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He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and handed over a business card that had a bunch of shiny silver car parts embossed on it His name was stamped in black and there was contact infore County "You can reach me at the number on there and the website is up-to-date if you want to check it out so you know I’ure out what your bottom line on the Hudson is and if it’s reasonable I’ll see what I can work out If you decide to pass, no hard feelings We both know that kind of car will find a buyer in a hot second I’d like to see it go to a guy who appreciates what he’s got and what it could be, but I learned early on in my career that I can’t save every beauty that co eren’t talking about cars anyot weird and I wasn’t really sure what to do with that I tucked the card in oing to tell you that I’m not te that’s going to cost a ive you a call in a few days after I crunch sooing to be parents I would have snapped up the Hudson without a second thought, but now I had soood choices for, even if that souyand rubbed his hand over histo be a dad?" The words wheezed out and he loudly cleared his throat to cover the obvious strain in his words "Congratulations, kid That’s great"
His reaction was so bizarre that I decided I’d enough of the conversation There was so about this dude that was a little too intense for me "Well, it wasn’t exactly planned and the circuonna do my best by the kid" I snorted a little bit and looked down at the worn toes of my boots "I had a shit exa, I knohat not to do" The guy ain and I hooked a thumb overby and for having faith in o pay the bills The uys ork forto be fixed" I patted the pocket where I stashed his card and assured hio in a few days"
The guy seemed to shake himself out of a stupor and flashed ood, kid" He ahly scraped a hand downup at the clear Denver sky "I’m too tired for this All I wanted was a cup of coffee" The sky didn’t offer any kind of sympathy but Molly had a fresh pot of coffee in the office when I finally made my way inside If I wasn’t so wrapped up in pretty Poppy and wasn’t too smart to court a sexual harassratitude
The rest of the day dragged onRed Bull at two in a desperate bid to keep going, with lackluster results I wanted to cry when I called it a day for the rest of the crew at the end of regular working hours but knew I still had to stay toAll I wanted was a beer and a soft bed … well, a softer woreedy
I was shoulders-deep in the engine of a Jeep Cherokee when ht, cheery ring tone I’d assigned to her I was always the one that reached out to her, so the fact she was calling me, especially when I told her I would be in touch after work, had everything inside ofon alert
"Poppy?" I couldn’t hear what she was saying because she was crying and her voice was so shrill and high I was pretty sure only dogs could understand her She was incoherent and I could practically feel the way she was sobbing through the phone line "Honey, I need you to slon and tell ain but I heard her take a caled to get out, "I dropped Happy’s leash ere out walking He’s gone! He’s going to get hit by a car or attacked by a bigger dog! I can’t find hiain and I pictured her collapsing in on herself in theapart with no one there to hold her together I wiped s of e before I was really aware of the fact I wasThe task usually took an hour but I didn’t bother to sweep the floors or shut off the lights I made sure all theleft on that could burn the place down as I raced out to my car
"Give me twenty minutes and I’ll come find him" I kept my voice calht be a pit but he was still a baby and he had no idea as out there in the big bad world He was so s about all the bad things that could befall hi" She sounded heartbroken … no strike that … she sounded broken period Itinside ofdouble ti into the Eldorado and swore loudly, which made her cry even harder "Poppy where are you?"
She didn’t reply for so long that I strongly considered hanging up and calling 911 She sounded like she needed help and I was still too far away to offer it to her I was terrified of what I was going to find when I finally made it to her
"Poppy?" I barked her nah
She wheezed through the line and toldup and down the blocks near her apart in the decorative bushes that lined the ays leading up to most of the converted Victorians in that part of Capitol Hill She said she was also checking under cars and in the alleys that passed between buildings, which ledher to be careful I orried about her wandering the streets in her obviously hysterical state She was as much at risk as the puppy was