“Well, this sure is a surprise.”

I jump, startled by the voice behind me, and snatch my hand away from the dog I’m petting. It seems startled, too, but probably more because of my sudden movement than anything, and it scurries back, moving toward the other end of its kennel.

I turn around to see who’s rude enough to come up and scare me like that, and I find myself looking up at a tall, pretty black woman, who I guess to be in her midtwenties, around the same age as Beth. She’s dressed in a short-sleeved, navy-blue button-down shirt and khaki shorts, and her dark, curly hair is pulled back. She smiles down at me, all warm and friendly like. “Sorry,” she says. “Didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Well, you did,” I snap, folding my arms tight over my chest.

“How’d you get Lila to come to you?”

“Who?”

She nods to the kennel at my back. “The dog. How’d you get her to come over and let you pet her?”

I shrug. “Dunno. I held my hand out and she just … came over. Why? What’s it matter?”

“Interesting.” The woman steps closer, looking past me and into the pen. “I’ve never seen her do that before. Lila’s been here for months, and most days we can barely get her to look at us, let alone come to us.”

Slowly, I turn around to look back into the kennel. Lila has retreated into the corner, where she’s already curled up, facing the wall, sure enough. “I didn’t do anything special,” I say. “Promise.”

“You must just have the magic touch,” she says, smiling at me again. “What’s your name, by the way? Are you one of the youth volunteers? I haven’t seen you before.”

I shake my head. “Uh-uh. My name’s Hadley. I’m—”

“Oh!” the woman says, and her smile gets even bigger, if that’s possible. “You’re Beth’s sister. That explains it.”

“Explains what?”

But before she can answer, there’s the sound of a heavy door creaking open and thudding closed, and Beth’s voice echoes over the sound of barking dogs as she calls out, “Hadley? You in here? We can go ahead and go. I can’t find …” She trails off just as her footsteps round the corner, into the main strip of kennels where the tall woman and I are standing. “Oh, Vanessa, there you are. I was looking for you.”

“Well, you found me,” the tall woman—Vanessa, I suppose—says, and now she turns that big smile on Beth.

Beth giggles. It’s a nervous, quiet giggle, and she ducks her head away. I can’t quite tell from this distance, but I’d wager her cheeks are burning pink, too.

“Looks like your sister inherited your skill with dogs,” Vanessa tells Beth.

Beth clears her throat before replying. “That so? Hadley told me she wasn’t a dog person.”

“I’m not,” I mutter.

“Could’ve fooled me,” Vanessa says. “She got Lila to come to her. I watched it happen. Lila walked right up to the edge of the kennel and let Hadley pet her.”

“Are you serious?” Beth starts moving toward us now, toward Lila’s kennel. Inside, the pit bull still ain’t moved. It’s like she’s trying real hard to ignore us. Can’t say I blame her. I know it ain’t fun, hearing people talk about you like that, like you’re not even there. Beth doesn’t seem all too concerned about this, though. “You’re sure? Lila? How?”

“Positive. And no idea how. I asked, but Hadley says she … held out a hand. Lila must just like her more than the rest of us.”

“She must,” Beth murmurs. “You ought to be flattered, Hadley. Lila doesn’t seem to like anybody.” She puts a hand on my shoulder, giving it a little squeeze, but I jerk away and put a big step between us.

“It ain’t a big deal,” I say. “It’s just a dog.”

There’s a long pause, where nobody speaks, and even the other dogs’ barking seems to quiet a little bit. Finally, though, Vanessa says, “Hadley?”

I look over my shoulder at her. “What?”

“Forgive me. I wasn’t being very polite. I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Vanessa Truchet. I run Right Choice Rescue.”

“Yeah. Kinda figured.”

“Hadley,” Beth hisses. “Don’t be rude.”

But Vanessa just keeps beaming at me. Does this woman ever not smile? I feel like smiling so big like that would make my cheeks hurt. “I might be overstepping here,” she says, “but I have an idea. I think you should take Lila.”

“What?!”

The word pops out of Beth’s and my mouths at the same time—with the same sound of disbelief.

“Vanessa,” Beth says, “you know I can’t adopt a dog right now. I’m already so busy with work. And now with Hadley here, money is going to be tight. I can’t afford a new dog.”

“Not adopt Lila,” Vanessa clarifies. “Foster her.”

“Foster?” I ask.

“Yes,” Vanessa says. “Lila would come home with you and Beth, but it’s just temporary. The rescue will keep paying for all her food and medical expenses, if they come up. Except she’ll get to live with you, and you can train her.”

“Train her?” Vanessa has to be out of her mind. “I ain’t got a clue how to train dogs.”

“Lucky for you, you’ve got a sister who’s real good at it.”

“I don’t know, Vanessa,” Beth says. “I’ve been working on training Lila since she got here, and she’s not responsive. Just because she came to Hadley one time doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”

“You might be right,” Vanessa admits. “But that’s more interest than she’s shown in any of us in months. And if Lila does like Hadley, she’s got a better shot at breaking through than we do. If Hadley can get her trained, socialized a bit, then maybe we can even get Lila adopted. She’s clearly miserable here. But we can’t adopt her out until she’s got at least basic training and is a little friendlier. Besides …” I watch her make eye contact with Beth. “It’ll give Hadley a nice project for the summer.”

I hate the way they look at each other, that meaningful pause that passes between them. It makes it real clear they’ve been talking about me. Beth has probably told Vanessa all about how she can hardly get me to leave my room most days. How I’m mean and angry, and how she’s worried about me and my health, or whatever.

And now Vanessa is in on it, too. Trying to fix me when I don’t wanna be fixed.

“You might … have a point,” Beth says.

“Y’all gotta be kidding me,” I snap. “Beth, I keep telling you, I ain’t a dog person! I don’t wanna do this.”

Even as I say the words, though, I catch myself turning to look at Lila again. And I can’t shake that feeling I had when I first saw her. That pull that got me to crouch down and offer my hand. Maybe I ain’t a dog person, but it sure sounds like Lila ain’t a people dog, neither. For some reason, though, we’d reached out to each other.

And apparently that’s enough for Vanessa and Beth, who are already talking out the details and hunting down a crate for us to take Lila home in. They walk off, telling me they’ll be back in a few minutes. I sigh and sit down on the concrete floor, looking through the kennel’s bars at Lila.

“Can you believe this?” I ask her.

She shifts a little, moving so she ain’t facing the wall no more but instead has her head half turned in my direction.

“Looks like we’re gonna be stuck together. I warn you, I don’t think I’m real good company these days, but … at least you won’t be here, I guess.”

Lila takes a breath and lets it out like a sigh.

“Yeah, that’s how I feel,” I tell her. “Oh well. I guess we can be miserable together.”

Ten minutes later, Vanessa and Beth are loading Lila’s crate into the back seat of the little car. They’d made me lure her into the box because she wouldn’t respond to either of them. And even with me, she hadn’t seemed too willing. But they’d given me treats, and I’d managed to coax her inside. Vanessa helps Beth lift the heavy box and scoot it across the seat before shutting the back door.

“We can give it a couple weeks,” she tells Beth and me. “If it seems like it won’t work, at least we’ll know. But I think this might be the perfect solution for everybody.”

“We’ll see,” Beth says. “I’m still a bit skeptical. But if it can give Hadley a nice project and …”

I grunt and storm off, tired of hearing them talk about me. I climb into the passenger seat and slam the door. Through the window, I can see them still chatting for a minute. Then Vanessa gives Beth a quick hug and heads back inside.

Beth just stands there for a minute, watching her go, before walking to the driver’s door and getting into the car. “Well,” she says, “this sure isn’t how I expected today to go.”

I ignore her and instead stare out my own window.

Beth sighs. “All right. Hadley, Lila … let’s go home.”