The Moment of Truth

“Are they particular about whether or not it’s a puppy?”

“They were, but I took L.G. over with me and told them about the work you do, the Love To Go Around thing, and they said they’re willing to take either an abandoned pup, like him, or any other dog that needs a home.”

“Do they have children?”

“No, does it matter?”

She shrugged but didn’t look at him. Didn’t smile. “Some breeds are better with children than others. And some rescue dogs are timid and afraid around children. What size is their backyard?”

“Same as mine. And it has a block fence, as well.”

“Have they ever had a dog before?”

“Ian has. I’m not sure about Amy.”

“I’m sure I can find something for them,” she said, heading out in the yard to scoop up that ridiculously small ball of fur she called a dog. “How soon do they want it?”

“They’re ready now.”

“I’ve got a fifteen-pound, short-haired mix that’s about a year old in foster care. If you give me their contact information, I’ll see what I can do.”

Pulling out his phone, Josh texted her his contact listing for Ian as they headed back inside. She’d said she wanted to see him, but she sure wasn’t acting like it.

“You mad at me?”

“Absolutely not.” She walked in ahead of him and didn’t turn around as she responded. “You want to go for a walk?”

“With the dogs?”

“I thought maybe we could leave them here.” She’d brought a little kennel in with her.

Josh was happy to do anything she wanted to do. He was just glad to see her. But, stopping in front of her, he bent until she was looking him in the eye. “You sure you aren’t mad at me?”

“What do I have to be mad at you about?”

He searched her wide-open gaze and couldn’t find any subterfuge there. “I don’t know,” he said. But he wouldn’t be surprised to find he’d pissed her off. “Maybe I should have done something I didn’t do.”

“I’m not mad at you, Josh,” she said, her tone softening to one he was more familiar with.

“Let’s go for a walk, then.”

Taking a second to change into tennis shoes, Josh set off with her. And realized he couldn’t remember a single time in his entire life when he’d walked just to walk.

Hunched against the chill, Dana half buried her face in the thick black cardigan sweater she was wearing over her jeans and shoved her hands in her pockets.

“I stopped by today because I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Shoot,” he said.

“Many years ago my mother slept with a guy she’d just met. Her mother had just died and she felt all alone in the world. She was in a bar, drinking—my mother never drank—and she told the guy all about her dad being killed in the army when she was a kid. He’d been empathetic and supportive, encouraging her to lean on him for as long as she needed. She ended up spending the night with him, but when she woke up the next morning, he was gone. He’d left no phone number or address, and when she looked him up, there was no listing for him. She figured that he’d lied about his name, that he was married or something. She met Daniel the next day through a mutual friend and they hit it off immediately.”

He’d been perfectly warm earlier in the pullover sweater he’d worn in Ian’s backyard. Suddenly, he was chilled. Dana was going to tell him she’d made a mistake in having slept with him. She’d met someone else. Someone she’d hit it off with immediately.

She stepped up their pace. He was fine with that.

The night air was nice. Walking just for the sake of walking was nice. He was going to do it more.

They turned a corner onto a street that was wider than his, with yards that were larger than his, homes with more square footage than his had, and no sidewalks. Dana started down the side of the street, walking close to the gutter.

“Within three months of meeting, Mom and Daniel were running off to Las Vegas to get married. He had no immediate family, either, at least not that he was close to, and they were eager to move into the same home and start a life together.”

Made sense to him.

And then he remembered what she’d said about Daniel being her stepfather. And his name on her birth certificate.

Obviously Dana’s father was the lowlife who had sex with a grieving drunk woman and then ran off.

Daniel was one hell of a stand-up guy to have married a woman pregnant with another man’s child. He could see why Dana felt beholden to the guy. But her conception hadn’t been her choice. Or her fault, either. She had to see that.