her watch, then looks up at the digital clock, shaking her head and muttering something to herself. “Tell you what, youcan start today. Kennel duty first, and when it’s downtime, come find me and I’ll introduce you to our vet. Sound good?” I nod at that and she sends me off. I wave at her as she walks away.
I find one of the full-time kennel keepers, who puts me on cleaning duty. It may not be the most fun work, but as each of the animals’ furry faces look at the suds with curiosity, I can’t help but think about every single life I’ll save one day, and that ...
That’swhat gets me through it.
I wake up from my nap to a car revving in the neighborhood, causing me to sigh exasperatedly. I flip onto my stomach with my pillow over my head, hoping it helps, but it doesn’t. The car revs again and I huff in anger. Walking over to my window, I open it, seeing a bunch of cars in front of Patty’s house. That’s when understanding dawns on me: Her book club is tonight.
At that, someone climbs out of a beautiful white BMW.Heslides out of his car, and when he does, he’s wearing a warm beige linen shirt, shorts somewhat of the same color. I gawk, but when he glances over, I quickly scamper and close my curtains. Sneaking another peek, he seems completely oblivious, and I giggle at that. My eyes widen when they flick to my alarm clock, seeing my “ten-minute nap” turned into a four-hour one.
I was at the shelter for over seven hours; sue me for taking a little nap that might’ve lasted longer than I planned. Making my way to the bathroom, stretching out my weary muscles, I try to make myself a little bit presentable. After, I head to the living room to find Mom, but much to my dismay, all I’m met with is Josh on the couch with a laptop in hand.
“She’s not here.”
I stop, glance back, and see Josh looking at me. “What?”
“She’s still ... at the neighbor’s.” His words slow down as he looks at his watch. Something akin to annoyance passes over his face as he looks up at me. I nod, slipping my shoes on when he closes his laptop slowly. “I’ll come with.”
Josh comes up behind me, the house keys already on his pointer finger. He shouts to Olivia that we’ll be back, her not bothering to respond. I swallow as we walk ever so calmly across the street. All the ladies are talking outside, but my face starts to warm slightly as Liam locks his eyes with mine.
Almost tripping, I keep my head down, trying to somewhat hide behind Josh as we walk toward Ana and Mom.
“Josh, honey.” Her eyes widen as Josh plasters a fake smile while slithering an arm around her waist, and I grimace at that.
“Missed you. I thought you said you would be back ten minutes ago.” Some ladies turn around and they’re all holding what looks like a romance book to their chests. Mom chuckles, a nervous wobble, causing me to look at her in confusion. Everyone smiles at the cute couple. But he can’t fool me anymore.
Josh is a master at hiding how he truly feels, especially around other people. I thought it was a fluke the first time I saw it, but ever since we got to California, it’s been showing more and more. I risk looking up at Liam, finding him already looking at me. We stare off for a bit, almost daring each other to look away, before he loses and whips out his phone as he leans against his car.
“Of course.” Mom looks at Patty, nodding at her. “Thank you for letting me join. I can’t wait for next week’s meeting.”
“You’re welcome, and Josh, next time we’ll make sure she’s not late home, ya hear?”
He chuckles and squeezes Mom around the waist, smiling at Patty. “Ana, always a pleasure, as well as you ladies. Get home safe,” he calls out as he starts to drag Mom back to the house. As he passes by, he turns up his head at Liam. I sigh, looking over at Ana, who has a weird expression on her face. It leaves when she catches me looking at her, though.
“He seems to really love your mom,” she mumbles, and I nod, not knowing what to say. She walks over to Liam, telling him something and he nods. She walks off, leaving him and me, and I glance up, my heart taking off—like always.
“We meet again,” he mumbles.
