“You know, Daisy.I’m surprised Axel bought our lies so easily.Axel never even caught on when I said you were a good watchdog.He never mentioned that you should have noticed the phantom person who supposedly flattened my tires.”The joke felt hollow.Daisy would’ve barked her head off if anyone had come near those tires.
She danced impatiently, shifting from paw to paw, her whole body humming with the universal language of a hungry dog.Watching her so excited cracked open something really nice in his chest.
Nick grinned.
“All right, all right.Is it supper time?Want foooood?”he asked, drawing out the word food as if it were a magic spell.
A single, sharp bark was Daisy’s eager response.Her pink tongue lolled out of her mouth.
“Coming right up, Miss ma’am.”
Nick hummed a cheery tune as he opened a can of dog food and prepared Daisy’s supper.The simple act soothed him.Feeding someone, caring for someone, it felt like something he could get right.
He just hoped he got tonight right for Jenna and Axel.
The truth was, he had been mulling over an idea to get the two of them alone.He had manufactured this crisis.Four flat tires, so Jenna and Axel would have to spend an evening and a night together.
He wasn’t just meddling for the fun of it.
Catching Axel with Jenna after she’d asked him to remain professional had really thrown him.He’d thought for sure she would send them back to prison.But she’d acted normal afterwards, even holding his gaze with interest in her eyes.
Now, he realized he’d over reacted.Maybe too he was being selfish with this plan.But Jenna belonged to Axel and it was time to really push these two back together, despite the irritation between them due to their past.They just clicked.They were meant to be.
Still, the lies began to seep into his conscience, heavy and insistent.
“They don’t have to know I made up the lies, Daisy.And they certainly don’t need to know that I love Jenna.Have been in love with her even before I met her.I want the two people that I love the most in the world to be together and happy.”The confession slipped out quietly, raw, and unguarded.It was the kind of truth he’d never dare say aloud to anyone else.
Nick sighed as he spooned Daisy’s dinner into a dog bowl and slid it into the microwave to warm up.The microwave’s quiet hum gave him a few seconds pause, and he rubbed the back of his neck, wrestling with the guilt gnawing at him.
He didn’t like to lie, especially to people he cared about.He’d always tried to do the right thing in his life, but his desperation to stay here with Jenna and Axel had nudged him toward desperate measures, and lying stung more than he cared to admit.
He bent down and set Daisy’s warm meal on the floor, watching as she dove in.
“Why do I feel so damned guilty, Daisy?”he murmured.
There was no answering bark, only the contented gobbling sounds of Daisy’s happy eating.
He wanted Jenna and Axel to remember why they’d fallen in love in the first place.Even if it meant setting aside his own feelings.He just wanted them to be happy again.That was what mattered most and Jenna’s baby deserved to have a dad.His chest tightened.Yeah, he wanted that for her, even if it meant stepping aside and not pursuing her himself.
“Yup, Daisy, looks like Axel’s the lucky dog tonight, and so are you because you’ll be bunking in a bed with me.I hope you’d don’t mind if I snore?”
She ignored him as she continued slurping her food.He forced a grin.The truth was that the dog’s affectionate presence would keep the emptiness at bay.
He reached down and ruffled Daisy’s soft curl enshrouded warm body, grateful for her uncomplicated companionship.
Yeah, uncomplicated affection in a world that suddenly felt very complicated.
* * * * *
“Can nails really make all four tires go flat?There must have been a lot of them.Very careless neighbours,” Jenna mused as Axel hung up the phone.
Her voice carried a sharp edge of concern, and anxiety flickered across her face as she folded the towel she’d been using to dry the dishes and draped it over the stove handle.
Axel shrugged, watching Jenna swiftly walk over to secure the kitchen door.
His casual shrug felt wrong.He hated downplaying danger, especially when she was already on edge.
“Anything’s possible,” he replied, attempting to sound reassuring even as a sense of unease prickled at him, recalling Nick’s earlier admission.The absence of any nails in the tires suggested that someone had deliberately let the air out.
