And now, as much as I hated to admit it, I was relieved to have gotten the call over the radio. Not that I was really looking forward to cleaning up the mess that she’d made. I’d like to be clear, I definitely was not looking forward to that. But the interruption had stopped me from doing something stupid, like leaning into the car and finally giving into my deepest desires in the form of a kiss that wouldn’t just claim her, it would brand her as mine.
“This whole thing is just a huge misunderstanding.” Her vivid eyes sparkled as she took a deep breath. “This morning when I woke up and saw that it was storming, I jumped in my car to go check on Romeo because I know how scared he gets. When I got to the douchebag’s—who was supposed to be taking care of him—duplex, I knocked on the door and didn’t hear any barking. So, I checked the back and Romeo wasn’t there.
“That’s when Mrs. MacDougal, the nosey-busy-body next door neighbor, told me that she’d called the police when Romeo was barking all night. When they responded to the noise complaint, somehow Romeo got out and animal control picked him up.
“So I went to the pound and found him. But the evil troll working there said the dog was microchipped and they’d contacted the owner. And that until they heard back they couldn’t release him to me. I tried to explain that they might not hear back from Tim for at least a day or two because he’s out of the country working with Doctors Without Borders and that Romeo couldn’t stay at the shelter because he was scared of thunder, which is why he’d escaped in the first place—so, I asked again if I could take him with me.
“The Wicked Witch of the West said under no circumstances would she be releasing him to me until she heard from his owner. She didn’t care that he was scared and informed me that they were closing in thirty minutes and wouldn’t be open again to the public until Monday morning and I could come back and check on Romeo’s status then. He was going to be alone. All weekend. When it’s thundering.”
Harmony’s face scrunched and she held her hands up, in a so-there-you-have-it motion. Like what she’d told me had just explained everything. It hadn’t. Nothing she’d said had answered the question as to why she now had possession of the dog.
“And then what happened?” I prompted.
“Then, I did what any decent human being would do. I waited for Cruella De Vil to leave and I rescued Romeo.”
Shit. I’d really hoped that I wouldn’t have to deal with Blanche, the woman that Harmony had so colorfully nicknamed. She might not be as horrible as Cruella De Vil or the Wicked Witch of the West, but she was definitely a cougar with a capital C. Her advances weren’t subtle or tasteful; they were raunchy and uncomfortable. Any time I had to interact with her was torture, so being in the position of needing a favor from her was going to be cruel and unusual punishment.
But it wasn’t like I had any choice in the matter. If I didn’t step in, there was a very good chance that she would press charges against Harmony, and no way in hell would I let that happen.
As I stood, silently contemplating my next move, Harmony grew increasingly agitated. Since she wasn’t really the ‘suffer in silence’ type, I heard all about it.
“Oh, come on, Hud. I could not leave him there for two days! The poor baby was terrified! Isn’t there a heart under that badge?”
She might think this was an open and shut case, but I needed more information. “His owner left him in his backyard while he was out of the country?”
“No. Tim left him with his friend Chad, who’s an ER doctor at Valley Parish where Tim did his residency. But Chad’s schedule is crazy, and he’s never home.”
I always trusted my instincts. My life and others’ lives depended on them being right and, knock on wood, so far they always had been. So, when they were telling me that there was more to this story than Harmony just checking on a friend’s dog, I knew there was.
“Why didn’t Tim leave him with you?”
She rolled her eyes and waved her hand in a dismissive movement. “We were kind of seeing each other before he left and it just…didn’t work out. I offered to keep him, begged even, but he said no. Because, like most men, he has the maturity of a two-year-old.”
Harmony only dated guys who lived outside Wishing Well city limits. I’d always assumed that was out of necessity, since she had eight older brothers who wouldn’t have made life easy for any guy sniffing around their baby sister. I’d witnessed her independent spirit tested on more than one occasion thanks to her well-meaning but slightly overprotective siblings. But Harmony was nothing if not resourceful. She may have been able to keep her extra-curricular activities under her familial radar, but I’d been clocking it since she was sixteen years old, and it had driven me crazy.