That night, next to the babbling brook, the dreaming hound dog, and the crackling fire, Nick and I decided to sleep together. And that’s what we did. Sleep. We held each other all night long. It was the deepest and best sleep I’d had in years, if not ever.
NINETEEN
NICK
It was stilldark outside when a knock on the door woke us up.
“Driveway’s clear,” a gruff voice shouted from the front door. I couldn’t tell whether it was Jack Jr. or Sr.
“Evie.” I extricated my arm from beneath her body and shook out the pins and needles. I checked my phone, it was five thirty in the morning. “The driveway is clear.”
Evie murmured into my T-shirt. We’d gone to sleep fully clothed. “What time is it?” She shot up. “Oh no. Did I miss breakfast?”
“Shh. Don’t worry, it’s only five thirty.”
Her body relaxed. “Thank God.”
“What’s the special of the day today?” I asked. The fire needed to be stoked, but I was so cozy under the covers with Evie, I didn’t want to make the move down the ladder.
She grinned. “You’re going to like this one. It’s called the Fallen Eagle. It’s an omelet made with duck eggs though, not eagles’ eggs.”
I shook my head. “Oh, GJ. Let me guess. The name has something to do with the game tonight.”
“Of course it does.” Evie sat up and bolted out of bed to peer over the railing. “Oh good, the dog is still here.”
“Can you train him to put another log on the fire?” I reluctantly pulled back the duvet.
Evie climbed down the ladder, waking up the dog. He stretched and then stood with his paws on the bottom rung, wagging his scruffy tail as she descended. “Good morning, handsome.”
“Hey,” I called over the railing. “I didn’t get called handsome this morning.”
“That’s because you don’t have cute ear hair like this guy.” Evie rubbed the dog’s ears. “What are you going to do with him?” she asked.
“Me?” I ambled down the ladder, grabbed a log, and added it to the fire. “You’re the one who found him.”
“I can’t keep him at the inn. GJ has a strict no-pets rule.”
“We all know how strict GJ’s rules are. I broke at least three of them on my first day—and she’s letting you and Eugene hijack her breakfast menu.”
Evie stepped into her winter boots. “She’s serious about that rule. A lot of guests are allergic to dogs. We don’t even know if he’s housebroken.” She opened the door and stepped out into the cold with the dog. He proceeded to walk ten steps into the snow, do his business, and then run back to Evie. She rubbed her hands together as the two of them came back inside.
“It looks like he is housebroken,” I said. The bark on the log crackled as it caught on fire. I adjusted the damper on the woodstove and rubbed at the goose bumps on my arms.
“We should name him.” Evie scooped more of Mrs. L’s casserole into a bowl and filled up the other with water.
“Evie. He probably has a name and a home. We should go to the vet and see if he is microchipped. We can also go to the animal shelter—”
“No!” she interrupted. “We aren’t taking Rocky to the shelter.”
“Rocky?” I poured two glasses of water and passed her one.
“He’s a fighter. What do you think, do you like Rocky?” She put on a goofball voice and of course the damn dog responded. He jumped on her and wagged his tail. “See, he likes it.”
“Evie.” I hated to be the buzzkill, but someone had to be realistic. She lived at an inn with a strict no-dogs policy; I was leaving town and heading back to my crappy high-rise apartment. “Neither of us is in a position to keep him. We need to find out if he has a family.”
Tears shimmered in her eyes. “I know. It’s just…what if he doesn’t have a family.” That’s when it hit me, the dog represented more than just…a dog.
I handed her the dry coveralls. “I’ll keep him here for now. But I’m going to see if he’s chipped. I’ll post on some of the local community social media pages. Rocky, I mean, the dog, looked up at me with his cute brown eyes. His tail banged out a happy rhythm against one of the dining room chairs. I put on my jacket and boots.
