I looked at the woman. “My wife wants them. They’re hers.”
The woman looked at my wife. She seemed uncomfortable with me. “They’ll have a good home?”
What she really meant was—your man, he’ll be good to them?
I stepped forward and the woman took a step back. “I’ll give you two thousand for them.”
“I only want—”
I dug in my pocket and handed her kid a wad of cash. His eyes widened before he stuck it in his pocket.
“Do I really get to keep them?” Maeve bent low to the box, lettin’ the dogs attack her.
I nodded, wonderin’ where my balls had gone. Probably in the box with the dogs.
“Do they have names?” my wife asked the kid.
“Naw.” He bent down next to her and started pettin’ them too. “Ma wouldn’t let me name them. Said I’d get too attached.”
“Understandable. We still have time to think about them.”
The woman and kid handed Maeve the leashes and we left. I kept Maeve close as we walked. I kept tryin’ to picture the two dogs at the castle, but all I kept comin’ up with was the same scenes I imagined as a kid.
An uneasy sensation sat in the pit of my stomach. Was this a continuation of what happened in the past or a new a start?
“Cian?” Maeve broke through my thoughts. “If you really don’t want them, maybe I can find—”
“Fine.”
She looked at me as if she didn’t believe me.
“Same goes for me, Maeve. I speak only the truth to you.”
“I want them to be ours.” She didn’t say anythin’ for a few minutes, the dogs pullin’ her some. “What happened? Did you get attacked or something? Or…please don’t tell me you had a soul dog and it crossed over the rainbow bridge and you swore never to have a dog again because it hurt too much to replace him or her?”
I’d never heard her talk so fast. It felt like a deduction of her beauty to call her cute, but she was being fuckin’ cute.
I squeezed her shoulder. “Neither.”
She stopped walkin’, and the dogs were tuggin’ on her. They were goin’ to be monsters. I took them from her, and they both sat at my feet.
“Huh.” She looked at them and then smiled at me.
“Huh,” I repeated.
She laughed. “Look how well behaved they are for you already. It’s like they want you to like them and accept them.”
“When I was a kid, I wanted a dog.” When the world was filled with sneaky trolls instead of killer men.
She studied my face. I wiped more sweat from my brow.
“Oh.” She looked down at them for a second, then back up at me. “And then…”
“The want was takin’ away from me.”
“Now you have it back,” she whispered. “Times two. Did you have any names picked out?”
“Argus for a boy. Grania for a girl.” My Da had helped me pick them out.
