McKinnley led the blonde pair back to the long hallway of dogs. She felt a little awkward, as she didn't really want to say anything… she didn't really have anything to say to Jax Teller anyway, but luckily, little Abel had plenty to say to fill the quiet void. Mick was thankful for the time to collect herself put on her game face. She didn't want to seem too desperate.
She first took the boys to a kennel that housed a little chow mix puppy. 'Leroy' was a very energetic puppy, and loved to play with children. As she opened the gate to allow Abel inside to play, she stepped out of the way and next to Jax, hoping she'd be able to hold a decent conversation with him.
"So, Charming is a small town, and I think I would've remembered someone with green hair. How long have you lived here?"
"Actually, I've lived here now for about 3 years now."
Jax looked slightly startled by the declaration. "Wow. So where are you from originally then? And why haven't I seen you around?"
Mick looked down and saw Abel now rolling on the floor with the puppy, and was glad she had mopped earlier that morning. "I tend to keep to myself. I love my job and work too much to spend any more time then necessary in town, just groceries and gas. And I'm from a place called Bountiful, just outside Salt Lake City."
"Okay. Yeah. I've been over to Utah a couple times, more over by the Tooele area but I'm not 100 percent sure of any of the other cities." She didn't really know how to respond, so she turned back to Abel, and saw that maybe he was a bit overwhelmed with the rambunctiousness of the little puppy, and decided it was time to move on. "Okay Abel. I think you and your daddy would have your hands full if you got this guy. Let's put Leroy back and I'll show you a chihuahua named Taco."
Jax immediately didn't appreciate that statement. "Hell no. I'm not gonna be seen with a yappy little, bitch dog. Don't you have something a little more, I don't know, large?"
McKinnley rolled her eyes, chuckled, and as she led them further down the row of barking dogs, she explained the back story of the puppy she was taking them to see.
"This little puppy was brought in by a good Samaritan who saw him limping by the bank of Bear Creek. He was shivering, and had a pretty bad fracture on his left back paw, but we got him warm, patched up, and now he's ready for adoption."
She opened the plexiglass door, and stepped aside to allow Abel to see in.
A beautiful brindled mastiff puppy slowly yawned, stretched and trotted over to where Abel was curiously looking at him. After the puppy had set his bottom on the concrete floor again, the two young ones just stared at each other for a moment, when suddenly Abel broke into a smile and leaned forward to hug the dog.
McKinnley smiled as she commented, "We named him Beast, because he's gonna grow up to be around 130 pounds. You'll definitely have your share of knocked over lamps, and expensive dog food, but, you'll never find a more loyal and friendly dog."
Jax smiled, and bent down to pet the puppy who was now content just sleeping in Abel's little lap. "He seems like a pretty cool guy."
"He is, but he's still a puppy, so he'll have plenty of energy to help Abel burn off."
Jax then turned his charming smile back to Mick, and she felt her ovaries erupt... just a little. "We'll take him."
McKinnley was so excited; she tried to reign in her squeal of delight. Beast was such a sweet puppy, and no young dog deserved to grow up in a shelter. Especially in a very slow shelter, where they were only getting roughly 8 dogs adopted out a month. And they took in at least twice that. As the group walked back towards the front of the shelter, McKinnley was explaining the upcoming procedure for adopting: the shelter would pay to do a check up for Beast, than he'd go stay at McKinnley's house for a few days to get used to a home environment, then at that point, both Jax and Abel could go to the farmhouse and pick Beast up to take him home.
"Plus," McKinnley added, looking to a bouncing Abel. "You can meet all of the other farm animals!" If it was possible, Abel grinned even larger and tugged on the pant leg of his father, barely able to get a breath in because he was talking so fast. "Daddy! Can we go to miss Mickey's house now?!"
Jax and looked up to McKinnley, raising his eyebrows in question.
She was definitely at a loss. She, of course, couldn't take them to her house right now, she had to work after all, but, those two big, blue puppy dog eyes caused her to sway in her reasoning a little. As she heaved a huge sigh, the bell above the front entrance dinged, signaling another customer, but as Mick turned her hazel eyes to the door, she saw it was just her friend, and the co-owner of 'Charming Pets', Tana.
"Hey McKinnley, can you help me unload all the dog food out of the truck? Fucking Brent didn't come with me, so we're on our own today."
McKinnley looked to her beautiful, dark-skinned friend, and mentally cursed Brent for being the teenage prick that he is. "Umm, yeah just give me a minute. I'm nearly finished with these guys, so I should be out soon."
Tana nodded, then turned and headed back out to the old Bronco to start pulling out 60 pound bags of dog food.
Mick turned her attention back to Jax and Abel, to see Jax crouched down, giving Abel some money, then whispered something into his ear. Abel grinned, nodded then walked over to McKinnley who was finalizing some paperwork, and handed her eighty dollars in cash.
"Here you go Miss Mickey. Daddy says I gets to pay for Beast by myself." If a child could have a more puffed out chest in pride, he'd fall over backwards. McKinnley smiled softly, and took the money, adding it to the till, then turned her attention back to Jax.
"Alright, whose name do you want him in?"
Jax just nodded his head toward Abel with a huge smile on his face, as McKinnley grabbed a pen and handed it to Abel, who couldn't look more confused. "Alright big guy, can you color your name right here for me? It means that you get Beast all to yourself."
Abel nodded enthusiastically, and then stuck his little tongue between his lips in concentration as he attempted to sign his name.
"Alright, well you're all set. After this, if you'll just write your number at the top of the paper, I'll be able to contact you when you've got the 'all clear' to come pick up the dog. Then you're free to go."
"What type of man would I be if I didn't help two beautiful women in need of some muscle?" At McKinnley's squinted brow, he continued, "You've got about thirty bags of dog food there. I'll help you bring it inside. My mother would have my hide if I didn't help two ladies in need." McKinnley would really have to get her heart checked after this encounter. Not only did he offer to help with a task that was sure to have taken hours with just two un-muscley women, but he winked at her. Winked!
"Umm, uh, yeah. S-sure. But what about Abel?"
Jax shrugged as he took the paperwork back from Abel, and scribbled his own signature and phone number, then handed it back to the woman. "I'll give him something to color, and have him sit in my truck."
McKinnley smiled shyly, nodded and set the paperwork back on the desk as she then proceeded to walk out to the front of the shelter, to see Tana, had only managed to move four bags from the back of the Bronco, to the cart that would wheel the bags of food to the back storage room.
As Mick turned around to tell Jax that he really didn't need to help and that he probably had better ways to spend his time, her words got caught in her throat when she saw that Jax had decided it would be a lot of work as well, and proceeded to take his white t shirt off. McKinnley took just about three seconds to admire the tattoos that littered his gorgeous torso, but also turn bright scarlet that definitely did not look good with her teal colored hair, and turned around to an obviously smirking Tana.
"Wow. You're cut. What do you do for a living again?" Jax smirked at Tana's remark, winked at McKinnley as he walked by, and proceeded to heave two bags onto his shoulders and commented casually, "Mechanic."
Hot, sweaty, muscles rippling, nearly-naked Jax Teller? Yep. She better schedule an appointment with her doctor. This was a bad idea.
Hot damn. I'd probably explode too. Sorry for the delay, I was planning on posting this on Friday, but I got caught up with trying to sell my horse, then it was Valentine's day... anyway. Here it is now!
Still know it's a little short (Slightly longer than the last one, woo!), but I'm not a super wordy person in general, so I'm still working on that.
As always, check out the Pinterest board I have for this story. You can either find the link on the previous chapter, or on my profile. Please fav/REVIEW/follow to let me know what you think!
Next week, we meet McKinnley back at home when the Tellers show up to pick up the Beast...
Peace out home fries!