Page 45

Now, I have a lot of reasons to want to be there. The drive to my house on Oak Island takes about twenty minutes. When I pull into my driveway, I strain to see Madison’s house. The lights are on in the living room, giving the whole place a warm, glowing feeling.
Without going inside to change out of my work clothes, I pull on a pair of gloves and head over to her place.
After knocking, I hear Madison yell from inside. “Enter at your own risk!”
Knowing that the monsters are just waiting for me, I push the door open, squeeze through the crack, and close it again.
“Hey!” Madison has two food bowls in her hands. Bigfoot is balanced with his paw on her abdomen, and Bella is barking crazily.
I hear a high-pitched bark in the background that I don’t recognize. I turn toward the kitchen area, and a new pup is cowering while he yips defensively toward the bigger dogs.
“Hey there, little guy.” I head toward him and pick him up, wondering what kind of mix he is. He looks part chihuahua and part yorkie.
“Okay Bigfoot, if you would get in your kennel, then I would give you your food. Geez.” Bigfoot scrambles into his kennel, and Madison sets the bowl of food down before shutting the door on him. Bella continues to whine until Madison gives Bella her own bowl of food.
The puppy in my hands seems to calm down once everyone else does. I scoop him up and cuddle him.
“I wouldn’t hug him too tightly. He’s already had two accidents, and he’s barely been here an hour.”
I move him away from my chest and set him gently on the floor. “Tough day with the brutes?”
“Samson was great.” Madison smiles lovingly at her own dog. “But tomorrow cannot come soon enough.”
“What’s tomorrow?”
“Bigfoot and Bella are going home.”
“Ah, you might have room to actually move around again.”
Madison scoops another kind of dog food into a bowl, and Samson waits patiently. She makes a face as she’s scooping it. “Why is dog food so smelly? It’s like it gets on my hands too and the odor won’t leave.”
I wrinkle my nose. It does smell like burnt ribs. “Here. I’ll feed Samson and the runt if you want to rest. I’m sure you’ve had your hands full all day.”
“No, it’s okay. I can do it. I should warn you that I’m coming down with a virus. I don’t want you to get sick.”
“I can’t.”
“What?”
“I work at a hospital. I’m exposed to every germ on the face of this planet on the daily. Nothing you expose me to is something I haven’t seen before.”
Madison puts food on the floor in front of Samson then goes to another, very small bag of food. “Georgie, come on, buddy. Get your dinner.”
But the puppy seems more interested in sniffing every part of the house than eating. Samson looks eagerly at Georgie’s untouched bowl.
“No, you know better. Eyes on your own food,” Madison tells Samson. He goes back to crunching his food.
“I need to take these dogs out for a good run. It’s like they have more energy every day. I don’t know how they do it.”
“I’ll take Bigfoot and Bella if you want to deal with the others.”
Madison looks at Georgie and Samson. “Yeah, I think I can handle the two of them. Are you sure you can handle the two ofthem?”
I look at Bigfoot and Bella. Bigfoot has already licked his bowl clean, but Bella is taking her time. “Oh yeah. I’ll just tie them to each other. Because they’ll never agree on which way to go, they won’t be able to get too far.”
Madison considers my idea thoughtfully. “That’s not bad, actually.”
I grab Bigfoot and put him on the leash, holding it tightly as Bella continues to eat. “I feel bad for these dogs sometimes,” Madison says softly.