Page 20 of All I Need

“Hi Walker.”

“What’s wrong?” I ask, rushing across the gravel lot to my pickup. “I’m on my way over.”

“What? Why would there be anything wrong? Why are you on your way?”

I stop in my tracks. “I don’t understand.”

“What don’t you understand?”

“You called me five times.”

“Because I’m excited,” she exclaims so loudly I have to pull the phone away from my ear.

“That’s it?” I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Miss Polly, the day started with Linda telling me that she was retiring because she needs to be home with Roger. My first owner was Brooklyn bringing in Matilda because she pooped more than normal. I was a little on edge, to say the least, and then I see that you had called me five times today which sent me into a panic that you were hurt or needed help.”

“Linda quit?”

I quiet my voice even though no one is around to hear, “Yeah. Found out Roger has prostate cancer.”

“No,” she breathes.

I drag my teeth over my bottom lip and briefly consider returning to my office to finish up a few things, knowing I’ll be going home to a quiet house since Willow isn’t working so Grayson’s with her. When Grayson isn’t with me, I tend to work too much and I’ve been at the clinic long enough for the day so I beep the lock on my pickup and hop in. I start it up and sit back in the seat. “Yeah. It wasn’t exactly a great way to start the day.”

“I’ll bring her a pie,” she says as if that fixes everything. Which, to Miss Polly’s credit, her pies do fix a lot. “I had no idea he wasn’t feeling well.”

“They’re pretty private people,” I remind her. “And it’s not as if her retiring is a complete surprise. She’s ready.”

“Hmm.”

The way she hums tells me she’s thinking of more than just the sad news about Roger. “So anyway, what were you excited about?”

“I get to keep her,” she shouts into the phone without missing a beat.

My heart picks back up, beating so hard I can feel it in my neck. “I assume you mean Ellie has decided to stay around?” It’s killed me but all week long I stayed away. Not once did I stop in, even though my pickup turned down Polly’s street on more than one occasion for no reason other than it’s like it read my mind and knew I wanted to see Ellie.

Polly texted me, something she’s not incredibly proficient in but has gotten a bit better at because she wants to talk to Grayson more often. Her texts were a little out of order but from what I gathered, Ellie was still in town, she was sleeping a lot, and they’d been talking. The last time she texted me she simply said: She’s getting better every day.

I didn’t want to dig deeper and figure out why that made me so happy.

“Yup, well, at least for a while but, isn’t that great? She said she has nowhere else to go!”

“Polly,” I chuckle, “that sounds far from great.”

“Oh shush. You know what I mean. Of course, I wish that she had family waiting for her but she doesn’t so I’m keeping her and she’s going to find family with us.”

I let her words settle in, my heart cracking a little bit at the knowledge that she has no family. I stare through the windshield of my pickup at the barn behind the clinic that I use for large animals. “No family?”

“She didn’t explain, just said that she doesn’t have anywhere else to go.”

“Shit.”

“There’s more to her story, Walker. And now she’s going to stay here and I plan on being there for her.”

“When did she decide this?”

“I’d like to think last Sunday night. We sat on the back porch and talked after you stormed out and I sent Willow and Grayson home with that pie you should have stayed around to eat. Which, don’t think you’re getting away with not explaining why you felt the need to rush away.”

“Wait, you gave Grayson the whole pie?”

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