Page 32 of Broken As Puck

She backed away, shaking her head. “No, no, no. I don’t believe you. I⁠—”

“Matthews!” Assistant Coach Willets shouted, cutting her off. “The bus is about to leave!”

My gut flipped over. I didn’t want to go with this hanging between us, but I didn’t have a choice. “It’s the truth.”

I left her standing there, staring after me, with her mouth hanging open.

Chapter Eleven

CHELSEY

Two vans pulled up in the football field’s parking lot, and the passenger door of one opened.

“Where do you want the animals?” a gray-haired woman with a no-nonsense tone asked.

“I’ll show you,” I replied, gesturing for her to get out. “We have permission to use the facilities but not the playing field, so we’ve set aside an area.”

The woman climbed out and shook my hand. “I’m Viv.”

“Chelsey. Nice to meet you.”

I escorted her to the grassed area where I’d set up a tripod and camera earlier. Coach Dunn had already arrived, and he was keeping an eye on the equipment while we got everything else figured out. I’d tried to persuade him to participate in the photos and I’d talked him into doing one or two, but he preferred the focus be on the players.

“Here,” I said, gesturing around. The sun was shining, but there were a few clouds in the sky, which was probably good as it would make for better light for the photographs. A cool wind whisked past, and I was grateful for the sweater I’d donned before leaving the house this morning.

Viv nodded. “This will work. We have two pens, one for cats and one for dogs. The cat one has removable netting that goes over it, otherwise they tend to climb out.”

I laughed. That sounded about right.

“We only brought the animals that socialize reasonably well together,” she continued, running her hand over her hair as she took in the lay of the land. “Otherwise, the logistics would be too difficult.”

“That makes sense.”

Coach wandered over, and I introduced him to Viv.

“Do you mind staying here while I help Viv carry everything over?” I asked him.

He pointed to the camping chair he’d already unfolded. “I’ve got everything I need.” He checked his watch. “The guys should start arriving in the next five minutes or so.”

“We’d better get a move on, then.”

I returned to the vans with Viv. The other people from the shelter had already unloaded the fold-out pens, and two of them were figuring out how best to carry them while the third person watched the animals.

Now that the backs of the vans were open, I noticed they’d separated the cats and dogs, which made sense. No doubt the cats would remain calmer if they were segregated for as long as possible. A couple of the dogs were barking, but they didn’t sound aggressive, just excited.

“Want to help me with the other pen?” Viv asked, bending to pick up one side of the stacked frame. The pen seemed to fold in on itself in layers, meaning it wasn’t too long, but it was high enough to make seeing over it a challenge.

“Sure.”

I went to the other side and did my best to lift it in a way that wouldn’t dislodge anything. Together, we carried it sideways toward the field. It wasn’t particularly heavy, but it was awkward, so we had to pause a couple of times to adjust our grips.

Once we had it where it needed to go, we placed it gently down, and Viv showed me how to unfold and position it.

“I’ll get you to bring the netting over while we start relocating the animals,” she said as she straightened and wiped her palms on the front of her faded jeans.

“Sounds good.”

I took another trip for the netting, which I placed over the pen designated for the cats, then I worked with the shelter staff to ferry dogs and cats back and forth from the vans to the pens. It was difficult not to stop to coo over each one. I loved animals, and the dogs in particular seemed eager for attention.