The Birthday List(75)

She just backed away, not making eye contact with a scowling Cole.

Chicken.

I’d expected her to jump right in and help me make my case to Cole as to why I was going to spend a ridiculous amount of money on a puppy.

“Cole, look how cute they are.” I turned back to the puppies. One of them—the cutest one—had retreated to the back of the cage, lounging while its siblings were still licking the crate. “Besides, it doesn’t matter where the puppy comes from. The list just said to get a dog to keep for its entire life.”

Jamie’s family had always had ranch dogs, but he’d always wanted a pet. A dog that could come inside or that he could take on jogs around the neighborhood. He’d wanted a dog to become man’s best friend, not be another employee of the Maysen ranch. This puppy was just the kind he would have gone for—probably because this was exactly the type of puppy I would have gone for.

I had no idea how I’d fit a puppy into my life, but the little one in the back, the one more interested in watching the activities than being front and center, was my new dog.

“Do you take credit cards?” Cole asked the woman.

My head whipped away from the dogs as Cole stole his wallet from my hand.

The woman grinned. “I sure do.”

And just like that, I had a puppy.

An hour later, my new dog was on my lap and the back of Cole’s truck was filled with pet supplies we’d bought at the farm and ranch supply store.

“What should we name you?” I cooed as the puppy perched her paws on the door to look out the window. “I’m thinking . . . Nazboo.”

“What the fuck?” Cole muttered. “No, Poppy.”

“What’s wrong with Nazboo?”

He frowned. “I don’t want to be outside yelling ‘Come here, Nazboo.’ ‘Sit, Nazboo.’ ‘Don’t fucking eat that, Nazboo.’ Pick a normal name.”

I laughed but shook my head. “No. Nazboo is cute. It’s from one of Kali and Max’s cartoons and it’s unique.”

“Veto.”

“Fine. If you’re so particular about the names, let’s hear your pick.”

“Hmm.” Cole rubbed his jaw with one hand, brainstorming quietly as he drove with the other.

While he attempted to come up with a better name, I stroked Nazboo’s back. She was, by far, the most precious dog I had ever seen. Her coat was mostly black, but she had the typical German shepherd tan spotted on her legs, her belly and the sides of her face.

And now she was mine to love and cherish until the end of her days.

“Well?” I asked. “What do you think we should name her?”

Cole looked over at me and my girl, then shook his head before admitting defeat. “Nazboo.”





“Thanks for coming up.” Dad leaned his forearms on his desk. “Ready when you are.”

Matt, in the chair at my side, dove into his update for Dad on the liquor store murder case.

“We’ve gone through the video footage and narrowed our search down to six vehicles in the shopping complex at the time of the murder. All were driven out of the complex by women fitting our rough description. We weren’t able to get all of the plates from the security camera footage, so we crosschecked the ones missing plate numbers with stoplight cameras. Before we came up here, I sent a request to the DMV to get registrations. Hopefully by Monday we’ll have names and I’ll start bringing people in for questioning.”

Dad nodded. “Good. I hope you two are onto something.”

“Me too,” Matt and I both said in unison.

It had taken nearly two months—two long months—of digging through the camera footage to get this far. Ever since the night in the garage when I’d shown Poppy my gun, Matt and I had looked at the case from a new angle. This time around, we’d searched the footage for a woman.

It hadn’t been easy. Between balancing my work on the drug task force, my normal caseload and everything else that was happening in my personal life, the last thing I wanted to do most mornings was lock myself in the conference room and scour camera footage for a couple hours before a full day’s work.

But if this paid off—if we actually found Jamie Maysen’s murderer—it would all be worth it. It would be worth every minute if we could give Poppy some peace.

It had been a month since we’d officially gotten together up at Glacier. A month and we hadn’t spent a night apart. She’d get up early and go to the restaurant. I’d get up early and come to the station. We’d text throughout the day, and if I had free time, I’d stop by for lunch. And in the evenings, I’d spend a couple of hours working on that old truck while I waited for her to finish up at the restaurant.

Basically, we’d both work our asses off until we could quit for the day and meet up at my house. Then we’d spend the rest of the night unwinding in my bed.

Our bed.

One thing I’d learned this past month was that Poppy belonged in my house. With her there, it felt like home.

“Where’s Nazboo?” Dad asked.

“I dropped her off with Mom after lunch.”

Dad grinned. “She loves that puppy.”

“Yeah.” I grinned back. Nazboo was a keeper, even if she did have a dumbass name.