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“MWD?”
“Military working dog.”
“Did she—” He broke off, deciding there were probably questions better unasked.
“No, she retired,” Asher said, answering the unasked question. “Minus a leg, actually. She was lucky. She got to go home with her handler. Not all of them do.”
He left it at that and Levi didn’t ask any more. He’d read about K9s being classified as equipment and being abandoned in the country they served in rather than brought home. Which in his opinion was a damn crime. In fact he donated regularly to some charities that brought the dogs back home.
“Can you take me and the dogs to the vet Monday?” Asher asked him. “I don’t think I can manage Maggie and the puppies on my own. I can call Stewart if you can’t.”
Stewart was the college kid Asher had hired to drive him around until he felt comfortable driving and found doctors nearby. “No, I can do it. Do you think she’s been microchipped?”
“I don’t know. If she is she’s been missing quite a while.”
Levi watched Asher petting the dog. He suspected he knew the answer, but still asked him, “What are you going to do if she’s a stray?”
“Unless you object, keep them until the puppies are old enough to be weaned and then find them homes.”
“That’s fine. What about Maggie?”
Asher looked at the dog and then at Levi. There was more emotion in his expression than Levi had seen since he’d been shipped home. “Would you mind if I kept her?”
“Not even a little. This is your home too, Asher. If you want a dog, then get a dog. Or keep her, in this case.”
“Thanks. I—Thanks. I’d better take her out and then get her back to her pups.” He reached for the crutches he’d leaned against the wall and stood.
“How did you find her, anyway?” Levi asked as they walked back through the kitchen to the back door.
“She found me. I was…swimming.”
Why the hesitation? Levi wondered. “I kinda figured that since you were wearing your bathing suit.”
Asher opened the back door and let Maggie out, following her outside. “You know that old potting shed on the edge of your property? That’s where she had her puppies.”
“The potting shed? That place is in a jungle. You got out there in your chair?”
“No, my crutches. I’d taken off my leg to swim and didn’t take the time to go get it. Besides, the ground was pretty uneven. I wasn’t sure whether I’d be more stable with or without it over that terrain but I made it.”
“Good God. How did you get there?” The area where the shed was had gone wild, with trees, vines, underbrush, uneven ground and rocks.
“It wasn’t easy.”
“I don’t imagine it was. How did you bring her and all the puppies inside? I’d think that was impossible on crutches.”
“Green Beret, remember?” He whistled for the dog who came right back to him.
Levi laughed. “And Green Berets can do anything, right?”
“Pretty near,” Asher agreed.
Chapter Sixteen
A couple of days later while she was at Levi’s, Dana grabbed a spare minute to look at the real estate listings on her computer. And wished she hadn’t. “Damn it, aren’t there any rent houses in this town?”
“Why are you looking at rent houses?” Asher asked, coming into the den.
She turned around, noting he wore his prosthetic leg and was using his crutches. “Oh, hi, Asher. I didn’t realize you were there.”
