Love at First Bark by Debbie Burns

Author:Debbie Burns
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2019-06-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Even though she usually had a hard time sleeping in cars, Mia somehow managed to doze most of the way through Illinois. She wasn’t sure how Ben had managed to swing such a nice rental, but the metallic-silver Escalade ESV transporting them to snowman land was decidedly upscale. Using her fluffy coat as a blanket and propping her pillow against the window, Mia decided her middle-row bucket seat was as comfortable as any seat she’d ever ridden in. And even though the floor space in the middle and rear of the SUV was taken up by overflow luggage, Mia propped her legs on top of a duffel bag that was crammed in near her. To get everything to fit in addition to the dogs’ kennels, they’d needed to be creative with space.

When Ollie had found out that with Irene riding along, one person would need to sit in the third row while the other half of the row would be folded down to make room for one of the dog kennels, he begged for dibs to sit back there. With the dogs in eyesight, a pile of books, and his imagination, he made it a hundred miles farther than Mia would’ve guessed without asking for a potty break.

When he finally declared he had to pee, he’d held it so long that he’d not been able to wait for a gas station. Ben pulled over near a stretch of empty fields, and Ollie did his business with the car shielding him from the highway.

Just north of Rockford, Illinois, close to the Wisconsin border, they stopped at a state park so that everyone, including the dogs, could stretch their legs. To Ollie’s delight, there was ample snow on the ground, particularly in compacted mounds on the sides of the sidewalk, but judging by its slight discoloration, it wasn’t even close to fresh. Mia had to remind him several times as they walked to the restrooms that it wasn’t safe to eat.

“It’s coming,” she promised. “Bowls and bowls of it. I even packed the sprinkles.”

Whenever it snowed heavily enough, they’d set out a bowl to collect snow, and Ollie would get to add sprinkles like it was ice cream.

After the group had gone to the bathroom and it was time to walk the dogs, neither Lynn nor Irene were interested in doing anything more than stretching their legs on the short, cleared path that led to the lake, so that left Mia and Ollie and Ben to walk the dogs. Since Sam was young and clingy enough, he could be trusted off leash to follow Sadie, and only Sadie and Turbo needed to be leashed.

The dogs had dozed in their crates for the most part, lulled into sleep by the drone of the highway, but now they were wide awake and more than ready to get out. After a dozen steps down the wooded trail, Ollie tugged Mia’s sleeve. “Hey, Mom, this is Sam’s first snow, isn’t it?”

“I hadn’t thought of that, but yeah it is.

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