Kamila felt her stomach drop as she scanned the room. There was chaos—dogs everywhere…including the ones from the adoption room. Staff members were chasing the puppies, trying to get them into crates.

She didn’t see Rohan or Maricel. That was good. But Kamila still wanted to throw up.

It was probably fine. So what if they came together? They were friends.

She finally spotted Maricel, trying to get a leash on a golden retriever. Tim was right—she was positively glowing. Laughing. Happy.

Then Kamila saw Rohan. He also looked happy. He leaned in close to Maricel and said something in her ear. Whatever he said made Maricel blush and smile.

It was true.

But just as Kamila’s heart began the first stages of shattering into thousands of pieces, the door to the church swung open, revealing Jerome wearing a long gray raincoat, and the Afghans, who were wearing very strange, futuristic, full-body hooded red jumpsuits. “It’s really coming down out there. Everyone have a safe—”

While he was talking, Potato came out of nowhere (or, more likely, from the puppy sanctuary) and squeezed between the Afghans, bolting out the door without Jerome or the dogs noticing.

Kamila didn’t think, and just acted. She ran to the door, pushed a confused Jerome out of the way, and bolted after Potato. The church was at one end of the park, but a busy road was right there. Visibility was terrible, thanks to the heavy rain, and Potato was a very light-colored dog.

“Potato!” she screamed, chasing him across the field. Running in a sari wasn’t ideal, but she was grateful for the extra-wide skirt. And grateful she was wearing the sari with blue sneakers instead of sari slippers.

But it was cold and wet, and the Bollywood movies were wrong. There was nothing sexy about wet georgette fabric.

Potato kept running across the grassy field, thankfully away from the road, but the park was big, and Potato was fast.

“Potato!” she screamed again. The dog finally heard and stopped. He turned, cocking his head.

Kamila was afraid to move, knowing enough about puppies to realize that if she continued the chase, he’d only think this was a super-fun game and run faster.

She crouched down, accepting the sari was ruined anyway. “Come here, boy. Come…Who’s a good Potato? Come on, love.”

After Potato stared for a few seconds, he opened his mouth, wagged his tail, and started running full speed toward Kamila. Thank god.

The moment Potato jumped into her arms, large hands reached down and clipped a leash onto the dog’s bow-tie collar. Kamila looked up to see who it was.

Rohan.

“I figured you didn’t have a leash.” He patted the messenger bag he was still wearing. “Lucky I had one right here.”