Because I’d never been late for spaghetti night in my life, when I slipped into Avery’s dining room after coming straight from spending the day at the vet clinic, everyone stopped eating and stared.
I took the seat beside Chase and reached for a plate.
“Dude,” Danny said. “You missed the garlic bread.”
I whispered to Chase, “I sent you a text!”
“Yeah,” Chase agreed, “but I still thought you were being held for ransom and one of the kidnappers was pretending to be you. ‘I’m going to be late for dinner.’ Like, come on. It’sspaghetti night.”
So, firstly, if anyone was holding me for ransom, why would they pretend they were me? Wouldn’t they want Chase to know that I’d been kidnapped? And secondly, they were gonna be pretty disappointed with whatever ransom Chase and the restof the guys managed to come up with. They’d be lucky to get enough to cover gas money. But all of that was too much to relay to Chase when everyone was watching, so I just snorted and elbowed him.
“Let me get the rest of the garlic bread out of the oven,” Avery said, pushing his chair back.
“There’s more garlic bread?” Wilder asked, looking betrayed. “Were you holding out on me, Avery? Why don’t I get extra garlic bread?”
“Well, IlikeCash,” Avery said, sailing off toward the kitchen with a wink in my direction.
Wilder clutched his heart dramatically like he’d been shot, and Gracie giggled.
It was a full house. Everyone was here. Avery and Wilder and Gracie, of course, because it was their place. Danny and Miller were both here too, and so was Lee. It was crowded around the table and pretty loud. I liked the noise and the busyness, though. It meant the circle of people I considered safe was getting bigger. It had been just Chase and me for so long, but now we were both learning to trust other people.
I thought about Mason as I chewed on my garlic bread. Washea safe person? I thought that maybe he was, even though he seemed like he was stressed a lot of the time. I hoped he was, because I’d need his help if I wanted to keep the dog. I wondered what he’d say if he knew I’d stolen it, and my stomach twisted with guilt.
“Hey, how come you spent the day at the vet’s anyway?” Danny asked me. “He’s not making you work on your days off, is he?”
I shook my head and whispered to Chase, “I wasn’t working. I was visiting the dog.”
“He wasn’t working,” Chase said. “He was playing with the dog.”
I saw Danny and Miller exchanging a look. Then Miller said, “Any luck finding it a home yet?”
I ignored the question and concentrated on twirling spaghetti strands around my fork. I hadn’t even started looking, still hoping I could keep him.
Gracie opened her mouth and started to say, “Maybe?—”
“We’ve talked about this, sweet pea,” Wilder said firmly. “Now isn’t a good time.”
Gracie huffed out a dramatic sigh and slumped back in her seat, but she didn’t pursue the subject any further, which was unlike her, so I figured they really had talked about it and the no had been final.
“You’d better start looking. The vet won’t keep him forever,” Chase warned, “and you don’t want him going to a shelter.”
Trust Chase to bring up the worst-case scenario.To be fair we’d lived through some shit, and he was still unlearning stuff, just like I was. I just didn’t appreciate it right now. I elbowed him in the side to let him know.
“I can ask Cal,” Miller said. “He might take him.”
Cal was Miller’s boss, and since he already had a dog that came to work with him, he’d probably be a good match. But it still felt wrong.
“What about Bobby?” Wilder suggested.
That was aterribleidea. I glared at Wilder and whispered, “Goose.”
“I don’t think the dog would attack the goose, Cash,” Wilder said.
I shook my head and leaned into Chase and whispered, “I’m not worried about the dog attacking.”
Chase laughed. “Cash is more worried about the goose attacking the dog.”
“Oh shit, you’re right!” Wilder said, laughing too.
