Worth Searching For by Wendy Qualls

Author:Wendy Qualls
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2017-09-13T21:13:57+00:00

Chapter 11

Birmingham was a good half-day drive from Black Lake. As a result, Dave wasn’t entirely surprised that Lito was the only one who volunteered to come along and give a talk at Junior’s school. It worked out well, actually—Lito needed to stay in the Birmingham hotel overnight, and even though Dayspring Inn & Suites was dog-friendly it would have been awkward to have Spot along on a work trip. He’d jumped at Dave’s offer to dog-sit and meet up together the next morning.

Lumpy and Woozy loved having Spot sleep over. The three of them chased themselves silly from when Lito dropped Spot off until their dinner hit their dog bowls, then slept like rocks until five o’clock in the morning when they started tearing around again. Dave was actually kind of impressed at how they managed to keep that excitement up for the entire two-hour drive. This had to be what parents of toddlers felt like. Toddler triplets, maybe.

Lito was waiting in the parking lot of his hotel when Dave pulled up, as promised. He hopped in with a smile and two cups of coffee. Dude must have been psychic.

“You are a god among men,” Dave pronounced.

Lito laughed and set them carefully in the two cupholders, which were both far enough forward the dogs couldn’t investigate too closely. Spot stuck her nose between the front seats, but Lito just gave her an ear scratch and a playful noogie and then nudged her back where she belonged. “I’m lucky the manager here considered me worth impressing,” he said. “The executive suite has a Keurig—everyone else gets to deal with the pot in the lobby. However stale it happens to be. The poor lady at the front desk this morning certainly hadn’t had time to refresh it, not with one of those guests complaining at her.”

“Difficult?” Dave guessed.

“That’s a polite word for it.” He wrinkled his nose. Dave had a hard time not leaning over and kissing it, he was so adorable, but Lito was still talking. “Used to hate them back when I was in her shoes. They stay the night, then come down in the morning to nitpick at their bill because the air conditioner was too loud or the cell phone reception wasn’t good enough and they want you to give them a discount. Sometimes it’s things I could have fixed if they’d told me earlier and sometimes it’s totally in their heads, but they almost never give up without a twenty-minute argument. At least. We had about one a week on the overnight shift, way back when.”

“Glad you’re not still on the front line?”

“God yes,” Lito answered immediately. “Not saying I don’t still hear inane things from people at work, but at least now I’m not required to smile while I do it.” He sat back in his seat and sipped his coffee in silence for a moment. “Yesterday wasn’t bad, all things considered, but I’m not excited about having to introduce myself to a whole new set of people now that I’m here.

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