Page 124 of Hunt Me

‘You better hurry up before someone sees,’ he signs big enough that I can read his hands.

Archie wraps around me as I laugh. ‘Don’t worry. If we can get away with murder, we can get away with a little indecent exposure.’

Rene makes a face like he’s not sure if I’m being literal. That happens a lot these days, but I have no plans to tell him the truth. This family is my secret, and I will defend it with my life. Rolling his eyes, Rene waves me off, then disappears inside as I lean back against the brick and meet Archie’s gaze.

“Home?” I ask aloud. The word feels heavy in my throat and so right on my tongue.

‘Yes,’ he signs, then kisses me, and his fingers tap my cheek as he does. ‘Home.’

EPILOGUE

PALMER

Normally,Bridgette doesn’t stay late, but on vaccine clinic days, she’s the only one willing to help me close up. I’ve come to really like her, in a defeated kind of way. She’s a helpful employee in a very unhelpful way, and most of the time, I wish I had someone to assist me in assisting her.

But I’m grateful she is willing to be here. I really am.

I’m just a grump. A frazzled, overworked grump.

I’m already exhausted from the sheer number of people in town who wait to get their pets inoculated—especially because my clinic is both open on weekends and does vaccines for the same cost every day of the week.

Maybe they enjoy standing in lines. Maybe they enjoy the thrill of watching me slowly unravel each time I look outside and see the sheer number of people and pets waiting.

It’s fine. It’s totally fine.

But also, it’snotreally fine because of the absurdly attractive and oddly terrifying set of brothers who showed up with a literal truck bed full of cats that need shots. I could hear the yowling from inside the clinic.

I managed to stagger out and speak with the one named Milo, who was absolutely unmoved by my plea of not havingenough time to get his cats and everyone else’s done. He was at least willing to accept my offer to come by the café tomorrow to do all the cats rather than take up space from the rest of the residents, but as I spoke to him, the look he gave me kind of made me weak in the knees with fear.

And maybe with something else, though I’m not sure I want to address that.

I’ve been thinking about his eyes all day, and the way his hands twitched when I said that tomorrow would work better, and how I’m pretty sure I saw a roll of duct tape peek out of his pocket when he shifted.

It’s probably nothing.

It’s probably for catching strays. Or fixing weird, broken things.

I think.

I hope?

“Dr. Bel?”

I turn my head to see Bridgette hanging in the doorway, looking a little confused. “If you’re not coming in here to tell me we’ve won a lifetime supply of fresh chips and guac from Guads…”

She grimaces, and my stomach sinks right into my butt. “Uh, no, but I have this, uh…relay or something on the phone. They’re, like, translating for some hearing-impaired guy.”

I grimace. Having gone to PUMPT for the last year, I know for a fact that’s the wrong terminology. But I bite my tongue. Right now isn’t the time for education. “Okay?”

“He’s also blind. Or whatever,” she says with a scrunch of her nose.

“Alright?” I press. I would very much like her to get to the point so I can take off my coat, which smells like things I would rather not mention, and make my way home to soak in at leastthree Lush bath bombs. I want the water to be the color of the rainbow while I bask in it.

“His guide dog got into a bag of old Easter chocolate.”

Oh, fuck me. It’s moments like these when I really feel like I need to move to a bigger city where there’s more than one emergency vet. Or send out a smoke signal to the four corners of the Earth to find assistance.

“How soon can he be here?” I ask.