The Lab mix was one of the two who’d been cleared for transport to the shelter in O’Fallon, Illinois. Since Olivia had had car trouble, the two women were working out whether they needed to find another driver to get the dogs to the shelter this evening. Some shelters would hold kennel space in emergencies like this, but others wouldn’t.

Olivia headed to an island of trees at the edge of the feed store’s lot, letting the mild-tempered dog sniff around and stretch her legs. Once Olivia stepped from the gravel to the soaked ground, the water began seeping in over the top of the rubber soles of her shoes, and the backs of her calves and thighs grew damp from turning her back to ward off the wind and blowing rain.

Tugging her collar tight, she spotted Gabe headed her way with one of the dogs, a black-and-brown hound of some sort, on a leash and Samson trotting along behind them. He joined her at the island of trees but kept a respectable distance between their dogs. He was wearing a hoodie but didn’t have the hood on, and raindrops were glistening on his dark, cropped-short hair and beading up on his shoulders. Samson paid neither dog any mind, instead trotting over to sniff at the base of a jumbled pile of pallets.

“Do you know what they’re going to have you do?” Olivia asked, her pulse beating a bit faster now that he was joining her.

Gabe offered a crooked smile that drew her attention to a deep dimple on his right cheek. “I guess the call for help they put out turned into a game of telephone. The vet services they needed were pretty basic, and a veterinarian who left an hour ago took care of them already. One dog needed stitches for a cut on his leg, and Rhonda and Karen were trying to determine if one of the cats was pregnant.”

He gave a one-shoulder shrug at her “Oh no.”

“It’s all working out fine. They’ve got their hands full, and the request was put out with a plea for help with basic care, which I can do. And it was nice that I could be there to give you a lift.”

Olivia’s pulse burst into a full sprint. It was nice. In fact, even with the disappointment of her car taking a giant crap and knowing she was going to have to face her family tonight when she’d been hoping not to, meeting Gabe and his dog had affected her in a way she hadn’t felt in a long time.