Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
And I had a baby raccoon named Tinkles clinging to my shirt.
The front door opened, and the bell over the door dinged, ringing loudly through the facility.
I gave Tinkles one last cuddle, then put her into her cage with her sister.
Their mama had been hit by a car this morning, and they were barely old enough to open their eyes.
The wildlife preserve that helped rehabilitate wild animals were set to come out sometime after lunch to collect them. But in the meantime, I got to get my cuddles in.
Once the cage was closed and everything was secure from my cuddle fest over the last thirty minutes, I headed to the main area where the front desk was.
A stunning woman with beautiful silver hair was waiting at the front desk, wearing a black long-sleeved shirt and jeans.
What was familiar about her, though, was the leather vest that covered her top half.
A Dixie Wardens MC property cut.
I’d seen several other “old ladies” of the club wearing them.
But this one was a little bit different.
Then I remembered Denver telling me his friend and his wife were coming in from out of town, and the man was the head honcho of every Dixie Wardens MC club member in the country.
Silas Mackenzie and his wife, Sawyer.
Her eyes were alight with mischief, and she smiled and waved the moment she saw me.
“Oh, my god. Your hair is divine.” She leaned forward. “Denver showed me a photo of you so I’d know who to look for. He said you might be eating. Or you might be at work. He didn’t know. He gave me your number to call, but I’m not a ‘call them when I don’t know them’ kind of person. So I thought I’d try here first. Anyway, he showed me a photo of you when you were on the porch swing at his place. You had a cup of coffee in your hand, and you were looking out over the land while the sun set. He said it’s his favorite picture because you’re barefoot in cutoff shorts with your hair literally everywhere. I hate to say this, but I had to ask him if your hair was real. People would kill to have this color. Do you know how much I have to pay to maintain this? I love the silver look I have going on right now, but I still have some natural color coming in with the silver, and it’s not a pretty look.”
When she finally slowed down so I could get a word in, I said, “You must be Sawyer.”
She slapped her hands over her face. “I should’ve led with that. I’m just so excited to meet you. Silas and Denver have been friends for a very long time. And Silas and I were really worried about Denver finding someone new.”
My heart softened. “He’s a great man.”
“I also met Denver’s brother, finally. Sawyer. Denver’s been teasing me for years about having a boy’s name like his brother. It was nice to put a name to the face.”
I didn’t think that women were this open and nice.
But the woman Sawyer was so friendly that I couldn’t help but fall into an instant friendship with her.
“Want to come around here and take a seat? Or we could go play with the new raccoons,” I offered.
Before Sawyer could answer, the phone rang, and I gestured to the chairs.
Sawyer took a seat, and I took the other, answering the phone. “Windsor Animal Hospital.”
“Hey, Holly. This is Constance from The rehab center. I wanted to let you know I’m still coming, but I’m running a little late. I left to head that way, but found a bear cub sitting next to a dead mama bear. Must’ve been hit by a car. Anyway, I’m coming. But I’ll probably be there way later in the day since I had to turn around and deal with the cub.”
“No worries.” I wrinkled my nose as a smell hit me. “We’ll be here.”
“Okay, great. See ya.” Constance hung up.
The smell got stronger, and I started to look around.
“Do you smell that?” I asked.
“Now that you mention it, yeah.”
I stood up and walked to the back where the smell was stronger.
When I got to the hallway that connected the front building to the back building where all the kennels were located, my heart sank.
Because the hallway was billowing with smoke and I could hear dogs barking and crying. Kittens meowing.
“Oh, my god!” I called out. “Call 9-1-1!”
I didn’t hesitate.
I only ran toward the smoke.
As I got closer, the smoke got thicker.
I didn’t see anything on fire, but something had to be.
I could feel the heat.
I ran for cages as I got into the smoke-filled room, opening every one of them so that animals that were mobile could get out.
Barks and meows filled the room and there were animals everywhere.