The plane touches down in LA with a few bumps as it lands on the runway, shaking me out of a fitful sleep. Glancing over to Yessi, I see she’s staring out the window. She looks like she hasn’t slept the entire time. I quickly turn on my phone to see if there’s any word from Hugh, but there’s nothing. 

Dude is fucking ghosting me. 

What the hell?

Did he purposely dump Gidget? I don’t want to believe it. 

But if he didn’t, I feel like he’d be returning my calls.

I look over and see Yessi frantically typing on her phone. She glances at me and offers a wan smile.

“Good news. Avril picked up Gidget. And the shelter won’t charge you any fees because you didn’t dump her. I’m still pissed as hell, but at least she’s safe.”

Thank god.

“But, there’s more. Look at this.”

She shows her phone to me, and my stomach wrenches the picture comes into focus. There, clear as a Honolulu sunrise, is a photo of Hugh placing Gidget in a cage at the night drop. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but there’s no denying the evidence. I’m not going to lie and make excuses for him anymore.

Yessi is looking at me expectantly, waiting to see what I have to say.

“Yeah, that’s him. I knew he was kind of a dick, but I can’t believe he would just dump her like that in the middle of the night.”

Yessi’s dark eyes flash with anger, and she starts to speak before I can add anything else.

“Well, he did. I’ll work with you at Doggy Style, even though you have breeder puppies there, because you agreed to make your store an adoption center. But you need to fire Hugh. There’s no logical explanation for what he did. Dude’s a piece of shit. What is he going to say? That he accidentally locked her in a cage at the night drop?”

She has a point. Hugh ruined my trip to Hawai’i, endangered Gidget, and put a strain on my relationship with Yessi. How could I be so wrong about this guy? Did I just blindly trust him because I grew up with him? And what’s his motivation for even doing that? Sabotaging me? That seems especially stupid since he gave up his job to work for me.

One thing is crystal clear—I’m going to find out. The sooner, the better.

I grab our bags, and we leave the airplane and head to baggage claim. I wanted to hire a limo, but Eden insisted on picking us up. I agreed, because while I know Yessi’s doing her best not to be mad at me, I don’t want to antagonize her any further.

But the last people I want to hang out with right now are Yessi’s rescue mafia. I already know I royally fucked up by leaving Gidget at the store with Hugh. I don’t need the additional stress of being interrogated for the entire ride home. 

Eden pulls up in an old Volkswagen van with the Pugs N Roses logo emblazoned on the side. I choke on the smoggy LA air and miss Hawai’i immediately.

Avril jumps out of the car. 

“Hey girl!”

She embraces Yessi tightly. I’m happy Yessi has such close friends, especially after she told me about growing up in foster care. I still have so many questions to ask her, but I’m not sure if she wants to talk about it. I need to get this situation fixed. For now, I’m lucky that she gives me the time of day.

“Evans,” Avril says curtly.

“Avril.” I don’t know her last name, not that I want to mess with her either. Of the three of them, Avril seems like the one most likely to try and beat my ass. I know she’s really suspicious of me and my intentions toward Yessi, but I hope I can win her over.

I climb into the van and smile when I see Gidget. She greets me with a lick. “Hey, girl.” She wiggles her little butt, and I rub her belly. A lump grows in my throat. Why did Hugh drop her at the shelter? She could’ve been killed. I would’ve never forgiven myself.

Seeing Gidget’s sweet face racks me with guilt.

I get it.

I get why Yessi, Eden, and Avril devote their lives to saving dogs.

Eden glances at me in the rearview and catches my gaze before she starts to navigate through the LA traffic. “Hey, Preston. Did you have a nice trip?” Eden seems sincere and less judgy than Avril, or Yessi for that matter. 

“Hawai’i is always great. Too bad it was cut short. But at least we saved a dog.” I bring up finding Cuffs to deflect from the Gidget situation. Maybe that’ll help me win back some brownie points with Yessi’s friends.

“Oh, the ‘pibble?’ Yeah, they’re always hard to adopt, poor things. They’ve gotten such a bad rap, but that’s mostly because of irresponsible owners.” Eden signals and we merge onto the freeway.

“So, you’re going to adopt him, too, right?” Avril starts in with the guilt trip.

“We’ll see.”

Avril’s eyes narrow, but she doesn’t say anything else. Man, I’m going to end up going from zero dogs to two. And Yessi has five. If we ever move in together, we’ll have seven dogs. Is that even legal?

Gidget curls up in my lap, and I take Yessi’s hand. “Can we go straight to my store? I need to find Hugh.”

Eden looks at me in the rearview. “Well, we went by this morning. Our dogs are all fine. But Hugh wasn’t there.”

Where did he go?

“Could you please just take me there? I’ll check around his place. His apartment is above the shop.”

“Sure,” she says with a shrug.

After a few hours in horrendous LA traffic, we finally arrive at the store. We all pile out of the van and go inside. First, we check on the dogs, who I’m relieved to see are all in great condition.

I see Wanda, the kennel attendant. “Hey, Wanda. Thanks for holding down the fort for me. Have you seen Hugh?”

She shakes her head. “No. Not since last night. He took off with Gidget and a duffel bag. Said he was staying at your place. I didn’t ask him any questions. He hasn’t been back since.”

My place? I told him he couldn’t stay at my home if he wouldn’t watch Gidget. What a jerk.

But he does have a spare key to my condo.

As do I to his place.

I dash upstairs and enter his apartment. I see a half-eaten bowl of cereal on the kitchen table, dirty laundry on the floor, and an overflowing garbage can in the kitchen. It’s a pigsty, but nothing out of the ordinary. Dude is a slob—it always looks like that. Ever since we were kids, he’s been kind of slovenly, so I always used to suggest we hang at my place.

But there’s no sign of Hugh.

I text him again.

I stare at my phone but get no reply.

With a sigh, I head back downstairs. Yessi greets me, holding a fluffy poodle.

“Where is he? Let me at him,” she says, with a scary look on her face as she puts the dog back in a crate. If Hugh were here, I’d almost feel sorry for him. Almost.

“No clue, but I’m screwed. How am I supposed to open this store without a manager?” I run my hand down my face, suddenly feeling overwhelmed by everything.

She takes my hands. “No, you aren’t. You got us.”