“Well, yeah.Don’t let it happen again.Asshole.”Twisted groaned.“No, Penny, I don’t feel bad for yelling at him.He earned it.He just nutted up faster than my anger was ready for.”
“Won’t happen again.”
***
Silly
“Can we go to the dog park today instead of a boring w-a-l-k?”Silly spelled out the important word, but Maynard still picked his head up and looked at her.“Shush, you.There’s no way you’ve learned how to spell.”
“I wouldn’t put money against him being that smart.”Jock stepped up behind Silly, bracketing her chest and belly with his arms.“We could do the dog park—” Maynard stood and barked, tail making helicopter circles through the air.“See what I mean?”
“Too smart for his own good, clearly.Let’s g-o, then.To the d-o-g-p-a-r-k for a w-a-l-k.”She laughed when Maynard looked at her, tilting his head one way, then the other.He appeared to be thinking about it, then turned and barked at Tank.Both dogs headed for the door leading to the garage and sat in front of where their leashes were hanging.“No freakin’ way.”
“Oh, yeah.Way.”He gave her a squeeze.“Now that you’ve promised them, we’ve got to follow through on it.”
“Better than a boring walk, anyway.”
Both dogs barked.
At the dog park, Jock had Maynard, and Silly held Tank’s leash, feeling like an afterthought trailing after wherever the big dog wanted to go.
“Hey, that’s Zorro.”Jock pointed to a lab currently running laps around a man on the other side of the park.“That’s Hank.”
“Making friends and influencing people.”Silly gave him a poke.“Go on, make friends without me here.”
“It’s Maynard’s fault.He’s the one who looped me and Hank into having a very brief conversation.”
“Likely story.”She reached over and stroked between Maynard’s ears.“He would never conspire to have you actually talk to people.”
“He did, and it was kinda cool.I’m so used to not being someone a stranger would strike up a conversation with, I thought it would be weird meeting a dead-ass stranger.But between Maynard and Zorro, they managed their people pretty well.”
“Well, go on.”She unlatched Tank’s leash and looped the leather around the back of her neck.“Get Maynard off leash and let him play.”
Jock got on one knee and straightened Maynard’s ever-present pajamas, then unclipped the leash.He gave Maynard’s collar a shake and told him, “Go make friends.”
She watched the dog arrow straight over to the man and dog across the park.It only took a couple of minutes before Hank turned to wave as both Zorro and Maynard began what looked to be an epic round of zoomies.
“Go on, Jake.Say hello to Hank.And if you think I’m not going to do something with a besties song, you don’t know me that well.”
“Shaddup, woman,” Jock joked as he stood next to her.His hand found the back of her neck, and Silly leaned confidently into that hold.
“Love you, mister.”
“Love you too.”
Maynard circled around them, barking at Tank, who lumbered after the two more exuberant dogs.Zorro wasn’t as brave, weaving back and forth between them and his owner, but he was clearly a happy, confident dog.
Silly said, “Pretty lab.”
“Yeah.Well-behaved too,” Jock agreed.
“If we were going to foster a dog, that’d be the kind I’d want.Already sorted out mentally.”
“High bar, especially in a lab.”
“Oh, I’m not limiting us to a lab.Theoretically, I mean.”
“Yeah, this isn’t a now conversation, it’s one for future us.”Jock’s lips tightened, a tell she knew meant he’d just told her something he thought she wanted to hear.
