Gretchen Ross was still thinking about Lincoln's date when she pulled into the busy parking lot at Hickory Hollow Animal Rescue early Saturday morning. Lincoln had roped her into volunteering to help with the photo shoot they'd set up. Hopefully the calendar they were creating would be a big fundraiser for the cause.
She jumped out of her car and jogged over to Megan Caretti's SUV. "Here, let me help you!"
Megan was pulling props and equipment out of the back of her vehicle. "Thanks. I probably shouldn't have brought everything, but once I got started with sorting the props I couldn't make myself pare it down." She set a small velvet armchair on the ground.
"I totally understand that." She reached over to pull the dolly out of Megan's vehicle and pointed to the plastic bins stacked to the ceiling. She said, "Do these all go inside?"
"Yeah," Megan said with a chuckle. "I told you, I brought everything and the kitchen sink."
Gretchen stacked bins on the dolly, then pushed it up the ramp to the main entrance while Megan pulled a cart piled high with a mountain of even more bins.
Lincoln was already inside and hurried to push the door open for them. "Is there anything else to bring in?"
Megan waved a hand toward her vehicle. "Lots. You'll want to use the dolly."
"What on Earth did you bring?"
"Props."
"We're only taking twelve pictures, right?"
She stopped and eyed him.
Gretchen bit her lips to keep from laughing at Megan's stunned expression.
"Wrong. We're making a calendar that will feature at least twelve photos. In order to get twelve photos to put in the calendar, we'll need to shoot a lot more than that."
He held his hands up in surrender. "Sorry, sorry, you're the expert." He looked to Gretchen for help.
She shrugged. "Where are we setting up?"
He seemed grateful for the change of subject. "In the common room."
The rescue was housed in a building that was originally a tiny elementary school with ten classrooms, one huge common room that had served as a cafeteria, and three offices. When the school was closed two years earlier and absorbed into a larger district-wide elementary school, the community banded together and raised money to secure the building for the rescue. Lincoln, despite his social anxieties, had been instrumental in making that happen.
It was the perfect setup for the rescue. The classrooms had been converted with kennels and cages to house the dogs and cats in separate spaces. The fenced-in playground area was perfect for daily exercise, and for potential adopters to play with the dogs. And the common room was a great space to hold fundraising events. The smallest of the three offices had even been converted to a makeshift hotel room so a staff member or volunteer could stay onsite in the event of impending snowstorms or other emergencies. Best of all, the floors in the entire building were designed for easy cleanup.
Gretchen helped unload the cart and the dolly. She said to Megan, "You start setting up. We'll go get the rest of the stuff."
Lincoln grabbed the cart and Gretchen pushed the dolly back to the entrance. Outside, the air was chilly and brisk. Fall had firmly taken hold of Hickory Hollow. The trees clung to the last of their colorful leaves against the brilliant blue sky.
They loaded up the last of the bins from Megan's vehicle and lugged it all inside.
In the common room, Megan had already attached white sheets to a frame and set up the backdrop. She spread another sheet on the floor to set the stage.
"How can we help?" Gretchen asked.
"The bins are labeled with months. If you could set them up in order along those tables, that'd be great."
It took a few minutes for Gretchen and Lincoln to get the bins in order, and after that, Megan was busy setting her scenes, so they mostly stayed out of her way.
They stood off to the side, watching Megan work her magic when Gretchen asked, "Did you decide how you're going to handle last night?"
"Already done. I stopped and got cash to cover the bill plus tip, and a Carmine's gift card. I just wrote a generic 'sorry about the terrible evening and here's a gift card so you can go back and get the shrimp ravioli.' I left it on her front door this morning and sent a text to let her know it was there."
"That was thoughtful."
"I hope she thinks so. She read my text but hasn't responded. Not that I expect her to."
Gretchen hoped this disaster of a date didn't set him back. It had taken a lot of nerve–six solid months–for him to gather the courage to try dating again after his therapist gave him the green light. Not that he'd ever dated much to begin with. "I'm sure she'll appreciate the gesture."
"Where do you want us?" a voice boomed from the doorway.
She turned toward the entrance. A group of Hickory Hollow's finest volunteer firefighters came in with their gear, ready to pose with the animals.
Gretchen jumped to action. "You can hang out over here and I'll find out where Megan wants everyone."
A few minutes later, Megan called, "Okay, ready to go!" and began directing the firefighters. When she was satisfied, she said, "Ready for the cats."
Lincoln gave a nod and said, "I'll be back with the stars of the show."
From there, the morning flew by in a flurry of activity, with scenery changes and cats, then dogs, and even a snake posing for the rescue's annual calendar.
As the finale, each of the six firefighters was assigned an animal. Leashes and harnesses were attached for safety, and they went outside and posed as a group in front of the firetruck for the calendar's cover. The bright red truck against the orange and yellow leaves and perfect cloudless sky would make a stunning photo.
Lincoln helped the rescue volunteers keep an eye on the animals until they were back inside, safe and secure.
"I'll order pizza," Gretchen offered. She ordered, then helped Megan pack all the props back into their boxes and bins. "That was amazing."
Megan beamed. "We got so many great shots. It's going to be hard to narrow it down to twelve. Of course the ones that don't make it to the calendar can be used for social media, so it's a win either way."
"Good thinking."
One of the rescue volunteers came up and shyly said, "Mrs. Caretti?"
Megan whirled with a big smile. "Please call me Megan. Mrs. Caretti is my mother-in-law."
"Sorry."
"No need to be sorry. What's up?"
"I was wondering…" The young woman twisted at the hem of her t-shirt. Her nametag read Alyssa. "I know you're very busy, but I was thinking that maybe…"
Gretchen found herself holding her breath. Alyssa's nervousness was apparent.
"Maybe, if it's not too much bother, could we maybe take some pictures of the lifers?"
"Lifers? I'm sorry, I'm not sure what that means." Megan's voice was gentle.
"It's the animals who have been here for a year or longer, that just seem to get overlooked because they're old or have health issues and people gravitate toward the kittens and puppies and cute animals." She sounded more confident the more she spoke. "We have several senior cats and dogs that would be wonderful companions if the right family would just give them a chance."
Megan turned to Gretchen. "Would you be able to help a while longer?"
"Of course."
"Alyssa, that's a wonderful idea. Maybe we can even do a second calendar. Or spotlights on social media." As she talked, she refastened the backdrop to the frame. "Gretchen, would you grab the December bin? I think we'll just use the Christmas props and we can do a big push with these guys. Maybe a whole 'Home for the Holidays' sort of campaign."
"Sounds good." Gretchen retrieved the December bin while Alyssa watched.
"What needs taken out?" Lincoln came back into the common room and stopped, frozen in place. He lifted his hands, confused. "I thought we were done?"
"We were," Gretchen said, "but Alyssa had a fantastic idea, so now we're not." She filled him in.
Lincoln's brows rose as he listened, impressed. "I wish I'd have thought of it myself. Great job, Alyssa."
Megan pointed. "These bins can go ahead out. We're just going to use all the Christmas stuff."
They took a lunch break, inhaled the pizza and sodas, and spent the early afternoon doing photo shoots with the senior residents of the rescue.
It was mid-afternoon by the time Gretchen helped Lincoln carry the last of the items to Megan's SUV. She said, "That was a super productive day. The calendar is going to be amazing, and Alyssa's idea to showcase the other animals was a great idea."
"It really was," Lincoln agreed. "She's a great volunteer. I wish we had the budget to put her on the staff. She works really hard and she's so good with the animals."
"That's great."
He shut the hatch on Megan's SUV. "She reminds me a lot of myself. Dealing with the animals is easy. People? Not so much. Obviously."
"Hey." She put her hand on his arm. "If you're talking about last night, don't get down about it. It was your first date in ages. And now that you've got the disaster out of the way, you know you can handle anything that comes your way next time."
"There's not going to be a next time, at least not for a while."
"Why?" She hoped he wasn't retreating back inward.
"It's the holidays. Getting up the nerve to go on a date is bad enough, but add in all the holiday stress and it's a million times worse. I think I'm going to just pump the brakes until after the new year."
A thought occurred to her. "Are you sure you're not using the holidays as an excuse to stay in your comfort zone?"
He shrugged one shoulder. "Maybe? I don't know. I've asked all my friends for advice, but they're no help."
Gretchen rolled her eyes. "You've asked all your guy friends for advice."
"It's not like I have many woman friends I can talk to."
"What the heck am I?"
"No, I know, but you're really my only woman friend. I have a handful of woman acquaintances, and I don't want to make you my emotional support human and lean on you for all my questions about dating. That doesn't seem like being a very good friend to do that." He sighed. "It's too bad there's not some kind of coaching service where you can hire someone to teach you how to date. Like for practice."
She jerked to attention. "That's brilliant. It's the perfect solution."
"Yeah, except it doesn't exist."
The idea took hold. "No, but I do."
"What?"
It made perfect sense. He needed help getting his confidence up, and she just wanted to get out of the house sometimes and do grown-up things instead of always doing six-year-old friendly activities. Before she could think better of it, before she could consider any possible downsides, the words popped out of her mouth.
"You could date me."