Mabel
That night, I was at the stove heating the red sauce we were going to put on our whole wheat spaghetti and add turkey meatballs, when Hutch moved from making the salad to press to my back, round me with his arms and put his chin on my shoulder.
Okay.
Yeah.
Now that Abigail had planted the seed, I had no idea how I’d missed it.
Then again, maybe I hadn’t missed it.
I just hadn’t believed in it.
I felt my heart pounding and the wave of hope I always kept at bay crashing against the levee I’d erected to keep it from screwing up my life.
I also melted back into him (obviously).
“We close?I’m starved,” he said.
“Salad done?”I asked.
He was about to answer when both Tonks and Hannibal started barking.
Tonks could make noise.
But Hannibal’s bark was terrifying.
I froze.
Hutch did not.
He grabbed my hand, dragged me from the stove, pulled me into the doorway between the kitchen and living room, and shoved me against the wall.
He then pointed in my face.“Don’t move.”
I nodded.
He went to the front window and peered around the curtain.
His alert body relaxed at whatever he saw, therefore I relaxed, and he ordered, “Hannibal!Tonks!Quiet!”
Hannibal immediately shut up.
Tonks gave a soft roo-roo then she shut up.
Hutch looked to me.“Mrs.Matthews.”
Oh man.
There came an imperious knock on the door, I moved into the room, and Hutch unlocked and opened it.
More imperious came when she demanded, “Kindly get out of my way and make sure your dogs don’t bite me.”
I watched with curiosity as to what Hutch was going to do in this situation, considering the woman not only didn’t offer a greeting, she didn’t ask for an invite over the threshold, or even to his house.
But Hutch just stepped aside and ordered, “Hannibal.Tonks.Friend.”
Tonks didn’t know “friend,” but then again, everyone was Tonks’s friend.
