Page 48 of Somewhere Only We Know

I laughed. ‘What sort of question is that?’

He gave me a lazy smile. ‘I don’t know. A genuine one?’

‘I mean, ask someone if they like dogs and it’s fine to say No, I don’t. But puppies? What sort of person can say no to them?’ I replied.

He grinned. ‘Got it. So do you like puppies or do you think you should like them?’

‘Take me to the puppies already,’ I said, shoving his arm.

We took a detour via the volunteer kitchen, where one of the cooks had left a bag of food ready for him to collect, and headed around the back of the camp and into trees. The rain had stopped as abruptly as it had started, and the air smelled fresh and earthy. It was dark and Jackson produced a torch and lit a path for us.

‘Poor Utt,’ I said, feeling guilty. ‘He really doesn’t like us, does he?’

‘You can’t blame him for being permanently mad. He must get fed up with a bunch of party animals turning up every two weeks supposedly to help him.’

‘I’m not a party animal,’ I said.

‘Nope, sorry. Don’t believe you,’ Jackson teased.

‘Okay,’ I conceded. ‘I do like to party, but I want to be useful too.’

‘Good, because I’m going to put you to work any minute.’

‘I was looking forward to Utt’s induction,’ I said, following the beam of torchlight.

‘I can continue your education. Ask away.’

‘You know about turtles already?’

He nodded. ‘Sure. I’ve been here four weeks. Some of the eggs that Hugo crushed were collected by me. Really glad I stayed up half the night for that.’

‘So why were you there tonight at the induction?’

‘Shush.’ He deflected the question and took my hand. ‘We need to keep our voices down, we’re here.’

In a clearing ahead of us, a makeshift kennel had been made from a broken wooden crate, and sheltering inside was a scrawny mongrel lying on her side on an old towel. Six puppies were cuddled up against her, two at her teats.

‘Hello, girl.’ Jackson crouched down towards the mother dog and held his hand out for her to sniff. She lifted her head from the ground and gave a low growl.

‘Is this safe?’ I said, keeping myself tucked behind him.

He smiled. ‘Why, do you only do safe things?’

I liked his eyes. And his smile. And his arms. His arms especially.

‘I followed you into dark woods, didn’t I?’

‘True.’ He laughed softly, scratching the dog’s ears. The dog leaned into him and stretched out her legs. ‘You’re safe. She trusts me. She’s just being a mom.’

‘Not all moms do that.’ I tried out his American word, making light of the fact that my mother had stopped looking after me years ago. My dad too, I thought: he was as much to blame, checking out of mine and Kat’s life seemingly with ease. He didn’t even phone anymore, left it up to us to make contact.

He met my eye with curiosity but didn’t pry. ‘Can you give her some food from the bag?’

We’d never had a dog at home, and I wasn’t comfortable with this one. Quite apart from the almost certain fleas, the flashing eyes following my every move unnerved me.

‘I’ll pass.’ I knelt beside him and reached out warily to the nearest puppy. The mother didn’t seem to mind, so I gingerly picked it up.

‘Chicken.’