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I nodded because I should have thought about that. This was a rescue after all. There was no telling what some of these animals had endured. The important part was that they were getting a second shot at life thanks to the man who was currently glaring at me from the other end of the room.

“I—I’m sorry. You just left me out there. When I came back here, I didn’t see you. It wasn’t like I knew what else to do.”

It was his turn to nod before he tossed the rag he was holding into a basket that was off to the side. The thing was overflowing with similar towels. My inner caregiver screamed to go over and start taking care of his laundry, but I’d already annoyed him enough for one day.

However, seeing the back room and the condition, it made my heart break just a little more. Hector’s kennel didn’t look like it was quite big enough for his massive size. The gates on most of the kennels were rusted over, and some looked like they were barely holding on.

The moment I lifted my camera, Truman cleared his throat. “Don’t.”

I tilted my head to look at him. “Why not?”

He sighed and shook his head. “Because I don’t need some snooty influencer to come in here and save me. I applied for the booth because I wanted to raise money on my own.”

While I understood that, there was so much I could do to bring him even more money than what he could earn at the fall festival. While I was sure the people of Maple Lane Falls would be happy to open their pocketbooks for him, it could be so much better to have people across the country pitching in.

“I just want to help.”

He laughed, but it lacked any real humor. “Just don’t. I’ll do it on my own. Do I get the booth or not?”

I couldn’t bring myself to tell him he couldn’t do it on his own. It wasn’t my place to begin with. As much as I wanted to step in and do more, I needed to let it go and let him do his thing.

“You do. An e-mail should be going out in about a week with all the final details about set-up.”

He nodded before disappearing around a corner again. While I wished that Truman would have talked to me more, I was already pushing my luck. Since he couldn’t see me anymore, I quickly lifted my camera and shot a quick picture of Hector. The longer I stood there next to him, the less scary he seemed. He was far less terrifying than Truman, anyway, and I found the man attractive. Who knows what that says about my feelings for Hector.

Chapter 6

Truman

I’d heard the camera after I walked away, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell her to delete whatever she’d taken. I knew myself well enough to know I was too stubborn for my own good. It didn’t help that Allison made my heart flutter in a weird way.

Over the years I’d met all sorts of people I’d found attractive, both men and women, but no one had made me as instantly intrigued as she had. Maybe it was the way she was equally stubborn. She pushed back just as much as I did, and while I didn’t think most people found that trait attractive, I needed someone I could go toe to toe with.

After the door closed, I came out of the little dog bathing area I’d been hiding in, because that’s what I’d been doing. Everything in me wanted her to leave before I did something stupid, like open up to her and let her help me when all I wanted was to do this on my own.

Everyone knew me as Truman MacIntyre, the kid who came from the rough side of town, who always got into fights growing up, and never committed to anything. The day I opened Maple Lane Falls Animal Shelter, everyone had been in shock. Maybe no one more so than me. But I’d always wanted to save those that weren’t understood, just like me. I related to the dogs on a different level.

My mother wasn’t a bad woman, but she wasn’t around during my childhood. A lot of that was thanks to my dad being so absent. He’d vanish for weeks at a time. I never understood why my mom would always welcome him back with open arms. He’d ride back into town on that motorcycle of his, and it was like he’d never left us.

Maybe there were things I didn’t understand. Mom had always seemed to light up when she heard that roaring engine. I wanted to hide. Dad wasn’t mean either, but it was hard to feel any real attachment to someone you rarely saw.

That lasted until I hit middle school. Dad rode out of town and never came back. Mom lost her shit after that. It probably took a good three months before she realized we wouldn’t see him again. The only thing good about when he did turn up, he always brought her a good chunk of money. But when she was completely on her own, the money dried up and that started a string of odd jobs to keep us afloat.

We never found out what happened to Dad. Or I hadn’t, anyway. When I was in eleventh grade, a man rode into town wearing a similar jacket to what my dad used to wear. Mom lit up when she heard that bike—she always did when anyone rode through town on one—but it was never him. This man wasn’t either. He talked to Mom. Mom cried. We never talked about it. I probably should have asked her what he’d said, but figured it was too painful when she spent almost two weeks locked in her room after that.

But that was where the money for the shelter had come from. The man had given us a ton of cash. Dad had probably been in some kind of gang, but I never made any assumptions. I wasn’t an idiot. Money like that could get us into a lot of trouble if he was, and I wasn’t about to get myself killed for it. It was better to play ignorant than to act as if I knew anything.

I closed the shelter for the night and made my way home. The only problem with going there was that it was quiet, almost silent. All I kept thinking about was how pretty Allison was, how her feisty attitude had me wanting to make her angrier. I liked to get a woman all riled up. It made them so much more fun in the bedroom. There was nothing quite like a passionate hate-fuck.

But something told me that Allison wasn’t the type of girl to do that. And maybe, for the first time, I wanted someone for something a little deeper.

But in the meantime, I could be distracted by my dick. And my cock liked what I’d seen at both the cafe and the shelter. Her fiery attitude was everything I craved. I’d been half-hard the whole time she’d been arguing with me and all I’d wanted to do was haul her off into a dark corner and fuck some sense into her.

Did that make me a bit of a caveman? Probably. There was something about women like her that caused that part of me to bubble to the surface.

There was only one thing I could think of to take the edge off. It was easy to pretend that it was the dogs that made me stink, and that was why I needed a shower, but the honest truth was that it was my favorite place to indulge in a fantasy. I could jerk off and not have to think while the water washed over my body, soothing all my sore muscles and repairing any other sour mood I might be in.

The moment my pants hit the tiled bathroom floor, my cock jumped in my boxers. I looked down, not caring how crazy it made me, to talk to the thing.