He gets a devilish grin on his face and claps his hands together. “There’s violence? I’m there.”
Grandma shakes her head. “As if you need that. We see enough of it with the animals when they’re fighting.”
“Yeah, but theirs isn’t as bad as grown men hitting each other. Do you get a lot of bruises?” Grandpa asks, turning his attention to me.
I didn’t think I’d be talking about bodily injuriesat a meal with Laney’s grandparents, but I go with it.
“I get a lot. Usually my arms take a beating. But it’s a risk to get the better shots.”
There’s a ping of a phone. I check mine, but my screen is clear.
“Grams, check your phone.”
She works to get it out of her purse and sets it on the table to check.
“Yes, that was me. I got a notification from Furever Homes.”
Laney turns to me as if to say, “See, I told you there was one.”
“That’s the name of the adoption agency?” I ask, laughing at the pun. Laney nods with a grin, and for a second my eyes can’t tear away from her lips. They’re a peach color and brighten her face when she’s smiling.
“What does it say?” Grandpa says.
“Happy Birthday from Princess.” She’s smiling wide as she turns the phone around to show us an enormous pig all decked out in a chef outfit, surrounded by cooking supplies with “Happy Birthday” letters above and below it.
I try to hold back the question but can’t do it.
“Do pigs get adopted?” I always thought they were just raised to bebreakfast meats.
“This site has a bit of everything,” Laney says, trying to hold back a smile.
“What other things?” I ask, curious.
She pulls out her own phone and scrolls through the adoption site, showing various animals that aren’t just cats and dogs.
“So people will travel over several states to adopt these animals?”
“Sometimes, yes. There are many threads just for Utah animals.”
Shaking my head, I say, “Then why connect them? Why not just have a website for each state?”
She smiles at me, and my insides flutter a bit. “Because it’s more than just an adoption website. It’s a place for animal lovers to come together and bond over their love of these animals. There are different threads for meetups in various areas and problem-solving threads that help people know what to do before heading to a vet, if possible.”
“So, like a mash-up of Facebook and Reddit, but for animals.”
Her cheeks turn pink, and she says, “Yep, that pretty much sums it up.”
She looks down at her plate, and I feel bad about the tone I gave her.
“I didn’t mean it like that, Laney. I was just trying to put it together in my brain.”
She looks up at me with a small smile and turnsher attention back to the menu, even though she knew what she wanted when we got here.
“Are you two an item? Going steady?” Grandpa asks, pointing between the two of us.
I feel Laney stiffen next to me as we both say, “No!”
The old man chuckles. “That was a pretty quick response for a simple question.”
