Greyson (The K9 Files) - Dale Mayer Page 0,6

and, considering what the woman had said about not keeping them past ten days, Greyson figured that Leo had well and truly been given the gift of a second life—literally.

As they got to the truck, his grandfather looked down at Leo and over at Greyson. “I don’t have much room in here.”

“I’ll hold him,” Greyson said, and that’s what they did. His grandfather hopped into the driver’s side, and Greyson picked up the big basset and, holding him in his arms, managed to get himself into the front of the truck and buckled the seat belt around the two of them.

Laughing, his grandfather shook his head. “Your grandmother will kill me.”

“Not if she falls in love first,” he said.

“And how will we do that?” he asked.

“How about I go in with the dog first?” he said.

Grandfather nodded eagerly. He was up for anything that would take the heat off him. They had another twenty minutes to think about it as they drove.

When they pulled up to the front of the house, Greyson awkwardly opened the truck door and carried the dog in his arms. His grandmother came flying out the front door, racing toward him. She tried to give him a hug, but Leo was in the way.

She looked at the dog, laughing a bit. “I don’t know who this guy is,” she said, “but he’s determined to be in the middle of our hug.”

“Let me put him down.” Greyson slowly crouched, letting the dog onto the ground. With the leash still in his hand, he leaned over the dog and gave his grandmother a hug.

“It’s so good to see you,” she said. Then she bent down and greeted the basset. “I didn’t know you were bringing a pet though. That couldn’t have been a nice flight.”

“Well, he wasn’t on the flight with me,” he said. “This is Leo. He was surrendered to a local shelter because his owner passed away. He’s been there for fourteen days, four days past their usual limit, so his days were numbered, and he’s very depressed.”

“Oh, you poor little thing,” his grandmother spoke to Leo, as if to a small child.

Obviously Leo already had a good idea of who the boss was around here because he did a great job of squirming in and showing her how much he wanted to spend time with her. When she straightened up, Greyson handed her the leash and said, “So glad to hear that you like him because he really needs a home.”

Her jaw dropped, and she looked at him in surprise, but Leo was already sniffling at her legs and wandering around at the end of his leash. “I feel like I’ve just been conned,” she said, but she crouched again and gave the basset a great big hug. Just then his grandfather appeared at his shoulder.

He looked at Greyson and down at her. “So, did it work?”

Greyson laughed. “I don’t know. The next part is up to you. You’ve got to convince her to keep him.”

She looked up at Grandfather and over at Greyson. “I can hear a story is behind this, but you’ve been talking about getting a dog for months now.”

“I didn’t want to get tied down,” Grandfather said, staring at the dog, “but I couldn’t leave him in that cage.”

“Of course not,” she said. “Come on in. Let’s see about getting this guy some food.”

And that was all it took. Leo had a new home. Feeling once again like his grandparents were the best, and wondering why he had cut them out of his life for so long, Greyson followed the two into the house, loving that they could see the ocean and had pathways all around, including ones to get down to the beach. Leo would absolutely love this. Lucky dog. And Greyson said as much when he walked in. “This dog has got a great home,” he said, “and so do you. This is a perfect place to live.”

“Now you know why we moved here,” she said. “But I have to admit it was pretty rough that we left just around the same time that you had your accident and ended up with all those surgeries.”

“I know,” he said, “but it wasn’t your fault.”

“No, but it seemed like we deserted you when you needed us most,” his grandmother said. She reached out and hugged him again. Then she bustled about in the kitchen, wiping at the tears in her eyes.

After she made coffee, and she still couldn’t calm down, he