He shocked me with his confession, but I appreciated his honesty, too. I offered, “Dinner tomorrow night? I’ll cook.”
“That sounds great.”
“I’m looking forward to it…” I started to walk backwards away from him and toward my car. “Tomorrow then…”
“Tomorrow,” he said and then he caught up to me and kissed me one more time.Thattime, we were met with a chorus of hollers and cheers from inside the bay. We turned to see about five guys sitting in lawn chairs whooping and laughing. “Fucking hell,” Jesse said with a chuckle.
I giggled, gave him a quick peck on the cheek, and said, “Byeeee!” then darted for my car.
Chapter 6
Laida
All I could think about while I worked in the yard for the rest of that afternoon was Jesse’s kisses. I couldn’t wait to learn more about him and I appreciated his apology, especially when he acknowledged that the lack of communication was inconsiderate. Men apologizing seems to be a rarity these days, so it was a green flag that he wasn’t a complete jerk. I couldn’t believe hegave up dating!I wondered what the hell had happened to him that he would swear it off altogether.
My eyes scanned the garden area one last time to see all the progress I’d made since my first week on the farm. It was gratifying, but I was ready to wrap things up, shower, and get changed into some comfy relaxing clothes for the night. As I pulled the barn doors shut, I heard a whimper. It didn’t sound like it was coming from the barn though. Just to make sure, I took one quick look around the inside, finding it empty, like I expected.
Then the sound rang out again. I closed the barn up and went to the backyard, checking the shed, but didn’t see anythingthere either. Finally, I walked over to the small rows of grapevine that stood by a fence and noticed something was lying in the corner of the fence. It was a dog trapped in barbed wire, and he looked like he was in rough shape. My heart sank.
Slowly approaching the creature, I pouted, “What are you doing out here, fella?” I knelt next to him, looking him over. An Australian Shephard, beautiful, with his patches of rust and beige fur. Trying to assess what was wrong, I realized one of his hind legs was caught in mangled fence wiring. “Oh no! Did you try and squeeze through here?”
I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and called the only person that I could think of who knew what to do. Jesse. Earlier, he had said he was busy, but I didn’t know who else to call.
He finally answered. “Laida?”
“Jesse, I’m sorry to bother you, but he’s hurt and I don’t know what to do?”
“Slow down. Who’s hurt? What happened?”
I tried to slow my breathing, but I felt awful for the poor dog. “This dog. A dog. I don’t know where he came from, but he’s been digging a hole, and he got his hind leg caught in some wiring. He’s lying here crying. Tell me what to do. I’m afraid to move him. I don’t want to hurt him even more than he already is. Should I call a vet? I know you said you were busy tonight.”
“No, not yet. It might take a while for them to respond but I’m off tonight and can be there and have him free in about ten minutes. Don’t move him. Try and stay calm because your calm will keephimcalm. I’m on my way.”
He arrived about ten minutes later and came running to the backyard. He knelt and started inspecting the pup’s leg. “So,you’rethe one who has been creating holes by this fence. We’re gonna get you loose and taken care of you, little guy.” Jesse pulled a pair of wire snips out of his bag and slowly startedcutting away the wire. “Laida, hug him so he’s not scared and doesn’t try to run before I get him free.”
When I did and got close to the dog, he licked my nose. It was gross and precious at the same time. In any other situation, I think I would’ve freaked out, but he clearly felt comforted by my hug.
I watched as Jesse cut and bent the wiring from around the furball’s leg. After he was finished, he said, “See? All done. He didn’t even know. C’mon, I’ll carry him to the truck, and we’ll take him to the emergency vet.”
My feet were frozen by the whole situation. Jesse seemed concerned and comforted me, “Laida. He’s going to be just fine. Let’s figure out who he belongs to and get him fixed up.”
Nodding, I said, “Yeah, okay.” Who knows how long that poor dog was lying there and neither of us heard him, but Jesse coming to help settled my nerves some.
***
The firefighter drove us to The Pines Veterinary Hospital where we saw Dr. Zach Wilson. “Who do we have here?” he asked.
With me still frozen, Jesse took the lead. “We found this guy tangled in some wiring on her property. I cut him loose, but we just want to make sure he gets bandaged up and he’s good to go. We were also hoping you could scan him for a chip and see who he belongs to.”
Dr. Wilson rubbed the dogs head as he examined the cuts, moved his leg around, and said, “We sure will. His leg looks fine other than the cuts. Nothing appears to be broken. We’ll put a small bandage on him for the sake of letting these little cuts heal, but he’s just fine. I’m sure it stung him, just being caught. I’llsend the Vet Tech in here to get him taken care of and scanned for registered owners.”
We thanked Dr. Wilson as left, then waited for about fifteen minutes while the Vet Tech treated the dog. My knee was bouncing rapidly, so Jesse put his hand on it to calm me down and said, “Hey, everything is fine with him. You’ll see.” Instinctively, I placed my hand over his and when I did, we looked at each other, suspended in time for a few seconds before the door opened. We snapped our hands back and focused our gaze on the door, not wanting to get caught. As if we someone would care.
The vet tech walked in and said, “Good news and bad news…or it could be all good news.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
She smiled, peered over her thick glasses, and said, “Absolutely nothing is wrong. He’s healthy, but he doesn’t have a chip. No collar with tags, either. I’m not sure where he came from, but if you want to take him home, you can.”
