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“So why does your pal Sadie here think she’s your girlfriend?”
“I don’t know.”Because I didn’t correct her.
He arches a brow. “But you’re into her though.”
“Didn’t say that.”
“Didn’t have to.”
I shoot him a look, and he grins.
Sadie pushes open the back door, and dozens of dogs jump at their gates, barking and wagging their tails as we pass by.
Phil winces. “Shit, it’s loud back here.”
Sadie nods and gestures to the last pen. “They’re in the back there.”
My eyes scan the litters of puppies until I spot the tiny black-and-white one with a heart-shaped nose. He’s trying to get to the water bowl, but his brothers and sisters crowd around it.
Sadie points to him. “That’s your little guy.” She swings open the gate and ushers me inside. “Take all the time you want.”
I crouch down and scoot the puppies aside to make space for the runt to drink. I stroke his back while he laps the water, feeling each bone in his tiny body. These dogs were so scared when we found them in the abandoned house. It breaks my heart knowing they were ripped away from their mother, unable to form that important bond with her before some piece of shit did God knows what with her.
Once again, I arrived too late.
“These guys are going to be monsters,” Phil says. “Look at the size of their paws.”
I scoop the runt into my arms, and he nuzzles into the crook of my neck. “Pit bulls get such a bad rap. They’re all innocent, gentle animals until someone gets his hands on them.”
“How’s the adoption event coming along?”
“Phoenix is handling it.” Her wide eyes flash through my mind. “She’s really excited about it. I hope the dogs get adopted, otherwise she’s going to be heartbroken.”
Phil sits down, and several of the puppies crawl onto his legs. “So, tell me about her. What’s going on?”
I shrug. “I don’t really know her.”
“But you’re trying to?”
I let out a sigh, and the puppy licks my cheek. “My gut tells me there’s something wrong with her.”
Phil’s eyebrows shoot up.
I shake my head. “Maybewrongisn’t the right word. I don’t know. Something’s off. Something happened to her. Something she’s going through. I can’t put my finger on it, and it frustrates me.”
He chuckles. “You can always read people. You’re telling me you can’t read this chick?”
I don’t tell him how she cries every night before bed. I don’t tell him how she barely smiles, and that when she does, she looks so incredibly sad when it fades. I don’t tell him about the subtle comments she’s made in passing, about not having a family, about being alone, about having darkness inside her. I don’t tell him how she doesn’t think she’s worth someone’s time, how she views herself as a burden for needing the tiniest bit of help. And I definitely don’t tell him how I can feel her from all the way inside her house, like she’s calling out to me, drawing me in.
I don’t tell him any of these things because then it’d sound like I know her better than I said I did, and I can’t explain how because we’ve only just met, yet there’s something so familiar about her that it feels as if I can see into her soul.
My gut twisted when Phoenix looked up at me last week, expecting me to leave her to eat by herself. It twisted even more when I watched her cry herself to sleep later on through her bedroom window.
I shake my head at my own stupidity.As if hanging out with me would be enough to take away her sadness for a night.
“Leo likes her.”
Phil cocks his head. “Yeah? How’s he been since he came home?”
