AN: Thank you for the reviews last chapter!
I forgot to mention in the first chapter so here's a quick little note. I did quick research on Albuquerque and know that it's a huge city unlike the small town I'm making it in this story. Just randomly throwing that out there. Hope you like the chapter!
It was probably as hot inside as it was outside. The temperature was nearing triple digits and with the humidity, Gabi found it hard to breathe at times. When Gran had the air put in she decided to just ignore everything but the dogs, saying that the office could be cooled down if the door to the kennel was opened to let the air out. There was no chance Gabi was going to do that. As much as she loved dogs all of them barking and howling would be worst than the heat. So she sat thinking of places like Alaska and things like ice cream while waiting for owners to come pick up their pets.
Now Gran was normally the one who ran the kennel. When grandpa had passed away a few years back Gran insisted she could still run the whole thing by herself with a little bit of help. But ever since the stroke some months back, she spent less time running the business with Gabi taking care of things. Soon enough Gabriella found herself running the place almost full time during the summer months when her job at the local elementary school was on hold. They had tried to hire some help but nobody found scooping poop pleasurable, so the longest anyone had stayed was two weeks. That made Gabi worry a lot. School would be starting soon so unless a long-time employee was found, Gran would be here all by herself while Gabi and Kyle were at school.
Kyle. She wished her son was here right now, but he was at his dad's. Gabi sighed when she thought of her ex-husband, Collin Hampton. She hated making Kyle go spend time with him since he didn't like it anymore than his dad. Collin was one of the sheriffs in town and believed that all boys should be strong. He believed that they should love sports, and rough housing. Kyle loved to read, play chess, and wanted to learn the violin. Sports was once included in that list but his dad always pushed him too hard. Collin never thought he was good enough, so Kyle simply stopped trying. Gabi didn't understand why he couldn't be happy with the son he had. Kyle was a wonderful child, it shouldn't have mattered if he was more into books than a baseball.
Kyle had to deal with his dad because they had joint custody, and the Hamptons owned and worked just about everything in town. They could beat her in the courts any day. Plus there wasn't anything to hold against Collin. There would be no use trying to get full custody.
Lost in thought, she didn't notice someone walk into the office. He was frozen at the door and staring as if he recognized her but she couldn't remember him if her life had depended on it. There was a German Shepherd by his side, it reminded Gabi of Max.
"Welcome. I don't think you called but fill this out and we can check your dog in." She said sliding the form across the counter towards him. The man shook his head walking towards her, trying to stop from continuing his stare.
"I'm not here to drop him off. I saw the help wanted sign in the window."
"Oh well let me grab you an application then." After some quick digging through the file cabinet she placed the paper in front of him along with a pen, and watched him start filling it out.
"I'm just got to town but I can put the address and room to the hotel I'm staying at, and my mom's place back in South Carolina if you want" He said looking up from writing. This Troy Bolton as his application said was giving her a nervous feeling.
"You're from South Carolina? Why are you here? Not to be rude but most people don't just randomly move to Albuquerque. They try to get out of this town."
"I just decided it seems like a nice place." Yeah, something was definitely off about this guy.
"Just put whatever you can." Gabi waited until he had his head down again before looking out the window, no car. "So how was the flight over?"
"I walked." If that didn't cause red flags to go up, nothing would. Did he just say that he walked here?
"You walked from South Carolina? From across the country? Then decided to stop here because it seemed nice to you?" She asked skeptically.
"Here" He reached into his back pockets and pulled out his passport, letting Gabriella look it over. His name really was Troy Bolton and the picture shown was him. It also showed that he was in the Marines. That didn't settle her feelings though.
"If you just got here how did you know we were hiring? I didn't put an ad in the paper this week."
"I was walking with Ace yesterday and when he heard dogs barking he ran this way. I followed and saw the sign but when I looked though the window nobody was here so I decided to come back later." It was a believable story but he could be lying, or at the least leaving some details out. Giving a quick glance at his application she saw that he was a college graduate. Why would a college educated man walk across the country, stop in a small town because it seemed nice, and take a job that he probably knew wouldn't pay as well as the many others he could get.
"Look, am I wasting my time filling the rest of this out?"
"I don't know" She answered honestly, "If you don't mind waiting, I'm gonna run next door and talk to my grandmother about this first. She's the owner of this place."
"Go ahead." Troy followed Gabriella outside and sat on the steps with Ace while she headed to the house next door.
---
"Gran? I know you're still watching the game but can you help me with something?"
"Sure sweetie, they're playing like rabbits anyway," Gabi guessed that wasn't a good thing by her tone, "I'll just turn it off now so I don't have to hear them make up excuses. You want some lemonade? I made it earlier." Gran said with Gabi following her into the kitchen.
"Not right now. There's someone who came to apply for a job."
"Why you look so down? That's a good thing."
"He's just strange...well his story is." She went on to tell Gran about Troy Bolton. When she was finished her grandmother was now also suspicious of the guy. She still agreed to go talk to the man while Gabi stayed in the house to cool off for a bit. His story was weird but the guy didn't seem like the type to hurt an old lady.
Gabi reached into the fridge to grab the lemonade mentioned moments ago and pour herself a glass while looking out the window. She saw Gran bend down to Troy's dog and greeted him first before holding out a hand to his owner. It wasn't like she could hear their conversation but she watched anyway. It was quick, five minutes barely passed before he and his dog walked away from the kennel. She assumed Gran had turned him down.
"You hired him?!" Gabi gave her grandmother a bewildered look. After Troy Bolton had gone, she walked over to have Gran drop the bomb.
"Yes dear, and please lower you voice. I'm old not deaf."
"But why? Aren't you suspicious? Don't you think he's...I don't know a killer? You usually pick up on people's motives quicker than me."
"Well I didn't pick up anything bad. I think we can trust him until something goes wrong." Gran started to walk away when she finished her sentence leaving Gabi in shock.
"That something wrong could be a murder!" She called after Gran.
"He starts on Wednesday." Right then a green truck pulled up the drive of the kennel. She had long forgotten that one of the dogs was to be picked up today as soon as Troy Bolton showed up.
AN: Hopefully that wasn't a jumbled mess. Tell me what you think!