Chapter 5
MILES
Shift is all but done when the front entrance door opens and my best friend, and apparently, my dog, waltz inside.
“Long shift, bud,” Lawson says, Petal’s leash in one hand and a coffee he’s now extending to me in the other.
“You could say that.” I take the coffee as Petal sniffs the floor and wanders wherever her leash with allow her to. “How did she go?”
“No trouble, but now Carlie wants a damn dog.”
I chuckle.
“Well, Petal is looking for a new ho?—”
“Petal, baby!” a voice coos from behind me, and the dog is tugging on the leash, slipping from Rawlins’s grip a second later.
I spin around to find London on her knees, snuggling the pup to her chest. The dog’s tail is whipping back and forth so fast it’s a blur.
“You two know each other?” I ask.
London laughs as she says, “Of course we do, don’t we girl? Fast friends for weeks.” Happiness glints through those dark brown eyes of hers, following her laugh now winding through my veins.
And my gut flips, like it had fucking permission.
Laws’s gaze alternates between London with Petal and me.
No, bud. Don’t even think it, Rawlins.
“Okay, you’re going to have to fill me in,” Laws says.
“Me too.” I cross my arms, tilting my head. “How do you know Petal, Tennison? When I tried to take her back to the shelter, they said she’d only had one owner, if you don’t count the woman who abandoned her.”
London is on her feet and moving toward me before I have a chance to step back.
“You! It was you who tried to return her?” The look on her face is an equal mix of shock and horror.
“I—”
“How could you?”
“How the?—”
“After all she’s been through, you thought returning her to a system that would have her put down without another foster opportunity was a good plan, yeah?”
“Lon—”
She shakes her head. “Yeah, nah.” She walks back to Petal and picks her up. “Come on, girl. We have better places to be.”
The second Tennison is out of sight, Lawson cackles. His blue eyes are lit with mirth as he runs a hand through his dark hair.
“Bud, you’re screwed.”
“Fuck off, Rawlins. It’s nothing of the sort. She’s our new probie. I’m her captain, at least... I should be.” The last few words fade out.
Laws’s grip slaps to my shoulder. “May the best man win.”
He fucking winks at me.
