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I laughed reluctantly. “Thanks.”

Chapter Four

Stace

“Okay, give me a big smile,” I said.

The parents and the little boy who wouldn’t let go of the puppy he’d just adopted all grinned at me as I took a picture for the shelter’s social media page.

“Perfect.”

Everyone laughed when the puppy started excitedly licking the little boy’s face as he giggled.

I said goodbye to the happy family and went to check on the volunteers while they cleaned the cages. There was never a dull moment here. Any second someone could show up with a trunk full of bunnies, we would get a call from Animal Control about a puppy mill, or a box of newborn kittens would be on our doorstep when we arrived in the morning.

As hard as it was, as much of an emotional toll it took on me, I loved my job. I had to stop myself from taking so many animals home with me, but my apartment had a one-pet limit and I already had Buck, my dog. Lucky for him, he was allowed to come to work with me and spend most of his days napping by the front desk and getting up only to greet people before going back to sleep again.

After supervising the cleaning volunteers, I checked on the cages full of bunnies, a few hamsters, and the cockatiel that we’d gotten in last week when her owner passed away.

“Everything good?” Beth, my coworker asked as she minded the front desk.

“Yup, no fires,” I said, and she rolled her eyes.

“If there were, I’m sure you would put them out,” she said. I’d made the same joke about five hundred times already.

“Hey, that food shipment just came in. I forgot to tell you,” she said, giving me a sheepish smile. Everyone knew around here that if there was something heavy that needed lifting, I was the one to call.

I was just picking up the last bag when I heard someone say my name.

“Need a hand?” Torrin took up all the room in the doorway and grinned at me. He was wearing one of the shelter volunteer T-shirts and it was practically painted on. If he was trying to get attention, it was working. Tor could be a shameless flirt sometimes and he was currently single.

I set the bag down so I wasn’t standing there holding it and scowled at him. “Wish you’d gotten here fifteen minutes ago.”

Setting my hands on my hips, I took a few deep breaths.

“Anything else I can do?” On his days off, Tor sometimes swung by and lent a hand where he could. He was a good guy like that.

“You wanna walk some dogs? One of our volunteers called out sick.”

Tor’s eyes lit up. “Hell yeah I’ll walk some dogs. Which ones?”

I told him and he gave me a little salute before going off to get leashes and probably to harass the other employees and volunteers. They didn’t mind, because everyone pretty much fell in love with Torrin, once they got over how physically intimidating he was.

I went back to work and Tor took two of our unruliest dogs out to get some exercise. They were sweeties, but they were going to need families who had the time, energy, and patience to love them.

Torrin hung around until my shift ended and asked if I wanted to eat at his place.

“I’ve got leftover lasagna,” he said, leaning over the front desk as I filed paperwork.

“Is it Nonna’s recipe?” I asked.

He rolled his eyes. “You know it is.”

“Then I’m in.”

“What are you doing tomorrow?” I asked later that night after we’d demolished the last of the lasagna. I was on call, but I had a million things to do, so hopefully it wouldn’t be busy. Which probably meant that it would be.

Buck sighed from his bed in the corner. He was very picky about what kind of bed he’d lay on, so I’d gotten multiple versions of the same one and they lived at Tor’s, the shelter, and at my parents’ house. I also had an extra in my car.