Blue Colla Make Ya Holla (22 page)

“What’s up?” Riley says when I get to the shop. “Didn’t you have those clothes on yesterday?”

“Seriously, dude, you pay that much attention to what I’m fucking wearing?” I open up my tool chest and start pulling out what I need. I’m starting on Marlie’s bike today.

My brother narrows his eyes at me. “It’s her, isn’t it?” he guesses.

“Who?”

“Don’t play stupid, man. You’re hooking up with Marlie?”

“Yeah, we’re working on getting back together.”

He shakes his head in disbelief. “She’s gorgeous, I’ll give ya that. But what about what happened when you were in prison? For fucking her.”

I glare at him. “We talked about that; it wasn’t her fault. That’s all you need to know. And that shit that happened when we were kids was my fault. I should have known better than to be having sex with her at her age, no matter how we felt about each other. I was young and dumb.”

“Well, you’re not now, so I’m gonna trust you know what you’re doing. She seems to have her head together at least, unlike that twit at the front desk you were dipping into a while back.”

I wave my hand at him. “Please, don’t remind me.” Bile rises in my throat remembering the brief stint with that chick.

“If Marlie can make your miserable ass happy, you’ve got my support, man. How fucking cool would it be to end up with the chick you grew up with? The first chick you did? It’s kinda cool. And she rides.” He nods at her bike. “She’s kinda bad ass.”

“Don’t get any ideas,” I warn him. “And next time you see Lisa fucking off up front, fire her. She’s useless up there, and Pop hates her.”

“With pleasure.” He smirks. “I love to fuck up peoples’ days.”

On my lunch break, I call the veterinary hospital and ask to speak to Dr. Ackerman.

“Can I help you?” she inquires politely when she takes the phone.

“I’m the guy who caught the little black dog the other night, me and Marlie brought him in.”

“Oh yes, I remember you.”

“Can you tell me how he’s doing?”

“He’s doing wonderfully. He’ll take a few months to recover fully, but he’s a terrific little dog. No owner has been found, so I believe Marlie will be taking him to her shelter when he’s ready to be adopted. He’s a very sweet dog. Great job catching him; you saved his life.”

“I’d like to pay for his medical bills anonymously, if that’s all right?”

“Of course, that is very generous of you. We have a payment plan worked out with Marlie for her rescued pets, but as I’m sure you know, all her funds come from donations, so money can be tight at times, especially when there is a case like this where the expenses are high. We do give a discount as much as we can. It would help her immensely to have this bill taken care of, I do have to admit that.”

“Consider it done.”

After I hang up I send a text to Marlie’s phone:

T:
Just thinking about you, beautiful. Dinner tonight?

M:
I would love dinner with you xox

T:
Six okay for you?

M:
That’s perfect! Should I cook? More grilled cheese? :)

T:
LOL Tempting but no. I’m taking you out

M:
Can’t wait!

Last time I took Marlie out to dinner it was to a cheap fast food diner, so I’m looking forward to having a real date with her now and treating her like a princess.

Marlie

‡

O
n my way
to the shelter Monday morning, I make a quick stop at the veterinary hospital to check the little black dog. I barely recognize him when they bring him into the exam room and set him on the floor with me. One of the techs had given him a bath, and now sitting in front of me is a tiny black puffball with big black eyes and a curly, fluffy tail. He’s tiny underneath all the poof, and I can pretty much hold him in one hand.

“Oh my God,” I exclaim to Dr. Ackerman. “I cannot handle the cuteness of this dog! How on earth does an adorable little dog like this end up lost with no owner to be found?” I gently pick him up and cradle him in my arms, and he just relaxes there against me.

“It happens more than I care to think about. He’s doing great though; you can take him home tomorrow. His leg just needs to heal. His ear infection is clearing up, all ticks are gone, he tested heartworm negative. We have some supplements for him to help get his nutrition back up, but he’s going to make a full recovery. He had two bad teeth that we extracted, and we gave him a good dental cleaning. I’m guessing he’s about four years old, and a purebred Pomeranian.”

“Thank you so much for caring for him. I love him.” I lean down and kiss his little head.

“He looks pretty content with you. Maybe you should adopt him?” she hints, grinning at me.

I beam at her. “I was just thinking that, but isn’t that bad? To keep one we rescued? I don’t want to become one of those rescuers who ends up keeping all the pets.”

She laughs. “I think in this case it’s totally fine and acceptable. He’s going to need a lot of love, and you can give him that. And how can you give up a dog your boyfriend saved for you? If a man who looked like that caught a dog for me, I would never let him or the dog go.”

My boyfriend.
I like how that sounds.
And Dr. Ackerman is right, how can I possibly give this little guy up when Twist saved him?

“All right,” I relent. “This will be my first adoption failure. I have to keep him.”

“Congratulations. Oh—and we received an anonymous donation; his bill has been taken care of in full.”

A huge smile spreads over my face as I hand the dog back to her. Anonymous donation? I know exactly where that came from, and he’s going to get a big kiss for this.

*

“We just got
a call you need to hear about,” Wendy says as soon as I step foot into the shelter.

“Uh oh, what’s wrong? You look serious.”

“I am. Very. A woman called and said she thinks her neighbors are running some kind of beginner’s dogfighting in their back yard. She said there’s a hurt dog tied up back there.”

“Oh shit,” I say, as fear clenches me. Dogfighting is something I had hoped never to have to deal with. It’s evil on so many levels I cannot even wrap my head around it.

“We’re going to have to check it out. Has she called the police?”

“She’s afraid to. You know how this stuff goes. Nobody wants to get involved. She says the guys she has seen are young—like early twenties. Maybe we can just go in there nicely and tell them we are taking the dogs, and if they relinquish them, we won’t get the police involved. That might be the best way to tackle this.”

“Sounds good. Let’s take the van over there now and see what’s up.”

The house with the dogfighters is in a bad area of town, so Wendy and I are both nervous. We enter the yard next to the house in question and peer over the fence, and sure enough, there is a dog tied to a tree, and the animal appears to have puncture wounds seeping fresh blood.

“This isn’t good,” I say to Wendy. “I feel very nervous about this.”

“Me too. I don’t want to get shot out here in the ghetto.”

“Me either, but we have to get that dog. He’s hurt.”

Thinking quickly, I say, “I’m going to call a friend and see if he can come help us. I’d feel better if we had a man with us.”

“Good idea,” Wendy agrees.

I call Twist and tell him what’s going on.

“Marlie, I’ll be over there in fifteen minutes. Do not approach any of those people, okay? You wait for me.”

“I promise, we’ll wait. I’m so sorry to bother you with this, I didn’t know who else to call.”

“Don’t worry about it. Just stay put.”

Soon we hear the telltale roar of two bikes coming down the street, stopping to park behind my van. Twist and Riley get off their bikes and walk towards us looking like two huge muscled wrestlers covered in ink—and each of them wearing a gun on their hips.

“You have a
gun
?” I whisper to Twist. “Are you crazy?”

“You’re in the fucking ghetto,” Riley interrupts. “There’s a lot of drugs and shit here. Trust me, we’re not going to shoot anyone.”

“Maybe we should just leave?” Wendy suggests nervously.

“No,” Twist replies, looking up at the house. “We’re not leaving an injured dog here to get mutilated and killed.”

Riley smacks his brother on the shoulder. “Let’s go. You ladies stay here.”

“Holy crap those guys are hot!” Wendy whispers to me as we watch the guys approach the front door.

A guy who looks to be about twenty answers the door. We can hear Riley’s deep menacing voice from the street, and the kid is getting paler by the minute.

A few moments later, Twist is coming back towards us. “They’ve got two dogs inside and one outside. We told them if he gives them to us we won’t contact the cops, but we’ll be watching him to make sure he doesn’t try this crap again. You have your cages?”

“Yeah, in the back of the van. Are the dogs manageable or are they viscous?”

“The kid said they’re friendly. He and his dumb friends were trying to force them to fight.”

“Stupid kids!” I say, pissed off, as we open up the back of the van. “The dogs will have to be taken to the vet and checked out and then evaluated for temperament. We can’t adopt out dogs with behavior problems.”

Riley and Twist bring the two dogs out on leashes and load them into the cages. They’re wagging their tails, so I hope they will pass our behavior testing. Twist and I go to the backyard to get the injured dog, who’s cowering and shaking.

“Fucking asshole kids,” Twist swears, gently holding his hand out. The dog sniffs but makes no move to bite or growl. Twist unhooks his chain from around the tree and gently guides the dog into the cage and carries it to the van.

“I think we scared the shit out these kids,” Twist says when all the dogs are loaded up.

“Fuck yeah,” Riley agrees. “You ladies are gonna need us to help you with shit like this.”

“He’s right,” Wendy agrees. “When we have to get abused dogs tied up in yards, and situations where we have to confront owners to get them to let us take the dogs, having guys like this with us is going to help us a lot.”

Twist grins at me. “Looks like you just got two new volunteers,” he says, putting his arm around my waist.

“You two really want to help us with this stuff?” I ask in disbelief.

“I do. I’ll beat down any punk who’s hurting a defenseless animal,” Riley says. “Nobody says no to me.”

“He’s got a point,” Twist adds.

“Alright then, looks like you guys are joining the rescue team.”

“Now that our work here is done, we got bikes to build,” Riley says. “Kiss your chick and let’s go.”

Twist walks me over to the side of the van and kisses me. “We’re gonna help you with situations like this, okay, baby? You can’t do all this alone, not with things like this.”

“You’re right. You guys are awesome for helping.”

“We’re gonna make a great team in every way, I promise you that, Marlie.” He kisses me again, his hands cupping my ass and pulling me against him. “I can’t wait to see you tonight. Get these dogs taken care of and then go home and make yourself pretty for me. We’re going for our first romantic dinner, and then I’m taking you home to ravish you.”

I beam up at his smiling face. “Oooh. Now that sounds great.”

Wendy and I watch the guys ride away and then get in the van to get the dogs taken care of.

“That’s your boyfriend? You are one lucky girl, Marlie.”

I smile and nod at her. “Yup. I fell in love with him when I was five years old.”

I can’t stop smiling as Wendy drives us to the animal hospital. Everything is going to be okay, I can just feel it deep in my heart and in my soul. Twist loves me, and wants to be part of my life again. I look down at the ring on my finger that Twist gave me so long ago, and I know that promise is never going to be broken.

The End