So thiswasa date then, wasn’t it?
“You ready to go?” he asked, shouldering into his jacket. “I figured we would take my truck so I can just toss the tree into the back.”
“That sounds like a good plan to me.”
“Scout!” Holden whistled. “You ready, girl?”
At the call, Scout bounded down the stairs from the loft, loping toward them with the accompanying jingle of her collar.
“You have a dog?”
Holden scratched along his jaw. “I do. Scout meet—”
He’d hoped for a little help with the introduction, but Scout smothered her with a shower of kisses that jammed up any ability for Holden’s date to offer her name in reply.
“She’s adorable!” The two were a tangle of happy giggles and tail wags.
“That, she is. And she knows it.”
The woman rose to her feet and picked the stray dog hairs from her coat.
“You want a lint roller?” Holden suggested. “I can grab you one.”
She waved him off. “I figure I’m going to get pine needles all over me too. A little dog fur never hurt anyone. What a sweet girl.”
“She is. And a smart one. She’s in training to be validated as an Avalanche Rescue Dog next week. We both are in training, I suppose. I’ll be getting certified as a search-dog handler if all goes well.”
“Really? That’s incredible. I didn’t even know that was a thing.”
“Yep. There are a half-dozen certified search dogs in the area. They’re deployed in the case of an avalanche or missing skier. Things like that.”
Holden moved toward the door leading to the detached garage.
“How does that work?”
“Locating missing persons?”
“Yeah.” She followed and joined Holden and Scout in the truck’s cab. “With the help of a dog and all.”
“Scout’s trained to locate the scent of someone under the surface of the snow. Dogs like her can cover multiple acres in the time it takes us to search just a small space. It’s a game for her: she finds the person—or in the case of training, a piece of scented cloth—and then gets a reward.”
“And what’s her reward of choice?”
“A vigorous game of tug-of-war, of course.”
“So another competition,” she smiled, clicking her lap belt across her middle. “Sounds like she’s incredibly driven.”
“She is. We both are. I’ve been with the volunteer Search and Rescue team for about five years now. I’m just adding on the dog handler part.”
Holden pressed the button on the garage opener and waited for the door to slide up before reversing his truck. He maneuvered around Rachel’s Jeep parked along a berm of packed snow walling in the driveway and set out for the tree farm.
“So I’ve got two almost-certified Search and Rescue volunteers with me on a hunt for a tree? I’d say we should have no problem finding one.”
Holden laughed. He sure liked the woman sitting beside him, liked how she made him feel seen in a way he hadn’t in years.
“Caribou Conifers has quite a selection this year. It may be more difficult than you think.”
“I’m confident we will locate the perfect one.”
