A Daughter's Homecoming

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The more Gabi thought about the situation, the more clearly she saw only one way out. Change had to happen. Even Mama had recognized that. But the only way to make a significant difference would be if Gabi moved forward with her ideas. Mama would see how much better everything was once the changes were made. Wouldn’t she?

Sure, she would.

After all, Gabi was the one who’d done all kinds of traveling in the past five years. She’d seen a whole lot more of the country during those trips than her mother had in twenty years or more. She knew best.

Calling up all her courage, she came to a decision. She was going to forge ahead. Even after Mama’s declaration. Her parents needed it. They needed her to rescue them.

* * *

“Zach!” Claudia called from the waiting room of the shelter. “Just talked to Ryder. He’s got the permits ready to go for the street. The Adoption Fair’s jelling into place with every minute that goes by.”

He didn’t look up from the shelter’s latest rescue. This one had been brought in with a severe skin condition due to months of neglect of her coat and hygiene, rotten teeth and diabetes. He needed to trim off the worst knots in the matted hair to keep the clippers from pulling too hard when he gave the sad little girl the much-needed buzz cut.

“Have you notified all our foster families?” he asked.

“Letters went out last week,” his right-hand woman answered from the doorway where she now stood. “Email alerts out yesterday, and I plan to call them all the day before the event. That should do it. They should all be at the fair to show off their fosters.”

“Sounds good.” He leaned closer to the stray to look at the hot spot he’d discovered. Poor thing had to be going crazy from the itch and pain. Once he cut off all the tangles that pulled at the root of the hair, she should be able to heal.

Satisfied with his inspection, if not happy with the dog’s condition, he glanced up at Claudia. “Did you ask the foster families to get the word out to their friends and neighbors? We need forever homes for these guys. Just look at this one.”

Claudia knelt at his side, her prematurely pewter hair falling in a sleek cascade close to the dog. She grabbed it back with one hand, and let the rescue lick her other hand.

“If I didn’t already have five of my own, I’d take her home with me tonight.”

He shook his head. “Ha! Don’t even think of it. I like Rick, and don’t want to get on his wrong side.” He grinned at the thought of the burly navy officer. “Your husband’s no pushover, you know? Those muscles don’t bode well for me if I do. Besides, I remember him telling you no more strays after the last adoption.”

Standing, she laughed. “Don’t give me that weakling routine. You’re no slouch, yourself, boss. I’ve seen you keep right up with Rick on that canoe, and let’s not forget you beat his socks off when we went skiing. About the adoptions, he’s said no more of them ever since the first one. Just like he said no more kids after the first one.”

Zack arched an eyebrow. “I didn’t know that. I guess you must have been the one with the...oh, let’s call them wishes for abundance. Five of each is a far shot from no more than one.”

She shrugged, a mischievous grin brightening her smooth, copper-colored skin. “He saw the light after I invested in a lot of prayer, and a whole lot of talking was done.”

“You’re stubborn.”

“Just persuasive.”

The front door’s motion sensor chimed, alerting them to the arrival of a potential rescuer. “Gotta get back to work,” she said. “I hear the boss around here is a tyrant.”

“Get out of here,” he said, laughing. “You run this place more than I do.” With the lightest touch, he picked up the hurting dog and placed her on the grooming table in the middle of the room.

As he worked on her coat, he couldn’t stop thoughts of his last rescue from entering his mind. Gabi Carlini’s terrier mix was one special character. The pup had stolen the hearts of everyone at the shelter with his antics and sweet nature. Still, he kept trying to escape at every turn, even after the shelter staff had fortified his kennel to where the thing rivaled Lyndon Point’s Animal Control truck.

At the oddest moment, they would find him either in the storage room gnawing at the sacks of kibble or stuck under the latest addition to the chain-link fence around his outside run. He was one determined little guy, all right.

Brought in by one determined woman. Gabi had called every single day since the night of the great escape, just to check on her rescue. Zach knew she didn’t intend to keep the pup, but in his mind, he was hers. The dog seemed to agree with Zach.

As soon as she’d appear at the shelter to visit him, the terrier would dance and bark with more enthusiasm than any other dog in the shelter had displayed to date. As soon as he was set free, he jumped à la hoops star, bounding around Gabi until she picked him up and hugged him. Then he returned the favor by licking her face all over.

That dog was hers, no matter what she said.

And she was that dog’s human. No matter what she said.

Anyone could see it. She lit up as soon as she saw the little rascal and even more when she cuddled and played with him as though she’d owned him from birth. Although shelter policy mandated the guests be kept leashed during any and all visits, the escape artist showed no interest in going anywhere but to Gabi’s side when she showed up. Zach suspected they could have gotten away without the leash.

Maybe. He was a terrier, after all. Zach wasn’t about to test the well-known terrier bolting instinct, at any rate.

As he reached for the clippers, he heard a familiar voice out front. At the same time, an equally familiar volley of barks sounded from the kennel side of the building. Gabi had arrived, and her dog knew it.

Even though he shouldn’t, he scooped up the new stray, who’d been shaking since he’d set her on the grooming table, and held her close as he returned her to her kennel. It wouldn’t hurt her to relax a little and, instead, would help her handle the upcoming ordeal much better.

And if he told himself that enough times maybe he’d convince himself he was being strictly altruistic here. Truth was that while it would benefit the anxious dog to calm down before going through the extensive grooming, he wanted to see Gabi again. She didn’t draw only her rescue—she also drew Zach, like a steak did a starving stray.

As soon as his charge had curled up on the hammock-like bed in her kennel, he shook off the worst of the dog hair from his blue scrubs and hurried to the kennel side. He found her inside the playroom, where potential adoptive families had the opportunity to interact with the hopeful adoptees.

“Hey there,” he said as he closed the door behind him. “How’s your buddy doing today?”

She arched a graceful brow. “My buddy? He’s not mine, but yours—temporarily.” She turned away from Zach and stared out the room’s glass wall, as he’d noticed she did every time either one of them mentioned the stray’s ownership situation. “He’s going to be a hit at the Adoption Fair.”

Zach tamped down the flare of irritation. “He sure is, and he’ll soon have his own family loving him like he deserves.”

Although she tried to hide it, he saw her wince. “Yeah, that is what he really does need.” She swallowed hard, squeezed the furry toy in her hand to catch the terrier’s attention and then turned to face Zack. “How are the arrangements for the event going? Is everything all set up?”

“Pretty close. Claudia just heard from the mayor. He signed off on closing the street for the day.”

“Oh, wow! You really plan to do this up, don’t you?”

“I’d like to turn it into a seasonal thing, but I have to prove it’ll be a plus for the town. This is only the first one for us.”

“Sure, but I also know Mr. Mayor quite well.” She grinned. “Ryder’s a lifelong friend, and even my six-degrees-of-separation distant cousin. He’s not dumb. Once he sees how well this goes, he’ll jump right on the bandwagon with you. If he hasn’t already.”

“Well, he signed off on everything I needed.”

She raised her shoulders and grinned. “Told ya.”

Zach was charmed. He couldn’t tear his gaze away from her sparkling eyes and animated features as she played fetch with the dog. It wasn’t just her natural beauty that drew him. Gabi Carlini radiated a vibrancy he’d never encountered before. Even her thick, wavy hair seemed to bounce with that same energy.

He crossed his arms. “Tell me. Am I wrong, or have you been here every single day since you brought him in?”

A rosy tint brightened her cheeks, and she tossed the end of her ponytail over her shoulder. “Um...pretty much.” She jammed her hands into her khaki shorts pockets, then gave him a narrow-eyed stare, a mock-stern expression on her face. “I want to make sure you’re doing your job. Gotta do some quality control where my foundling’s concerned, you know?”

Zach struggled to hide a wince. Anytime anyone brought up mention of doing a job right and quality control, his skin felt itchy. The memories of his restaurant were still too raw and close to the surface, and quality...well, it wasn’t always as easy to control as one would think.

He ran a hand through his hair. “We do try to do our best here, and I think we succeed.”

She glanced back through the room’s glass wall and down the aisle of cages, clean and well kept, as he tried to maintain them at all times. “I’d say your best is excellent. There are some real horror stories out there about animal shelters.”

A flare of irritation burst inside him. “Don’t believe everything you read. I’ve volunteered at shelters ever since I was in junior high. Can’t even remember how many of them by now. I’ve never been in one that resembled any of the atrocities you read about in the media. I know the bad ones exist, but not all are bad.”

“Whoa! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m glad you’ve had such great experiences over the years. Is that why you decided to go into— Are you a vet?”

Great. This was going from bad to worse really fast. “Uh...no. I’m just someone who loves animals, have done every kind of job a shelter could throw at me, and found I was good at running one.”

She didn’t reply right away, and he cringed. Now that he thought of it, his explanation sounded really lame. What kind of idiot just sort of bumbles out of career disaster and into running an animal shelter?

A failed gourmet chef and restaurateur kind of idiot, that’s who. He sighed. “Well, it was great to see you again. I have a new intake who needs a whole lot of attention. See you soon.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her confusion. And who could blame her? They’d been talking like perfectly normal people, and then bam! He’d cut her right off.

“Yeah, see ya.” She picked up the squeak toy again. As he stepped out of the room, however, he saw her glance his way again. “Bye.”

Did he imagine it, or was she as reluctant to say goodbye as he was?

Nah. Couldn’t be. She was a kind, decent person and he was damaged.

He hurried toward the utility half of the building, wishing things might be different. Then he would’ve...

What would he have said to the very unsettling Gabriella Carlini?

* * *

Dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Why on earth had she gone back to the shelter? Why couldn’t she stay away?

The dog.

She really got a kick out of the stray, but she had to be honest. She’d wanted to see more than the little terrier. She’d wanted to see the shelter director, too.

Zach Davenport was a very attractive man. And more than just in looks. The way he cared for those animals was unexpectedly endearing. A man with such a heart was one Gabi couldn’t resist.

And she hadn’t really been trying to resist him. Even though she should. Gabi had to remember she was in Lyndon Point only to right the sinking ship otherwise known as Tony’s Pizzeria. She couldn’t afford to let her emotions get tangled up with the shelter, much less the shelter’s director.

“You’re here to turn the restaurant into a chic, gourmet Italian eatery,” she reminded herself as she marched back to Tony’s. “And to move Mama and Papa’s way of doing things into the twenty-first century.”

To accomplish any of that, she had to focus all her attention on stopping the restaurant’s downhill slide rather than on the intriguing man she’d just left. The sooner she had everything cleaned up and headed toward a better future, the sooner she could return to her real life, her job and her hard-won independence.