“Are you a cat person or a dog person?”
She grinned. “I’m allergic to cats, so by default I’m a dog person. I think, anyway. We weren’t able to have pets when I was growing up. We always lived in apartments and couldn’t afford to pay the pet deposit. I used to beg my mother for a puppy when I was little.”
“I never had a dog either. My father was sensitive to loudnoises. Barking dogs upset him too much. I can’t tell you how many times he called the police about our neighbor’s dog.”
So he hadn’t been allowed a dog either. Ahri hadn’t expected to have so much in common with this man. She wondered if they also had name issues.
“Is Rafe your name or a nickname?” she asked.
“Nickname. My name’s Raphael.”
“Like the painter?”
“I got teased because of the mutant turtle,” Rafe said, making a face.
She burst out laughing. “Children can be so mean about names.”
“It’s not just kids.” Rafe shook his head. “There was a guy in our dorm who thought he was so clever and kept asking where Kayn’s brother was.”
Ahri shrugged, not getting the joke.
“The guy would then ask where Abel was.”
“Oh.” She gave a snort of disgust. “That’s lame. Kayn never mentioned that.”
“I’m sure he didn’t. I finally started riding the guy for his lack of creativity and told him his joke was as old as the hills and twice as dusty.”
“And he stopped?”
“When everyone on our floor started calling him Dusty, yeah.”
“That’s awesome,” she said, chuckling. “I could never get anybody to spell mine right. The one thing our father did was let our mother name us, and she wanted our names to be unique. I had a second-hand bike and dearly wanted one of those toy license plates with my name on it. Even now, you’ll never see my spelling on any of the display cases.”
“It’s pretty,” Rafe said.
Ahri’s face warmed with pleasure. His open admiration unsettled her, and she had to focus on her hands again.
“What kinds of things do you have on your bucket list?” he asked.
Ahri stared off at the trees in the distance. “I’m not sure I have one right now. I just want to get through the next few weeks.”
Rafe was aboutto ask Ahri what those plans were, when her phone rang. There were only a handful of people who knew the number to the special phone Bill had given her.
She frowned at the screen, her face going pale, and she seemed hesitant to accept the call.
“Something wrong?” Rafe stepped closer.
“It says it’s from the Phoenix police.”
In spite of the sun’s heat, a chill of worry ran down Rafe’s back. His protective instincts triggered, and he moved beside her.
She shot him a worried glance and accepted the call.
“Hello?” she asked, her voice hesitant, wary. “Yes, this is Ahri Meisner.”
Rafe wished he could hear what the other person was saying.
“Yes, I have someone with me.”
