“I didn’t know you guys were getting dogs,” Dane murmured.
“Neither did I.” Rachel looked over her shoulder at him, her skin the color of ash and her eyes huge. She was grinding her teeth so hard, he could practically hear her dental bill increasing by the moment.
Uh. Damn. This was not good.
“Rach?” Travis asked. “You okay?”
“No,” she said. And he totally believed her.
The identical twins removed the identical little beasts. Travis grabbed leashes from a pouch on top of the crates and helped snap the leashes to their collars.
“There are two of them,” Rachel said to no one in particular. “Of course each kid needs his own. Because, of course.”
“I’m going to name mine Pete,” Kellan announced, hefting the squirming puppy into his arms and heading into the house. The blue leash dragged on the concrete walkway behind him.
“What about you, Brady?” Dane asked, handing out puppies like they were cotton candy at the Cherry Creek farmers market.
“Re-Pete, I guess,” he said with a shrug, lugging the second pup through the front door.
Rachel gaped as the boys rolled with the puppies like they were practicing for a jiujitsu match on Rachel’s pristine carpet.
“You both should say goodbye to Gavin,” she said, so only Travis and Dane could hear.
“Why?” Dane asked.
“Because I’m going to murder him,” she replied, her expression frozen.
Well, fuck.
She pulled out her phone and pushed a bunch of buttons before holding it to her ear.
“You think she’s ordering a hit?” Dane asked out of the side of his mouth.
Travis was 85 percent sure she was not. He gave a subtle head shake. “Nah. Too messy. She’s more creative than that.”
“Gavin?” she asked, the tether on her temper barely there, given how her voice wobbled and her cheeks reddened. Gavin must’ve said something in response, because she was intently listening. Travis caught Dane’s gaze and they shared a brotherly moment of silence for the wrath their sibling had brought down on himself via puppies.
“Great. So glad it’s going well,” she said, totally normal. “Hey, I have a quick question.” She paused only a moment before shouting, “Have you lost your mind?”
The riot act she read Gavin was remarkably well prepared, given that she’d found out about the dogs only a few minutes before. That did not matter, because her points were both concise and effectively maneuvered into her tirade.
Travis couldn’t help it. He smiled. He leaned against the exterior of her house and watched the show.
Sure, pissed-off Rachel was kinda scary, but also oddly adorable.
Man, he ran his thumb over his bottom lip, he could just listen to Rachel yell at his brother for days and not get tired of it.
CHAPTER 4
RACHEL
A birthday party was not the time for losing her shit.
“Everyone’s outside. Have fun.” Rachel shooed the latest kiddo into her backyard to contain and entertain them until their parents showed back up in two hours to remove them from the premises.
The party had started. Gavin hadn’t shown up.
Again. As his wedding inched closer, the slacking on his dad duties had gotten worse. He was practically becoming Travis. Rachel was so done with covering for him.
