Hero of Mine

by Codi Gary

  So what? Other guys would do this. He’s a dog lover, that’s it. Don’t make a big deal out of it and start looking at him like he’s some kind of hero. You feel nothing, do you hear me?

  Dani heard it, but it was hard to listen when he told the vet tech, “Just call me with your game plan, and use this card for what he needs. I want updates, though.”

  A guy who offered carte blanche medical care for a stray dog? It was hard not to want to throw her arms around him and give him a massive hug. Or, at the very least, sigh dreamily.

  Get ahold of yourself, or I swear I am going to haul off and slap you silly. Then everyone will think you are crazykins.

  A vet tech by the name of Darius took Fugly from Tyler, assuring him he’d call when he knew something.

  Tyler watched Fugly disappear through the doors, and Dani’s heart fluttered at the concern on his face.

  “We should get back so I can evaluate the dogs before Dr. Horrible decides to exact his revenge on us,” he said, turning back to face her.

  “Dr. Horrible?”

  Tyler seemed embarrassed. “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. It’s a three-part web series by Joss Whedon.”

  “So it’s a musical?” she asked. They had pushed open the front door of the vet’s office and were walking toward his van.

  “No, I mean, yeah, it’s a musical, but it’s Whedon. Anything Whedon does is awesome.” He actually beat her to the passenger door and opened it for her. Dani couldn’t remember the last time a guy had put in the effort.

  “What else has he done?” she asked.

  He actually stood in the door opening as she climbed into the front seat, his jaw hanging open. “Are you serious?”

  “I don’t watch a lot of TV, unless it’s on Netflix or something.” Why did it sound like she was apologizing for not knowing who some obscure web series creator was?

  “He’s on Netflix! Firefly, Dollhouse, Buffy the Vampire Slayer—”

  “Whoa, you watch something called Buffy the Vampire Slayer?” She broke out into peals of laughter, and he slammed the door. She was still guffawing when he climbed into the driver’s seat.

  “Whedon also wrote and directed the Avengers movies and Agents of Shield.”

  “Well, you should probably lead with that and not that other stuff,” she said smartly.

  “Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you should know who Whedon is and what Buffy is.”

  “Oh, God, I can’t take you seriously when you say things like that.”

  “What, just because of the name of the show? I’m trying to school you on one of the most ingenious writers and directors of a generation.”

  “And I’m listening, but I’m sorry, it’s a little hard to imagine.”

  “You should be apologizing to the great Joss Whedon, not me,” he said.

  She glanced his way and caught the smile he’d been fighting. “As soon as I get home, I’ll write an extensive apology and post it to my mommy blog.”

  “You have a mommy blog?”

  “No, but it would be funny if I did. Mine would be ‘what not to do as a parent.’ ” Shit, why had she said that to him?

  “I’m sure most women feel like that.”

  Dani knew his comment was supposed to be comforting, but he didn’t know her or her situation. So far, she’d just been doing her best, but nothing ever felt like it was good enough, especially compared to other moms. Moms who had waited until they had a career, had picked the right guy and gotten married. The freaking Pinterest moms who put all their amazing cupcakes and DIY birthday party decorations up for everyone to ooh and ahh over.

  She hated those moms. There wasn’t a crafty bone in her body, and staring at all of those perfectly creative ideas and handmade awesomeness left her feeling even more like a failure.

  “So, how long have you worked at the shelter?” Tyler asked.

  She was grateful for the change in subject and the escape from her pity party. “Only a few weeks. I actually work the night shift at Fairview Animal Hospital so I can be home during the day with my son. I only usually do a few hours in the morning at the shelter, but today one of the other women called in to say she’d be a little late, so I agreed to stay.”

  “Where is your son?” he asked.

  Was he accusing her of something? “He’s with my mom, not that it’s any of your business.”

  “Hey, no need to get hostile. I was just asking,” he said.

  “I’m not hostile; I just don’t appreciate the insinuation that I’m neglecting my son.”

  “Whoa, no insinuation! Geez, are you always this defensive?” he asked.

  Dani didn’t say anything, partly because she was embarrassed. She was constantly taking flak from her mom about how she was raising Noah, and it had just become instinct to immediately go on the defensive. Even with a total stranger who was just being inquisitive. She shouldn’t have jumped down his throat. Especially since he was helping out Fugly.

  “What are you going to do with Fugly if he makes it?” she asked.

  “I figure I’ll see what his injuries are, and depending on how he does during his temperament evaluation, I’ll find something for him to do. The first item on the agenda is to give him a better name.”

  “What if he doesn’t pass?”

  She saw it, even if it was just a flicker. The grim downturn of his mouth that said exactly what would happen if he didn’t pass.

  “I like to think positively,” he said.

  Dani had a feeling he was avoiding the question for her benefit. He’s probably scared you’ll rip his face off if he says the wrong thing.

  “How many dogs are you looking for?” she asked.

  “I have four open kennels, but if I find more that are a good fit, I’ll usually foster them or one of the other trainers will take them in.”

  “Isn’t it hard doing that? Testing a dog, and when he fails, knowing he’s most likely going to die?” she asked.

  “It’s the way it is, and until we can come up with a better system, I can only save the ones I can train as police, military, search and rescue, and therapy dogs. We are trying to grow, and the goal is to have an Alpha Dog program in every city, but it’s just us for now.”

  Dani swallowed back the sour taste his cold, matter-of-fact explanation had created in her mouth. “It’s not fair. Some of these animals have never known kindness or been trained—”

  “And it sucks, believe me, but I can’t take every dog. There are too many good ones to waste time on the ones who might bite a child one day. If I don’t do my job right, and one of our dogs attacks someone, the whole program could get shut down. And then we aren’t helping any dogs.”

  Dani understood, she did, but having him act so casual about it rubbed her the wrong way. How could he be so callous?

  He parked the van in the same spot as before, and as he killed the engine, he turned.

  “Look, I’m sorry if I’m coming off like an asshole, but if I can’t hold it together and make the tough calls, then I can’t do this job. I have a friend who’s a vet, and he worked in shelter medicine for years. He told me once that in shelter medicine you get hard or you get out, because otherwise, all the bad shit you see is going to haunt you.”

  “You honestly think that people in shelter medicine no longer care about helping the animals?” she asked.

  “It’s not that they don’t care, it’s that the system has worked against them for so long, they’ve learned to triage, just like a doctor in the emergency room. Just like your lab coat guy.”

  “Wait, so you agreed with him about euthanizing Fugly?”

  “No, that is not what I’m saying. I am saying that I understand how some people get to the point where it’s less heart-wrenching to essentially turn off their humanity.”

  Dani opened her door and got out, turning to face Tyler. “Maybe that works for people like you, but I don’t have an on and off switch. I feel things and I empathize, and if that makes me weak to some peop
le, then they can go to hell.”

  She slammed the door with a bang and headed for the front of the building, waiting for the sound of his van door opening or the heavy tread of his boots.

  But he didn’t come after her, at least not in the time it took her to get inside and find Suzy had made it in for her shift.

  “Oh, thank God you’re here,” Dani said. “There is a guy from Alpha Dog Training Program, and he’s going to be evaluating the dogs scheduled for euthanasia today, but I need to get Noah before my mom has a meltdown.”

  “Yeah, yeah, go, I’ll handle the guy.” Suzy was an average brunette a few years older than Dani. “Hey, is he cute though?”

  Cute? Cute was for puppies and kittens, not six-foot-tall men with broad shoulders and male-model faces.

  Dani grabbed her purse out of the locked desk drawer and glanced out the front office window. Tyler was just getting out of the van, looking a little bewildered. He probably wasn’t used to women yelling at him and then running away from all that sexiness.

  “Cute is not the word I would use,” she said.

  Suzy’s shoulders slumped as she misinterpreted Dani’s meaning, and she used the opportunity to sneak away. The last thing she wanted was another interaction with Tyler.

  Dani exited through the back door and got into her car. As she turned the key, the engine sputtered, an issue it had been having lately, and she groaned. Running her hands over the dash, she tried to coax it in a low, husky voice. “Come on, baby, work for me, and I promise I’ll get you a tune-up soon.”

  Several seconds ticked by, and Dani tried the engine again. As the car came to life, Dani gave a little thank-you to the car gods and headed out toward Carmichael, a suburb of Sacramento next to Citrus Heights. Her parents had lived in the same house since they got married, and she knew the way there even on autopilot. Which meant that her mind wandered a bit as she tried to imagine where she was going in the next few years.

  If it was up to her mom, Dani would go out and eventually marry one of the nice, sensible men she’d been trying to set her up with, but Dani wasn’t interested in men, let alone blind dates with men her mom spoke highly of. The only boyfriend her mom had ever liked was Dwight, who was a super-smart, clean-cut guy who’d asked her to homecoming junior year. But Dwight had just been an asshole in a nice-guy exterior, constantly putting Dani down about her looks, how she wasn’t as intelligent as he was, how she had no direction. After six weeks, Dani realized she was dating her mom, and she dumped his ass in the middle of the quad after he’d asked her if she really wanted her personal pizza.

  But her mom had been disappointed and always cited Dwight as the one who got away. In her own way, her mom’s taste was just as bad as Dani’s—with the exception of her dad—and therefore she could not be trusted to find Dani a man.

  Twenty minutes later, Dani pulled into the driveway, and as she climbed out, she heard screaming coming from inside the house. Noah’s screaming.

  Racing to the front door, she burst inside and found her mom rocking Noah as he cried.

  “What happened?” Dani wasted no time crossing the room and holding her arms out to her son. When he reached for her, she saw the swelling lump on his forehead and gasped.

  “He was running and ran right into the doorjamb. He’s got a nasty bump, but he’s okay, I think—”

  “Did he lose consciousness?” Dani realized she was shouting at her mom, but it was only to be heard over Noah’s cries.

  But in true Laura Hill form, she stood up with her hands on her hips, her green eyes narrowed. “Danielle Louise, do you really think I wouldn’t take my grandson to the emergency room if he had knocked himself out?”

  “No, of course not, I’m sorry.” Dani held Noah against her, rubbing his back and humming. As his sobs started to subside, she said, “I think I’m going to take him anyway, just to be sure. That is quite a goose egg on his head.”

  “Can you really afford to do that? I’m sure he’s fine. Kids are tough,” her mom said.

  Dani didn’t respond; there was no point. Her mom and dad were older than her other friends’ parents and were big fans of saying “shake it off” and “rub some dirt in it.”

  Whereas Dani would rather take on another hospital bill if it meant peace of mind.

  “You’re earlier than I was expecting. Did something happen?” her mom asked.

  “Nope, the girl I was covering for finally showed up, that’s all.”

  “So what are your plans, then?” she asked.

  After the emergency room, you mean?

  “Noah and I will probably take it easy. Make some food. Watch cartoons.”

  “You shouldn’t let him watch too much TV.”

  Why was it her mom couldn’t go one minute without giving her unsolicited advice?

  “I don’t, but thank you for watching him.” Dani carried a sniffling Noah over to the couch and picked up her diaper bag.

  “I only tell you these things to help. I saw this study the other day on television and the effects it has on—”

  “Mom! Noah is fine.”

  “I don’t want to fight with you, Danielle. You’re young, and I just thought you’d be interested in what I’ve learned from raising you, but that’s fine.”

  Danielle didn’t mention that she hadn’t exactly grown up to be a perfect, functioning adult. What was the point? Her mother had given her an out, and she was going to take it.

  “I appreciate your advice, Mom, just let me ask for it. Okay?”

  Her mother nodded regally. “I’ll try, but it’s hard to break old habits.”

  Dani shook her head. Her mother wasn’t going to change, but at least she was being reasonable.

  Wait . . .

  A reasonable mother meant she wanted something.

  As if on cue, her mother said, “By the way, I wanted to make sure you’re coming to church with us on Sunday.”

  Uh-oh, here we go again. “I haven’t been to church in years, Mom.”

  “Well then, it’s time to start back up. It’s good for the soul, you know.”

  Despite the innocence in her voice, Dani knew there was something else afoot. “Why now?”

  “Because I want you to meet a few people. You’re always saying you don’t have time to meet men your age, but there are several very nice ones who go to church with us, and I want to introduce you.”

  “Mom, when are you going to give up? I am not looking for a husband.”

  “Well, you should be,” she snapped.

  “And thousands of feminists’ heads just spun around in horror.”

  “Your father and I won’t be around forever to help you with Noah, and it’s expensive to pay for childcare and housing and other bills. You get by because we help you, but you need a partner. Someone to take on the burden. And honestly, you need to stop all this volunteering and wasting your time. You should be working more. You can’t afford to give your time away, not now.”

  Dani took a deep, cleansing breath. “Mom, I volunteer one day a month at the spay and neuter clinic, and it is something that is needed. We are all doing fine, and as far as the future goes, we’ll see how everything shakes out, but I am not going to chase down man after man just because you think I should. When I’m ready, and I don’t know that I will be, I will start dating.”

  “Yes, because you’ve shown just what a good judge of character you can be.”

  Her mom’s sarcasm swirled like a bitter brew in her stomach, confirming her own thoughts. “We’ll see you later, Mom.”

  “I’m only trying to help you,” her mom called after her.

  Dani shut her parents’ front door, thinking about Tyler and his words of wisdom as well.

  “Everybody’s just so helpful today.”

  Chapter Three

  TYLER SAT ACROSS from Sergeant Dean Sparks on Monday morning, waiting for him to say something. He’d known the minute he told Sparks about the dog he was going to have a meltdown, but what could Tyler do? He co
uldn’t leave the dog to die.

  “You don’t even know if we can use the dog for the program?”

  “Nope,” Tyler said flippantly.

  Sparks sat back in his chair, sighing heavily. “Best, I know that we’ve had a couple of dogs we ended up not being able to train for the program, but we can’t spend thousands of dollars on a dog that might be a good fit.”

  “Alpha Dog isn’t paying for him. I am. Once he’s out of the vet and healed, I’ll temperament test him and go from there. The program doesn’t need to be affected unless he passes his test and doesn’t have any long-standing injuries.”

  “What exactly was so special about this dog?” Sparks asked.

  Tyler wasn’t sure how to describe it, the undeniable connection between him and the big gray dog. I had to help him sounded stupid, and Dean would never be able to understand that it was the truth.

  Plus, having that pretty tech Dani looking at you like you hung the moon wasn’t half bad, either.

  Well, for a little while at least, before he managed to piss her off again. Tyler wasn’t going to mention the girl, though, and have Sparks give him more shit. Especially since Tyler wasn’t really into her.

  Then how come she keeps popping up in your head?

  Because he hadn’t gotten laid over the weekend?

  “Look, it’s on my dime, and if he doesn’t work out, I’ll find him a home.”

  “Still, this program needs to be functioning in order to succeed. You brought six dogs back with you from the shelter, and we only have four kennels.”

  “If a dog passes his evaluation, then I’m bringing him back here. If you have a problem with that, replace me.” Tyler wasn’t going to back down on this. Leaving behind dogs who couldn’t pass their evaluation was one thing, but there was no way he wasn’t going to find room for every dog who did.

  Sparks shook his head. “Just when I think you don’t have a heart, you do something like this.”

  “I never said I don’t have a heart; I just keep it heavily guarded.”

  Sparks ran his hands over his face and close-cropped dark hair. “Best, I want to save them all, believe me. But we don’t have enough kids in here to handle all the dogs you’re bringing in, let alone trainers.” Sparks paused to look over one of the other dog’s descriptions. “I mean, this dog Bosco is only thirty pounds and looks like a stuffed animal a child would snuggle. Is he going to be a therapy dog?”