Page 56 of Refurbished

“I think you’re stealing my service dog.” I watched as he loved on Barnaby, who made soft noises, showing he was happy. It was okay, though, because I realized that everything that was mine was his, and that included my sweet companion. Plus, I think Ramsey had dumped us both for Orlando. That giraffe got everyone’s love.

After we enjoyed lunch, we headed back to the Sanctuary. “I need you to put this on.” He handed me a silk scarf.

“It’s beautiful, but doesn’t go with my outfit.” I was wearing jeans and a brand new Henley. When our tuxedos arrived, there were five Henley shirts. All had been altered to compensate for my harness. I wanted to protest, but, to be honest, the comfort of having that extra room to stretch and move in a shirt that fit was pretty fantastic. So I rewarded him for the gift and chose to wear one for today.

He had pulled over about a mile from our house. “As a blindfold.”

“You what?”

“I’d like you to blindfold yourself.”

“I’m all for using these in the bedroom. There are some delightful things I’d love to do to you while you were blindfolded, but this seems a weird time to get things started. He rolled his eyes and leaned over to give me a quick kiss.

“Trust me now. And we can bring the blindfold into the bedroom later.” I liked that idea, and even without the incentive, I trusted him completely. He had the one thing I swore I would never give away again, my heart. Putting the scarf around my eyes, I knotted it and felt the car get back on the road. There wasn’t much out here on the way to the Sanctuary. All the land on the left side of the road was mine, and on the right was fifty-five hundred acres that I couldn’t afford to purchase, and up the road about five miles, another five thousand acres owned by a guy starting a sheep ranch. Someday, I’d get that land across the street, but it isn’t even for sale.

It was obvious when we pulled up to the Sanctuary by the sound of the gravel under our tires. “Don’t peek. And sit right there.” He got out of the truck, and a second later, my door opened. “Okay, step out carefully, and then we are going to walk a few feet.” I was suspicious at this point. There was never a time that I was into surprises, but this was my Angus, and I trusted whatever was about to happen. We shuffled forward about thirty feet, then stopped. “Ready?”

“Since I have no idea what I should be getting ready for, sure?”

He untied the blindfold. “Open your eyes.” Blinking a few times, I was trying to identify what I was looking at. Turning around, I made sure I was in front of our Sanctuary. Set into rocks that hadn’t been there a few days ago was a full-color sign. Within the sign itself were carved animals, including, of course, Orlando, Annabelle, and Walter. There were other animals around it, too, all carved in wood, very rustic and gorgeous. A rainbow flag wove through the letters. It was our new logo, just expanded.

“Holy shit.” These were the only words my brain could conjure. “Angus. Holy shit.” When I looked at him, he was grinning so big my heart pounded hard.

“You like it?”

“Holy shit.”

He kissed my cheek. “You said that. A few times.”

This was the most gorgeous sign that there ever was. It’s perfect for the Sanctuary, and you wouldn’t see it until you were pulling in. The new logo was represented, but the carved animals were unbelievable. “Who? How?” At least I managed to come up with something other than ‘holy shit’, but my mind was reeling because it was so perfect. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that someone had arranged this for us.

“A secret admirer.”

He looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “And the name of this person?”

“If I told you, then it wouldn’t be a secret anymore.”

“You know. I could deny you sex until you tell me. Or we can skip that, and you can tell me.”

He laughed. “Okay. The fact is, I would end up telling you this evening, so I will tell you now. The sign was purchased by West, me, and my mom.”

I refused to cry over a sign, but I couldn’t believe these people did something else so nice. “It’s gorgeous. I’ll thank you differently from the others. You must have had this in the works for weeks.”

“A few, but I wanted something really nice for the front of our place here. I was talking about ideas with West one night at work, and he insisted on pitching in, so I agreed. Then I showed my mom, and she wanted in too.”

I pulled him close to me. “It does something to me when you refer to the Sanctuary as our place.”

He looked down and blushed. “Sorry. I shouldn’t say things like that. I’ve just become attached.”

“No. I mean it. I like it.” I liked how that made him blush.

“Let’s go check on everybody. It’s getting time for the evening feed, and I need me some raccoon time.”

I got my bag from the car, and Barnaby was more than ready to do a patrol around the facility. I watched as my companion started toward the sheep pasture, obviously comfortable that I wouldn’t need him. “Go see the raccoons, and I’ll throw our bags in the trailer.”

“Okay. Love you.” I couldn’t help but smile as he started to jog toward the nursery. It looked like we were going to be able to upgrade and change a lot of the buildings here. How lucky did I get when that persistent man showed up and forced me to befriend him? I laughed at my own thoughts, then headed to check on the bear cubs.

Chapter twenty-eight