Page 31 of Kent's Watch
“I understand. In town there are more people to look, or question. In the wilderness the locals won’t be answering any questions.”
“Locals?” Rita frowned at his wording.
“You know,” Kent smirked. “Bears, deer, squirrels, the locals.”
Rita couldn’t help it, she threw her head back and laughed until she had tears streaming down her face. “I don’t mean to laugh at you, but I could picture Jim walking up to a moose and asking if it had seen so and so.” They laughed together for several moments. Rita wiped her eyes and shook her head. “Now, about the other matter we discussed two days ago.”
“What matter is that?” Kent frowned at her.
“Bringing in your friends if needed.”
“Ah, what did you decide?”
“When I got home after dropping you off, my father was at my house. Nothing wrong, he shows up when he’s bored. Anyway, he cooked dinner for us, and I told him what we did and how you’d called in your friends. He’s going to look into the matter and get back to me about calling your buddies in if we need them.”
“Okay, I can deal with that. I’m going over there after I leave here, I can give them a heads up. You know, to see if they’d really want to help. Based on what we did as a living while in the military, I don’t see them saying no.”
“Why don’t you get their answer while Dad does what he has to. In the meantime, could I have their phone numbers?” she asked, and handed him her phone. “Just in case we need them.”
Kent nodded as he took her phone and programmed their numbers in from memory. As he handed it back to her, their fingers touched, and they held on a little too long. Kent cleared his throat. “If they agree to help when needed, would it be okay for me to give them your phone number? This way if you call, your name should pop up and they’d answer it faster than an unknown number.”
“Yes, you have my permission to give it out.” She paused as she cocked her head and scowled at him. “But you have to stress that it’s for work only, no random calls to ask me out on a date.”
“All of the guys except for Ryder and myself are hooked up with someone.” Kent smiled, then asked, “Can I call to ask you out on a date?” Before she could answer, he held up his hand with a grin. “Or can I ask you now? I’d like to take you out to dinner on Friday night.”
“I don’t have any plans. Where would you like to go?”
“Is there any place local? Other than Mattie’s diner?”
“We could go out to Gunny’s bar. He’s Jake Cogburn’s father-in-law. He and RJ run a small ranch, and a bed and breakfast. They have a bar the locals go to. Wait, they don’t serve food.”
“Why don’t we go to Mattie’s, then out to Gunny’s?”
“We can do that. Do you want to meet at Mattie’s?”
“Can I pick you up at six?”
“Sure,” Rita said, and gave him her address. After taking the box from the desk, he used it to salute her. He and Tate left her then. Kent couldn’t wipe the grin off his face. Outside Kent let Tate do his business, he cleaned up after him, then loaded him in the truck. Instead of going home, he headed toward The Centre. Twenty minutes later, he and Tate walked in the front door. He paused when he heard a squeal, and a teenage girl came dartingtoward her. It shocked Kent that she stopped on a dime and stared at him.
“Mister, may I pet your dog?”
“Who are you?”
“Chloe Rafferty. No, that’s not right, I’m now Chloe Barnes, Dad adopted me.” She turned and pointed to a man behind her. Kent looked up and grinned when he saw Spencer standing there.
“Yes, you may pet him.” Kent told the girl, but went on to explain. “If he had been wearing his orange vest, then the answer would have been no.”
Chloe looked at him with large eyes. “Is he a service dog?”
“He’s being trained as one.”
“For what?”
“Search and rescue.”
“Cool, does he know Miss Rita?”
“He does.” Kent smiled at the teenager. “I got Tate from her, and we are learning together how to do search and rescue.”
