that’s Luke Dawson? He seems different than before.
Heard he’s a bull rider now, going to the World Championship. Can you believe it?
No man who loves animals that much can be all bad.
Every day the festival held a different event, the most popular of which were the Puppy Power 5K for walkers and their dogs and the Blessing of the Animals. For the blessing, Father Andrews said a prayer, then sprinkled each pet with holy water. Luke had told Shannon about Todd adopting Barney, but seeing them together for the blessing came very close to making her cry.
Shannon left the festival grounds exhausted every evening. She and Luke took the animals back to the shelter and made sure everybody was fed. Then he came to her apartment, and suddenly she perked right back up again. They took a shower, then grabbed a bite to eat, barely finishing dinner before they were in each other’s arms again, making their way to the bedroom. They never talked about what was going to happen when the festival was over and he had to get on the road to Denver. That was fine with Shannon. The last thing she wanted to do was interject one bit of sadness into the happiness she was feeling.
All too soon Sunday came, the last day of the festival. Attendance dwindled in the afternoon in anticipation of the barbecue that night. The animals were getting tired, stretching out in their cages, their eyes drifting shut. Only a dozen visitors had stopped by in the last hour.
Luke sat down in a chair, holding a fuzzy little mutt that was part Yorkie and part something else. As Angela talked to a visitor who was thinking of adopting a cat, Shannon sat down beside him.
“I don’t know what it is about the festival this year,” she said with a smile. “It’s been a whole lot more fun than usual.”
Luke smiled back. “It’s been fun for me, too.”
“Did you come to the festival when you were a kid?”
His smiled faded. “Yeah, but I didn’t have any money to do anything. Then when I was older, I couldn’t even walk up to a booth without somebody thinking I was going to steal something.”
“That must have been hard.”
Luke just shrugged, but she knew how much that had to have hurt him as a child. It broke her heart to imagine him walking around the festival without being able to do what the other kids did—shop at the booths or play the games or even buy a little cotton candy.
“Let’s do it now,” Shannon said.
“What?”
“We haven’t gotten out of this booth the whole week. Let’s go play.”
Luke raised his eyebrows. “Did you just say the word ‘play’?”
“Yeah. Let’s go do festival stuff.”
“What about the shelter booth?”
Shannon looked over at Angela. “Can you hold down the fort for an hour or so?”
“No problem.”
Shannon smiled at Luke. “Let’s go.”
All week long Russell had been trying to get into the spirit of the festival, but it was a hard thing to do. People were everywhere. Pets were everywhere. He couldn’t even drop by Rosie’s for a takeout order without standing in line behind a string of tourists. Most of the business owners on the square loved every minute of it, but that was only because they were selling souvenirs or consumables. To date he hadn’t had a single tourist drop by his office for a spur-of-the-moment root canal. And the costume contest—why had he agreed to judge that? He’d felt like a fool sitting up there trying to decide between a Chihuahua dressed like a Hell’s Angel and a cat wearing a bumblebee costume.
He went to the petting zoo the first day to see what he’d supposedly paid a thousand bucks for. The sign looked good. He liked seeing his name emblazoned at the entrance in foot-tall letters. Shannon had stopped working for a minute to talk about the sign and tell him again how much she appreciated it. But with Luke Dawson hanging around in the background, the whole experience had eventually irritated Russell enough that he hadn’t been back since.
Now he was walking down Rainbow Way, stopping to talk to vendors and other townspeople, wanting to make sure people saw him at the festival even though he didn’t entirely get it. He also made sure to stop by the Preservation Society booth to say hello to Loucinda, who greeted him like the son-in-law she was hoping to have. If only her daughter would pay that kind of attention