“We can’t wait!”
I don’t know why I just said that. But I made a promise to this dog and I won’t let him down.
Chapter 6
Jett
Something weird is going on with Keanna. I’m not sure what, but she’s way too cheerful on the phone considering she’s been frequently breaking out into tears ever since our house burned down. The look on her face makes me feel like I should probably wait until my mom leaves the room to ask her who the hell she was talking to and why the hell she looks so cheerful and yet also uncomfortable. Only it takes my mom forever to leave.
She goes on and on about how great it’ll be having us in her house and that we can stay as long as we want, and she’s happy to watch Harper any time we want to go out on a date, which is kind of funny for her to offer because she already does that. We already spend a ton of time with our families, and now it’s just going the same except we won’t be going home each night.
Keanna smiles politely, chewing on her thumbnail and making polite conversation with my mom, but I can tell she’s also waiting to get me alone so we can talk about whatever that phone call was. Time seems to drip on forever. I love my mom—she’s an amazing mom—and because of that, I’m not going to ask her to leave or try to rush her out of here when she’s clearly happy to be here. But that also means I’m going crazy not knowing what that phone call was about.
Finally, Harper yells out for her grandma from the playroom and Mom smiles. “Duty calls!”
She leaves my office and I turn to Keanna. “What’s going on?”
“Well…” Her bottom lip curls under her teeth. “With all the life-changing things happening around here, we kind of forgot something else that’s also life-changing that we were planning on before the house burned down.”
I can’t for the life of me figure out what that means. “Huh?”
“And…that phone call was about the life-changing thing.”
“Double huh?” I say.
She straightens the stack of business cards on my desk. “During that phone call, I said yes to this life-changing thing that we already agreed to do.”
If she bites her lip any harder it’s going to rip open and bleed all over the floor. “Babe, what is it?”
She takes a deep breath. “Please don’t hate me.”
“Well, it’s impossible to hate you, so don’t worry about that. What’s going on?” I reach out and take her hand in mine, so she stops nervously messing with the business cards. “You can tell me, babe.”
“Don’t be mad.” She squeezes my hand.
“I won’t be mad. What is it?” My voice is calm, but I’m a little freaked out at the possibilities here. I don’t think she could be pregnant…right? I don’t think she accepted a job on the other side of the country, or decided to quit and join a traveling circus.
She looks down at the floor, then slowly back up at me. “K9 Arko.”
“Oh shit.” My voice comes out as a whisper. How could I have forgotten K9 Arko?
Keanna and I met Caleb Alden a few months ago at a summer festival in town. My parents wanted us to set up a booth and pass out flyers for The Track, advertising its other services like the state-of-the-art gym and daycare on site so that we could pull in more customers who might not ride dirtbikes. It worked, too, because there aren’t any other gyms in town and the nearest Planet Fitness is forty-five minutes away. Thanks to those flyers, we got dozens of new monthly subscribers just from that one event. At that event, we walked around and met other vendors in town, including the brand new company called Alden Brothers K9. It’s not really a company so much as it’s a place.
It’s a family of all brothers who rescue retired working dogs. Some of the dogs are from the military, police, fire, and search and rescue dogs that for whatever reason can’t live with their handlers anymore. Caleb explained to us how working dogs are high energy breeds who can’t just sit around the house like regular pets. They need exercise and mental stimulation. And some of them have aggression issues and need to be adopted into homes without other pets, or children. But some retired working dogs have great temperaments and can be family pets, they just have nowhere to go. That’s where the Alden brothers come in.
I think it’s a noble thing they’re doing for these dogs, because the dogs are heroes who deserve a good retirement. Keanna and I have often talked about getting a dog. She used to want a puppy that she could raise and train, but once she learned about these retired dogs who didn’t have a home to go in retirement, it was all over. My wife wanted a dog. And not just any dog, a retired working dog.
We kept in touch with Caleb, waiting for them to get a dog who would fit in well with our family situation of having a small child at home. He called us a couple weeks ago and told us about K9 Arko, a retired police dog whose handler had just been in a devastating car wreck that broke his back and a few other bones. The handler was close to retirement himself and just didn’t have the capacity to care for the dog anymore, so he asked Alden Brothers K9 if they could help him find a forever home for Arko in retirement. Caleb called us.
I take a slow breath, not wanting to upset her. She wants the dog. I want the dog. But we are kind of homeless right now.
“Maybe we should wait a few weeks?”
Her eyes go wide. “No! We promised to give him a home!”
“Yeah, but we don’t have a home ourselves right now.”
“We have your parents’ place, and we’ll get our house rebuilt soon enough.”
