Wilder was still pink. He flashed her a grin and said, “Yeah, I got another job, and the hours don’t always work out. You know how it is.”
“Mm-hmm. Well, that’s a shame.” Her gaze lingered on him, and then she said thoughtfully, “I never thought you’d be the sort of person who dumped their dog.”
“I didn’t—” Wilder began, but the woman was already striding away toward a little red hatchback parked out on the street. “It’s not our dog!” When she didn’t give any indication that she’d heard him, he said, “Fuck. Do I look like a dog dumper?”
I shrugged.
Wilder’s shoulders slumped, and he said in an undertone, “Let’s do this, then.”
But my feet were frozen to the ground.
Wilder made it about two steps before he realized I wasn’t behind him, and then he turned back around and closed the distance between us. He put his hands on my shoulders, the movement slow and steady because he knew I didn’t like to besurprised. He gave me an encouraging smile. “We gotta do it, Cash.”
I knew that, and I gave a jolting nod, hating that it was so hard to find the words to explain how I was feeling, and especially hating how that was such a burden on everyone else, because they had to try to figure it out all the time.
I know, I wanted to tell him.I know, but I’m scared. I’m scared because I don’t have any money, and I’m scared because what does that mean for the dog? What if he sends him to a shelter where they put him to sleep? Or what if he makes me take him back to the people who hurt him? I’m scared for the dog, and I’m ashamed of how I acted last night, when I ran away because I’m poorer than dirt and I couldn’t even fuckingtellhim that. And it’s humiliating that I need you here with me because I can’t do this on my own.
But it seemed like maybe Wilder got some of what I wasn’t saying anyway because he pulled me into a side hug and said quietly, “I got your back here, Cash. You know that, right?”
Since the first day I’d met him, yeah. Him and Danny. And—a guilty jolt went through me at the disloyalty—in ways that Chase couldn’t. Because I loved Chase to death. Hell, I’d loved him before I’d even drawn a breath, but I was still worried that having him here might make thingsworse. It wasn’t his fault, though. He was still figuring out that not everything was a fight.
I nodded and squeezed my stinging eyes shut for a moment. When I opened them again, Wilder was watching me carefully. Chase had shoved his hands deep in his pockets the way he did when he was doing his best to stay in control, and he gave me an encouraging nod.
Let’s do this, I might have said if I could have.
Instead, I stepped free of Wilder’s warm hug, drew a breath, and walked up the steps to the vet’s front door.
CHAPTER 3
MASON
Ididn’t think the guy was going to show. I was doubting the whole story about an identical twin, to be honest. The guy had probably just been bullshitting me on that score, same as the guy on the phone I’d spoken to later. But then, right after Kayla had left for the day, there was a knock at the door.
I’d just finished up bathing the dog. I eyed the tangles in his coat as I towel dried him. With some elbow grease I could probably brush them out, but I had neither the energy nor the time. I considered hacking them out with the clippers but dreaded the reaction I’d get from Kayla, who had banned me from all grooming attempts because she claimed I couldn’t cut straight to save my life. To be fair, she had a point, and also I wasn’t dumb enough to piss off my tech. So I settled for that being a problem for future me and put the dog in his cage just as the knocking started again.
I opened the door to find three guys standing there. One was the cute asshole who’d dumped the dog. He was staring hard at the boards of the porch like he’d never seen anything more interesting in his life. A guy who looked exactly like him, except he was scowling, stood next to him. I recognized his attitude from earlier today at the bakery. The third guy was hot, with longblond hair. He was wearing shorts and a tank top, and his biceps did impressive things when he lifted his hand to take his baseball cap off.
“Hey,” he said. “I’m Wilder, and this is Cash and Chase. We’re here about the, uh, the dog situation.”
“Mason Ross,” I said and shook his hand somewhat begrudgingly. “Come on in.”
“So, first of all,” Wilder said as they followed me into the waiting room, “it’s not our dog. Cash found it. Right, Cash?”
Cash nodded, gaze still on the floor.
“Second of all, Cash doesn’t talk,” Wilder said. “He can, but he doesn’t. Just putting that out there.”
Wilder’s tone was firm and there was a warning look in his eyes, as though he was expecting me to push back or call bullshit or something. I wasn’t. Clearly, Wilder wasn’t going to elaborate on the no-talking thing, which was fair. Whatever Cash’s deal was, we could all agree it was none of my business. It helped that Chase was looking at me like he was going to rip my throat out with his teeth if I asked anything about it.
“That’s fine,” I said, and Cash darted a glance at me. He looked as anxious as he had last night, and I wondered if I’d done him a disservice by thinking all day that he was an asshole. “So the dog’s a stray?”
Wilder nodded, and Cash looked away again.
Would have been a hell of a lot easier if Cash had told me that last night, I thought, and then gave myself a mental kick. Wilder had justsaidthat Cash didn’t talk.
“So, uh, what do we owe you?” Wilder asked. “It’s not our dog, like we said, but we’d like to make it right.”
I looked at the three of them again. Cash’s jeans had a rip at the knees and the rubber was peeling away from the toe of one sneaker, and the fabric of his tee was faded and worn thin.I glanced out the window and took in the battered truck they’d arrived in. I definitely wasn’t going to see any money here.
