The puppy’s head popped up.
“It’s cool,” Nico assured him with a scratch on the head as he pressed the button to lower the window.
Stone held up a brown paper bag. “Reilly said to give you this, too.”
Nico laughed. “Your sister’s somethin’ else, you know that?”
“Truly one of a kind.”
Nico took the bag and reached back to put it in the back seat.
“You’re not gonna look to see what’s in it?”
“I like surprises,” Nico told him.
When he turned back, he found Stone staring at him.
“What?”
“How is she?”
There was a wealth of emotion in Stone’s voice. Enough that Nico couldn’t bring himself to tell the man to fuck off because he didn’t have the right to ask that question.
“She’s good.”
Stone nodded, his eyes seeming to search for something.
“What?”
Stone shook his head. “Nothin’.” He backed up a step. “See you around.”
Nico let him get a few feet away before he called after him. “You back for good?”
Stone turned around but continued to walk backward. “That’s the plan for now. Who knows what tomorrow brings.”
Nico nodded. “Maybe we could grab coffee or somethin’ sometime.”
“Maybe.”
Nico cocked an eyebrow. “That didn’t sound like an answer.”
Stone smirked, and damn if it wasn’t sexy. “That didn’t sound like a question.”
Before Nico could decide whether he wanted to ask him officially, Stone climbed into his big F350.
“I’m an idiot,” he told the dog, closing the window.
The dog yipped, then burrowed into the blanket once again.
Half an hour later, after they got home and Nico convinced the dog to go to the bathroom—which evidently was inconvenient when there were so many things to sniff—he went to work putting up the supplies. He also went through the house and closed all the doors, ensuring the dog didn’t wander away and get into something he shouldn’t. When he returned, the little ball of fluff was lying on the floor, gnawing on the laces of one of Nico’s work boots.
“No,” he said firmly, reaching down and taking the boot.
He grabbed the other for good measure and set both on the bar stool before retrieving the toy Reilly had found for him.
“This is yours.”
The dog pawed at it a few times, then rested his head on it, staring up at Nico with big, sad eyes.
