Chapter Twelve
Chris
“Holy shit, my parents are here!”
“Where?” Emily looked around my bedroom like they were hidden in plain sight.
Panic filled my face at the calls and texts I missed while Emily and I were in the shower. “Out in the backyard. They’ve been calling for the past fifteen minutes.”
“Oh, my God!” she screeched, brushing her hair like a mad woman.
“We have ten minutes,” I said.
“Oh, my God! They weren’t supposed to be here until tomorrow.” She threw on her clothes like she was in a competition for the fastest dresser in the world.
“Yeah, well, they’re here now.”
“I know that, Chris,” she hissed, wrapping her hair into a bun on top of her head.
“I’m sorry, babe. I’m just?—”
“I know,” she said. “It’s okay.”
I dragged my hands over my face. “My mom said Hudson wanted to surprise me.”
“Oh, that’s so sweet. Oh, God. Hudson!” She smacked her palms to her face as if that could conceal her embarrassment.
“Baby, it’s fine.” We regarded each other from opposite sides of the bed. I typed furiously.
“You’re texting right now? Chris, you gotta get your ass in gear. They can’t see your room like this. They’ll know what we were doing!”
I kept my laughter inside while we pulled the sheets and covers up over the bed, tossed the pillows to the head, and grabbed any evidence of our romp in the sheets and shower.
“Should I hide?” she asked. “Do they know I’m here? Oh, God!”
Now, I was calm, and she was panicking.
“Yeah, go in the closet,” I said, fighting the urge to laugh again.
Her head whipped around. “Really?”
I barked a laugh, unable to control myself. “No, don’t be ridiculous.”
“How are you going to explain me? Oh, God!” she repeated.
“Em,” I said, taking her hands. “You need to stop freaking out. They know all about you.”
Her voice was almost a whisper when she asked, “They do?”
My smile morphed into a wide grin. “Of course they do.”
Her questions shot out like rapid fire. “When? How? What’d you tell them?”
After slipping my shirt over my head, I pulled her to me. “I told them you were the woman I’d been looking and waiting for.”
“Oh, Chris,” she said, her eyes going soft.
“I also told them you were crazy enough to take on Lucifer.”
“Luke,” she said, linking her arms around my neck.
“Luke,” I repeated, kissing her. “All right, you ready?”
“My hair’s a mess, and I don’t even have makeup on.”
“You’re beautiful as ever,” I said, kissing her again before slapping her ass.
Her giggle was music to my ears.
“You know,” she began as we walked down the hall, “just because you can make me melt in your hands, don’t think?—”
“Please, I just made you come three times. Once on my hand. Once in my mouth, and once from behind in the shower.”
She tried to fight her smile. “You’re so full of yourself.”
“I think you were the one who was full of myself,” I said as she grabbed a handful of treats and shoved them into her pocket.
Emily sputtered a laugh, then smacked me playfully. “You better clean up that mouth of yours.”
“You like it dirty,” I reminded her.
“Oh, hush.” She took a quick look in the mirror.
“You look perfect, baby.” I gave her hand a quick squeeze. “Ready?”
She smiled at me with nervous excitement. “Yeah.”
Laughter and happy barks filled the backyard. Luke bounded over to us, his new favorite rope hanging between his teeth.
Emily picked it up and shook it for him after he dropped it at her feet. “Want the rope, Luke? Want the rope?”
His entire body vibrated with anticipation. He charged after it while Hudson ran over to me, yelling, “Daddy!”
I pulled him into my arms, hugging him tightly to me. “Oh, I missed you, buddy.”
“That’s quite an arm,” my dad said.
“Right?” I squeezed Hudson again. “Guys, this is Emily Madison. Emily, this is my dad, Sam, mom, Courtney, and sister, Savannah. I call her Sav.” They exchanged quick hellos before I brought her attention to Hudson. “And this”—he slid out of my hold—“is Hudson.”
“Hi, Hudson,” Emily said.
When he wrapped his arms around her, she smiled more brightly than I’d ever seen.
“You got more dogs?” he asked, his dark eyes alight with joy.
“That’s Moose and Rufus. They’re Emily’s.”
“But they live here?” he asked, turning from Emily to pet them.
“No, they live with Emily. But they visit sometimes.”
“So, Luke has someone to play with, too.”
My sweet little guy didn’t catch the grownup chuckles.
“They’re very good friends,” I said, meeting Emily’s eyes. “Emily helped me train Luke.”
“You did?” he asked, amazed.
“I did,” she said. “Here, call him.”
“Luke,” Hudson called, clapping his hands.
Emily lowered to her haunches and spoke softly. “Okay, repeat after me.” She went through all the commands we’d worked on. “Now, hold your hand out like this and say shake .”
“Shake,” Hudson repeated.
When Luke put his paw into Hudson’s hand, his sweet laughter filled the air. “Wow. Cool.”
“Very cool,” Emily said.
Our eyes met for the briefest second, but the feeling that poured through me lasted much longer.
She lifted her hand, giving Rufus and Moose the nonverbal command to sit. All three dogs sat like little furry soldiers in front of Hudson. “Here, give them a treat.”
One by one, Hudson held out a treat for each one. “Good dog,” he said.
“Now, how does he know how to do that, but you didn’t?” Emily teased.
“I knew it. I just faked it to spend more time with you.”
Emily’s cheeks flushed, and my sister responded, “Aww. You guys are so cute.”
“It’s good to see you happy,” my mom said, wrapping me in a hug. My dad clapped me on the back and squeezed my shoulder.
“Let’s go see your room, Hudson,” Dad said, leading the charge back inside.
Savannah glued her hip to mine as everyone headed back into the house. “Now I see why it took you so long to text us back,” she said, giggling.
“Shut up.”
“If I had someone look at me the way Emily looks at you, I’d be a goner too.”
“I really like her.”
“I can tell.”
“Is this crazy? Am I? It’s . . .”
“You deserve to be happy, Chris. You lost, and you mourned. It’s finally time for you to put the past in the past.”
“I feel guilty.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Don’t do that. I know how much you loved Kayla. You will always love her. She’ll always be a part of you because of Hudson. Kayla would want you to be happy—and love again. She’d want you to have a life, and just because you love someone else doesn’t take away what you had. Life is short, Chris. We learned that the hard way. So don’t let someone amazing get away from you.”
“Do you like her?”
“I liked her before I even met her. Talking to you the last couple of times on the phone, I’ve heard how much you do, too. And did you see her with Hudson? My God. My heart melted.”
“Me too,” I said.
“I say, you keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t put pressure on yourself. Or her. Just let things progress and see what happens.”
I snatched her to me and hugged her tightly. “God, I’ve missed you. I swear the hardest part about being here is not being close to you or Mom and Dad.”
“We might be in different places, but we’re always here for you.” She pushed me with her hip and said, “Now let’s go see this new house of yours.”
“You don’t have to leave now, do you?” Mom asked Emily after we did a tour of the house.
“I have to go to Bark Park for my class.”
“Saturdays, she does a group class. I’ve been taking Luke every weekend.”
“Well, let’s make it a family event,” Dad said.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” Emily said. “You just got here. You should stay and relax.”
“We were in the car for over seven hours. We relaxed enough,” Sav said.
“Maybe she prefers not to have an audience,” Mom said.
“Oh, no. It’s not that. You’re more than welcome to come,” Emily said. “It’s a public park, and I typically have between eight and fifteen dogs.”
“Can we go, Dad?” Hudson asked, his eyes big, bright, and full of interest.
I looked at Emily, trying to gauge her stance before I put my foot down. I was sure her response, “The more the merrier,” had more to do with Hudson than with us adults.