Chapter Ten Remi
Chapter Ten
Remi
Ness stared at my boobs the entire time as I walked toward her. “Wow, I must’ve really gotten through to you with that club shirt. We’ll get so many more adoptions this way.”
I glanced down and cursed. “No, I just ran out of the house because someone was being very dramatic.” Then I pointed at the giant delivery truck sitting in the parking lot. “What is this?”
A bored-looking driver with greasy, limp dark hair stood next to the cab of the truck and wandered over with a clipboard. “You Remi Sinclair?”
“That’s me.”
“I, uh, I’ve got a . . . a thing for you.” He licked his lips. “A thing for you to sign, I mean.”
While he fumbled with the clipboard, his eyes were locked on my tits, and Ness coughed out a laugh. I glared at my best friend. “Please go get the denim shirt in the back seat of my car.”
“Why? Those babies are a weapon if you know how to use them right.”
The delivery driver looked like he was going to pass out.
“Vanessa. The shirt.”
She rolled her eyes, sauntering off to my car like she didn’t have a care in the world. Why would she? It wasn’t her nips showing to the entire world.
I scrawled my signature on the paper and crossed my arms over my chest. Disappointment flashed in his eyes.
He’d already turned to go back to the truck when Ness returned with my shirt. I slipped my arms in and hastily buttoned the middle button, just enough that I didn’t feel like I was flashing everyone around me.
“May I?” Ness asked.
The driver waved. “Go ahead.”
She hopped up onto the back bumper of the truck, gave me an anticipatory grin, and yanked on the handle holding the door of the truck shut. It rolled open with a groan of metal on metal, but when the contents came into view, my jaw dropped.
“What the hell?” I breathed.
Boxes upon boxes of dog food—the good kind too.
Some for puppies, but mostly for adults.
I took Ness’s outstretched hand and hopped up into the back of the truck with her, exhaling an incredulous laugh as I cataloged the contents, my hand skimming along the top of each stack.
Puppy pads. Blankets, new dog beds. Dog shampoo, leashes, and toys.
My eyesight went blurry when I did the mental math on just the dog food alone.
“Ness, this is enough dog food for the next . . . eight months? Maybe more.”
“I know.” She tore open the top of one of the boxes. The first thing she fished out was a sleeve of extra-strength tennis balls. “Oh man, Scout is gonna love these, isn’t he?”
I smiled. “Who did this?”
She shrugged. “I was hoping you’d know.”
The driver came around the side of the truck and peered up at us. “Where do you want me to unload it?”
Ness and I shared a look. “The big conference room for now?” I suggested. “We’ll have to disperse this to some of the foster homes, but we may need to take over one of the smaller rooms that doesn’t get used as much.”
She nodded. “I’ll go push those tables off to the side of the room. Should I email all the fosters and tell them to come in today to load up?”
I shook my head. “Let’s wait until we get an inventory of what we have.”
“Oh,” the delivery driver interjected, “I’ve got that right here.”
He ripped a piece of paper off the stack wedged underneath the clip of the clipboard and handed it to me. I scanned the list, mentally tallying how we’d need to divvy up this food.
Ness hopped out of the truck first and went to unlock the side door while he lowered a metal ramp off the back.
As I was not in the mood to break an ankle by hopping out of anything, I waited until the ramp was connected and walked down that way.
The sun was warm on my back, and I plucked at the denim shirt, wishing I could ditch it.
Based on the occasional looks the driver gave my chest as he descended the ramp, I decided that sweating was the preferable course of action.
It was odd to just stand and watch him load up his dolly, bringing stack after stack of boxes around to the side of the building. Normally, I was the one doing the heavy lifting—literally and metaphorically—but as I watched someone else do it, I felt the strangest sensation take root in my chest.
Relief.
I could breathe, just a little bit easier than I’d been able to breathe that morning. It was an embarrassment of riches, and I wasn’t even sure who to thank.
Ness sidled up next to me, fixing the pink ponytail on the top of her head while we watched the room slowly fill with much-needed supplies. “I sent Christian a text asking if it was him.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Seriously?”
She shrugged. “We had great phone sex yesterday. It’s one hell of a way to show his gratitude.”
I snorted. “Indeed. And was it him?”
“No.”
“Is he still waiting?”
Her lip pushed out in a mighty pout. “Yes.”
“So rude,” I teased.
“If he’s trying to make me feral, it’s working.”
“I’m not sure that’s what he’s trying to do, babe. I have a feeling he really means it.” I nudged her shoulder with mine when she let out a beleaguered sigh. “Brutal, huh?”
“The brutal-est.”
“Not a word, but I’ll accept it.” The stacks in the truck dwindled with each trip back and forth, and by the time the driver left, Ness and I had already started unpacking the smaller items we knew had a home in our usual storage closet.
As soon as we were alone, I ripped off the denim shirt, ignoring Ness’s approving whistle.
“What about Muriel? You don’t think she ordered all this, do you?”
“And not tell us?” Ness asked, smiling as she unpacked a box of stuffed animals. She held up a fluffy yellow duck with sunglasses sitting on his orange bill. “I’m saving this one for Bandit.”
“Why?”
She gave an airy sniff. “Because it’s the biggest one, and my good boy needs some spoiling.”
“We’re not supposed to have favorites, Ness.”
“Oh bullshit, like you don’t give Scout extra treats. And didn’t I walk in the office last week and he was taking a nap next to your desk?”
I refused to make eye contact, instead focusing on cutting through the packing tape holding a box of puppy formula closed. “He was stressed out. He needed some quiet.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“So he’s in love with you, huh? How did that happen? We’ve only had him for, like, forty-eight hours.”
Ness pulled a cat toy out of the box and set it in the pile that needed to go to the feline room.
“We bonded on a soul-deep level, that’s how.
I got some great footage for social media.
Combined with what you filmed while you were trying to catch him, I think we could get something viral out of it.
” She set an extra-strength chew toy aside.
“Too bad Archer wasn’t filming when he caught him.
God, can you imagine? We’d break the internet with that one.
” Her eyes took on a faraway quality. “Especially if he was shirtless. Was he shirtless?”
I was juggling three boxes in my hands when his voice came from behind us.
“I try to keep my shirt on when I’m rescuing dogs.”
I squeaked, and the boxes went flying.
Ness laughed, and I gave her a dirty look, even though the flaming red of my cheeks probably made it a little less intimidating.
Archer leaned against the doorframe, his eyes dragging over all the boxes. My breath snagged in my chest at the flex of his shoulders. “Looks like Christmas came early.”
“A few Christmases, actually.” I swallowed. “What are you doing here?”
After a few more seconds of studying the deliveries, Archer lifted his eyes to me. They never dropped below my face, and my stomach executed a dangerous flip when I realized it.
“I was in the neighborhood.”
Ness was boring holes into the side of my head, and I kicked at her behind the stack of boxes.
“Do you happen to know where this came from?” I asked.
For a moment, Archer stayed quiet, his chest rising and falling on a deep breath. “A store, I’d reckon.”
Ness laughed.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I muttered. I gave her a look. “Do not encourage him.”
She rolled her lips together and mimed dragging a key over her mouth.
He tucked his hands into his front pockets, and the swell of his biceps rippled under the seams of his shirt. “Need help moving anything?” he asked.
“No. You can go.”
“Yes. Ignore her,” Ness answered for me. “That stack of senior dog food closer to the door can be taken out of the boxes, and the bags can go in the storage closet in the kennel room. Just start with four bags, maybe. The rest can be stacked along the back of the wall in here.”
Archer gave me one last look, his gaze lingering on mine before he ripped open a box and hefted out two bags. He hoisted them over his shoulder easily, walking out of the room as Ness and I stared silently at the shift of muscles in his arms and shoulders.
“God bless,” she whispered. “Whoever is training that man should get a raise.”
I shook my head, brow furrowing as I directed my attention back to the box I was unpacking. “They’re just muscles, Ness.”
“Oh please. Your mouth was hanging open. You could be using that pretty man in so many ways, young lady. What a shame that his time here is going to waste.”
“I am not going to use him,” I hissed. “Even if he wanted to sleep with me, do you think I have any desire to be a notch in some playboy’s bedpost?
” I slammed a box of puppy formula down on the table next to me.
“I mean, fine, it would be good, I’m sure.
Maybe even better than good, if he understands basic female anatomy.
Except he probably doesn’t because he’s never had to.
I’m sure he’s horribly selfish in bed. No kissing and a few grunts, and then he’d smack my ass and leave me unsatisfied. ”
Ness chose to keep her mouth shut, watching my increasingly unhinged rant with a purse of her lips.