Chapter Twelve
“I’m excited to watch you with the dogs,” Rachel said as she sunk back into the seat of the Uber that Gabe had called to take them to the animal shelter where he said he’d started volunteering about a week ago. She was happy that her words weren’t a complete lie. She was excited to get to spend time with Gabe and watch him play with puppies. What could be cuter than that? But she was also slightly worried that it was taking her off track.
There was a finite amount of time for her to get this story, and hanging out in an animal shelter wasn’t going to get her closer to finding out more about who was running the club. But she’d have to be patient and hope it paid off. Looking over at Gabe, she watched him run a hand through his short hair.
“Yeah, I’m excited too,” he said in a tone that was utterly devoid of excitement.
Her brow furrowed. “Is today a bad day? You seem a little…off.”
Gabe looked over at her. “No, no, today’s fine. Sorry. Guess I’m a little nervous about being interviewed,” he said with a shy smile she hadn’t seen on him before.
“Really? You always seem to love being the center of attention.”
“I do… sometimes.” Gabe turned to look out the window for a second before returning his gaze to her. “I guess I’m complicated,” he said with a smirk that was more signature Gabe.
“I’ll be sure to detail your complexity in my article,” she joked.
He returned her smile, but it seemed strained.
Rachel put a hand on his arm and squeezed. “I’m kidding. I know there’s a lot to you beyond the professional baseball player. That’s what I want to show people. That behind the cocky exterior is a real man who has concerns and hopes and fears just like everyone else.”
“What if I like people only seeing the cocky exterior?” he asked.
Rachel bit the inside of her cheek. She’d been so excited when she’d thought of writing an article on retired athletes and including Gabe, she’d kind of bulldozed him with the idea. She hadn’t given him much opportunity to refuse, and now that she saw how nervous he seemed, she was sorry for it. The last thing she wanted was to stress him out. Rubbing her thumb back and forth on his arm, she smiled warmly. “If you’re not up for this, Gabe, it’s no problem. It’s not too late for me to find someone else. I need to find three others anyway. I enjoy spending time with you, and this allowed me to have the best of both worlds. But I don’t want to make you miserable just so I can get a story.”
Gabe sighed and returned her smile. “I’m not miserable. And I like spending time with you, too.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.” He patted the hand she still had on his arm. “I just don’t like the idea of someone putting their tongue all over you, even if it’s only a dog.”
They laughed for a moment before their gazes locked and held for a heated moment. Rachel felt warmth flood her body as she stared into the deep brown orbs that always looked at her so fondly.
“Here we are,” the driver said, causing them both to jolt out of the trance they’d been caught in.
Rachel looked out the window at the Center City Animal Shelter they’d pulled up in front of. It was a dank, gray building that looked like it was in desperate need of some TLC. A woman emerged holding four dogs on leashes. Rachel’s door opened suddenly, startling her.
Gabe held out a hand to her. “Ready?”
Putting her hand in his, she got out of the car. They approached the building with their fingers interlaced until they reached the door. Gabe pulled it open and gestured for her to go in first. Inside, there was another door that they needed to be buzzed through. Once they made it all the way inside, Rachel found herself at a reception desk, where an older blond woman sat smiling at them.
“Can I help you?” the woman asked.
Gabe moved in front of Rachel so he could speak to the woman. “Uh, yeah. My name is Gabe Torres. I’m here to volunteer.”
Rachel was a little surprised the woman didn't know Gabe already, but chalked it up to the woman perhaps not having been working when Gabe had volunteered before.
“Of course! Welcome,” the woman gushed. “I didn’t recognize you without your uniform on,” she said, an obvious element of flirting infused into her tone. “I’m Sheila. I’ll call for Micah to come give you a tour.”
“Thank you,” Gabe said as he turned back to face Rachel.
“Haven’t you been here before?” Rachel asked.
“What?”
“You told me you’d been volunteering. Why would you need a tour of a place you’ve been?”
Gabe’s eyes darted around before landing back on her. “I, um, I was pretty much still in the planning phase of volunteering. This was one of the one I looked into helping out at, but I haven’t actually been here yet.”
“So you haven’t been to this shelter yet?”
“Nope.” He shrugged. “I figured it would be fun to start at a new place together.”
Rachel smiled at Gabe’s cuteness. “Do you think you’ll keep any of them?” she asked.
“Any of what?”
Rachel couldn’t help but laugh at how weird Gabe was being. “The dogs.”
“Oh. Right. The dogs. No, no, I wouldn’t be a very good dog owner. I’m not home enough to take care of them well, and I also didn’t want to choose only one. It might make the other dogs feel bad. Plus, my building doesn’t allow them. They only made an exception for the fostering since I wasn’t keeping them there permanently. I thought sending them somewhere they could find good homes would be better.”
“Oh okay. That makes sense. I guess.” It didn’t make a whole lot of sense to Rachel, but who was she to judge?
Micah came up, a smiling guy who looked like he was in his early twenties and had curly blond hair. “Hi, guys. Ready to get to work?” he asked as he rubbed his hands together.
“Yup. Totally. Can’t wait,” Gabe said as he quickly followed Micah.
Rachel trailed behind them, wondering what she’d gotten herself into.
***
Gabe was trying—and failing—to pretend he wasn’t making all this shit up as he went along. Rachel had so many questions, and it was stressing him out. He should’ve expected it. She was a journalist, after all. He’d meant to volunteer once or twice before she tagged along, but he’d been so busy with things at the club, he hadn’t had any time to follow through on it.
Micah bopped along in front of them, pointing out the different places where the animals were housed and cared for. He was so young and carefree. Gabe hated him. It wasn’t helping Micah’s case that he kept directing all his attention to Rachel. Gabe wanted to lather him in peanut butter and lock him in with the aggressive dogs he’d seen earlier.
“And this is where you’ll be working today,” Micah said enthusiastically as he used his keycard to unlock a door.
Gabe walked in to see a bunch of deep tubs and tall tables. A few people were working on dogs, clipping their nails and combing matts out of their fur.
“We’ve chosen a few of our gentler dogs for you guys to wash. Janice over there,” Micah said as he gestured at an older woman with graying hair, “will help you. But it’s pretty self-explanatory. I’ll bring a dog out for each of you. You’ll bathe them and then hand them off to the groomers who will do the rest. Sound good?”
No, it sounds close to my worst nightmare. In theory, Gabe liked dogs. In reality, he was scared to death of them. He was hoping the shelter workers would have them clean out kennels or something. Anything that didn’t involve him having to touch the dogs. But this was up close and personal, and he wasn’t into it. Not that he could tell anyone that. As far as Rachel knew, he’d been running a doggie and kitty hostel out of his place for months. There was no way he could now tell her that he couldn’t so much as pet a dog without breaking into a cold sweat. “Yeah,” Gabe said, his voice sounding strangled so he coughed to clear it. “Sounds great.”
“Sounds good to me too.” Rachel was practically bouncing on her tiptoes.
Micah smiled and clapped his hands together. “Excellent. Then I’ll go grab the pups and be right back. Janice will show you where the aprons are.” He turned and left, the heavy door closing behind him.
“This is awesome,” Rachel gushed. “I thought they’d have us doing something gross. But this will be fun. They must not want to scare off the famous athlete by making you do grunt work.”
Gabe didn't tell her would’ve preferred ‘grunt’ work. The two of them approached Janice, who showed them where the rubber aprons were and briefly showed them what to do. “It’s pretty straightforward. Micah won’t bring any of the tough cases for your first time, so there’s no need to worry.”
Gabe opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the sound of the door opening and two dogs coming in. Eying them warily, Gabe stood rooted to his spot on the ground. The dogs bounded over—literally bounded, since they were enormous.
“This is Bandit,” Micah said as he looked down at the dog on his right. “He’s a Border Collie. Super friendly.” Micah handed Bandit’s leash off to Rachel.
She leaned down to pet Bandit, who seemed to be instantly taken with her. He trotted to the tubs beside her, climbed up the steps and hopped into the tub with no problems.
“And this is Torque.” As if on cue, the dog yanked on his leash. “He’s a puller, but very friendly. He doesn’t love the water, but he won’t bite or anything.”
That wasn’t the most reassuring statement Gabe had ever heard. Hesitating a second, Gabe finally reached out and took the leash. As if sensing a shift in power, Torque yanked and nearly pulled Gabe off his feet. “What kind of dog is he?”
“He’s a mutt. He’s squat and strong like a pit bull, but his coloring looks most like a shepherd. There also may be some hound in there.”
Gabe nodded and stared down at the creature below him. Torque looked back, his mouth stretched wide and tongue hanging out as if he were mocking Gabe. “Come on, boy,” Gabe cajoled as he attempted to pull Torque toward the tubs. The dog sat down and refused to move.
“He’s a stubborn thing. Won’t be a problem once you get him in the tub, but getting him in there is tough sometimes. You may have to pick him up and put him in there.”
“Pick him up?” Gabe nearly yelled the words. There was no way he was bending down and putting his face near this dog’s teeth and picking up this beast. Nah-uh. No way.
“Yeah.” Micah looked over Gabe’s shoulder and smiled. “Want me to do it for you?”
Gabe turned to see what Micah was looking at. It was Rachel, soaping up Bandit as she stole glances at Gabe. He couldn’t let Micah carry Torque to the tubs. How would he ever explain that to Rachel? “Nah, it’s cool. I got him.” Taking a deep breath, Gabe squatted down. “Easy, Torque,” Gabe said to the dog. “You let me do this without biting my face off, and I’ll see about getting you a better name,” Gabe whispered as he slid one hand under the dog’s stomach and the other behind his back legs.
Gabe moved slowly, trying to ease the dog into the air.
“Wow, man, you must have killer leg muscles to stand up that slowly holding a ninety-pound dog,” Micah commented.
Gabe’s legs started shaking with the exertion, but finally he was standing up straight. He carried the dog in what felt like slow motion over to the tub and gingerly put him down. Looking over at Rachel’s set-up, Gabe noticed that there was a place to fasten the dog’s leash to keep him still. He attached it, and then turned the water on.
From there it was pretty easy. Torque thought it was fun to shake the water off himself every three seconds, but it could’ve been worse. He could’ve tried to maim Gabe. Instead, the dog sat there looking grumpy as hell as he let Gabe do what needed to be done. When the bath was finished, Gabe unhooked the leash and lifted Torque again. He found himself actually starting to enjoy the dog’s company. Until Torque torqued, causing Gabe to stumble and drop him.
The dog was stunned for a split second after he hit the ground, but he recovered quickly, beginning to run around the room like he was a fucking cheetah. All the other dogs in the room went wild as Torque sped around. Gabe tried to catch him, but it was like trying to catch a greased pig. He wanted to step on Torque’s leash to stop him, but was worried he’d accidentally break the dog’s neck. That’s all this day fucking needed.
“Gabe, you go that way, and I’ll go this way. We’ll try to corral him,” Rachel yelled over the yipping and howling that reverberated through the room.
Gabe did as she said, and they closed in slowly on Torque. Finally, when they were within grabbing distance, Gabe lunged for the marauding dog. But Torque, in a move that would’ve impressed a few football players, faked one way before juking back and running through Gabe’s legs, causing his knees to buckle and sending him crashing to the floor.
Laying on his back, Gabe stared up at the ceiling for a minute. His bad knee twanged with discomfort, but he didn’t think he’d done any major damage.
“Oh my God, are you okay?” Rachel asked, alarm clear in her tone as she kneeled beside Gabe and let her eyes rove over his body. It was obviously so she could see if he was injured, but he tried to convince himself she was checking him out all the same.
“Yeah, I think so,” Gabe replied as he pushed himself to a sitting position. He was about to stand when he felt a hot breath on his cheek. He panned slowly to his right, and looked straight into the face of Torque. Just as Gabe was about to recoil from the mentally unhinged canine, Torque’s giant tongue rolled out of his mouth and licked Gabe across the mouth.
Gabe jerked his head back and wiped his mouth with a hand as Rachel laughed. “Aw, he likes you,” she said.
Gabe wished he could’ve said the feeling was mutual.