“I was thinking it was sad about your parents. My mom is my best friend, and my dad…” She closed her eyes for a second as she thought about Trace Bancroft. “He’s the greatest.”
“You’re lucky, then.”
“I know, but I only met him a few years ago,” she admitted.
“So he’s your stepdad?” he asked.
“No, he’s my biological father.”
He threw her a confused look. “And you just met him?”
She took a breath, almost ready to share her strange family story, but did she trust him? Did she even know him? After a moment, she shrugged and looked away, shifting her attention to Tor, who was pulling on the leash a little harder than he had been, his attention locked on a store just ahead.
“Oh, the pet store,” Pru said, gesturing to The Animal House. “Should we attempt our first Random Act of Christmas Kindness in there?”
He looked a little dubious. “You think I should trust Tor…nado?”
She laughed at the nickname and touched the dog’s long face, which didn’t require her to bend much. His head practically reached Pru’s chest. “Okay, doggo, here’s the deal,” she said. “You behave, and you get a treat.”
His tail whipped back and forth as he looked up at her with sweet brown eyes. “You know what a treat is?” she asked.
“He knows what a pretty girl with a kind voice is.”
Her heart did an unexpected flip at the compliment. “Well, do you think he’ll follow the rules?”
“I’ll hold him tight. What’s your RACK plan?”
She had to smile, appreciating that he was into the school project enough to use the nickname. Flipping her backpack around, she unzipped a side pocket. “What you suggested. I’m going to buy a bunch of treats, and then we can take them over to that indoor dog park and give them to little kids to hand to the dogs. Sound kind?”
“Sounds like a recipe for a lawsuit if one of the dogs bites a kid.”
She gasped. “I never thought of that! You have a better idea? ’Cause your dog ate all of mine.”
Laughing, he looked into the store and thought for a moment. “You have money for this?”
“I have fifty dollars, but I don’t want to spend it all in one store.”
He nodded. “Let’s give those dog stickers you mentioned to ten kids, each with a dollar to buy a dog treat, or do whatever they want with the money.”
She thought about that and nodded. “Probably not worth a truckload of points, but we’ll make some kids happy. You want to stay out here with Tor and maybe take some pictures of me for the app?”
“I don’t have a phone, remember?”
“Oh yeah. Well, you do the store stuff, then.” She dug into the side pocket of her backpack and grabbed her wallet, taking out a ten.
“I can get it,” he said, reaching into his back pocket.
“Next one. I’ve saved money just for this project.” She also gave him the roll of stickers her mother gave to kids who came into her vet office with sick pets. “You’ll just need to get ones from the cashier.”
“Wow,” he said under his breath. “Smart and generous.”
She smiled, self-conscious as she handed him a ten-dollar bill. “Just…you know, resourceful.”
“Take a compliment, Pru.” He took the ten she handed him and playfully used it to brush under her chin. “I don’t throw them out at just anybody.” With a quick smile, he gave her the leash. “Do your dog training magic on Tor. He sure could use it.”
As he walked away, she tugged the big dog closer, rubbing his head and steadying her breath. “So, Tornado,” she whispered, staring at Lucas’s broad shoulders in the leather jacket, his wayward long hair over the collar, his easy stride of confidence. “Your human is quite the surprise. A very pleasant surprise.”
He fidgeted a little, his gaze as locked on Lucas as Pru’s was.
She watched him enter the store and head toward the counter, slowing to look down at something that had a small group gathered around it.
“Puppies?” Pru guessed, letting the dog lead her a little bit closer. “We can peek, but don’t go too close.”
Lucas looked out toward her and pointed at whatever was on the floor. “You gotta see this,” he mouthed.
Oh, and there went the butterflies, out of control at the very slightest connection she seemed to have with this kid. Only it wasn’t slight. Or was she imagining that?
She was drawn to him like Tor was drawn to the pet store and what she imagined were some very enticing scents. “Easy, boy,” she said, tightening her grip on the leash. “What is it?” she called to Lucas.
“Puppies.”
As she’d thought. “Cute?”
He rolled his eyes like there was no way to describe how cute.
“Let’s just take a peek, Tor.” She took a few steps closer as Lucas went to the counter to get the change. “I love me some puppies.”
As she got right at the entrance to the store, a few kids stepped away from the puppy bin, giving Pru a direct view into small cage full of five or six puppies of various breeds. A little yellow Lab, a tiny beagle, a Yorkie that could fit in her pocket, and, oh, was that a doxie?
“Look, Tor! A dachshund like your new friends, Pyggie and Gala.” She was barely aware that she was inching closer until a woman in a red jacket with the store logo gestured to her.
“Dogs are welcome,” she said. “And he is stunning.”
“Isn’t he?” she said with a surprising amount of pride. “This is Tor, a greyhound.”
“Racer?” she asked.
“I…guess, yeah. He’s not mine.” She glanced at Lucas, watching him talk to the cashier and show him the stickers, no doubt explaining what they were doing, then at the six puppies cuddled behind a small wire fence.
“Well, bring him in and let him sniff,” the lady said.
Sniff and…destroy.
But Tor seemed pretty chill, his laser focus on the puppies, staring hard at the one with long, floppy ears. “Oh, you like the basset, huh? Hound to hound, I guess.”
He answered by pulling her closer to the small pen, and a few of the people around it automatically made space for the sizable dog. Tor lowered his head, sniffing, smashing his nose to the metal wires of the crate. Well, not exactly a crate, just one of those free-standing circle fences that her aunt Ella used at Bone Appetit to contain customers’ dogs.
“You should probably be the one gated, Tor,” she murmured, holding tight to his leash.
But he wasn’t at all jumpy. In fact, he lowered himself to the ground and got nose to nose with the little chestnut and white basset baby, who seemed just as interested in him.
“Aww!”
“Look at those two!”
The people around them fussed, but Tor stayed riveted. Pru looked up and caught Lucas’s eye as he fanned out the dollar bills in one hand and the roll of stickers in the other.
“Here I go,” he said. “Take pictures so we get credit.”
She fished out her phone, putting the leash under her sneaker so Tor wouldn’t get away.
Then Lucas stepped toward a little girl about six years old and said to her mom, “I’m with a local high school doing Random Acts of Christmas Kindness. Can I give a sticker and a dollar to your daughter? She can use it to buy a treat for the dogs in the mall.”