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Wednesday afternoon and she’s already late -

Here she comes! With food, just like yesterday. What’s that I smell? Chicken? I love chicken. Hello, lady. Here I am again. Wag, wag. Remember me?

“Shoo. Go away, puppy.” Judi Blake scooted around the black-and-red mongrel and laid the foil tray of Buffalo wings in the back of her Ford Expedition. Third tray down, one to go. Then off to the Bigelow family reunion. She glanced at her watch as she ran back to her multifunction catering kitchen/home sweet teensy home. Paying the mortgage on the building was all she could afford, so the corner in which she lived was a make-do. “Geez.” Ten minutes late. Deb was going to kill her. Six weeks landing this job, and her best friend and business partner, Debra Hayes, had almost gone gray nailing the details. Wings, no make it calamari, no make it wings and calamari with some of those little pizza rolls. Right now those wings and calamari and pizza rolls were getting cold!

Hey, lady. I really do like chicken. Wag, wag, again.

“Shoo, puppy. Get away.” Cute dog, but she didn’t have time to mess with him today.

What? No chicken? Maybe if I just turn on the sad eyes.

All her wings safely in the Expedition, Judi shut the back door then tried shooing the puppy again. “Go away,” she said, stamping her foot on the ground. “Scoot!”

Don’t ya see the sad eyes, lady?

Hustling around to the driver’s door, Judi opened it. “Shoo. Go home.” Judi nudged him away from her truck and climbed inside.

Oh, no! Quick! Plan B! Gotta get it right... Just walk away so she thinks she’s in the clear. Yep, she’s checking to make sure I’m gone. Okay, now...charge!

“Aieee...ooooh...aieee!”

“Oh, no!” Judi gasped, jamming on her brakes. Jumping out of the truck, she dropped to her hands and knees and there he was, under the vehicle, sprawled out and whimpering. She’d hit him, but he wasn’t dead. “Come here, puppy,” she said tentatively.

Sad eyes rolling up at her. Sad eyes for real this time.

“Here, puppy.”

Puppy hurts. “Ooooh...”

His sad cries just about broke her heart as Judi pulled the puppy out from under the truck and took a quick look at him. Not bleeding, nothing obvious. She breathed a sigh of relief over that.

“It’s okay, boy. I’m going to take you to the doctor right now, and he’ll make you all better.” Like the dog could understand. But the words sure made her feel better.

After wrapping the pup in an emergency spill towel she always carried in the back of her Expedition, Judi laid him in the front bucket seat next to hers and speed-dialed Deb.

“Quick! Who’s your vet?”

“Mike Jericho. Why?”

“I hit a dog and I need to get him to a vet, and you’ve got to meet me there to get the Bigelow wings.”

“He’s over on State, right across from the restaurant supply. LuLu just loves him.” LuLu was Deb’s apricot poodle. “In case you’re interested, he’s single, gorgeous, and he makes the whole veterinarian experience worth the trip.” Judi grinned. “For you or for LuLu?” She reached over and scratched the puppy behind his ears. Not that she was interested but — “Is that ‘single’ as in confirmed bachelor, gay or just hasn’t gotten around to it?” Didn’t matter. With her new business just beginning to make it, everything else was on the back burner. Including her social life. Nada. Zip. Zilch. But it was still fun to pretend she had one. “See ya in ten,” she said, clicking off.

As Judi pulled into the parking lot a few minutes later, Deb called back. “I phoned him to let him know you’re on your way in with an emergency, and he’s waiting. Oh, and he said to tell you he just hasn’t gotten around to it yet.”

“He hasn’t gotten around to what?”

“Getting married. I asked him, since I knew you wouldn’t.”

“And I’ve gotta go face this man? How could you do that to me?” Her cheeks were already turning red. “I’ll swear, Deb, if you weren’t a partner, I’d fire...” Judi stopped and took a look at the man standing in the parking lot, waving at her. If that was Mike Jericho, now she understood why Deb hauled LuLu to the vet every other week.

“Well, dog. Looks good to me.” And that had nothing to do with the puppy.



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