“How much longer do we have to do this?” Kaden asked with agroan.
She chuckled at his ire. They’d been at it for less than two hours. “That depends. How much do you havedone?”
“All the reading and most of the math,” hesaid.
“I have all the math and social studies done,” Kimber said. “I finished the reading lastweek.”
“Nerd.”
“Geek.” Kimber stuck her tongue out atKaden.
“No fighting,” she said automatically. She scanned the syllabus for their classes and compared it to what they had done. “How about a break? Do you guys want to take some of the rescues out into the field while I clean out theirkennels?”
“Yes!” They both jumped up and down in theirseats.
“First, I want to introduce you to one of thedogs.”
They followed her to Sweetpea’s pen. The tan and white dog immediately stood and did her butt wiggle when she realized they were coming toher.
Denise unlatched the chain link door and knelt down. “I’ve been calling her Sweetpea because she’s sosweet.”
She pulled her chin back out of licking distance as the dog tried to crawl in her lap. Kimber and Kaden crouched next to her and petted thedog.
“Whose dog is she?” Kimberasked.
“Well, I was thinking when we move we could take her with us and she could be your dog,” shesaid.
Both kids froze and stared at her wide-eyed. “Really?” Kadenasked.
“Really.”
They lunged at her and threw their arms around her neck. Off balance from their combined weight and momentum, she fell backward and was quickly overtaken by kids anddog.
She pulled her knees up to protect her stomach from Sweetpea’s pointy paws. “I take it that’s ayes.”
“Yes! Yes!Yes!”
Kimber peppered her cheek with kisses while Kaden untangled himself from Denise and hugged Sweetpea instead. At least she knew her place in hispriorities.
She leveraged up and stood once Kimber had turned her attention toSweetpea.
“Can we take her out now?” Kadenasked.
“Yes. She’s good with the group we’re starting with. Grab her lead from the hook while I get the otherdogs.”
She let Emily know she was taking the kids across to the barn. Kaden and Kimber followed her out the side door and across the yard, Sprocket lumbering along beside them. They played with the foster dogs in groups until the alarm on her phone beeped, reminding her it was almostlunchtime.
“Let’s get your books from the office and we’ll go up to my apartment forlunch.”
“Can we bring Sweetpea up with us or does she have to go back into her kennel, too?” Kadenasked.
She closed the final dog’s stall door. “She cancome.”
“Yay.”
Sprocket rolled up from her spot in the shade and followed them to the office, then upstairs to Denise’sapartment.
She hadn’t been there in almost a week and the air was stale and musty. No telling what the inside of her fridge would looklike.
