Page 34 of Sweet Devotion

The time between spending the day in Millers Creek and the day of the big fundraising festival had pretty much blown by. Aiden had worked hard with Boots and Colleen to improve his gait and his ability to last on a dance floor with her next Saturday night. Of course, he wasn’t going to tell Colleen that in order to do that he’d been pushing himself harder than she probably wanted him to, but what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her—or him.

Then there was Romeo. Aiden had also worked hard with the heartbroken shepherd. The dog had gone from completely withdrawn to following him like a shadow outdoors, and now, to following him pretty much anywhere. The fun thing for Aiden was how Romeo didn’t flinch anymore when another person approached, didn’t plaster himself at the back of Aiden’s legs almost trembling. If anything, the dog looked more like a person would expect from a well trained K9. Romeo would stand sturdy, leaning not out of fear but a sense of protecting his own and his gaze would fix on whoever came near Aiden to chat and not shift until that person left. Aiden wasn’t even sure the dog would blink in that time. He’d come a surprisingly long way in a surprisingly short time.

Even Kade was impressed with how quickly the K9 had improved in only a couple of weeks.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Colleen looked down at Romeo in his harness.

“Honestly,” he glanced at the dog he’d grown accustomed to having at his side, “I haven’t a clue.”

The way Colleen’s brows dipped into a cute frown had him smiling. Pretty much everything she did made him smile. “If you haven’t a clue, then perhaps an event with the entire town mulling about isn’t the best first outing for Romeo.”

Aiden shrugged. He’d pondered and debated with himself for the last two days. Every time he decided it would be better to wait, Romeo did something unexpected. Whether it was accepting a treat from a different family member, or allowing someone other than Aiden to scratch behind his ears, or just last evening when Aiden came outside to give Romeo a leftover steak bone only to find him playing fetch with a new ranch hand the dog had not previously met. It was like Romeo went from hopeless to playful, having skipped over multiple milestones in between.

“You’re doing that thing again.” Head slightly tipped, she smiled that sweet smile that made his stomach do somersaults.

“What thing?”

“Thinking.”

“Excuse me?” He must have missed something. Wasn’t thinking something normal for humans?

She chuckled and gently brushed her hand against his shoulder before letting it come to rest on his forearm. “Whenever you’re thinking about something important—or at least important to you—you get a sort of glazed look in your eye, one brow dips just a smidge, and your lips do a partial pucker, like you’re debating whether or not you want to kiss someone.”

Immediately, he blinked, raised both brows and did his best to ignore the words want to kiss someone. “Sorry. Was just thinking of all the reasons why bringing Romeo should be all right. If he starts to show any signs of stress, I’ll bring him back to the ranch ASAP.”

“Fair enough.” She continued to smile. Not a forced smile or a skeptic smile, but a smile that told him she trusted his judgment, and didn’t that make his heart puff up in his chest.

“What time does this shindig get on the road?”

“Excuse me?” Colleen raised both brows at him.

“Sorry. Too much time with my grandparents. What time do we leave for the festival?”

“If you’re not too sore after your session, we can leave now. There will be lots of food trucks—”

“Which explains why there isn’t a ton of food on the stove or counter with notes on how to heat it up for lunch.”

“Exactly. Miss Alice is at the high school helping set up the field.”

Aiden nodded. Clipping the leash onto Romeo’s collar, he waited to see if there was any adverse reaction. Nothing. Just an expectant face staring up at him and a bushy tail doing a great job of sweeping Alice’s floor. “Then we’re off.”

Somewhere in his mind he had concocted a little event suitable for a small town. A few park games, maybe bocce or the corn hole he’d heard so much about, or horse shoes. It wouldn’t have surprised him to see a few booths, vendors, or crafts, or some home made event. What did surprise him was a setup that could have made any of the Feast Day festivals back in the Bronx whimper with envy. He’d thought those events were elaborate, even if the kids’ favorite part were the fried zeppoles, the rides and games were a big draw for the entire neighborhood—Catholic or not.

The minute he saw the setup in the middle of the track field, he nearly had to lift his jaw off the floor. “What are we fundraising for?”

“The same thing we always do. The schools.”

“You have a lot of these festivals?”

She shrugged. “We have a lot of fundraisers. We have an outstanding school system with an even more praised sports program, but not enough local tax dollars to compete with the big cities, so we do fundraisers. I think this one is for updating the football stadium but I honestly don’t remember.”

“So the town comes to support all these fundraisers?”

“The town, the county, and when it’s the annual corn hole festival, the whole state comes to participate.”

Boy did he have a lot to learn about West Texas, especially if he was giving serious thought to what it would take to convince Colleen to give him a shot at forever.

No matter how many different festivals Honeysuckle held, Colleen loved and missed them all. Today, being here with Aiden made the return even sweeter.