LITMIR.BIZ

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Logan held up his glass. “If you had your way you’d have everyone doing hard labor.”

      Frank recognized his son’s sarcasm and blithely ignored it. “It didn’t hurt you any.”

      Logan didn’t bother saying any more. After all these years of verbal sparring with his father he knew he’d only lose. Instead, he settled on looking at the positive part of this deal. He’d have a chance of seeing Lucy Donner again.

      “YOU KNOW, Mom, pretty soon you won’t have to worry about picking me up from school,” Nick said as he settled in the passenger seat of Lucy’s pewter-gray Murano. He looked out and waved at a classmate. “Pretty soon I’ll be able to apply for my learner’s permit.”

      “Not in this lifetime, bud. Being grounded for the next forty years means no driving ever. I don’t care if I have to drive you to your college graduation.” She checked her side-view mirror and moved away from the curb. “There’s a pair of old jeans and a T-shirt in the back seat.” Her knuckles turned white as she tightened her grip on the steering wheel. “I should have sold you to the gypsies when I had a chance.”

      He grinned. “That threat hasn’t worked since I was five.”

      “That’s no threat. You have to work at that shelter for six months,” Lucy muttered. “I guess it could be worse. Some hackers aren’t allowed to use a computer for years.”

      His upbeat nature dimmed. “I can’t use the computer lab at school. I have to go to study hall instead.”

      “Just be grateful the school didn’t expel you.” She mentally calculated the easiest way to drop Nick off at the shelter and make a getaway without having to deal with Logan Kincaid. She knew a conscientious mother would go inside and insist on seeing just where her son would be working. And she was a conscientious mother. But she was also a woman who found Logan Kincaid a little too attractive for her peace of mind.

      Instead of running from him, she should be making herself available. The man had asked her out on a date, after all, and she’d turned him down without a good reason. Unless you counted deciding she couldn’t handle anything resembling a love life right now. After what had happened with Nick, she knew she’d made the right decision. If she couldn’t control her son, what made her think she could control her own life?

      Lucy looked at the ranch-style building bordered by grass and colorful flowers. Farther back she could see a small house with what looked like a waist-high wooden fence around it. Off to one side was a wire-fenced-in area. She would have thought this was a lovely residence if it weren’t for the sign out front declaring the premises to be the Valley Animal Clinic and Shelter—that and the cacophony of barking coming from the rear of the building.

      “Maybe I should have taken you to the doctor first. For all we know you might require shots to work here,” she mused aloud. “Was there anything in the court order about shots?”

      “It’s more like the animals need shots,” Nick pointed out, as he opened the door. He glanced over his shoulder. “Aren’t you coming in?”

      For a second she saw the little boy she’d walked every day to the Sunny Day Preschool around the corner from their house.

      “I guess I should.” She climbed out and walked around the front of the vehicle.

      They stepped inside a waiting area that was divided down the middle of the large room by a waist-high wall. Lucy noticed one side appeared decorated for the feline patients while the other side was indicated for dogs. She almost yelped when she saw a teenage boy seated on a bench with a python wrapped around his shoulders. She hoped the expression on the snake’s face didn’t have anything to do with hunger.

      “Can I help you?” asked a young woman behind the counter. Light-blue medical scrubs decorated with tiny kittens wearing wings and halos covered a large pregnant belly. She smiled at the two of them.

      “I’m Nick Donner. I’m supposed to be working here.”

      She nodded and pressed down on a button on the phone console. “Gwen, the kid is here.” She looked at him. “The vet tech will be out here in a second.”

      “I’m Lucy, his mother,” Lucy said, keeping as much distance from the snake as she possibly could. She transferred her attention to a silvery gray dog that looked like a husky that sat near the woman. What appeared to be a cell phone was lodged firmly between his jaws. She hoped the dog had been fed lately because he looked awfully hungry. Between the python and the dog, she felt like an afternoon snack.

      “Nick Donner?” A spritely blonde walked out from the rear. She greeted him with a broad smile. “Hi, I’m Gwen.” She introduced herself to Lucy and then explained, “Don’t worry, Mrs. Donner, he won’t be around anything dangerous. “He’ll be under the supervision of our shelter staff along with Dr. Kincaid and myself.”

      Lucy was reassured by the young woman’s matter-of-fact manner. “I’ll be back at six, then. Nice meeting you.” As she made her way out, she determinedly kept her eyes down instead of looking around for Logan Kincaid. With Nick working here for the next six months, she knew she’d be dealing with the veterinarian sooner or later.

      She was hoping for later.

      NICK FOLLOWED Gwen to the back. She walked swiftly while talking over her shoulder. “The shelter has two regular employees who work a rotating schedule. Kristi is working today. She’ll show you the ropes. I’m sure Logan will come back to see you when he finishes with his patient.”

      “Okay.” Nick looked at the framed color sketches of dogs, cats and exotic animals that lined the hallway walls.

      “You’re our youngest worker,” Gwen told him as she pushed open the rear door. Barking and feline yowls greeted them as they stepped into the large room. “Just don’t let Kristi scare you off.”

      Nick gulped as he entered the shelter. For a brief moment, he wondered if he should have found another way to accomplish his goal. It had seemed so easy when he’d mapped it out to the judge.

      “Kristi, this is Nick Donner. We’ve got him for the next six months,” Gwen announced.

      Nick stared at the young woman dressed in a midriff-baring black tank top and camouflage pants tucked into Doc Martens. Light danced off the tiny gold ring hooked to one nostril and another bisecting an eyebrow, while a red stone sparkled from her navel. A barbed-wire tattoo circled one slender upper arm. Her short spiky hair was as black as her top. Dark-brown eyes surveyed him with clinical interest.

      “You don’t look like the typical juvie Judge Kincaid sends here,” she drawled. “What’d you do?”

      “I hacked into my school’s computer system and gave them a whole new set of records.”

      She looked impressed. She gestured for him to follow her to the back of the large building. “Cool. Okay, here’s how it goes. You do the dirty work. I supervise. Gwen or the doc handles any medications that need to be administered. Jeremy or I handle the records. That means you keep your paws out of the medication cabinet in case it’s unlocked, which is pretty much never. What you’ll be doing is hosing down and cleaning the kennels. You’ll also exercise the bigger dogs, which means you take them out to the fenced-in dog park the doc set up out back. They can run free out there, but you still have to stay in there with them. Most of them enjoy chasing a ball or chasing you. You have a dog, right?”

      “No, we have a cat. Luther.” He eyed one rambunctious German shepherd with a trace of unease. “He’s real old and cranky.”

      She shrugged. “You’re a kid. You can handle a dog.”

      “Nick Donner?”

      Nick turned around to see a tall man with dark blond hair coming toward him. Sunglasses hung from his T-shirt neckline.

      “Logan Kincaid.” He held out his hand. “You’re Lou Walker’s grandson, right?”

      “I guess you’d call

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