“Okay, we can shake again.
“I hate that you’re only going to live eight to twelve years. I don’t think I can handle watching you fade so soon. What sort of person does that make me?
“That’s right, look at me. Are you trying to figure it out?
“You’ll be happier with him, Stevie.
“Iwas happier with him.
“I know, I know. You don’t like crying. I know. Okay shake—yep, shake. Good girl. What a good girl.
“I just wanted you to understand my rationale, Stevie. Do you understand?
“Will you miss me?
“No. I know you won’t.
“I know, I know.”
Chapter 48
Tom was sitting out on the front steps when Cherry got home from work. Even though it was cold.
It was the day after they’d lost and found Stevie. Cherry had been counting on not seeing him.
She took a deep breath and walked up to the house. He’d shoveled the walk.
She stopped a few feet away from him.
Tom looked tired. He held up a blue Post-it with his name on it. The last time she’d seen that note, it was stuck to Stevie’s kennel.
“You caught me off guard,” Cherry said. “Last night.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
Cherry sighed and sat down on the porch next to him. She was tired, too.
“It never occurred to me that you’d want to keep Stevie,” Tom said.
“I don’t know if it had occurred to me, either.”
He stuck the Post-it to Cherry’s knee. “We’re not deciding it this way.”
“Are you offended that I treated Stevie like a DVD?”
“No.”
“I just didn’t want totalkabout it. I still don’t.” Cherry’s voice broke. “I’d rather let you take her than talk about it—which is probably proof that I shouldn’t get her.”
Tom clenched his fists between his knees. “I’m not taking Stevie away from you, away from her home, if you want to keep her.”
“Tom, Stevie doesn’t know what home is! You’re the closest thing she has to home. I’m just her roommate.”
He shook his head.
Cherry sighed. Again. She folded her arms under her chest and leaned forward. “I’m so tired.”
When she glanced back at Tom, he was watching her.
