Page 12 of Rescue Them

Chapter 6

“ARE YOUsure you have time for this?”Lyle asked when they were on the way to the shelter the following Saturday.“I know you have studying to do.”

“Mitchell is expecting me at the shelter, and this is what I get paid for,” James explained as he pulled into a parking space on the way through town.“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”He had asked Lyle if he wanted to volunteer.“There’s no requirement or anything.”

“No.It’s just that you’ve been spending a lot of time with me, and I don’t want to be the reason you get behind in your classwork.”

James pulled back out into the flow of traffic.“I’m fine.I worked late last night, and I have the rest of the day free.I’ll have to work tomorrow to prep for my Monday classes, but it’s okay.”He patted Lyle’s leg to reassure him as they continued on, pulling into the shelter drive a few minutes later to the sound of barking dogs.

“Wow,” Lyle said as they got out of the car.

“Don’t worry, they’ll settle down.”He led the way inside and greeted Mitchell, who held a small chihuahua mix named Dusty.“I brought Lyle.He’s going to help us for a few hours.”

“Excellent,” Mitchell said with a smile.“I really appreciate it.I’m a little shorthanded today, so your help is a real godsend.If you could answer the phones and greet anyone who comes in, that would be wonderful.”

“Of course.”Lyle’s smile showed he wasn’t totally comfortable but was doing his best to fake it.

“It’s easy,” James added.“Mitchell and I will be around if you have any questions.”

“It’s Saturday, and we do a health check on each of the dogs.We watch for issues all the time, but we do a special check today.”

“Okay.I can handle this,” Lyle said.“You two go on and get what you need to done.I’ll holler if I need anything.”He strode toward the desk while James assisted Mitchell.

Some of the other employees were vet techs, and they were more qualified to assist Mitchell, but James had done this before, and he followed Mitchell’s instructions.Mostly he kept the dogs calm while Mitchell checked them over, listened to heartbeats, and took temperatures.A lot of the dogs were not particularly pleased about that little procedure.

“Everyone out here seems to be okay,” Mitchell said.

“What about the three in quarantine?”James asked.

“I checked them first thing this morning, and none of them are showing signs of anything.I’ll give them a few days before adding them for adoption.”

“Hey, guys.We just got a call from a couple wondering how late we’re open.They said they were in yesterday and wondered if Rags was still available for adoption?”Lyle seemed rather excited.

“Tell them yes and that we’re open till five,” Mitchell said.“And we can have the paperwork ready for them.”

“Cool,” Lyle said and hurried back to the desk, where he spoke on the phone for a few minutes.James watched him until Mitchell cleared his throat.

“You’re smitten,” Mitchell told him.

“Kind of, I guess.”He sighed.

“Then why the worry?You should be enjoying the headiness,” Mitchell added as he set the dog he’d held back in the enclosure.

“Because I keep wondering about the rest of the semester.It’s only going to get more intense, and I’m going to have less time to spend with him.Everyone at law school tells me that keeping any sort of relationship is nearly impossible, and I wonder if he’s just going to get tired of me and move on.”After all, plenty of people had in the past.

“I think the trick is… instead of thinking of it as Lyle versus law school, you need to find ways to bring Lyle into your life and for you to be present in his.Yes, you’re going to be busy.So am I, with the practice and the shelter, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have a life away from all that.You just need to make Lyle a priority.Maybe include him in some law school things.Invite him to gatherings, make him feel included in your life.”Mitchell shrugged.“It really isn’t that hard.It just takes some balancing.”

James sighed.“But I don’t know if that’s something I can do.I have to finish law school so I can figure out how I want to use those skills.”He lowered his gaze.“I know I can get very fixated and tend to compartmentalize things.”

Mitchell rolled his eyes.“You?”He snickered.

“Yeah, okay.So maybe I need to let some of my compartments mix a little.”

“You could say that,” Mitchell told him as Lyle hurried over.“What’s going on?”

Lyle grinned.“They said they were coming for Rags, and there’s another person who called.I told them we were open until five.They said they were looking for a dog for their family.They have a six-year-old.They said they really wanted a puppy.I wasn’t sure if there were any puppies, but I said that they should come and look.We have lots of dogs that would be perfect for their family.I hope that was okay.”Lyle bit his lower lip, but Mitchell smiled.

“That was a perfect answer.We don’t get many puppies because they tend to find homes rather quickly.But often people come in thinking one thing and end up falling in love with one of our dogs anyway.”