“The hike or my life?” I asked bitterly.
She reached for my hand, interlacing her fingers with my own. She tugged me closer until our eyes met. “We don’t have to talk about it. Not if you don’t want to. But I’m a hell of a lot easier to talk to than the guys. If you want to, I’m here.”
“Let’s talk about something else,” I begged. “Anything else.”
“Fine. I’ve been thinking about another tattoo. I have a Pinterest board I can show you.”
I listened as she prattled on about her ideas, glancing at the examples she’d saved on her phone. She had my full attention as she described the fine-line florals she wanted inked under her breast. I fought the urge to change the subject, betting she was describing the location to get my blood flowing somewhere I didn’t need it right now.
My attention snapped to the edge of the woods when I heard ascuffle. I grabbed her arm and pulled her behind me, my hand instinctively shifting to the Beretta on my hip.
“I swear, if a murderer ruins our hike, I’m going to stab someone.”
The woods rustled, and a puppy limped out from the brush, whining with one paw in the air. Her speckled rust-and-white coat was matted with dirt and sandburs.
Merci stepped forward and crouched. “Hey. Come here.” The pup’s ears, too big for her small head, swiveled toward Merci’s voice.
She tapped the ground, and the pup limped to her and licked her hand. She reached for the pink collar and twisted it around. “No tags.” She scooped the pup into her arms. “Do you have a family, little one?”
“Someone probably dumped her here,” I said, shaking my head. Babies. Children. Puppies. How people could abandon something innocent and helpless was beyond me.
“Here, hold her,” Merci said, pressing the pup into my arms. “I need to look at her leg.”
I took the pup. “You’re a human doctor, not a vet.”
She ignored me as she gently examined her paw and leg. “I think it’s infected.” She prodded at the bones, and the puppy growled, wriggling in my arms to get away. “I’m sorry, baby. I know it hurts.”Her eyes met mine. “We need this taken care of.” She pulled the pup from my arms and kissed her on the top of her head. “Find the closest vet.”
An hour later, we stood in a waiting room, the scent of antiseptic and wet fur wafting through the air. “Dog’s name?” the receptionist asked.
“We don’t know,” Merci explained. “We just found her in the woods.”
The receptionist stared at Merci over her glasses. “You found the dog?” The condescending skepticism in her voice made me clench my fists. “In the woods? So, she’s not your dog?”
“We think she’s a stray. Her leg is infected. Potentially broken. We need to get her seen as soon as possible,” Merci insisted.
“Listen, ma’am, we have young people bring their pets in all the time, claiming it’s not their dog because they don’t want to pay.”
“No. Listen, I’m a doctor, and I looked at her leg, but I don’t know how to help her species. We couldn’t just leave her out there.” Emotion edged into her voice.
“How will you be paying?” The receptionist popped her gum. “We accept credit cards or you can apply for CareCredit.”
“She’s not—” Merci started.
“I’ll pay,” I interrupted, fishing my wallet out of my pocket and handing my credit card to the receptionist. “Now, can we stop fucking around and get this dog looked at?”
The receptionist huffed and typed my information into the screen, then handed it back to me. “Room three. You can wait there. It might be a while, since you didn’t have an appointment.”
I followed Merci into the room. She hummed softly to the puppy, murmuring assurances to her. After forty-five fucking minutes, an elderly man in a white coat entered the room.
“Who do we have here?”
“She doesn’t have a name,” Merci explained. “We just found her. Her leg’s infected, I think. It might be broken.”
The vet handed me a tongue depressor coated in peanut butter. “Let her lick this while I take a look.”
The puppy winced as the vet prodded at her paw, leg, and hip. He pressed harder, and the pup whimpered, nipping at his hand with her tiny teeth.
“Yep. Definitely infected. I’ll need to take her back for an X-ray to see if it’s broken.”
