He knew what I was asking, because he answered, “With difficulty.”
“It’s rough?”
Stupid question.
“You raise a dog from a pup, you gotta have ice in your veins not to let your feelings get involved.”He rounded his truck in the wide space between house and pens and kept talking, “But I vet my clients extensively.I know the dogs are going to good people to do good work, and the contract stipulates if they’re retired from that work and they don’t intend to keep them, they have to return them to me.”
“Do any get returned?”
“None.Most cops who work K9 adopt the dog they patrol with when he or she is retired.A bond is a bond.A partnership bond like that never dies.”
I thought of Tonks and Moxie.
I’d had them just over a week and I couldn’t imagine my life without them.
He pulled out on CR 10.
“Your house is you,” I remarked.
“What’s that mean?”he asked with a bite reminiscent of Mr.Grouch.
“I mean it’s you,” I repeated saucily.“A cool-as-shit log cabin.Natural.Like an extension of the wilderness that’s all around.If there’s one thing that fits in this place that’s manmade, it’s a log cabin.And your dog pens are the bomb.”
He seemed to relax, and I didn’t know what that was about, but I didn’t like it.
“Bought it, didn’t do shit to it,” he said.
“Does it need shit done to it?”
“Not sure my oven would evenly bake a loaf of sourdough bread,” he joked.
Considering his earlier bite, I didn’t laugh.
I retorted, “Well, since you don’t eat sourdough bread, then who cares?”
“My thoughts,” he muttered.
“Can I make a guess?”I snapped.
“Not sure, considering you sound pissy, and I don’t know what you’re talking about, but go ahead.”
“Up-her-own-butt Bree thought you should put in a jacuzzi.”
For a second, there was silence.
Then the cab filled with his deep, rich laughter, something else I’d never heard, something else I liked very much, and after it, he said, “She thought I should consider some upgrades.”
“Thought?Or nagged about it?Because she’s up-her-own-ass Bree and felt entitled to walk on furs and could feel a pea if it was placed between the mattress and box springs.”
“I’m a little scared of how much you don’t like a woman you’ve never met, babe,” he teased.
“Crashing out like she did on you, Hutch, is not okay.”
“Don’t I know it,” he muttered.
“Huh,” I huffed.
He chuckled.
