Page 77 of Falling for the Orc All-Star

“Why would you need crutches?” Kev suddenly asks from behind me.

I whip around with a gasp. “How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough.” He shakes his head and lets out a whistle. “So you’re the cure for green and grumpy. Got it.

“I gotta go,” I mutter into the phone, cheeks flaming. “Kevin is an eavesdropper.”

“Just be glad we weren’t talking about the therapy pool.”

I hang up, but not before Kevin catches King’s deep voice saying the words. He gives me a long, slow shake of his head. “Y’all nasty.”

“I’m sorry, was it you and Marina who once—” I don’t have anything scandalous to end that sentence with, but it does the trick. Kevin holds up his clipboard like a shield, looking suitably chastised.

“I meant... I’m happy for you. And I’m glad we have such stringent sanitization protocols.”

“Kevin! Of course, we—”

He talks over me, eyes anywhere but mine. “Yep, yep. Good to see you both so nauseatingly adorable.”

“Yeah, so you two aren’t the only ones.” I stick out my tongue, and Kev disappears into the back with his next patient.

Helping.

Helping is a headache. But a happy one.

Cathy Bainbridge’s second graders are doing a read-a-thon to buy pet food for shelter residents. I’m supposed to be there to read to them at one.

Then the Pine Ridge High football team has signed up, en masse, to be after-school dog walkers and litterbox scoopers. I’m supposed to be at Hilltop Home at four so they can be paired up with their seniors.

And no one actually has a dog or cat yet, besides Mrs. Yerchenko, who has two cats and takes care of them herself.

But everyone says they want one.

And dogs and cats need homes.

Which is why I’m on the phone while I’m waiting for my ride.

Dr. Peters at the Pet Clinic, the local vet.

Jen Chambers at the college, Department of Veterinary Medicine.

Mr. Neidermayer, owner of Pet Village.

They’re my contacts, the people who I expect will know where I can find foster pets who need homes. Shelter animals that need a second chance.

My head aches as I squint at the screen and then go back to making notes. Someone ought to come through.

And someone does. “Hello?”

“Jen Chambers. You called and left a message about wanting to find adoptable dogs and cats for seniors?”

“Yes, seniors, but we have a big rotation of students helping out to care for the pets if the seniors need assistance. The whole football team is on the rotation, and the coach was going to talk to the new music teacher and see if the orchestra kids want in on it. Oh, and Mr. Minegold is going to ask to put up a flyer on the bulletin board at Pine Ridge Nondenominational and the library.”

“Slow down, buddy. I heard about your project from Libby Angelakis, one of the vet students here and a vet tech in town. There is an older woman in town, a senior herself, Mrs. Fiorenza, who fosters rescue dogs. A lot of puppy mill pets. Why don’t you start there if you’re looking for dogs?”

“I will! Do you have her contact number?”

“I do. What’s more, I already bugged her first to make sure it was okay to drop her in this. She loves the idea, and she says the puppies need more socialization anyway. Makes them better pets. If you work it out with the people who run Hilltop, she’ll bring over her latest batch of rescues this weekend.”