Forgiven // l.h. // Book 2 in Bully Series

2. Camp

To say I was nervous would be a bit of an understatement. Today would be the first day of the first kid's camp of the year. It had taken me a few weeks to get all the details together regarding what was going to happen at the camp, then another week or so filing the paperwork sent in my campers' parents, and yet another week to get my volunteers and temporary employees situated. And now the time had come.

I'd arrived at WHRS about an hour ago to set up for the camp, which I had titled 'Camp Kids N' Paws'. The shelter had a large back dog training room that we would be using as the main camp room. I'd spent the past hour decorating the room. We'd have four groups; the red group, the yellow group, the blue group, and the green group. Each group would have around seven kids total depending on how many actually showed up. And the paid counselors were due to arrive in about a half and hour. Then the volunteer counselors, of which there were six, would arrive, and around fifteen minutes later, the campers.

Everything was going so smoothly. My four paid counselors arrived on time, and with the exception of one volunteer and one child, so had everyone else. I was currently stood in front of the group of children, who now all donned their yellow camp shirts, talking about the rules.

"Now, what do you do when myself or any of the other counselors says 'Hands up'?" I asked. The entire room of children chimed out the words 'paws up' in unison as thirty or so pairs of haind lifted into the air. I smiled at them. "Good, now I have a special guest to introduce to you." I said, gesturing towards Katie. "This is Katie. I'll let her take it from here." I added. She smiled at me.

"Hello, campers! I'm here to tell you a little about how to take care of your dog or cat. Now, I'll need a volunteer—" I didn't stay to listen to the rest of her speech, knowing that she'd do just fine in her allotted thirty minute time slot. I'd have to be back in around twenty so I could start off the next activity, but until then I had a few things to do.

The first thing I did was go back into the recovery room and visit my kitty. Her amputated leg was all healed, and had been for a few days. Dr. Ventri just didn't know what to do with her just yet. She was very shy, and the only person she didn't flinch away from was me. She didn't even really have a name. Just kitty. Because we'd probably end up putting her out into the cattery and allowing her to be adopted.

With around ten minutes left to my short break, I walked back to my office. I called the woman who was supposed to come and present on Wednesday and confirmed that she would be there. I was just getting off the phone with her when someone cleared their throat behind me.

"Are you the camp director?" I heard a man's voice speak as I wrote a few things down. I let out a hummed response, and they continued. "Good. I was wondering if it was too late to add a child to this week's camp. I accidentally didn't send the paperwork in on time." I turned towards the man—

And froze.

My gaze immediately shifted down the the young girl at his side. She looked to be around four or so, which was alright. The camp this week was for kids ages 4 to 10. She had curly blond hair and brown eyes, and was hiding behind his skinny-jean clad legs.

"What's her name?" I asked, my voice coming out a tad bit more strained than I would have liked it to. He seemed similarly shocked, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly ajar. The little girl looked up at him, confusion clearly on her face. She tugged on his pant leg lightly, and that seemed to snap him out of his daze.

"Uh—Zoe. Her name's Zoe." He stammered out. I nodded, giving him an expectant look. Once upon a time, Luke would have known that look to mean 'continue, please', but clearly he didn't anymore.

"Last name?" I asked out loud, my strained tone turning into one that more resembled irritation. That wasn't far off, though. I really didn't like that he was here. I hadn't seen or heard from him in over four years, and suddenly he shows up with a little girl?