Page 183

“I’m fine.”

“You’ve mentioned that.” He walked her carefully to the door and opened it.

Arden stood on the porch, grinning from ear to ear. “Somebody’s missed you.”

Goblin shot into the house, head on a swivel. For one ridiculous second, Jodie barely recognized him. The dull brown fur she’d first seen matted with dust and burrs was now chocolate-brown, clean and shiny against his skinny body. His ears looked even bigger without grime flattening the fur around them, and Arden had trimmed his nails and put a clean blue bandana around his neck.

“Oh my God. Is this the same dog?”

Goblin spun around and scrambled on the hardwood floor, trying to run back to her. Mac grabbed him around the middle right before the dog would have crashed into her.

“Careful, bud. I can see some behavioral classes in your future.”

“No, no, let him go.” Jodie carefully dropped to her knees.

Goblin covered her chin with frantic kisses before shoving his head beneath her hand. Jodie buried her fingers in the soft fur along his neck and breathed in shampoo.

“Look at you.” Her eyes filled before she could stop them. “You got your glow-up, buddy.”

Goblin sneezed in her face.

Jodie laughed, then pressed her forehead against his. She remembered smoke burning her throat while she’d tried to convince him to follow her underground.

Goblin, please.

She felt him run away all over again, felt the white-hot pain in her heart of not being able to save him. Then she realized why he ran.

“You went and found them,” she told Goblin. Her voice broke. Goblin pushed closer. “You found Mac for me.”

Mac sat down beside her. His palm settled against the back of her neck, warm and steady.

“He sure did. He found us and tried to tell us where you were. If I’d listened right away…” Now his voice broke. “I would’ve gotten to you sooner.”

“It’s okay. You got me out.” Jodie leaned against him as she stroked Goblin’s clean ears until her eyes stopped burning. She looked up at Arden, whose silver-gray eyes were shining with tears.

“Thank you so much for doing this.”

“Well, I decided surviving a wildfire and saving my friend’s life entitled him to the deluxe package.”

Goblin turned three circles, stepped on Mac’s foot twice in the process, then collapsed with his head on Jodie’s thigh and looked up at her adoringly.

She stared down at him with equal adoration.

“So I guess you’d better live here now.”

His bat ears twitched and he gave her a big doggy smile.

Her people had filled a hospital room. She had come home bruised, exhausted, unable to drive, under orders not to work, but her house was filled with flowers and cards wishing her better. Mac was doing everything he could just shy of actually breathing for her, to make her comfortable. And now Goblin the Glamour Dog was asleep against her leg.

Nothing had disappeared because she stopped holding it together. Instead, her life was even fuller.

How did I get so lucky?

A week later, Jodie walked into Watchdog with her coffee and a doctor’s note that said she could work reduced hours as long as she didn’t do anything strenuous. Otherwise, Kyle would have kept her home for another week. The familiar smell of coffee, printer toner, and whatever somebody had reheated in the break room hit her as soon as she opened the door. Jodie stood just inside the entrance for a second and breathed it all in.

My other home.

Jodie expected chaos at her desk and was fully prepared to spend her day organizing whatever mess was there. Instead, someone had sorted the mail into actual piles. New sticky notes had been neatly lined up along the bottom of her monitor instead of overlapping in the chaotic little mosaic people usually left for her to decipher. The emergency chocolate in the top drawer had been replenished.