And while he longed to be elsewhere again, here he was no longer hungry or thirsty. There was water to drink whenever he wished, and a bowlful of food was delivered each morning and evening. The bustle of activity occupied his day, and in the quiet that fell over the place as evening came on, the dog’s attention was held by the carryings-on in neighboring kennels for longer than it took the sun to sink in the sky.

Finally, he curled deeper into his blanket and gave in to sleep. The dog’s thoughts drifted back to the woman, and when he began to dream, he dreamed of her coming to take him away with her again.

Chapter 17

Two days later, Olivia found herself just as excited to leave school as she had been earlier in the week when she’d headed to New Madrid. Only today, instead of embarking on a long drive, she would soon be headed to the High Grove Animal Shelter and her first shift as a newbie volunteer. And she couldn’t wait.

To make things even better, after a couple hours there, she’d be meeting Gabe for dinner. Dinner with Gabe! The thought had kept a smile on her face and a happy warmth radiating inside her all day. She couldn’t remember experiencing a bubbling-over-with-excitement feeling this intense since a few days before Christmas when she was little.

All day, her students had been picking up on her unusually good mood and had done their best to wheedle out the reason behind it. After finishing a lecture on solving simultaneous linear equations in her last-hour class, the one in which the kids were notoriously more rambunctious than any other class of the day, she finally gave up trying to keep their attention on algebra and pulled up the shelter’s website on the oversize digital screen on the front wall of the classroom. Under the available-for-adoption-soon page were a few pictures of the remarkable pointer.

Olivia had forced herself not to randomly pull up the shelter’s web page over the last two days. Not only did the pictures of the pointer warm her heart, but there was also a link to the video of Gabe’s daring rescue. The adorable photos of the pointer reassured her he was doing just fine. Someone had taken a couple pictures when he was outside in a play yard. One was a close-up of his handsome face and his incredibly warm-brown eyes. In the other, he’d clearly spotted a bird because his short tail stuck straight out, one front paw was tucked up, and he was doing that stalky thing he did.