“Cool,” Leon says. “Hopefully you’re right.”
He glances at Noah and Stefan then, though, and I know what he’s thinking. That it would be understandable if Jude refused to forgive me.
I hope that’s not the case. I don’t want to cause any bad feeling between PAWS and the Ark. That’s completely the opposite to what I was hoping for.
“I bumped into Tyr Donovan the other night,” I say, hoping to distract them from my predicament. “You know him, right?”
“Of course,” Noah says, helping himself to some sushi. Tyr comes from Sunrise Bay, and his family is well known in the area.
“He’s left the Navy.”
“Shit.” Leon’s eyebrows shoot up.
“Yeah, and it sounds as if he’s finding it difficult to get a job up here. I thought I’d nab him before he decides to head to Auckland.”
“Great idea.” Leon pours another cup of coffee for himself. “Doing what?”
“Maybe working with Cullen, training the dogs.”
“Sounds as if it’s coming together down there for you,” Noah says. “How’s the building coming along?”
I tell them about Isaac and the plans he’s drawn up for the revamped farmhouse, and then we talk through the rest of the staff list. Leon also goes through a couple of contracts, and we discuss how it’s going to work for any staff who choose to continue to help from time to time at the Ark. PAWS is going to be a separate company, but it’s clear there’ll be a lot of collaboration between us.
We polish off the food and empty the coffee jug, and then around two p.m. decide it’s time to get on with our days. I say goodbye to the others and head to Reception.
This is split into two halves, with a waiting room near the clinic side on the left, and the desk and a large area of items for purchase on the right.
“Hey, Frieda,” I say to the woman behind the desk.
“Hey, Archer. Can I help?”
“I’m picking up a rescue dog tomorrow. I need to make sure I have everything she needs.”
“Oh, how lovely! What breed?”
“A Spoodle.”
“Oh, the strawberry-blonde one?”
I laugh. “That’s right.”
“They make great therapy dogs apparently. Come on then, what do you need?”
We gather together a soft bed, water and food bowls, a leash and a harness, a few toys, and a couple packets of treats.
“Hmm, she’ll want some food, too,” I say.
“You need to check with the Forever Home as to what they’re feeding her.” She hesitates. “Would you like me to go and ask them?”
I realize she saw what happened in the Quad with Jude, and she’s wondering whether I’m wary of talking to him. I need to fix this, now. I can’t have everyone walking on eggshells around us.
“No, it’s okay, I’ll go.” I give her a bright smile. “Hold these things for me?”
“Sure, I’ll put them in a box.”
I nod and go out into the Quad.
My stomach flips as I cross to the door to the Forever Home. I have no idea how he’s going to be. I think back to when we were kids, meeting in the first year of high school, at eleven years old. He was a skinny little thing, with a shock of dark hair, already attracting girls’ glances, mean and moody even before he entered his teenage years. But we were put together for a science project, and when I invited him to my house on a Sunday afternoon to finish it, we discovered a joint love of dogs, Call of Duty, and Doritos, and a firm friendship was formed. We were inseparable at school, but drifted apart a little when I studied psychology, and he went to veterinary college, specializing in shelter medicine. He loves his job at the Ark working with the rescue animals.
