Leaf got up and kissed his cheek. “I’ll go fry some bacon for you.”
“Be still my heart,” Dev moaned dramatically, clutching his chest as he left the bedroom.
He showered efficiently, suddenly eager to see Seth too. Once he looked and felt presentable, he opened the bathroom door, just to find a wiggly-looking Missy sitting behind it.
“Well, hello there, girlie,” he cooed, and she wiggled her butt and tried her best to be good. “Morning, little one. Let me get dressed, okay? Okay, good girl.”
Dev had discovered that he’d gotten used to Missy’s particular look. He appreciated Husky’s blue eyes and sleek beauty, but in his eyes, Missy was the most gorgeous of the three dogs. She didn’t look like any other dog he’d ever seen—her shape wasn’t familiar like Grace’s—and somehow his sense of beauty had latched on to that.
He put on some comfy clothes he could go for a walk in and told Missy to lead the way. She did, happily bouncing down the stairs and into the kitchen.
“It’s like she has this indoors bounce. Like you’d tell a human kid to use their indoor voice, you know?” Dev grinned as he accepted a mug of coffee from Leaf.
“You’re actually right. We did teach her that, because she was being too rowdy at one point.” Leaf put a plate of eggs, toast, bacon, and some fruit in front of Dev. “Eat. You didn’t have much for dinner, so….”
Dev dug in, then took a sip of the orange juice that mysteriously appeared by his plate when he was looking out of the window. He felt better than the night before, but he could still feel the odd ache in his chest that he always associated with arguments with Angel. They fought so rarely, the feeling was very distinct yet still alien in some ways.
“Hey, you’re up,” Seth said, coming in from his study. Dev guessed he’d been using a corner of the desk that now housed all Dev’s shit.
“Yeah, I’m being treated to a breakfast too,” he said brightly, surprised to feel it. It might’ve been partially because of Seth, because he seemed happy to see Dev.
Dev put his mug down and grabbed Seth’s wrist. He pulled Seth closer and tilted his head just so, wordlessly asking for a kiss.
He got the kiss and then some.
They separated when Leaf chuckled from where he was filling his coffee mug. “Come on. We need to have time for the walk. More of this when we get back,” he promised, and Dev and Seth separated reluctantly.
“Okay, okay. You do need to show me where you guys walk. I want to take the kids out every day, even though you said hiding treats and throwing toys in the backyard would be fine too.”
Both of the men looked at Dev like he was precious, and he ducked his head to dig into the food still on his plate.
Maybe they felt his sudden shyness, or maybe it was something else, but they left him eat his breakfast in peace.
Afterward, Dev pulled on his sneakers and looked at Leaf expectantly. “So, how do you go about with your routine?” he asked, knowing Leaf had written him a list of instructions for feeding the dogs and such, but he wanted to get things right.
“They basically just need to go out at certain times, and you can keep the doggie door in the utility room unlocked if you want to give them free access. They’ll still probably guard you most of the time, but the regular schedule I try to keep is in the list with the feeding instructions.” Leaf whistled, and the three dogs came in from where they’d been keeping Seth company while he sent yet a few more emails.
Once the dogs were all sitting down next to them, Leaf took their leashes from their hooks by the door.
“Okay, so if you want to go for a faster walk, I’d suggest using the belt to hook them all into. Saves your hands if they stop abruptly, which they sometimes do. But regular walks, I’d say put that black harness on Missy—otherwise she’ll try to pull your arm off if she sniffs something awesome—and just clip the leads to Husky and Grace’s collars.”
“Harness for Missy, got it,” Dev said and picked the black harness from the row of dog paraphernalia on the wall. He frowned at it, trying to figure out which way it would go on the dog.
“There’s just one spot to attach the lead, so that’s on top,” Leaf explained the configuration. “If you lower it, Missy knows what to do.”
Skeptical, Dev knelt and took hold of the now identified top part. Missy came to him when he looked at her and promptly stuck her head through one bit, then stood like a statue for him to finish the job.
Dev blinked at her, then figured out what to do. “Ta-da!” he exclaimed, proud of himself. “You’re such a clever girl about some things, aren’t you, Missy?” He ruffled the dog’s short, coarse fur, making her wiggle.
“She can be, yeah. She knows by now she’ll get out faster if she stands still. Here,” Leaf said, handing him the black leash.
They left the house with Dev holding on to Missy’s lead and Leaf the others.
“Anything specific I need to know?” Dev asked, as Leaf showed him how he liked to hold the leashes so that they’d be secure in his hands even when tugged, and he could still pull the dogs separate from each other if he needed to for some reason.
Leaf explained some routines, told him which houses and dogs to avoid, and so on.
“I would expect that your dogs can go anywhere,” Dev confessed after the warnings.
