They breathed for a while, soaking in the closeness, knowing it would be a week or more before they saw each other again once Leaf started the RV.
Seth pulled out and helped him clean up the table, mostly because Leaf grumbled at him about having to eat on the thing.
“Will you go say bye to the boy?” Seth asked, his eyes already sad and vulnerable.
It hadn’t been like this before, but now, after he’d been home for so long and with Dev joining them, things were different.
“Yeah. Need to give the kids scratches too.”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
They left the garage and went inside the house. Seth went into the kitchen to give Leaf and Dev some privacy to say goodbye, Leaf thought.
He went upstairs where Dev was working, or more like distracting himself from the fact that Leaf was leaving. All the kids were there, because Seth had wanted that last quickie and had left them with Dev so there wouldn’t be interruptions.
“Hey,” Leaf said when he opened the door.
All the dogs looked at him expectantly, and even Weasley perked up from his spot on the desk.
“Hi.” Dev turned his chair and looked at Leaf with the same expression Seth had downstairs.
“None of that, now.” Leaf went to him and stepped between Dev’s thighs.
Dev wrapped his arms around Leaf and pressed his face into his stomach. Leaf ran his fingers through Dev’s hair and sighed. He hated that he was doing this to them, despite knowing it was because of his job.
“Take care of Seth for me,” he murmured. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, okay? And… don’t tell Seth yet, but I’ve been thinking about changing some things, workwise. Just… I might not be going away again anytime soon.”
Dev looked up, chin propped against Leaf still. “Really?”
“Yeah. I already hate going. It’s never happened before. But I’ll go do this and come back for good, okay?”
“Okay.”
Leaf leaned down and kissed Dev deeply, soaking in the taste of him. He finally pulled away when his back and lungs protested, and gave Dev a smile.
“I love you, sweetheart.”
“I love you too.”
He turned and looked at the dogs, who were staring at him. They all knew he was leaving for the road and were waiting to go with him. Except this time, they couldn’t all go.
Then he remembered Weasley. He went to the desk and petted the cat he’d become fond of. “You be good, Weasley. Be nice to Auntie Alex when you see her, and when you wake up, Grace will be here to snuggle with you until the hurty stuff is over, okay.”
Weasley purred at him and brushed his cheek against Leaf’s fingers.
“It should be routine, but call me anyway,” he told Dev, whose eyes brimmed with tears he tried to hide.
Leaf felt rotten. He didn’t know how to fix this other than coming back, so he looked at the dogs again. “Missy and Grace, stay. Husky, let’s go.”
HE DROVEwest first, to Utah, and then north to get to Idaho. The bust was happening around the time he’d get to within the Idaho State limit, and his contact had promised to call to tell him where to come exactly.
There were several shelters, and he expected to go through every one that took some of the dogs from the puppy mill. At least the local trainer, Chay Quentin, had told him he could stay at her farm, where she had her own training center for abused dogs.
The call came when he was around an hour away from Pocatello.
“Hey, Chay,” he said, watching the road and trying to stay awake.
“Hey there. So, you should probably go to my place, sleep a few hours, and then go wherever we need you at that point.”
