Chapter 5

The slam of the door to his Silverado seemed final in a way Brady couldn’t quite accept. He glanced at the empty seat next to him. It seemed like Pooch should still be there, despite the fact that the dog had occupied the passenger side of the vehicle for only a few moments, just the one time, on the drive from the downtown area to the dog shelter. Still, it had been nice to have a companion with him, a cute one, one that pressed his nose to the window and watched where they were going with interest but didn’t ask a lot of questions.

Realizing he was being silly, Brady started his truck and backed it out. Had it been all that long since he had a companion of sorts? Not really. He’d broken up with Charlotte only a few months before he moved to Holiday Hills, so it wasn’t that long ago, in the grand scheme of things. She definitely didn’t sit there quietly, though. And while she was cute, it wasn’t in the same way as Pooch.

Brady shook his head and ran a hand through his brown hair, heading back to the parking lot he’d been surveying before the excitement with the little dog had gotten him off track. He hadn’t even gotten a chance to take a good look at the situation, and he needed to. Solving the parking problem downtown should be relatively easy, compared to some of the other items on the list. Exactly why Mayor Joe Jenkins thought the small town needed a parking garage instead of just resurfacing the existing parking lot, possibly fitting in some more spots if they marked them a bit more creatively, Brady couldn’t say, but that’s what he tried to keep in mind as he traveled back through town, not on the cute little dog. Or the woman.

It wasn’t Charlotte who had his attention as he stopped at a stop sign, waiting for another vehicle to go. It was the woman from the shelter. Man, was she a firecracker! Noelle Snow was not at all what he was expecting. But then, her mother had been a bit outspoken in the few moments they’d conversed in the park. She had basically demanded that he take Pooch to the shelter himself, rather than volunteering to take the little dog to her daughter’s place of employment. Noelle was pretty, he’d have to give her that. With the sort of blonde hair he imagined looked almost white in the sun, and a pair of blue eyes that seemed to change color with her mood, he could only imagine she had her pick of any of the guys in town. So… it was silly for him to give her much thought, other than to question why she’d been so angry about him dropping off a dog at a shelter.

He had seen the family she was referring to, though, the two kids and the dad coming out of the shelter and loading into a van that was leaving with one less soul than it had arrived with. He felt terrible for those kids. It was no wonder their eyes were on their sneakers as they walked the short distance from the door to their car. He couldn’t imagine being a father who made that sort of decision for his family, to take one of the members and drop him off, never to be seen again. But it seemed like this was a frequent event, according to Noelle’s diatribe. He couldn’t imagine being her, either, having to be the one to console those sweet animals as they began to realize they were never going home again--that this place was their home now.

The shelter wasn’t in the best shape. He’d noticed there were no bells and whistles. Even the lighting in the entryway was so poor, it seemed more like a prison than a place that would welcome families to come and pick out their newest member. When he got back to his room at his friends’ house, he’d look up as much information on the shelter as he could. Assuming it was a public holding and not a private entity, he’d be able to get a lot of information about how it was run from the records he now had access to. Maybe looking into the budget would help him understand a little more why Noelle was so upset at having another guest, especially one that, by her own admission, wouldn’t be there long.

Pooch. What a cute dog. It was too bad he didn’t have his own place because that dog might be the perfect companion. He shook his head another time and then pulled into an empty spot in the lot he’d be evaluating. There wasn’t a lot of available parking here, but there were a few other empty spots. He looked over toward the dumpster where Pooch had emerged, only about an hour ago. The pup had seemed to come out of nowhere and stirred up all kinds of trouble in a short amount of time. Brady decided it would be better to leave his scarf in the truck this time, even though it was chilly outside. Not only did it need cleaning, it would be safer there. For all he knew, there was a raccoon or an opossum waiting in the shadows to take another swipe at it.

He laughed at his own imagination as he climbed from the vehicle. A close inspection of the parking lot in question, the corner lot about two blocks from the main shopping center, revealed plenty of places that needed repaving. It was concrete and had clearly been driven over thousands of times, enough to create some large potholes in several places. Still, he didn’t quite understand why this lot was of such concern to the mayor when there were several more a block or two further away from downtown that weren’t anywhere near full. Building a parking garage here seemed like an expense the town probably shouldn’t take on, not when there were other projects that needed funding.

Like maybe the animal shelter.