The next several minutes passed in a blur. After seeing that the pointer was curled atop his wadded-up blanket at the back of his crate and falling into a doze, Olivia figured it was best not to disturb him with a goodbye that would serve her more than it would him.

“Sweet puppy, you’re safe now.”

She refused to let herself think she wouldn’t see him again. The shed was full of deserving dogs with their own touching stories, but this one now mattered to her more than any dog had in a long time.

“I’ll check in with you tomorrow,” she promised Rhonda and Karen as she and Ava joined the group before heading out. “I understand everything has to be done within the confines of the law, but I have huge reservations against him going back to that house.”

“Me too,” Gabe agreed.

Rhonda gave them a reassuring look, complete with a gentle smile and a little nod, reminding Olivia of how she herself must appear at parent-teacher conferences when meeting with parents of kids with bigger-than-average struggles. “With that pen of his collapsing like you said, and the fact that yard won’t be habitable for some time after the water recedes, there’s a chance he could be surrendered even if his owner does come forward.”

With nothing else to do, Olivia determined to hold onto this.

Her sister jangled her keys, switching them from hand to hand. Suddenly Olivia realized she wasn’t just leaving the dog, she was leaving Gabe too. She cursed herself for bringing up her past and not finding time to finish the story. Now she was leaving him with two very distinct images: the girl who’d initiated a make-out session in the middle of the day on a public road that culminated in her crawling onto his lap, and the girl who’d walked out on a guy three weeks before a wedding.

Why did you blurt out that you had, you idiot? The truth was, even if she’d had another ten or twenty minutes to explain herself, there was a good chance she wouldn’t see him again. Not only did they live on opposite sides of metro St. Louis, but he was a new vet taking over a practice and working exhausting hours, and she was still establishing herself as a teacher and crossing her fingers her contract would be extended and she wouldn’t need to come crawling back here where she’d forever be the girl who all but left Trevor Jones at the altar.

She swallowed hard. The thought of never seeing Gabe again had her throat tight and dry and tears stinging the backs of her eyes for the second time in a half hour. But crying over a guy she’d only known for a handful of hours seemed a touch more pathetic than crying over a mistreated dog.