Organically Yours: Sanctuary, Book Five by Abbie Zanders (love letters to the dead txt) 📕

at his feet, regarding her with curious interest.

“Sorry about that. Duke gets a little overexcited sometimes when he sees someone new. We’re still working on that, aren’t we, bud?” He reached down and scratched the dog’s head.

“No problem. I love dogs.”

Doc’s eyes appeared to shine with approval, but it might have been a trick of the light. Or wishful thinking.

“Kate said to let you know dinner will be ready in about half an hour,” Doc told them.

“Good timing. We’re just about done,” Chris said.

“Mind if I walk up with you?” Doc asked.

Tina could have sworn the two men exchanged a brief glance, but again, it might have been a trick of the light.

“Actually, I’ve got something I have to do before dinner, so you two go ahead,” Chris told them. “See you in thirty.”

Chris walked into the tree line and disappeared, leaving Tina and Doc to make the trek back to the resort with Duke trotting along beside them.

“So, how many guard dogs do you have here?” she asked.

“Nine, including Duke, but they’re not guard dogs,” Doc told her. “Duke’s a stray that Kate took in a few years ago, along with Duke’s baby mama and their seven pups. Well, they’re not pups anymore, I guess.”

Tina laughed. “That sounds exactly like something Kate would do. So, they’re pets?”

“We’re training them to be therapy dogs.”

Tina hadn’t considered that. But given Sanctuary’s mission, it made perfect sense. “Very cool.”

They walked for a while in companionable silence before she said, “You’re doing some good things here.”

He smiled, unknowingly setting off butterflies in her chest. Or at least, that was what that fluttering felt like to her.

“That’s the idea.”

When they neared the main building, Doc veered off to the right. When Tina hesitated, he encouraged her to join him, an offer she gladly accepted. He led them to a large, fenced-in area, where they were greeted with quite a few wagging tails.

After taking a few minutes to pet them all, they left Duke with his doggy family and went inside, using a side entrance. The moment they did, delicious aromas assaulted them. Tina hadn’t realized how hungry she was until then.

She asked to use the restroom to wash up. As she washed her hands, she looked at herself in the mirror. Her skin was lightly flushed from being outside, but it was the sheer pleasure of the afternoon that made her feel as if she was glowing.

Dinner was no less enjoyable. Kate had cooked a fabulous meal, but it was the easy camaraderie among the residents that Tina enjoyed the most. They felt like a family—or what a family should feel like.

She was genuinely sad when it was time to go.

She thanked them and said her good-byes. Once again, it was Doc who walked her out.

“I had a wonderful time today,” she told him.

“Glad to hear it. I hope that means you’ll come back and visit us again.”

“I’d like that.”

She’d enjoyed the girl time, the tour, the dinner, seeing Doc—all of it—and she wouldn’t be opposed to doing it again. Hopefully, she would, too. Chris had seemed receptive of her offer to collaborate on the greenhouses, just as Matt had with the orchard.

Once again, Doc opened her truck door for her in a gentlemanly gesture. It didn’t surprise her as much as it had the last time.

“Listen, Tina, do you think you might like to go out sometime? Maybe grab some dinner or a cup of coffee or something?”

His words thrilled her, but reality came crashing in hard. It was one thing to see him at Sanctuary. Quite another to be seen with him in town.

“Oh, I’m not sure I can,” she hedged. “Things are ramping up at the orchards. There’s always so much to do this time of year.”

“I understand,” he said easily. “You have a good night. Drive safe.”

Chapter Twelve

Doc

No matter how old a man got, rejection was still a hard pill to swallow. Perhaps what made it worse was, he so rarely asked that when he did, it felt like it cut deeper.

Clearly, he’d misread the signals because for a while there, he’d thought that Tina felt the same attraction that he did.

He kept the smile on his face and waved toward her departing vehicle, then went back into the main building, still smiling for the benefit of those watching on the security cameras. He’d done the same himself often enough, so when he’d asked Tina out, he’d known exactly where and how to stand, so he wouldn’t be heard, and Heff, the nosy fucker, wouldn’t be able to read his lips.

He expected to find them in the war room, and he did. He took a seat and waited for the inevitable discussion to begin.

“Did you see the lovely Miss Obermacher off?” Heff asked.

Doc flicked his gaze to the monitors, specifically the one at the main entrance. “You know I did.”

“And?”

“And she said she had a great time and would enjoy visiting again.”

“That’s all?”

Doc shrugged. “Yeah. What else were you expecting?”

Heff blinked, his way of expressing surprise. Kate didn’t even try to hide her disappointment. It looked as if they’d misread the situation, too.

“Thoughts?” Church asked.

“She knows her stuff,” Cage said. “She did her master’s thesis on sustainable farming, and that stuff she told Mad Dog about working in poverty-stricken areas checks out.”

“And she’s certainly got the experience,” Mad Dog chimed in. “Bringing her on board as a consultant would save us time, money, and effort. Not just for the orchard, but the greenhouses as well.”

“What about her connections to Freed and company?” asked Smoke.

“I doubt her brothers know about her coming up here,” Church said.

Doc silently agreed with that.

“But if this becomes a regular thing, they will,” Heff said, looking directly at Doc. “And Tina Obermacher might be forced to choose.”

Doc shrugged and kept his expression neutral, though he was pretty sure he knew which side of the fence Tina would choose to stand on, and it wasn’t good news for him. “She’s an adult. She knows actions have consequences