in the back-country, to get away from all the tourists. I got up early and went on my own hike in the Devil’s Garden,” he explained. “The beginning of the trail was heavily trafficked, but after about a mile or two it died off. The trail went over large boulders and loose rocks. It weaved between those huge shark-fin rock formations. And then it ended at the Double O Arch.”
Riley shook his head in wonder. “I remember being so inspired when I reached that formation. It was beautiful, hidden away where nobody could see it unless you had hiked to that specific point. Nobody else had hiked that far so I had it all to myself.”
“So what?” I said. I didn’t like how he was changing the subject from Christie.
But he wasn’t.
“I didn’t want to experience it by myself,” he said. “It was too beautiful to not share with my best friends. So I hiked back to the trailhead. I practically ran, slipping over the rocks and scraping my elbows. But I reached you guys before you had started your own hike, and I convinced you to come see the Double O formation first. And then we all enjoyed it together.”
Riley stopped at a landing and pulled out his water bottle. He took a long gulp and then gazed at me with intensity. “That’s how it feels with Christie. I don’t want to keep her to myself. She’s too beautiful for that, too amazing. I want to share her with my best friends.”
He gazed out at the view of the canyon. Riley’s sincerity shocked me. He had found a woman who he really liked and he was openly talking about me sleeping with her too. I didn’t know what to think of the whole situation.
“Does she know why you volunteered in the first place?” I asked.
He whipped his head around. “No. And nobody needs to tell her, either.” He aimed a finger at me in warning.
“Okay, okay. No problem.”
As we continued our hike, I thought about the beautiful woman who had entered our lives.
14
Christie
As I worked on my laptop, I thought about the sexy men who had entered my life.
I was giddy. There was a smile permanently glued to my face while I entered vaccine information into my laptop. I couldn’t get Riley and Harper out of my head. I wished I could fast-forward to tomorrow so I could see them again.
It was a funny thing. I had seen one of the seven natural wonders of the world this morning, yet all I could think about were two boys.
Happy Bones wasn’t like normal dog shelters. We were selective with who we allowed to adopt our dogs. We weren’t just trying to empty our cages as quickly as possible. We were trying to find permanent homes for each and every dog we fostered. The last thing we wanted was for a dog to be adopted on a whim and then abandoned a few weeks later.
To avoid that, we required all potential adopters to fill out an application and a three-page questionnaire. We asked where they lived, if they had a backyard, their history with dogs and pet ownership in general, and dozens of other questions. That helped us get a feel for who would be a good adopter.
Only when an application had been accepted could the potential adopter come look at the dogs. Visits were by appointment only; we didn’t take walk-ups. Today we had two appointments.
The first one, a middle-aged woman, was interested in adopting one of the Chihuahuas. She played with them for twenty minutes and went on and on about how much she loved dogs, but in the end decided not to adopt either of them.
The second appointment was a family of four. Their German Shepherd had just passed away and they were looking for a new family dog. They were a great candidate family because of their history, and had a large backyard for the high-energy breeds, but after playing in the field with all of my big dogs they decided they still weren’t ready to replace their old dog.
It made me sad to see families leave empty-handed. We took very good care of the dogs here at Happy Bones, but I wanted each of them to find what we called their furever home. Individual love and attention was always better than what we could give them.
After putting the dogs away, I saw that I had an email from Pierce, my ex.
Attached are instructions for configuring dual-factor