AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Want to?” He chortled. “She’d probably never speak to me again if I didn’t tell her about it.”
Abbe beamed at him. “You have a very weird family.”
“Well, theyarerich,” he said, recalling their old joke, before kissing her.
The next morning Bianca pulled up in front of Furry Faces Shelter in a white Maserati, parking halfway on the lawn, and bursting out the driver’s side door while talking on her phone, repeatedly dropping things.
First, she dropped her giant Chloe shopper bag, then her smaller Hermes cross-body bag, then a plastic bag from Pet World, then her keys. It took her a full three minutes—rushing the whole time—to make it to the front door because she kept having to go back and pick up something she’d dropped. She finally put her phone away and made some progress.
“I’m going to have to call Randy and tell him I’ve just met my female soul mate,” Charles said, watching Bianca wave and call out to them through the window.
“I brought stuff for Jinx!” she was yelling, so excited she couldn’t even wait to get in the door to tell them. “It’s doggie nail polish! So cute!”
Rafe sighed in a long-suffering way, shaking his head, but he was watching her with obvious favoritism as she turned the knob and pulled, and kept pulling, even though it wasn’t opening.
“Sorry,” he said, giving Abbe an apologetic look, as his sister struggled to figure out which way the door opened. “She’s got a great heart.”
“She’s amazing,” Abbe replied, getting the biggest kick of her life out of watching this tall, slender, model-beautiful woman who literally could not get her shit together for more than twenty seconds at a time. “The other way! You have to push!” she called out to Bianca.
“Doy,” Bianca said, laughing at herself. She came bursting in, her lovely face aflame with excitement. “We’re going to win!” she said, already celebrating. “Who’s driving with me?”
“Me!” Charles said, raising a hand. “I’m Jinx’s stylist.”
It really was love at first sight. “Oh, you’re so pretty,” she told him, coming forward in an avalanche of designer labels and unflagging optimism. They held their hands out, palms facing each other, clasped hands, and kiss-kissed on both cheeks. Then they started identically squealing.
“I’m so excited you’re coming!” Charles said.
“Me too! This is the most amazing thing!” Bianca enthused.
Rafe allowed them a few minutes, but his inborn need to keep to a schedule finally won out. “We should get going,” he said, interrupting them.
“Where’s the little mutant?” Bianca asked.
Abbe lifted the carrier. Jinx was inside, shaking and growling. “In here.”
“He wants to be held,” Bianca said, her eyes widening in sympathy.
“No!” Abbe said resolutely. “He’s safer in the carrier while we drive. Do we have everything?” she asked the room at large.
Maria and Steven came from the back to say goodbye to everyone and good luck to Jinx, who barked angrily at them.
“You’re not coming with us?” Bianca asked the two teenagers.
“We wish we could, but someone’s got to stay with the animals,” Maria said shrugging.
“Yeah, I was going to ask about that,” Bianca said, her porcelain brow furrowing. “Where did all the animals go? The last time I was here I feel like there were so many more.”
Maria, Steven, and Charles got the raccoon-caught-looting-the-garbage look of people who were hiding something, and Abbe knew she had to step in. At some point over the last few days, she had pulled each of them aside and told them that she didn’t want Rafe knowing about the shelter being in danger, in case he popped by when she wasn’t there. They hadn’t been too happy about it, but they’d agreed to keep it quiet despite the fact that none of them were comfortable doing that.
“We’ve placed almost all our animals in forever families,” Abbe said, making it sound like a good thing, which technically it was. The part she left out was all the surrendered animals she had been forced to refer to already over-capacity shelters since then. “Adoptions have been through the roof this month.” Thatwastrue. “The Halloween promotion worked better than I could have hoped. Thanks to the fabulous pictures we took with our new camera equipment.” She gave Rafe a warm look, and he dropped his eyes, uncomfortable with the praise. “And to Charles’ fabulous costumes,” she added, taking the spotlight off of Rafe.
“How fantastic!” Bianca said. “Oh my god, I love that!”
“We only have a few animals left,” Charles said. “For the moment,” he added in a rush when Abbe shot him a look. “We’ll get more.”
Rafe gave him an odd look.
“We’re going to be late!” Abbe said, hustling everyone out the door. “We have to check Jinx in by ten and it’s already seven-thirty!”
