Smokin' Hot

Raina

As soon as he walked out, I picked up the phone and dialed up the kennels to let them know that I would be stopping by later on.

“Just so you know, I have an older dog that I’m going to be bringing in,” I told the answering machine. “This is Raina, by the way. Raina Walters. I’ll see you later today if everything goes well.”

I hung up and went over to tend to the old, tired little dog that that guy had brought in just a few minutes before.

“Hey, boy,” I said softly, petting the rough fur on his head. “Don’t know how you managed to end up here, but you’re in good hands now, okay?”

The dog snuffled, as though acknowledging what I was saying to him and thanking me for my effort.

“You shouldn’t be thanking me,” I told him gently. “You should thank that guy who brought you in here. And if you could get him to call me, too, that would be great.”

I shook my head at myself. I needed to get my shit together. I was asking a dog for help with dating? Yeah, it was hardly my proudest moment.

I took him back to the kennels at the back of the exam rooms that we hung onto for just this reason. Even though he was clearly a sweet little thing, it wasn’t like many people went for older dogs these days, so I didn’t feel too confident that he was going to have much luck finding a home. It made my heart sad, but that was just the way it worked, like it or not. I had to accept that there wasn’t always something I could do for these sweet old dogs, no matter how much I would have liked to.

If I’d had the chance, of course, I would have loved to take him home myself, but that was a rule I had set up for myself a long time ago. I couldn’t just start taking home any old animals that I wanted to. Once that started, there was no way I could get it to stop again, and I didn’t want to end up with a zoo back at my apartment.

He fell asleep as soon as we had him bedded into his kennel, and I headed out to join Hannah again.

“Oh my gosh, did you see that guy?” she asked, clapping her hand to her chest as though she was trying to prevent a cardiac event.

“What, the one who just came in with the dog?”

“The very same,” she replied. “He was hot as hell, wasn’t he? And did you see how sweet he was with that little girl?”

“Yeah, he was cute,” I replied with a shrug. Truth was that he was a smoking hottie, and I was already having a hard time getting the image of his face out of my brain. Which was dumb, really dumb, and I shouldn’t have been giving him a second thought. But Hannah was right. This guy had been cute as hell, and he had come to the rescue of this little old dog who so clearly needed help. I had to admit, it was more than a little charming.

“Cute?” Hannah exclaimed. “That hardly does him justice, does it?”

I thought back to his dimples, his dark wavy hair, that expensive suit that he didn’t mind getting covered in dog fur. He had these dark eyes that seemed to smile when he looked at me, and yeah, sure, I would have been lying if I said that I didn’t get just a little fluttery over the thought of him.

But a guy like that was likely already locked down with a wife. He certainly had a kid, though he had referred to her as his niece. Whatever. He was committed, and I had no intention of trying to get in on that. Not when everything in my life was complicated enough.

“I’m surprised you let him walk out of there,” Hannah teased. “I’d have been finding reasons to keep him sticking around.”

“Okay, I think I have some intake forms to get ready,” I told her firmly. I knew she was just kidding around, but she was hitting a little too close to home for my liking, and I didn’t want her to see the flush on my face.

I made it through the rest of the day as usual, managing not to think about him at all. Or at least, not to think about him much. I couldn’t remember if he’d had a ring on his finger or not. I should have made a point to check, if just for my own peace of mind. If he was married, then he was off the market. But if not...

I took the dog that he had brought to us down to the shelter that would take him. I wanted to keep him another night, but Hannah pointed out that we had spaces booked already from other animals who needed somewhere to stay for the night.

I handed him over to the shelter, and Jackie, the woman who ran the place, took him from me carefully.

“How’d you come across this little fella?” she asked me, smiling down at him as she set him on the table for a checkup.

“Some guy brought him by this morning,” I explained. “Said he almost backed over him with his car. Seems like this dude really wants the attention, huh?”

“Well, he’ll get lots of that here tonight,” Jackie replied. She was a good couple of decades older than me, and it warmed my heart to know that she had been working with animals for this long and still hadn’t grown tired of it. It gave me hope for my own future, for what I had in store for me when I had been doing this a few more years.

“Thanks so much,” I told her, and I gave her a quick hug. “I’ll come in over the weekend to check on him, okay?”

“Okay,” she agreed, and she turned her attention to the dog. “Now, let’s get you all settled in, shall we?”