Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
DANIKA
My head felt nice and floaty. My whole body was warm from the inside out.
I was seeing two of everyone around me and all of them were blurry, but I didn’t care, because for the first time in a week and a half, I wasn’t sad or depressed.
My heart wasn’t aching, mainly because I was too fuzzy to feel pain, and that was fine with me.
I lost track of how long I’d been at The Tap Room with Gypsy, Nona, and Sage, hanging out with Rory when she had a break every now and then behind the bar, but it had been long enough that I was good and drunk.
I grabbed the tequila shot Rory had just put on the bar top in front of me, ignoring her look of concern as I brought the glass to my lips and shot the liquid back, hissing as the fire burned down my throat and ignited in my belly with all the other shots I’d already taken.
“Honey, maybe you should slow down a bit, huh?”
At Nona’s words, I turned and smiled, knowing it probably looked a bit wonky due to being plastered. “But it’s ladies’ night,” I exclaimed, throwing my arms in the air.
“I think we might’ve loosened her up a bit too much,” I heard Sage mumble, but I didn’t bother reacting, because at that very moment Cole Swindell’s “Love You Too Late” started blaring from the jukebox. It was the perfect anthem for everything I was feeling just then.
“Oh my God,” I cried, “I love this song.” I grabbed Gypsy’s hand and started pulling her from her chair. “Come on, let’s dance.”
I dragged her to the center of the dance floor as the music radiated through me.
With my arms raised and my hands in the air, I swayed my hips and spun around, tossing my hair and moving to the beat.
As the song progressed I got so into it that I sang along to the words without a bit of shame.
Gypsy eventually joined in, singing at the top of her lungs with me as we twirled each other, laughing hysterically.
I was out of breath and lightheaded by the time it came to an end, smiling a dopey smile as I grabbed her arm for balance and leaned in to speak into her ear so she could hear me. “I think I need to sit; everything’s starting to spin.”
She guided me back to the bar where I collapsed onto my stool with a giggle as I teetered precariously. “Whoa. You all right?” Sage asked, leaning forward to catch me before I could fall.
“I’m great,” I declared. “In fact, I’m so great, you know what I’m gonna do?” I pitched forward so I could get closer to her, wobbling a little before her hands on my shoulders steadied me.
“What are you gonna do?”
“I’m gonna get a dog!” I announced like it was the best idea of all the ideas anyone in the universe could possibly ever have.
“Yeah, I’m gonna get a cute little puppy, and I’m gonna do it all on my own.
I don’t need stupid Leo to go with me. I’ll take myself to the shelter and pick out a dog by myself. Because I don’t need him.”
“Wow. Okay. I think it’s probably time you switch to water,” Gypsy chimed in, forcing a glass against my palm.
I lifted it and sucked it back, only then realizing how thirsty I was.
“Thanks,” I muttered, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand before returning to the incredibly important topic we were discussing.
“I’ll get a dog walker since I work so much, but I’m gonna love that little guy like crazy, you know? And he’ll be all I need.”
“Okay, I definitely think it’s time to go,” Nona announced. “Come on, drunky, let’s get you home.”
“No, I don’t wanna go home,” I whined and my friends hauled me up. “Ooh! Can we swing by the shelter so I can pick out a puppy?”
“Everything good?” At the rough, gravelly voice, my head twisted around to see Hunter McCann standing in front of us.
I’d been around Hunter plenty of times, usually when I was with my girls and we were hanging with some of the Alpha Omega guys.
He was always nice and seemed funny, but I couldn’t claim to know him well.
In all honesty, I wasn’t sure if anyone really knew him well.
I got the impression he was really closed off, that he kept his private life private from almost everyone.
However, the little bit I knew about him I liked, and it didn’t hurt matters that the man was seriously easy to look at.
“We’re gonna go get me a puppy,” I told him excitedly.
“No, we’re taking you home,” Gypsy said, bursting my bubble. “It’s nearly midnight.”
Hunter chuckled then, the sound somewhat abrasive, like he didn’t do it all that often. “Come on. I’ll help you guys get her loaded up.”
My girls did a trade off, and I looked up at Hunter, asking, “Are you gonna carry me? ’Cause I think I’d be just fine with it if you did.” I mentioned he was hot right? Because he was. Like, super hot.
He hooked one of my arms around his neck, keeping me balanced with an arm around my waist as we moved out of the bar. “Pretty sure Drake’d skin my ass alive, if he found out I carried you outta here.”
I blew out a big raspberry. “Pfft! Leo Drake doesn’t exist. I drank him away tonight. When I wake up in the morning, I’m not gonna remember him.”
“Pretty sure you won’t remember much of anything in the mornin’, darlin’,” he replied.
“Then my plan worked.” I threw my fist in the air, which screwed up my center of gravity, and I started going down.
Fortunately, Hunter caught me before I could faceplant on the sidewalk.
Good thing, because that would’ve really hurt.
He let out a grunt as he righted us both and continued on the trek to Sage’s car, a badass, perfectly restored ’67 Mustang.
“I’ve decided something, Hunter,” I continued conversationally.
“I’ve decided that I don’t need a man. I’m gonna get a dog.
Did I tell you that?” I didn’t give him a chance to answer.
“So I don’t need a man, ’cause I’ll have a puppy, and puppies don’t smash your heart to dust. They love you unconditionally as long as you feed them and let them out to pee and stuff.
And I’ll do that. Plus, I’ll play with him.
Frisbee and fetch and hide and go seek. Wait.
Do dogs play hide and go seek? Whatever.
You know what I mean. So it’ll love me unconditionally, and that’s all I need, ’cause having your heart smashed to dust is so not worth it. ”
I hadn’t noticed, too busy sharing about my new puppy, but at some point during my long-winded rant, we’d reached Sage’s car.
Hunter propped me up on the side as Sage unlocked the doors.
“You know,” he said quietly as the rest of the girls started climbing in, “usually, I’d agree with you.
But seein’ you now, even with you bein’ totally shitfaced, I think there’d be somethin’ seriously wrong with the world if a woman like you didn’t have a man to cherish her. ”
I stared at him, swaying a little as I tried to focus on his two faces. “Okay, so I’m super drunk right now, so I may be wrong, but I think you just paid me a really nice compliment.”
He chuckled again. “You’d be right, darlin’.”
“You know what, Hunter McCann? I think you might be a really sweet guy.” I closed one of my eyes and squinted with the other, pointing between the two Hunters standing in front of me. “Both of yous. Totally sweet.”
He gave his head a shake, then deposited me in the car, mumbling for us to get home safe. And that was the last thing I remembered before passing the hell out.
It had been three days since my trip to The Tap Room with the girls. I’d spent that first day holed up in bed, hating life and cursing my friends for letting me attempt to drink my body weight in tequila and beer.
The second day I was feeling a little more alive so I’d instituted a plan to get up and get on with my life.
That included hitting the local shelter after work where I met and fell head over heels for a little fella named Roscoe.
He was part lab, part something-they-weren’t-sure-about-but-whatever-it-was-it-was-huge.
He was around three months old, had paws the size of my fist, and wild fur that was part wavy, part curly, and part wiry.
I’d felt an instant kindred spirt the moment I locked eyes on him.
He and his litter mates had been abandoned in a box behind a dumpster shortly after they were born, and all but Roscoe had been adopted out. He was the runt and by far the ugliest out of all of them, but to me, he was absolutely perfect.
Now he was in the back seat, on his way to meet my folks for his first ever family dinner. Dad was going to love him. Mom was going to freak, but she’d eventually come around.
“You ready to meet your new grandparents?” I asked, glancing in the rearview mirror to get a look at him. “They’re gonna love you, sweet boy.”
He showed his excitement by hanging his tongue out the side of his mouth and hopping around like a little rabbit.
I flipped on my blinker and turned onto my parents’ street with a big smile only to have it fall from my lips a second later.
“Shit,” I mumbled under my breath at the sight of Leo’s truck sitting in Jed’s driveway.
Roscoe yipped, and I took that as puppy speak for “What’s the matter, Mom?”
“It’s all right, boy,” I murmured. “We’re just gonna park, get out, and make a mad dash for the front door, right? We’re gonna go really fast, that way they hopefully won’t see us.”
He yipped again, giving me the okay.
I pulled into my parents’ driveway, briefly casting my gaze to the two containers of cookies I’d brought with me, one for my folks and one for Jed like always, feeling a tremor of guilt creep beneath my skin.
I loved spending time with Jed, and it wasn’t his fault that his son had broken my heart, but I couldn’t possibly take his bi-weekly treats over if Leo was there.
Pushing my door open, I jumped out and scuttled around the hood, going as fast as I could without running.
Roscoe barked as soon as I got the back door open.