What would Ava think? She shook her head hard, sending her long locks tousling over her shoulders. She knew full well what Ava would think. She’d think she’d lost her mind.

Knowing it would be completely useless to attempt to sit around and plan lessons with all these thoughts roaming through her head, she logged off her computer and headed out for the day. She needed to tell Gabe and Ava, and even owed Aunt Becky a call.

But right now, there was something she wanted—no, needed—to do more than anything else.

* * *

Memories of his home flashed through the dog’s mind as he dozed in his kennel in late afternoon. He woke up to the scents of the grasses, birds, and squirrels just beyond reach as his dreams faded.

He’d been here in this new place long enough that he no longer shook with fear at all the strange sounds and smells, and he’d come to trust these unfamiliar people meant him no harm. He was also beginning to trust that the dogs flanking both sides of his kennel weren’t a threat either, no matter how much they’d barked and growled when he was first placed between them. They were beginning to tolerate him just as he was them, though he disliked not being able to move away and claim a space of his own far from where they slept.

His life before coming here had been a solitary one, as far back as he could remember. This life was different. The day here was filled with commotion almost as long as the sun was in the sky. People of all shapes and sizes stopped by his kennel to stare at him and to call out the name that he recognized was distinctly meant to call his attention. Morgan.

Some of them sank to his level and flattened their hands against the metal for him to sniff and even lick when they tasted of food. Others opened the door and clipped a leash to his collar, sometimes taking him outside where he could stretch his legs and catch new and unfamiliar scents on the wind. Other times, like today, he was taken into a small, confined room where strangers were waiting to run their hands along his body and give him commands for savory pieces of food that made his mouth water in anticipation.

Some of the people pleased him; others, like the anxious and loud ones who’d been in the room today, he preferred to get away from as fast as he could. But none of them held the same appeal as the woman whose smell and look and sound and touch were distinctly familiar to him now. When he was awake, and people were coming and going, he watched for her to appear.