Patrick gave her that look again as if she were speaking a foreign language but didn’t pursue it. “He’s taking over Dr. Washington’s practice.”

Olivia nodded, not sure of the significance of that to any of this. Suddenly it clicked. “Is he your vet?”

Gabe had said he worked with two different shelters. From her rural, hometown population mind-set, St. Louis was a big city full of countless people she’d never meet, and she knew for a fact there were dozens of shelters in the city and county limits. She’d never considered she might be bringing the pointer to one Gabe was associated with.

“He’s the shelter’s primary vet. He’s taking over for Dr. Washington, who’s retiring. We work with two other vets too. If he were to introduce you to our volunteer coordinator, you could be fast-tracked into the program.”

Olivia could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks, and suddenly it felt as if she were standing on stilts.

“Then you could start walking him,” Patrick added, nodding toward the dog as if she hadn’t understood.

She cleared her throat to keep it from locking. “That would be…incredible. Do you know when Ga…Dr. Wentworth will be here next?”

“He typically comes in the late afternoon on Wednesdays. Last week he got here at two fourteen. The week before it was at five to three.”

Olivia did her best not to blink over the bit about the time of arrival. “Would it… Could I leave a note for him?”

Patrick nodded and looked around the small room. “I can take you back up front. There are paper, pens, and counter space to write.”

Olivia froze as he opened the door. The pointer was staring right at her and whining. She knelt in front of his kennel and pressed the palm of her hand against it. “This isn’t goodbye. I’m going to be back before you know it. Promise.”

His answer was a whine and a wag of his short tail. Sucking in a breath, Olivia stood up and followed Patrick out of the room, surprisingly able to keep her tears at bay. Suddenly, this didn’t feel like a goodbye at all.

It was more like a thrilling and unexpected hello.

Chapter 15

By the time he made it back to the truck after dropping off Olivia’s flowers, Gabe had well over an hour until he needed to be at the vet office and decided to swing by the shelter first. If he had a light caseload there today, perhaps he could block out some time later for the much-overdue conversation with the business consultant he’d hired to review the draft documents for the purchase of the practice.