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Worst of all, if what Lamise just shared was the truth, what would it mean for us?
I’d been falling for her for weeks now. I’d been allowing my heart to open up to the possibility of something serious with her. And mere hours after we’d both decided to take a chance on each other, her fiancé suddenly reappears, and isn’t dead.
Despite the horror and devastation I felt, I couldn’t ignore what was staring me in the face.
Lamise needed support. Or help. Or… I didn’t quite know what she needed. Maybe she just wanted to tell me the truth before she returned home to him. Judging by how emotional she was, I could at least feel some relief to know she’d been even a little invested in this with me.
“Graham?” I asked, unsure why I was stating the obvious.
“Henry.”
Momentarily stunned by her unexpected response, it took me a few beats to understand what she’d just revealed.
“Your dog?” I questioned her.
She nodded, bursting into tears.
Was it awful I was relieved this was about her dog?
I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her close. As I gave her the time she needed to pull herself together, I tried to figure out what was happening. Her dog was alive. This should have been good news. Great news, in fact.
Unless… unless whoever had her dog refused to give him back.
But how would she know it was her dog?
I needed some answers.
Turning her slightly in my arms, I urged, “Let’s go inside and sit down.”
Lamise allowed me to guide her to the couch, and once we were seated, I handed her a box of tissues and asked, “Can you tell me what’s going on?”
She wiped the tears from her face and murmured, “I went to the cemetery to see Graham.”
It was already starting to come together. If Graham was buried in the same cemetery as Violet, it was right next to the dog park.
Instead of saying something and making her think I was rushing her, I patiently waited for her to share the rest of the story.
“I wanted to tell him about my ring. I wanted him to know I’d decided to take it off last night, because I’m ready to move on. I know he wouldn’t be upset, because he wants me to be happy, but I still wanted to tell him,” she revealed.
Fuck.
Fuck, we’d both removed our rings last night.
I no longer needed to question where she stood with me. Maybe we weren’t both in the place we’d been with our former partners before they died, but we were at least in aplace where we could feel the connection, chemistry, and possibility of a future together.
Moved by what she’d just shared, I reached my hand out to hers and gave her a gentle squeeze of encouragement.
“When I walked out of the cemetery and was standing on the sidewalk there, something caught my eye,” she began again. “It was him. It was Henry. Before I even called his name, I was sure of it. Henry has these rare markings on his coat, and I knew there was no way another dog like that existed here in Steel Ridge. So, I called his name and saw the immediate change in him. He recognized the name or my voice or something. So, I called his name again. Henry looked back, saw me, and his tail immediately started wagging. I didn’t even think twice about it; I took off running toward him.”
So far, nothing about this seemed like a justifiable reason for the reaction she’d had when she first came here. I had a feeling I was about to get that part of the story.
“What did he do?” I asked.
She shook her head. “He tried to come toward me, but the person holding his lead yanked on it and started pulling him away. I thought I was going to catch them, but I slipped and fell on some ice. By the time I took stock of my physical well-being, the man already had Henry in the car. And once I was on my feet again, they were pulling away. Henry was frantic in the back of the car.”
“Oh my God, Lamise. I am so sorry about this,” I told her. “While I understand everything you’ve told me, I don’t understand why someone would rush to get out of there, unless he knew he had your dog. Was Henry stolen?”
Lamise shrugged. “I’m thinking that’s the case now,and it terrifies me to think of what will happen to Henry now. He’s probably going to wind up like Graham.”
