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I grinned sheepishly. “Not as much. He and Nash are both putting on the padding this winter.”
Doc Burns chuckled. “Sounds like you need to get them out for some exercise. But look at me. I don’t have any room to talk,” he said, patting his middle. “I’ll get you that heartworm treatment, and you’re all set.”
I scratched Dakota’s ears, and he groaned, leaning into my hand like it was the only comfort he’d had for hours. The big clown. He always hated coming to the vet’s office.
“You survived, buddy. Ready to go back to work? I still need to finish that truck.” He grunted and moaned at me in his typical Aussie talk as I grabbed my purse, and we headed to the front of the office to pay the bill.
When I returned to the shop, I went straight to the break room to grab my sandwich from the fridge. The guys were busy painting in the booth, and Dad was nowhere to be found. Dakota curled up in his customary spot under my chair, and I dug into my turkey on wheat. Boring and flavorless, but it did the job.
I sighed and let my gaze rove the white brick walls of the break room. Everything in my life was boring lately. Audrey Livingstone had nailed it: I needed to get out more.
Dad had said something to me last night that might be worth thinking about. We’d been cleaning up after supper when he asked about Morgan and the new White Pines facility. “Don’t they need some extra help right about now, what with all the building and expanding?”
I’d turned off the faucet so he could hear me better—Dad always had trouble hearing over background noise these days. “I’m sure they do. Kelli said something the other day about trying to dig up more volunteers.”
“Well, how about it?” he asked.
I blinked and stared at him. “But they need the help during the weekdays. I’m working.”
Dad just shrugged and turned the faucet back on to rinse a plate. “We’re not that busy lately, especially for mechanic jobs. I could spare you a couple of afternoons a week. What do you think of maybe taking off Tuesdays and Thursdays after lunch?”
I frowned and thought about it as he stacked the plates in the dish drainer. “Are you sure you don’t need me in the office?”
Dad chuckled and shut off the faucet, then tossed me a towel. “I got along fine without you doing all the billing. Why don’t you go help out with the kids and the horses? Seems like something you’d love doing.”
“Well… I’ll think about it,” I’d promised.
I hadn’t been able tostopthinking about it since last night, and the idea had taken seed. Why not? It would get me out around people more, and I’d be back to doing something I believed in.
Deep in thought, I chewed the rest of my sandwich, and finally, something flicked in my head. This was the best idea I’d heard in a long time. I’d taken the morning off today, so I couldn’t start volunteering until next week. Maybe I would talk to Morgan after I got off.
But first, I had to finish that truck.
I polished off my flavorless lunch, put my things away, and then walked by the office to stash my purse in the desk drawer. I tied my hair back up and covered it in a scarf to keep the grease out of it, and I was headed for the back shop when I passed my box on the wall.
There was a paper sticking out of it. That was where people always left the important stuff they wanted me to find. I pulled it out, and my heart stopped. It was… a wonderful question is what it was.
I had a secret admirer. One who was too shy to ask me out to my face, but one who seemed to want to hear my heart. Sweet and kind, he called me… but he didn’t say I was beautiful.
That was refreshing. Usually, the first words out of any guy’s mouth were about my looks and nothing else. This one seemed to think I might be human on the inside, too. And he wrote like maybe we shared something special, but he was letting me make the choice of finding it out.
I’d never heard anything like this. Fromanyone.
Whowasthis mystery guy? It had to be the same person who left the poem in my pocket. The handwriting was the same because I’d memorized it. At least now I knewwhy. Butwho?
I folded the note, my pulse pounding. I had to know who this was! Dad was out doing an estimate this afternoon, but I walked back up front to ask the guys in the paint booth. The only one I saw was Tucker putting the finishing touches on a body repair job.
“Hey!” I called over his grinder. He stopped, pointed at his chest, and I nodded.
He lifted his face shield. “What’s up?”
“Did anyone come here looking for me earlier?”
He shrugged. “I saw a couple of guys come in, but I didn’t talk to either of them.”
“Do you know what they looked like?”
“They were both wearing cowboy hats. I didn’t pay too much attention. They walked up to the office and then left.”
