“What about you?” Tim asked Denise.
She shrugged. “I’ll go. I just have to know when so I can schedule a couple of extra people for the weekend.”
Jase cut into his steak. “I have a trip lined up next month that’s a bunch of guys who try to go together a couple times a year. It’s more relaxed than the regular trips.”
“What do you have to schedule people for?” Tim asked Denise.
“I run a doggie daycare and rescue.” Denise took a bite of steak.
“She also does training for service dogs and companions,” Bree bragged.
“What’s the name of the rescue?” Jase asked.
“Wiggle Butt Rescue,” Bree and Denise answered in unison.
Tim put his fork down with a clunk. “You just picked up a contract with the county K-9 unit.”
Jase smiled as a flush creeped up Denise’s cheeks. “To do what?” he asked.
Denise cleared her throat. “We’ve been contracted to supply potential candidates to the unit.”
“Where do you get the candidates from?” Tim asked around a bite of food.
“We get pregnant surrenders all the time. We assess the puppies and do some preliminary training for the first twelve weeks. Any pups we think would make good K-9s, we’ll turn over to their trainers for further assessment.”
Bree scooped up a fork of coleslaw. “We also have an agility course on site they’re going to use for some of their training. The county’s in pretty bad shape, and they haven’t been able to get the funding to refurbish it.”
“If they don’t have the money to refurbish their course, how do they have money for the puppies and training?” Jase asked.
“We’re doing a lot of it as a donation. They’ll pay for the pups they take for training. The ones they don’t take we’ll train to be companion animals. Those people pay for the training and upkeep until the dogs are ready to go to their new person.”
“We?” Tim asked.
Bree lifted her beer from the table. “I’m a silent partner.”
“Bree is the owner,” Denise said. “She put up the money for the entire operation and makes sure everyone gets paid.”
Bree blushed. “What? I’m passionate about rescue. Sue me. And it’s a non-profit, so everything gets written off.”
She’s passionate about a lot of things, Jake thought. Wounded Warriors. Wounded dogs. Damn, she kept getting better the more he discovered about her. She put her money where her mouth was - literally and figuratively. She took action and got her hands dirty. He smiled, remembering how passionate she’d been that morning. How passionate he was going to make her later on.
“That mama isn’t doing so well now that her pups have been weaned,” Denise said. Jase shifted his attention to Denise.What mama?
“Bring her by tomorrow night. We’ll see if she’ll settle down out of the kennel with fewer dogs around.”
“You know that’s going to be a fail if you take her, right?” Denise asked.
Bree shrugged. “Meh.”
Denise smiled and shook her head. “You’re a nut.”
Bree grinned at her friend and took a bite of salad.
“Fail?” Tim asked.
“Foster fail,” Denise explained. “Most of our rescues go to foster families - people who can do some basic obedience training and see how the dogs react in a home environment. When a family can’t let the dog go, we call it a foster fail. It’s actually not a bad thing.”
Watching Bree and Denise, Jase felt a pang of jealousy. He missed the easy familiarity that came from having a history with someone. Tim was right. He’d checked out after Tony died. It’d been easier to avoid people than to care. He’d been wrong. How much had he missed out on in the last few years because he wouldn’t let people close?
