Page 38 of Hiss and Make Up
“Nope.” Liz shook her head. “I was tempted to drop him off and bring you home without your car, but I think Mr. First Love back here might have it covered. He might even have a better shot at keeping an eye on you.”
“No one said anything about first love.”
Hardly. More like first pain-in-the-butt.
She could feel Marc’s smug smile burning a hole in the back of her head. She sure as hell didn’t need to turn around to see it.
Liz pulled next to Sierra’s car and shifted into park. She propped her arm against the passenger seat again and nodded toward Sierra. “You take care of her. You understand me?”
“Loud and clear,” Marc answered. “Nice to meet you, Liz. Thanks again. Nice to meet you too, Luna.”
Luna nodded and smiled at Marc. Then, Sierra stretched into the back seat for their secret handshake.
“Oh! I almost forgot.” Sierra dug inside her bag and pulled out the turtle bone. “Found this near a trail yesterday. Figured you could add it to your collection.”
Luna’s face lit up like it was powered by a thousand stars. She nearly knocked the cat off her lap as she turned the bone end over end to examine it. Then, she pressed her palms together and bowed her head to thank Sierra.
“Glad you like it.”
Liz mouthedthanksto Sierra, who waved goodbye and exited the car.
“I shouldn’t be back too late.”
Liz glanced back at Marc and whispered, “Maybe youshouldbe late.”
Sierra rolled her eyes.
“Hey, be careful,” Liz said. “I mean it.”
“I promise.” She patted the door as Liz rolled away, leaving them alone beneath the Nature Station.
The station was closed and all the campers were either starting campfires or inside their RVs for dinner. It was usually a pretty quiet scene, especially this time of evening. Any sane hiker knew better than to be out at dusk if they didn’t want to be eaten alive by mosquitoes.
Well, no one except the familiar face she found nosing the ground near her car.
“You again, huh?”
She surveyed the area. No one was looking for him, and the tent she thought he might belong to was long gone.
Sierra squatted beside the dog and let him sniff her hand. She could see now that he was far too skinny to be living off a camper’s hot dogs and burger scraps. It looked like he’d taken a couple of scratches across the nose, and he was missing a little chunk of a dark, floppy ear.
She ran a hand along his back, easily feeling his ribs. Poor dude. And still, he wagged his tail and smiled at her like he'd won the doggy lottery by having a brief moment of her attention.
“Fine. You win.” She opened the door and lifted the dog onto the back seat. After a quick scratch on his head, she found herself smiling at him.
“Whoa, where did that come from? Is it friendly?”
“Look at him.” She laughed. She’d never seen a friendlier stray in her life. “What do you think?”
“You know that thing is probably full of fleas, right?”
“And ticks.”
“What are you going to do with him? I don’t think animal control is still open.”
“I’m not taking him to animal control,” she said, more firmly than necessary. But that was out of the question.
In truth, she had no idea what she would do with this dog. She couldn’t take him home. They didn’t have a fenced-in yard, and he couldn’t stay inside with the cats. But she couldn’t leave him out there.
