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1
HARRIS
“I think I’m gonna do it.” I looked down at my phone again and then back at my buddy James. “She’s just so sweet.”
James sighed and shook his head. “Good for you. But it’s quite a drive. Are you sure there’s nothing closer?”
“Not like her.” That was true. I’d been on a few local dog rescue waiting lists for months, and Luna was the first dog to be offered to me that I could imagine bringing home. She flunked out of the service dog program and needed to be rehomed somewhere without other pets or kids. Since I was perpetually single and not planning to add any children to my household, I was the perfect match for her.
And she was the perfect match for me.
With her grayish-brown coat and golden eyes, she was an absolute beauty. But she was a thousand miles away. Literally. And if I didn’t pick her up within the next five days, she’d be euthanized. “Looks like I’m taking a road trip.”
“Have fun.” James took a gulp of his coffee and watched a guy pass by on the sidewalk. “I’ll hold down the fort here.”
“You wanna come with me? We haven’t been on a long drive together in…ever.” I flashed what I hoped was a charming smile, but he wasn’t buying it. That drive was rough in great weather and would be absolutely brutal in the winter.
“And we probably never will.” James chuckled and leaned back in the wooden chair. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m on call this week.” He looked suspiciously relieved to have that excuse at the ready.
“Technically, I am too, but I think I can get Cort to cover for me. He owes me a few shifts for all the times I’ve covered for him.” Cort and I both started working at the metal fabrication shop eight years ago, but he was still in the partying stage of his life and had missed more Monday mornings than I could count.
Since I was firmly rooted in theNetflix and chill…alonestage of my life, I never had to worry about hangovers that kept me from doing my job…and his. Besides, the kind of entertainment I was interested in wasn’t something I could find in a dive bar or regular club.
I had to wait for special theme nights at the city's kink clubs to connect with potential boys looking for a Daddy. It always seemed like a night full of possibilities and potential matches, but I rarely met anyone worth exchanging numbers with…and had yet to actually connect with someone who was right for me. Or, just as importantly, who I was right for.
Which was why I was getting a dog.
I was tired of coming home to an empty house. At least a dog would be happy to see me and content to curl up on the couch with me and watch TV. And having an excuse to walk past the gay men’s yoga-in-the-park meeting that happened every morning in the spring and summer would just be a bonus.
“Welp, I better get back to it.” James crumpled up the napkin and wrapper from the blueberry muffin he’d just inhaled and stood up. “I have some new private contracts to work in before the weekend, so I’ll catch you later.”
I grabbed my trash and walked out with him. If I was going to pick up a dog, I had some work to do at home. There were a few loose boards in my back fence, and I needed to get her a bed. Maybe two so I could keep one by the couch and one by my bed.
But first, I needed to talk to Cort.
* * *
Cort and I were on different jobs, so I headed back to the shop to get some projects finished there and wait for him to head back. At exactly four in the afternoon, he pulled up in his company truck with a twenty-foot trailer behind him.
My work was done and I was really just killing time, so I turned off the welder and shed my hood before walking out to meet him.
He was already releasing the tie-downs when I got out there. “Hey, man. Wanna make yourself useful?”
“Why do you think I came out here?” I hopped up on the trailer and started rolling up the straps so they’d be ready to put away. “To help a friend out.”
He squinted into the sun as he looked up at me. “Don’t bullshit me. What do you want?”
I guess we’d been working together long enough for him to know me well. “You gonna be around for the next few days?”
He cocked his head and shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. Why?”
“Well, I need to go out of town for a few days. Can you cover me if any service calls come in?”
Cort perked right up. “Yeah, of course. I could use the extra hours anyway. I want to take a trip to Germany for Oktoberfest next year.”
“That’s…random.” I handed him the straps and started pushing the metal tubes he was transporting toward the edge of the trailer so we could grab them easier. “But, thanks. I appreciate it.”
He grabbed one end of a tube and waited for me to hop down so I could grab the other end. “Anytime. Especially if you help me unload as part of the buttering-up process.”
