“We’ll get you somethin’ to chew on tomorrow. Somethin’ that doesn’t belong on my feet.”
His nose twitched.
“What? You want dinner?”
His eyes widened.
Nico took that as a yes and went to work digging slop out of a can and dumping it into a cereal bowl.
“Surely they make somethin’ better than this.” He set the bowl on the floor beside the counter and stood back, waiting to see if the dog was interested.
He was.
Very.
He scarfed down the entire bowl in a handful of bites.
Nico chuckled, filled another bowl with water, and placed it on the floor. The dog then went to work cleaning it out, too.
“I take that to mean you’ll have to go out again in a little while?”
Something told Nico this was going to be a really long night.
Speaking of night…
He thought for sure Stevie would’ve been home by now. It was Friday, so she spent the evening at her dad’s house. A tradition they’d been carrying on since Stevie’s mother divorced her dad and moved to Buffalo to marry some guy she met on the internet. Stevie claimed she hung out with Stan so he didn’t get lonely, but Nico knew she worried about him. Not that he saw the appeal of hanging out with a man who had no desire to converse with anyone. Nico had gone with her once but declined the offer the next time to avoid the awkward silence. Stevie and her dad had always been close, but Stan hadn’t been the same since his wife left him.
Nico grabbed his phone and looked to see if he’d missed any texts from her. There were none.
He went to the window over the sink to look outside, checking to see if maybe he’d missed her Bronco parked in the driveway. It wasn’t there.
Had she run into Stone? Were they in town right now talking about old times? Reminiscing?
Nico’s chest clenched, and it felt a hell of a lot like jealousy that coursed through him. Why would he be jealous? It wasn’t like he had a claim on Stevie. She was his roommate, nothing more. Sure, they’d … well, they’d scratched an itch a time or two, but never when they were sober. And after each encounter, they both agreed it would never happen again. For the most part, they managed to abide by that agreement. Until the next time.
He took a deep breath and turned around, leaning against the counter, watching the puppy gnawing on his toy.
“Where’re you gonna sleep?”
The dog turned those big brown eyes on him, and Nico knew this little guy was gonna be trouble with a capital T.
“Maybe that’s what we should call you. Trouble.”
The dog tilted his head as though waiting for him to repeat it.
“Trouble? You like that name?”
His head tilted the other way.
“Maybe not. I’m sure I’ll come up with somethin’.”
Nico laughed, pushing off the counter and heading to the refrigerator to find something to eat. The sandwich he had earlier had long since burned off, and he was starving.
He opened the fridge and glanced at the contents, then looked in the pantry, tallying up what he would need. When he noted he had all the ingredients for chicken fajitas, he went to work preparing the chicken.
As he worked, his mind drifted to that night so long ago.
“What was Chelsea tellin’ everybody?” Stone demanded, glaring daggers at Nico.
