them would ask me out on a date. I immediately pushed down the feeling like a bad idea. Both of them were technically working for me right now. It wouldn’t be appropriate for us to date.
But it didn’t stop me from thinking about it.
“Thanks again for all your help,” I said.
Riley swept back his brown hair with a palm. “For the fourth time today—you’re welcome. Later, Christie.”
Harper gave me a shy little nod and smile. “See you Sunday.”
After they left, I went back inside to verify with two of the store managers that we would be setting up gift-wrapping tables on Black Friday. “I’ll be there at seven in the morning,” I said.
“We mentioned it in our weekly newsletter,” the manager of Express told me. “Hopefully you raise a lot of funds.”
“Hope so!”
I walked out of the store and a man stepped in front of me. “You Christie?” he asked in a deep voice.
He was wearing a leather jacket and jeans, and messy black hair stuck out from under his Arizona ballcap, which was pulled low over his eyes. His face was sharp and angular, and his skin was well-tanned. There was a thin, rough beard along his jaw. He was the kind of guy who walked a fine line between looking sexy and looking dangerous, depending on the context.
“I’m Christie,” I said carefully. “Who’s asking?”
“Logan,” he said bluntly. Like I should know who he was.
After a moment, I remembered. Logan was the third volunteer who was supposed to show up today. I glanced at my watch. He was three hours late. Any thoughts about him being sexy disappeared from my mind.
“You were supposed to be here at four.”
“Work ran late,” he said in a deep, rough voice. Like boulders rolling down a mountain. “I’m here now.”
“I’ve already packed everything away,” I explained.
Logan’s dark eyebrows lowered over dark eyes. “So you don’t need volunteers?”
It had been a long day, and I had to bite back a snappy comment. In an even tone I said, “I need volunteers during the busy times. There’s not enough foot traffic this late at night for our gift-wrapping fundraiser to be worth it.”
He shifted his weight from one foot to another. His boots had been brown at some point, but now they were covered in sandy-red dust. “I was busy. When do you need me next?”
“I don’t need you tomorrow since it’s Thanksgiving,” I said. “But if you come in the day after that, I can get you all trained up. I wasn’t supposed to be here that day but I can come in to get you situated…”
Logan blinked. “That’s Friday.”
“Yep, that’s how days work,” I said dryly.
He clenched his jaw. “Black Friday. It’ll be a shitshow.”
“That’s why I wanted to train you today, when things were calmer. But since you couldn’t be here on time…”
Logan shook his head. “Forget that. I don’t like dealing with people. What about next week?”
I was done with this conversation. Beggars couldn’t be choosers when it came to volunteer help, but I could tell this guy wasn’t going to be helpful no matter how much training he got.
“Show up whenever, I guess,” I said. “I’ll be working the mall every day next week.”
I walked down the mall aisle toward the parking lot.
“Wait,” he called.
I stopped and turned around. Had he changed his mind?
Logan reached into his pocket and unfolded a piece of paper. “Can you sign my timesheet?”
“Your what?”
He shoved the piece of paper into my hands. It was a community service timesheet signed by a judge.
“I need forty hours,” he explained. “If you can put me down for four hours today, that’d be great.”
I almost laughed in his face. “If you want credit for volunteering, show up on time.”
I tossed the paper back at him and walked away, and this time he didn’t call out to me.
The nerve of some people. Trying to get me to sign for work he didn’t do? I was annoyed by his gall. It also highlighted the difference between people like Logan and people who actually wanted to be there, like Riley and Harper.
At least I had gotten two worthwhile volunteers today.
5
Christie
My animal shelter was a twenty-minute drive outside of Flagstaff. The almost-alpine terrain of the city gave way to the Arizona prairie as I turned down my driveway, passing underneath the metal archway shaped like a bunch of dog bones. My headlights swept across the big farmhouse and the fence surrounding the property. In the field I saw several dogs chasing each