Chapter 24 #2
Lance had to grin. He would have said that he would have been bored sitting here at the house, but really, for the most part, he had a lot to do. He researched on his computer. He’d almost decided that massage therapy school was an actual thing.
Hell, he had the dogs to occupy his time. He’d made himself lunch, he’d done dishes. He did his physical therapy. He was actually sort of busy. He’d even done a load of laundry. “It was good, normal. I liked it.”
“Good deal. My day was less wonderful, but not bad. I mean, barring the Coke explosion thing. That kind of sucked.”
Lance wrinkled his nose. “Yeah. Yeah, I can’t…There’s just no good there.”
“Sure there is. I get to come home to you.”
His cheeks heated. “Oh, flattery will get you laid.”
There was a hesitation, and then Sloan said, “Have I told you how beautiful you are today? How incredibly hot you are? How you’re the finest thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life?”
Lance cracked up. “You are a shit.”
He did love that about the fine son of a bitch.
“I mean it.” Sloan reached over to touch his leg, which of course set off a spasm of canine jealousy, and both dogs were all over them, Sloan laughing and telling Maynard, “No, buddy. You can’t have beer.”
Lance hooted. “So much for the mood.”
Sloan snorted. “We’ll regain that when we lock them out tonight.”
“Yeah. At least Maynard has stopped howling when we do that.” The first couple of nights had been… challenging. But neither of them had ever even thought of Maynard being on a trial run.
He was home for good.
“I think Abby bites him now.”
Lance nodded. “I can get that.”
“I just want to bite you. Speaking of, what do you want for supper?”
He pondered that, but it was really Sloan he was thinking about. About how he loved these quiet moments the most. These times when they were nothing but two guys planning supper .
He had never thought that he’d get this in life. Honestly. He thought—he didn’t know—he thought that maybe he’d fall apart, he guessed.
“What’s the matter?” Sloan squeezed his leg.
“Nothing. I don’t think anything’s the matter. I was just thinking how cool this was, and then, to be honest, I was thinking about how I never thought that this was something I could hope for.”
“Sitting in the backyard with dogs.”
He nodded. “Exactly. Sitting in the backyard with dogs.”
“Well, I’m hoping for something even better.”
Oh, that was intriguing. “Yeah?”
“Yeah, I want to sit in my backyard in the snow with dogs.”
“Ah, but you don’t have any grass, do you? That’s just mean.”
Sloan pinched him just enough to make him twitch. “I’ve got grass, sort of. I mean, there’s a patch of grass, and then there’s dirt, pebbles, and sand in my backyard. It’s fenced, but even better? I have a deck, and there’s going to be a hot tub. So we can bubble.”
“I could probably finance that, the bubbling.”
“You’d do that for us, would you?”
“I would. You let me know what it’ll cost and we can do it from here, before we move back home.” God knew he had enough money. Thank goodness, because God knew Maynard could eat. That pup could pound down some kibbles.
“I love how that sounds in your voice, babe. Move back home.” Sloan shifted in his seat. “How do you feel about pizza for supper?”
Lance shrugged, his cheeks heating. “Sure. You know how I feel about pizza. I am pro pizza in every way.”
It was easy to eat, he could pick it up with his hands, he didn’t have to worry about it. All in all, it was a win .
“Cool. If we did that, then I could do some scent training with Maynard, and there’s all those food smells around, so it’ll make it even better.”
Lance grinned, shook his head. “You are having fun with that, aren’t you? You do know that he flunked out of all of his training?”
“Hey! Flunked is a harsh word,” Sloan growled a little bit, and he could hear Maynard coming up to him with his whole ‘dad, dad, what’s the matter, dad?’ thing.
He also noted that Abby was not concerned.
“I’m sorry. What would you like me to say instead of flunked?”
“Maybe he was just not ready to be a cadaver dog yet. Or a drug-sniffing dog.”
Oh, Lance couldn’t wait to hear this. “Not ready. He just needed a little more time.”
“Well, yeah, kinda. People mature at different rates, so do dogs. Maybe he’s just a late bloomer.”
Personally, Lance thought that Maynard’s job on this earth was to be Sloan’s dog. He was particularly apt to that job, and the good Lord had assured that when Sloan was ready, Maynard had come bounding into his life and damn the torpedoes.
“I can see that. And obviously, he’s having fun smelling things.”
“Well, sure, I mean, he’s a scent hound, right? He needs to have something to do, and smelling is it. If nothing ever comes of it, and nothing probably will, that’s good with me. It makes him happy. It’s fun.”
And that made Sloan happy, and that was enough for Lance. “That sounds like a perfect evening, honey. I want pepperoni, sausage and onions on my pizza, and we can play find the stinky thing with your boy.”
“Cool.” Sloan kissed his nose, making him jump, which made Sloan laugh. “Sorry, baby. I thought you heard me get up. I’m gonna order pizza, but I need my phone.”
“Oh, sure, babe.” He rubbed Abby’s ears when she leaned on him, and then he grabbed the ball and tossed it again while Sloan ordered supper.
The more he thought about it, the more he thought he could totally do Sloan’s backyard in the snow in Santa Fe.