Page 38 of Ruff and Tumble

“Thank you for driving me home,” Hailey said as she stepped out of Cole’s car. He owned several, but the hybrid Lexus was one of his favorites. She liked to think it was because he was worried about the environment, but mostly she suspected he liked how shiny it was.

Rather, ithadbeen shiny. Philip and his thin, gray hairs left quite a trail on that glossy black interior.

“To be honest, I thought about following behind the city bus while you got home that way, but I don’t think Philip is enough to allow me in the car-pool lanes.”

Recognizing his name, the puppy poked his nose out of the car door and began tentatively sniffing the environment, his stuffed football clutched protectively in his mouth. Most puppies would have happily bounded out and started exploring, but not Philip. For every fun new smell her yard afforded, he cast an equally anxious look back up at Cole.

Hailey understood his sentiments perfectly. Philip had been shuffled around so many times that he viewed each new place—and each new person—as an opportunity to be left behind.

From the looks of it, Cole understood, too. He put a reassuring hand on the puppy’s head and nodded down at him. “Go for it,” he told the animal. “This is a happy place.”

Hailey wasn’t sure how happy her house had been in recent years, but the epithet had once held true. She’d learned to throw a football exactly where Cole stood. She’d learned to ride a bike there, too, though she’d never mastered either skill. Moving around on two rickety wheels seemed to beaskingfor trouble.

“You’re sure he won’t be a bother?” Cole asked, watching the puppy as he sniffed at the damp grass and half-frozen ferns. “Bess won’t get upset if there’s an intruder threatening her family?”

“There’s one way to find out,” Hailey said as she trotted up her front steps to unlock the door. Over her shoulder, she added, “And don’t worry—if they don’t get along, I have lots of ways to keep them separated. I often have multiple dogs living here, and no matter how hard I try, not all of them end up as best friends.”

Cole didn’t respond right away. Hailey assumed he was once again acclimating to the bizarre decor of her home, but he had paused on the threshold, watching as Philip began sniffing his way around the living room. The animal’s nose was pressed to the floor as though on an important hunt, though he had yet to relinquish his grip on the football in the slightest.

“Don’t you ever want to adopt one?” Cole asked as Philip picked up on the scent of the entire pack living in her kitchen. “Doesn’t it hurt to keep giving them away?”

Hailey’s chest gave a sudden, lurching pang. She’d said so many goodbyes in her lifetime that she should have grown accustomed to it by now, but that clench came every time she got the call.

“Of course it hurts,” she admitted. “I cry every time—usually for days. It’s embarrassing. They’ve had to buy so many tissues for the supply closet at work that they get a bulk discount now.”

Since she didn’t want Philip to frighten Bess into a defensive position, she rushed to head the animal off at the gate.

She needn’t have worried. Bess lifted her head at the intrusion of another dog into her sphere and might have even growled a warning, but she caught sight of Cole standing behind Hailey and gave her tail an eager thump.

“Good girl,” Cole said, his mouth so close to Hailey’s ear that it caused a wave of goose bumps to move over her. “You know a friend when you see one, don’t you? Such a smart dog.”

“She got knocked up by the first handsome scoundrel to come her way,” Hailey retorted as she lifted a leg to step over the gate. “I wouldn’t put my faith in her abilities as a judge of character.”

As was the case the last time the pair of them stood in this position, Cole’s hand was ready and waiting to assist her into the kitchen. And as was the case the last time he did it, Hailey felt her whole body flutter into uselessness. Matters weren’t helped any when he held her hand much longer than a step over a gate necessitated.

“Maybe their affair was brief but passionate. Maybe it was worth it. Maybe she’d do it again in a heartbeat.” He gave her fingers a meaningful squeeze. “Something smells delicious, by the way. When did you have time to cook?”

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that she’d been up at four in the morning—that her entire day had been spent catering to his schedule—but something in her held back. She was trying to looklesslike a woman who had nothing in her life except work and football, not more.

“It’s just some stuff in the slow cooker,” she said, blushing when he still refused to let her fingers go. “I thought it would be easiest.”

She busied herself by checking on Bess and the puppies, counting the little heads to ensure that Rufus hadn’t wandered off again. He was huddled close to Bess’s hind legs, but it wasn’t a cause for celebration.

“Oh, you poor honey,” she said, scooping up the tiny bundle and examining him closely. “I was afraid of this.”

“What is it? What’s the matter with him?” Cole remained on the other side of the gate—mostly to keep Philip from barging in after him—but there was a sharp note of worry in his voice.

Hailey nestled Rufus closer to her neck so he could absorb some of her body warmth. His small body was so delicate, his skin so much like paper, that she could feel each of his bones. “He’s not taking well to the family dynamic,” she said. “He’s always the last to eat and the first to wander away.”

“Bess is rejecting him?”

Hailey nuzzled the puppy closer, fearful of him overhearing the words and taking them to heart. Which was ridiculous for a lot of reasons, but she couldn’t help it. Rufus needed all the love he could get his tiny paws on.

“Not rejecting, exactly,” she said. “She seems to like him just fine when he’s around, but with so many other, stronger, more insistent puppies to look after, he kind of gets lost.”

Overlooked.Forgotten.It was no one’s fault, but that didn’t make it any less awful. Sometimes, puppies—even sweet, beautiful ones like Rufus—slipped through the cracks. There just weren’t enough people in the world to care for them all.

Despite her determination not to cry, Hailey felt emotion thickening in her throat.