He looked her way, his bright hazel-green eyes standing out starkly from the gray skies behind him. “If you’d said anything but that, that’s the only answer you’d have gotten.”

“My sister tells me I’m good at cutting through the bull and getting to the point.”

“I’ve got no reason to disagree.” He drummed his thumb on the steering wheel. “Aside from a close friend who went to vet school with me, you’re the only girl who’s been in that seat for a while. By design.”

Olivia nodded and waited to see if he’d offer more. She had so many questions. They’d reached the end of the road, but the parking lot to the river access was a hundred feet away and underwater. The floodwater was flowing over the road, swallowing it up and reaching halfway up a signpost. If the dog had come this way, most certainly he’d angled off in another direction away from the river.

“I had a fiancée,” Gabe added after a bit of silence. “A serious one. Before I entered vet school. I was a firefighter-EMT with the city. We got engaged a little over a year after getting together.” He shrugged one shoulder. “Half a year into that, I had a bad experience in a fire. Things were going downhill between us before then, I guess. I just didn’t see it.” He scanned the horizon at the water’s edge. There wasn’t a living thing in sight. “Want to get out and walk around, or would you prefer I drive along the road in the other direction first?”

She’d do it if she had to, but Olivia was less than excited at the idea of getting wet again. If only it would stop raining. “I’m good to drive up and down the road once or twice, then we can reconsider our options.”

Gabe slipped the truck into reverse and turned around in the direction of the highway. Samson sat up on his haunches and looked out the window. Without seeming to give it any thought, Gabe cracked the window next to Samson several inches, and the retriever sniffed the air deeply before letting out a little sigh.