The Fireman's Secret (22 page)

“I lost him. I’m so sorry.” Shelby stared at the tips of her tennis shoes. “I understand if you’re angry at me.”

She waited for him to say something. Braced her muscles for him to yell or tell her to leave.

* * *

Joel watched Shelby. Her face fell and her shoulders drooped, then straightened as if she was trying to be strong.

Dante was gone.

Joel swallowed hard. Dante was his best friend. He couldn’t let him wander around homeless, get hurt or think Joel had abandoned him.

“How long has he been missing?”

“Two days.” She kept her gaze glued to the ground.

Too long. The information sunk like a lead weight in his stomach. Dante could be anywhere by now. Something terrible could have happened to him. They should have tried harder to find him. They should have...

God grant patience and grace.

Using two of his fingers, he tipped up Shelby’s chin so her eyes met his. Red lines in her eyes and deep bags under them spoke of sleepless nights. Shelby hadn’t lost Dante on purpose. She loved dogs and wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to his. Knowing her like Joel did, she had been going out of her mind with worry.

He took her hand, laced his fingers with hers. “Let’s go find him.”

He turned to Caleb, Paige and Miles. “You guys have checked all the animal shelters?”

Caleb nodded. “No sign of him.”

Miles hooked his hands on his work belt. “They’ll contact you if he’s found. That’s why dogs in Michigan have to be licensed. Then all their information is on file if they’re lost.”

Joel tightened his hold on Shelby. “That’s great, except that I’ve been so busy since moving here that I haven’t gotten Dante his license yet.”

Miles’s face fell. “Oh. Then we should all contact the shelters and leave your information in case he’s found.”

Caleb grabbed Paige’s hand. “We’ll walk the shoreline again. Shelby says Dante loves the water.”

Joel nodded. “And Shelby and I will expand the search to other towns.”

Shelby hopped into the truck and Joel turned to join her, but Miles caught his arm. Would he arrest him now? In front of Shelby? Surely Miles would wait until they found Dante.

Joel handed Shelby his cell. “Start calling shelters. I’ll be back in a second.”

He motioned for Miles to walk with him on the sidewalk. “I’m assuming you want to talk to me about the arson. I know I said I’d go straight to the police department when I returned, and I will once we find Dante. I promise. Let me just—”

Miles smiled and it covered half his face. Did police officers get a sick pleasure out of arresting their childhood friends? “I talked to the prosecutor’s office. We won’t be pressing charges.”

In the rush to go to Colorado and while fighting the fire, Joel hadn’t had the time or energy to research his rights as far as arson laws in Michigan.

Joel ran his fingers over the stubble on his jaw. “Not pressing charges... I’m just a simple fireman who doesn’t get police talk. Does that mean I’m not going to be arrested?”

Miles nodded.

A knot undid itself in Joel’s chest. He could breathe again. No more tightness.

“But I confessed. You can’t get better proof than that.”

“It turns out you’re long past the statute of limitations for arson in our state.”

Joel grabbed Miles and gave him a quick back-thumping hug. First, Shelby had said she loved him, and now Miles was telling him the arson wasn’t going to ruin his life. If they found Dante, this would be the best day of his life. Easy.

Miles grabbed Joel by the shoulders. “You’ll still have to come to the station and provide a written statement so I can close the case, but that’ll be the end of it.”

“Thank you.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You’re treating me like a friend and not like a horrible person who got away with a crime.”

“That’s because we
are
friends. But I am going to have to ticket you for not having Dante licensed.”

“I deserve it.”

“We can do that later, though. For now let’s stop yapping and find your dog.” Miles promised to have all the officers keep an eye out for Dante.

Joel climbed back into the truck and turned off the radio when the truck started so Shelby could hear while she talked on the phone. He drove slowly around the town square.

“So, you haven’t seen a dog like that?” Shelby asked, gripping his cell. “Okay. Can I give you our number to call us if you do find him?”

After she hung up, Shelby filled him in on where they’d searched. “We’ve turned over every rock in Goose Harbor and Shadowbend. I made flyers and put them up everywhere. There’s even a reward.”

“Shelby.” Joel squeezed her hand. “I appreciate all you’ve done, but I know you don’t have a ton of money right now. You didn’t have to offer a reward.”

“It’s Caleb’s money.”

“I’ll double whatever is listed on the poster.”

“I’m so sorry about this. I should have—”

“Hey.” He smiled at her. “You didn’t do it on purpose. I have faith we’ll find him.”

“Joel, I know you didn’t know I was in the church when you lit it on fire.” She paused. “I’m sorry I treated you so horribly when you told me.”

He didn’t know what had made her say that, but another knot in his chest unwound at her words.

Joel shrugged. “I deserved it. At the time, I knew starting the church on fire was a sin and I still chose to do wrong.”

“None of that matters anymore. Okay? I forgive you.”

“Thank you.”

Shelby dialed the number to a forest preserve on the off chance that a ranger had spotted Dante.

Two phone calls later and Joel’s heart sank into the bottom of his shoes. He had to face the possibility that Dante was gone for good. After Shelby’s next call, he’d take her back to her apartment so she could nap. He couldn’t mourn the loss of his friend in front of her. That would only make her feel worse.

Shelby braced her hand on the dashboard. “Yes. He’s an Australian cattle dog. Older. Right.” She paused. “Don’t do anything. Please. We’ll be there in an hour.” She dropped the phone into the cup holder. “We found him.”

Joel rolled down the window and whooped to let out pent-up energy.

Shelby laughed. “Let’s go get your buddy.”

He handed her the GPS unit. “Lead the way.”

* * *

Shelby let go of Joel’s hand as they walked through the cat room of the Quiet Oaks Pet Shelter. At least thirty cats milled around the room. She’d never been a huge fan of cats, but it bothered her that so many felines couldn’t find a home.

The shelter worker, Connie, pointed to all the black cats. “They’re harder to find homes for. Many people believe black cats are mean or bad luck. In America, more black cats are put down than any other color of cat.”

“That’s so sad.” Shelby scratched behind a black cat’s ears before they left the room. He purred and followed her until Connie closed the door. “All because of how they look?”

“I’m afraid so.” Connie opened the door to the dog area. They walked past rows and rows of dogs in bare cement-floor cages all waiting for their forever homes. Shelby’s heart twisted for every single one of them.

Connie used her swipe pass to get into a room near the back. “I’m hoping this guy in here is yours. He was dropped off two nights ago. A trucker found him at a gas station near the highway and worried he’d get hit. He’s an old boy and doesn’t hear well. If he’s not yours, you may want to think about taking him. We’re so overcrowded right now that he’s set to be euthanized when the vet stops in at noon.”

Shelby gasped and Joel motioned for Connie to open the door. She had only moved it an inch before Dante bounded out. The dog launched himself into Joel’s arms, all happy wiggles and flying fur.

“Boy, am I glad to see you.” Joel hugged Dante to his neck.

Shelby glanced at the clock on the wall. Eleven. One more hour and they would have put Dante to sleep. Just assumed that no one wanted an old, deaf dog. How many animals met that fate every day? Her stomach turned.

Joel clipped the leash he’d brought to Dante’s collar and promised Connie he’d get ID tags and his state license right away. He loaded Dante into the front of the truck and then turned and pulled Shelby in for a hug. “This is the single best day of my life.”

“Best?” She laid her hands on his chest so she could look him in the eyes. “Did you hear that woman? They almost killed Dante.”

“But they didn’t.”

“By an hour.”

“God got us here on time.”

“Still. Dante getting lost shouldn’t have happened.”

Joel tucked a wayward hair behind Shelby’s ear. “We can never change the past. You and I both know that better than anyone. All we can do is learn from it and show grace to others whenever we have the chance.”

Shelby climbed into the cab beside Dante, who waited for Joel and then rested his head on his leg. Dante let out a long, happy sigh. With her hand in the dog’s fur, Shelby called the rest of the search party and told them the good news.

Joel laid one of his hands over Shelby’s and they drove in silence. Almost like a happy little family for the first half of the ride home. But Shelby couldn’t shake the thought that if they’d been delayed another hour, or had called the shelters in a different order, Dante would be dead. The information Connie had shared about the black cats bothered her, too. Animals shouldn’t face death because people weren’t comfortable with how they looked or believed some misinformation about them.

An idea hit her. She tugged her hand out from under Joel’s and braced it on the dashboard. “I finally know what I want to do. With my life. For the future.”

Joel rested his arm on the back of the seat and ran his fingers over the end of her pony tail. “I’d love to hear about it.”

“I don’t know how I’ll find the money, but I’m going to start a nonkill animal shelter in Goose Harbor. We’ll take older animals and unwanted ones that are hard to place and find them forever homes. My slogan will be something like Find Home at Last
.
I mean, I came up with that off the top of my head. But anything along those lines would work.” She peeked over at Joel who grinned from ear to ear. “What do you think? Be honest.”

“I think it’s the perfect fit for you.”

“So let’s start brainstorming ways I can come up with the money.”

“How about this time around I’ll just float you the cash.”

“Um. I don’t think you comprehend how much an operation like that would take to get off the ground.”

She would need land, a building, supplies and insurance to start. It had to be in the six figures dollar-wise merely to get off the ground, and Joel was a man with few possessions and a hole in the floorboard of his truck.

Joel traced the back of her neck. “Believe me. I know what I’m promising. If you haven’t noticed by now, I live pretty meagerly and have for the past ten years that I’ve been working full-time. There’s a pretty good stockpile in my back account.”

“I can’t take your money.”

“Shelby, listen to me. I couldn’t care less about material things. All I’ve ever wanted was someone to love who loves me back, and I have that now. I don’t need the money. It’s just sitting there. It would make me ten times happier to see you pursue your dream than let interest keep gathering.”

“If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.” He reached for her, laced his fingers with hers and then kissed the back of her hand. “This—” he kissed it again “—is all I need. Just don’t let go.”

“I never will.” She tightened her hold and hoped he understood she meant forever.

They spent the rest of the day dreaming up plans for her animal shelter, and in between planning, they snuck in a kiss or two—or five—just to make sure they were making good on their earlier promise to enjoy the present as much as they could.

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from HEALING THE WIDOWER’S HEART by Susan Anne Mason.

Dear Reader,

Sometimes life is hard. There’s no other way to put it. During the times when life hurts, we often find ourselves asking:
Where’s God in the midst of this?

Joel and Shelby both had things happen to them that they had no control over—like Joel being abandoned by his mother and growing up in the foster system, and Shelby getting burned in the church fire. On the other hand, both of them made poor choices in their lives that also caused problems. Joel committed arson, ran away and tried to hide his past. Shelby swallowed her dreams and pushed people away so she wouldn’t have to face the possibility of rejection.

The fact is, we all have scars and we all want to be loved as is. Living a full life requires opening up and being vulnerable to others—which can be scary—but it’s worth it in the end. Above all, we can take comfort knowing that God has always loved us just as we are—even before we were willing to love and accept ourselves.

I hope you enjoyed visiting Goose Harbor and getting to know Joel and Shelby. Please come back often and learn what happens to your favorite characters in future books. You can find out more about the Goose Harbor series and see all of my books by visiting
www.jessicakellerbooks.com
.

Dream Big,

Jess Keller