Free How to Knit a Love Song by Rachael Herron Page A

fenced shed area. They followed her willingly, and while they were both head-shy and didn’t appear to want to be petted, they didn’t seem afraid of her. They were much more unsettled by the sound of the dog’s barking, and appeared to relax when they got around back, away from the truck.
    Rather reluctantly, not knowing whether she’d ever get control of them again, Abigail took them off lead when they were inside the fenced enclosure.
    “You’re free!” She looked around. “Kinda.”
    She went back to the truck and smiled at the dog, who appeared to be chewing on the seat. “Hang on, I’ll be right there,” Abigail called to her.
    Mort had set her up with everything she’d need, he said. He’d given her vitamin supplements (“free, I’m giving you these ’cause I like you”) and feed buckets. He’d filled the back of her truck with hay, on the house, courtesy of his late wife. “Feed ’em the grass hay, no alfalfa, that’s too rich for ’em,” he’d said.
    She now stood back from the truck and looked at its bed with satisfaction. Not that she had any idea of the difference between grass and alfalfa, or even if he was feeding her a line of bull, but it sure felt good to be using her truck for something that wasn’t moving a couch, as Cade had put it.
    She went to grab a bale and bring it to the critters, who had to be hungry from their ordeal.
    She pulled.
    Damn. Apparently hay was heavy. She used her hands to pull some apart from the top level. The stuff was coarse. She’d need gloves.
    She’d probably need a lot of things.
    She did her best, leaving food in a low tray in the shed, and filling the water buckets after making sure they were clean. She’d need a book on alpacas. Or better yet, the internet would surely answer all her questions.
    Did they even have the internet out here? She hadn’t opened her computer once yet, and she realized that this was the longest she’d gone without staring at a computer screen in years.
    It wasn’t a bad feeling.
    She double-checked that everything looked okay with Merino and Tussah, tried to touch them again—which they roundly rejected—and went to deal with the dog.
    The dog had seemed to love her on the drive over. They’d made a fast friendship, the dog drooling and licking her face ecstatically while she drove. Abigail knew it was good, this was right. Her new best friend. A dog to keep her company while she tried to avoid Cade as much as possible.
    A dog to keep her safe. A dog that would bark and growl and bite if she needed it to. Abigail remembered falling asleep some nights in San Diego, hearing noises outside her apartment. She’d just lie there terrified, convinced it was Samuel out there, creeping around again, trying to peek in windows, but she’d been too afraid to even walk across the room to call the police, let alone look outside. She had wished for a dog then, a sturdy dog with a loud, frightening bark.
    But now her new dog was freaking out, and Abigail knew she herself was not long to follow. Every time Abigail approached the side of the truck, the collie barked ferociously and threw herself at the window, snarling, baring her teeth.
    “It’s okay. Remember me? We were pals a few minutes ago. I swear.”
    Abigail put her hand on the passenger door handle and then jumped back two feet when the frothing mouth hit the glass, coming at her.
    “No! Stop it!” This was definitely not the way it was supposed to be. The dog, whom she hadn’t even named yet—Mort hadn’t had a name for her—was supposed to love her, like she had on the drive over here.
    The barking and thrashing intensified, and Abigail realized the dog was going to hurt herself.
    “What’s wrong with your dog?”
    Startled, Abigail screamed and jumped, tripping over her own feet, landing on her backside in the dirt. God, she had to quit screaming every time he startled her.
    “You scared me! What are you doing? I don’t want your help.”
    “You don’t want