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“She’s a natural!” Jim said excitedly. “Walked into the bear lair with zero fear.”
“No, trust me,” Dana laughed. “There was a lot of fear. Tons. The only other time I’ve been that close to a bear was at the zoo and there was a glass partition between us.”
“Hi, Dana, nice to finally meet you in person,” Whitney extended a gloved hand with a smile. “I’m Whitney, the vet they ran off.”
I rolled my eyes. “Only took us half a decade.”
“I’m a little slow, but I came to my senses.” Whitney shook Dana’s hand. “Maybe I shouldn’t have asked you to come tell Dana about the job.”
“Nah, we’ll get along just fine. Let me take you back to your future office,” Whitney said, jerking her head toward the building.
I waited until they had closed the door behind them. “What do you think, Jim?”
His fingers gripped the tuft of hair on his chin, eyes narrowing in concentration. “I think she’d fit in just fine.”
“Good, because she might be our only option.”
“She has a good sense of humor, at least. Whitney won’t scare her off.”
Jim picked up his pail to finish his rounds, leaving me alone on the porch.
My first bit of silence so far that day.
I dug in my jeans for my phone, scrolling through until I found Thea’s text on the screen.
THEA
How’s the interview going?
I pressed the call button.
“Thank god you called,” Thea answered enthusiastically. “I’m bored out of my mind.”
“Want to come work at the rescue?”
She laughed, a low sparkling laugh that made me smile. “Not a chance. Did Dana show up?”
“Yep.”
“Did you give her the tour yet? How’d she do?”
“I didn’t, actually. Jim gave her the tour.”
“What did he say? Was she scared out of her mind?”
“Not according to Jim. He said she was a natural.”
She scoffed. “He says that about everyone. I nearly climbed on top of him to get away from that barn owl and he still claimed I was a natural.”
She had a point, but my desperation to make this work temporarily overrode any interest in asking more questions. Besides, I didn’t exactly call Thea to talk about Dana.
“How’s the shop?” I asked as Thea asked, “What are you doing tonight?”
I paused, deciphering the overlapping words. “I don’t have any plans. What about you?”
“The shop’s dead and boring,” she sighed. “What do you think about dinner and a movie?”
I had decided to tread carefully with Thea. The speed dating had been a disaster, but the night after had been a step in the right direction. But as well as I knew Thea, I also knew she’d back off completely if I pushed too hard. Still, I couldn’t ignore the chance to tease her a little.
