“How do you think they’ll take it?” Charlotte was still on her back in Marin’s bed. Ember had fallen asleep with her head nestled between Charlotte’s breasts, and the sight was enough to take Marin’s breath away. How lucky she was to have a new friend and puppy in her life, even if she could never have Charlotte in the way she craved.
“I think most of them will be fine with it,” she answered, her stomach tightening. “But my oldest sister, Nancy—Jen’s mom—is fairly conservative. I’m worried she’s going to react badly, but I’ll tell her regardless. No more hiding. That’s the promise I made myself when I left Andrew. I won’t apologize for who I am, and I’m willing to lose family over it if that’s what it comes to. It’s that important to me.”
Charlotte reached out and gripped her hand. “That’s incredibly brave. You’re a badass, Marin Easterly, and I hope your sister surprises you ... the good kind of surprise.”
Marin squeezed her fingers, reluctant to let go. “Me too.”
A high-pitched whine yanked Marin from sleep, and she lurched upright in bed, momentarily disoriented. She felt a hazy sense ofcontentment from whatever she’d been dreaming about, but ... there it was again. A whine.
The puppy.
She reached for her phone on the table beside the bed and squinted at the time. Just past one in the morning. Oh, this should be fun, taking a puppy outside in the middle of the night in January ... in Vermont. “You chose this,” she reminded herself, and despite her groan as she slid out of bed and reached for a hoodie, she had no regrets.
Already, she loved Ember with a sort of fierce protectiveness that was new for her. She was responsible for this tiny life in a way she’d never been responsible for anything or anyone before. She didn’t take that responsibility lightly.
Marin knelt before Ember’s crate. The puppy stared at her with big pleading eyes and let out another whine. “Gotta pee, huh?”
She opened the crate and tucked the puppy under her arm, then stumbled toward the living room, feeling a bit delirious after having only been asleep for about three hours. In the living room, she froze when she saw the pullout couch extended, containing a sleeping Charlotte. For a moment, she’d completely forgotten Charlotte was here.
Warmth spread through her belly. Marin hadn’t had many sleepovers as a child, or as an adult for that matter, so seeing Charlotte in her living room, knowing she was here as a show of friendship and support, really meant a lot.
Marin clipped Ember’s collar around her neck, fumbling awkwardly to avoid putting the puppy down, where she might pee on the floor, and then she opened the door. “Fuck,” she hissed as the icy air hit her face.
She hurried down the steps to the walkway and set the puppy in the snowy area she’d designated as her unofficial potty spot. Ember circled in the snow and then squatted. “Good girl,” Marin murmured. She watched until she was sure Ember was finished, then scooped her up and carried her back inside.
As she closed the door behind her, Marin shivered, having realized belatedly that she’d gone outside in her sleep shorts despite the single-digit weather. Her legs felt like ice. She could only hope it didn’t cause her nerve pain to flare up.
“Potty call?”
She jumped at the sound of Charlotte’s voice, shivering again for an entirely different reason. Charlotte was sitting up in the sofa bed, blinking at Marin out of sleepy eyes. Her hair was messy, curls sticking out in every direction, and god, she looked good.
“Yes,” Marin answered. “Hopefully she starts sleeping through the night soon, because ... brr.”
Charlotte laughed quietly. “Maybe next time you should consider putting on pants.” Her gaze lingered on Marin’s bare legs in a way that sent another shivery jolt through her.
“Next time I’ll definitely remember pants.”
Charlotte laughed again, then lay back down. “Night, Marin.”
“Night.” She returned to her bedroom, tucked the puppy into her crate, and climbed into bed. As she drifted back to sleep, her last thought was of Charlotte on the sofa bed, staring at her legs.
She woke in a daze a few hours later to repeat the process. When Ember woke for the third time, it was nearly six. Marin decided to go ahead and get up, hoping Charlotte wouldn’t mind the early morning. Decision made, she flipped on the light in her bedroom so she wouldn’t have to get dressed in the dark.
Aware of the puppy waiting impatiently to go outside, she grabbed her flannel pants and had them halfway on before her gaze caught on the pink scar that ran up her right thigh. She’d had surgery to repair a broken femur, one of many surgeries she’d endured in the days after the accident. But her stomach dropped as she realized this was what Charlotte had been staring at last night.
In her sleepy haze, Marin had romanticized the middle of the night encounter, butof courseher straight friend hadn’t been staring at her bare legs for any nonplatonic reasons. She’d been looking at Marin’sscar, probably remembering the way they’d met. Suitably chastised for her inappropriate thoughts, Marin knelt before the crate and lifted Ember into her arms.
The puppy whined again, squirming against her grip. Marin stood and rushed through the living room, grabbing Ember’s leash on her way outside. When she returned to her apartment a few minutes later, Charlotte was waiting with arms outstretched.
“Let me take Ember for a minute. You’ve been running in and out with her all night. Go take a few minutes for yourself.” Charlotte tucked the puppy against her chest and lay back with her. Ember immediately started kissing her face.
Marincoulduse a moment to freshen up. And warm up. “Thank you,” she told Charlotte, then ducked inside the bathroom. While she was in there, she seized the opportunity for a quick, hot shower, then wrapped herself in a thick robe to cross the hall to her bedroom. Clean and refreshed, she reentered the living room to find Charlotte sitting on the floor with Ember while the puppy played with her stuffed dragon.
“Breakfast?” Charlotte asked hopefully. “I heard back from the listing agent for the house on Middleton Hill Road. She said we can come at two this afternoon and you can bring Ember as long as you keep her in a carrier so she doesn’t make any messes in their house.”
“Oh wow. That’s soon.” Marin walked to the kitchen to figure out what she had for breakfast. “Ember was really good in her carrier on the way home from her foster mom’s house, so that should work.”
“Awesome. I’ll tell her we’ll take it.” Charlotte began to type on her phone, laughing as she held it out of Ember’s reach.
