Faith set the dog down, and it immediately ran back to Axel, pawing at his leg.
“Oh, come on!” Axel groaned. “I literally just escaped you.”
“He likes you,” Faith said, and the tiny smile that ghosted across her lips was worth whatever furniture Rainbow would inevitably destroy at my place.
“Great. I’m beloved by genetic disasters. This is what my life has become.” But Axel let the dog crawl onto his lap, grimacing when Rainbow immediately licked his face. “Your breath smells like something died. Then came back to life. Then died again.”
“Fine,” Blake said, pulling out his keys with the resignation of a man accepting his fate. “We can all go. I’ll go start the car.”
“I’ll put my shoes back on.” Faith headed down the hall, leaving me alone with Axel and his new canine barnacle.
I could tell Axel was gearing up for something, but I had no idea the emotionally stunted guy was capable of a such a deep observation.
“You’re in love with her,” he accused.
“Shut up.”
“You’re so in love with her, it’s actually painful to watch.”
“I said shut up.”
He gave me that shit-eating grin that made me want to punch him and buy him a beer in equal measure. “This is going to be a disaster.”
“Probably.”
“Blake’s going to murder you.”
“Probably.”
“Faith’s going to realize you have the emotional range of a teaspoon.”
“Prob—wait, what?”
“You once told a woman you cared about her by fixing her car and then disappeared for three weeks.”
“That was different.”
“You signed her birthday cardRegards.”
“Okay, that one might have been?—”
“Regards, Ryker. To someone you were sleeping with.”
Rainbow chose that moment to belch in Axel’s face, a sound that belonged in a horror movie.
“Even this abomination has more game than you.” Axel pet Rainbow again. “At least she’s direct about her feelings. Drool means love. Simple. You? You’ll probably try to show Faith you care by color-coding her bookshelf or some shit.”
“I would never touch her books,” I said, offended.
“See? That right there. That’s the most romantic thing you’ve ever said, and you don’t even realize it.”
Before I could respond, Rainbow started making a sound like a broken garbage disposal.
“Oh, no.” Axel’s eyes went wide. “Oh, no, no, no. Don’t you dare?—”
Rainbow hiccuped, then deposited something unspeakable on Axel’s shirt.
“MOTHERFUCKER!”
