Chapter 3 #2
“That little sweetie gave me hell this morning,” I reminded her as I opened the door to go to the front. “Take your time. I’ll handle the front for a while.”
I made my way around the sleeping dogs and then unlatched the gate that led into the long room that separated the gen pop area from the hall that we jokingly called “the escape room.” It was inconvenient to have to go through two doors to get to the checkout area, but it came in handy when one of the dogs decided to make a run for it.
It wasn’t perfect, but it gave another layer of safety to the animals in our care, putting one more obstacle between them and the front door that led out into the street.
I called out a greeting as I shut the gate behind me and gasped in shock as I turned and saw who’d just walked into our shop.
Memories flooded my mind and clouded my vision as I took in my very own Prince Charming standing in front of the counter.
Shirtless.
Yes, he had somehow wandered into my business without a shirt, giving me a full and unobstructed view of his lickable and absolutely gorgeous chest.
Since I was obviously hallucinating, I decided to enjoy it and looked my fill.
A dusting of hair that only seemed to highlight the colorful tattoos that nearly covered his entire torso was just a few feet away, almost daring me to reach out and run my hands over it.
It suddenly dawned on me that, with the height of the counter, I couldn’t be sure he had on pants either.
That was thrilling and devastating, all at the same time.
Of course the man of my dreams was a whack job who wandered around town naked. Considering my dating track record and the copious amount of poor decisions I’d made so far, the fact that I was attracted to him could only mean that he was certifiable.
That tracked since I always seemed to attract thieving assholes with mental issues and a rap sheet longer than my arm. My sister Clancy told anyone who would listen that I only dated guys who would steal the copper out of my IUD if they could. As much as I hated to admit it, she was probably right.
Just then, a mop of hair appeared at his side, and then the adorable little boy I’d met while I was with our realtor pulled himself up above the edge of the counter before he yelled, “Help! This is an emergency! Order a CBC and chem 7. We need the paddles, STAT!”
“Griff,” the man growled without taking his eyes off of me. I realized then that he was holding a bundle in front of him, and it was clearly precious cargo.
Oh my God. My Prince Charming was married with a kid!
Of course he was. That still didn’t explain why he was naked, but I’m sure there was an explanation for that.
Married or not, the sight of his chiseled jaw covered in a few days’ growth of beard leading up to wisps of brown hair that had escaped the hat he was wearing was mouthwatering. So much so that my voice wavered when I asked, “Can I help you?”
“Nichole Grissom sent us,” the man explained as he held the bundle out toward me.
“The puppies!” I exclaimed as I pushed all the questions my memories had caused aside and got to work. “I’ll take them.”
“What are you going to do to them?” Griffin asked warily as he peeked over the counter.
“I’ll need to assess them first and then try to give them some fluids,” I said as I reached for the bundle.
I could feel the little bodies inside when the man gently laid it in my hands, and when there wasn’t even a wiggle from the animals, I clenched my jaw and then said, “Give me just a few minutes to —”
“Can we come back with you?” Griffin asked. When I looked over at him, I saw that there were tears in his eyes, and my heart broke at the thought of having to explain to him that the puppies hadn’t survived the trip.
I pulled the animals close to my chest and glanced at the man before I asked, “Is that okay with you?”
He frowned before he nodded, but then I was reassured when he looked down at the boy and reminded him, “We talked about what might happen, Griff. Are you sure this is what you want?”
“Yes. I want to help. If my other plans don’t work, I might become a doctor or a veterinarian.”
As I released the latch on the gate so that they could come back, I was curious and attempted to lighten the mood by asking, “And what plans might you have?”
“World domination or waterslide tester. I really think if I work hard, I can do both, though.”
“Wow, they would be difficult to choose between, but I think I’d go with the water slides if I had to pick one.”
“Why?” the little boy asked, sounding honestly curious.
“You wouldn’t have to stand in line, and most of the time, a water park is connected to an amusement park, so you’d get to hang out there too.”
I opened the gate that would lead us into the escape room and waited until Prince Charming had closed the first gate behind him before I opened the next one.
“This place looks really different than it did before. Why are there so many gates?” Griffin asked.
“So the dogs can’t run out into the street when someone opens the front door. They serve as an extra layer of protection,” I explained.
“Oh. My mom puts that on all of her electronics.”
“Does she keep super secret information on them?”
“No, she just isn’t very imaginative when it comes to creating passwords, so it’s really easy for me to hack them.” Griffin saw the dogs lazing around the room and squealed before he exclaimed, “They’re everywhere!”
“This is their indoor playroom,” I explained as I hurried through the dogs, who were suddenly wide awake when they heard a miniature human playmate in their vicinity. “Would you like to wait out here with your dad while I —”
“He’s not my dad; he’s my duncle.” My face must have shown my confusion because he went on to explain, “I thought Crow was my dad, and so did everyone else, but then Hawk came home early from prison and made my mom fall in love with him again, so he became my father, but since Crow is technically my uncle, but he’s still my dad too, that makes him my duncle. ”
I glanced over my shoulder at the shirtless man and nodded slowly before I said, “Well, that answers one question and opens the door for at least a dozen more.”
Great. Now he wasn’t just a married father but a married father who was in a throuple with his brother, and . . . No. Surely not. That only happened on Court TV and in really spicy and slightly confusing romance novels.
What sort of town had we just moved to?