Page 78 of Surfside Sisters

“I volunteer several days a week at Safe Harbor, the shelter for animals waiting for adoption. Remember Fido? He went to dog heaven a few years ago. I can’t keep a dog in my apartment. But the shelter always has several animals waiting here. I come out to take the dogs for a walk, to spend some human time with them. It makes them happy, and it makes me happy. I thought you’d enjoy it, too.”

“I do like dogs…”

“Come on,” Sebastian said. “Wait till you meet the gang.”

They went around the side of the building. There, in large, clean, wire pens were four dogs of various sizes and breeds.

Sebastian led Keely into the office, which was filled with smaller cages, each one home to a cat.

“Sebastian!” Nadine, the manager, jumped up and hugged Sebastian. “Hooray, you’re here. The beasts are so ready.”

“Nadine, I’ve brought a friend to help. You remember Keely Green from school.”

“Sure do.” Nadine folded Keely in her arms, then held her away, studying her. “Okay, you’ll get Missy. She’s the quietest of them all. Sebastian, you can take whoever you want. But remember, both of you, when you’ve got them outside on leashes, they have to obey you. You can’t let them run off like they want to do.”

“But we can run with them, right?” Sebastian asked.

“Right. And don’t forget these.” She handed them each a plastic bag. “For picking up doggie doo,” Nadine told Keely.

So Keely spent most of her afternoon on one end of a green leash with a small mixed-breed female dog who preferred sitting in Keely’s lap and being petted to running alongside Sebastian and his leaping, twisting, barking, hyperactive hound. Keely did get Missy to take a nice long walk, and at one point in the afternoon, she leaned against a tree with Missy licking her face and watched Sebastian on the ground, wrestling with a deliriously happy rottweiler/who-knew-what mix named Mike Tyson.

“Who’s a pretty girl?” Keely asked the small furry creature as she scratched Missy’s pink belly while Missy lay with her eyes closed in ecstasy. Missy really was pretty, with curly white hair and a black button nose. Keely envisioned buying her a pink collar with rhinestones and giving her to her mother. That would get Eloise out of the house!

In the distance, two other volunteers romped with two other dogs, a greyhound and a black Lab.

“They’re not as pretty as you,” Keely whispered in Missy’s ear. Missy wagged her tail in agreement.

When the time came to return the dogs to their kennels, Missy turned in the doorway and shot Keely a beseeching look.

“She likes you,” Nadine said. “She hasn’t liked anyone the way she likes you.”

“I can’t,” Keely said, backing away. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be on the island, and I don’t have room for a dog in my apartment in the city.”

But when she turned away, she was surprised to find she was tearing up. She wiped her eyes before Sebastian could see her, but obviously he detected her mood because he put a strong, sustaining arm around her shoulders and pulled her against him. “Now it’s time for a cool mojito and some nachos.”

Keely swept her hand over her shirt. “I’m covered in dog hair.”

“Brush it off,” Sebastian said sensibly. “Anyway, half the people on the island are tracking sand in on their clothes. No big deal.”

They went to Cru, a restaurant down on Straight Wharf, where they sat inside, looking out at small fishing boats gliding in to tie up at the dock. Once they’d ordered their drinks, Sebastian took out his phone and studied it.

“Something important?” Keely asked.

“Very important. I just double-checked. The new Star Wars movie is on at seven on the big screen. If we eat fast, we can make it.”

Keely leaned back in her chair. “So this date we’re having includes a movie, too?”

Sebastian gave her a sleepy-eye look. “This date we’re having can go on all night if you want.”

Keely laughed. “Still the same old Sebastian.”

Reaching over, he took her hand. “Not the same old Sebastian at all. I think you’ll find I’m the new, improved model.”

He drew his thumb in a delicate swirl on her palm, such a soft touch to cause such an explosion of longing in Keely’s body. She didn’t pull away. She’d been waiting for this moment all her life. She didn’t want to ruin it by being simply too afraid to go into the moment, to really be there. She was almost thirty, after all. She wasn’t an ingénue.

She smiled back at him, slowly. “I always enjoy sampling what’s new and improved.”

“Excuse me,” the waiter said.

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