Chapter 6
CROW
“Where are they?” Brighten asked as she walked through the door that led in from the patio. “I’ve been dying to see them!”
“Hi. My day wasn’t the greatest, but I’m fine. How are you doing?” Brighten’s response was one raised eyebrow, so I motioned toward the counter behind me and said, “You made it just in time to help me feed them again. Where’s Griff?”
“He’s at the gym with Hawk, Nix, and Lyric. They have class tonight.”
“Ah, yes. The one where they teach Forresters how to brawl, as if that isn’t already in their DNA.”
“They don’t teach them how to brawl, Crow. They teach them how to avoid or resolve conflict, using violence as a last resort to end a confrontation.”
I burst out laughing and asked, “Is that how Hawk got you to agree to the idea?”
“That’s what they do!” Brighten insisted. She looked a little uncertain before she asked, “Right?”
“Sure it is!” I lied.
Brighten’s head fell forward, and she sighed before she said, “I’m not going to think about it and just say it’s a good opportunity for Griff to meet other kids his age . . .”
“And learn to break their face.”
“. . . and a socializing opportunity he wouldn’t get otherwise . . .”
“While he learns to break their face.”
“. . . since he spends so much time with adults.”
I ended our banter with, “Who didn’t have to take a class to learn how to brawl, because it’s in their DNA.”
“You’re not helping the situation, Crow.”
“I wasn’t aware I was supposed to.”
Brighten ignored my sarcasm and gasped when she looked down into the warming box Darcy had sent home with me. “Oh my goodness! They’re so tiny. What are their names?”
“I haven’t named them, Brighten. I’m not even sure they’re going to live.”
“So, you think it will be less traumatic if they die nameless?” Brighten asked.
“Shouldn’t their new owners be the ones to name them anyway?”
Brighten barked out a laugh before she asked, “Do you honestly think that you’ll be able to give them up after taking care of them?”
“Well, yeah,” I scoffed. “I’m not going to suddenly go from zero pets to three dogs, Brighten.”
“You already did.”
“I did not!” I argued as I dried my hands and walked over to stand beside her. I watched her pick up the smallest puppy and hurried to say, “She doesn’t like to be held like that. Cradle her in your hand so she feels more secure.”
“Mhmm. Not your dogs at all, are they?”
“I already told Griff that we’re not keeping them.”
“Yeah, about that. Even Griffin laughed when he told me what you said.”
“What are we going to do with three dogs, Brighten?” I asked in exasperation.
“Become loving pet owners and spoil them absolutely rotten?” she retorted with a question of her own.
“We don’t even know what kind of dogs they are! It’s one thing if they’re small dogs, but what happens if they’re Great Danes or some other giant breed?”
“Then we’ll buy bigger collars.”
“Oh my God! You’re already set on this, aren’t you? What happened to the woman who has been telling Griffin for years that she’s already got too much on her plate to even consider getting a pet?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Brighten mumbled as she rested the tiny animal on her collarbone and nuzzled it with her chin. “Besides, this isn’t my plate; it’s yours. You’re the one who brought home three dogs, so they’re technically your responsibility.”
“We share a backyard, so my problems instantly become your problems. And who is going to take care of them in the evenings while I’m at work? That would be you, sweetheart.”
“It will be good to let Griffin learn responsibility, and caring for an animal is the perfect way for him to start doing that.”
“Sure . . . with a single animal. Not three.”
“Sorry, buddy. You’re gonna have to play the hand you were dealt, and you’ve got three.” I picked up a puppy and demonstrated how to feed it, and then Brighten and I stood there quietly for a while until she finally said, “Holy shit. We’ve got three dogs, Crow.”
I burst out laughing and said, “When you walked in, you were all keyed up about it, but now that you realize exactly what that means, you seem to have changed your mind.”
“I was just imagining how much damage a Great Dane could do and then multiplying that by three to come up with mass chaos and destruction.”
“Looks like you’re going to have to play the hand you were dealt, Bright Eyes.”
My doorbell rang, so I left Brighten to finish feeding the third one while I walked through the house to answer the front door. Darcy took me completely by surprise, not because I wasn’t expecting her, but because she looked completely different from she had the last time I saw her.
She’d been wearing scrubs and covered from head to toe earlier, but now she was wearing much less.
I suddenly couldn’t swallow. Or breathe.
I definitely couldn’t form a coherent sentence, so I took a step back and motioned for her to come inside as I begged my cock to calm the fuck down and try not to embarrass me.
For the first time in my life, I regretted my clothing choices, or lack thereof, and wished I was wearing something more substantial than a pair of basketball shorts.
Darcy didn’t seem to notice my predicament, thank God, and smiled as she walked past me and said, “I’m sorry I took so long. Nichole called right after you left the shop and told me some other things we can do for the puppies, so I ran by the store to get some more supplies.”
“What do you have?” I asked as I gestured for her to follow me across the living room and down the short hall that led to the kitchen.
When Brighten saw Darcy, she smiled and said, “Hi, neighbor! What are you up to?”
“I’m here to help,” Darcy answered as she set the bags of things she’d brought on the counter. She looked at the puppies in the box and then the one in Brighten’s hand before she admitted, “I’m surprised they’re all still alive.”
“I told Crow that he should name them, but I think he’s worried that he’ll get even more attached.”
“We could call them A, B, and C,” Darcy suggested.
I sighed before I admitted that I’d already started thinking of them as “Yakko, Wakko, and Dot.”
Brighten clapped her hands before she said, “That’s perfect!”
Darcy laughed before she said, “Those are unique names. How in the world did you come up with them?”
Brighten and I turned to stare at her as if she’d lost her mind before Brighten said, “They’re the Animaniacs.”
“And we’re zany to the max,” I sang. Brighten chimed in, and we finished with, “So just sit back and relax, you’ll laugh ‘til you collapse, we’re Animaniacs!”
Darcy looked confused. “Fun. Is that from a movie?”
“Her education is sorely lacking, Crow. We’re gonna have to fix that.”
I smiled before I announced, “Looks like we’ll be having a marathon tonight while we take care of the main characters.”
“Speaking of the puppies, Darcy, can you tell what breed they are?”
Darcy frowned before she asked, “Were these the only three?”
“Including these, there were seven all together. Four were already gone.”
She pulled the corner of her lip between her teeth and peered down into the box before she shook her head. “Honestly, there’s no way to really know. Larger breeds usually birth more pups, but that also depends on how many litters they’ve had before.”
“So, we’ll have to wait until they get bigger to figure it out?”
“I think so. They have dog DNA tests now, so if you really want to know for sure, you can try that.”
“I’m still shocked that someone would do this! I keep thinking of the poor mom.”
“My guess is that the bitch was a purebred something and was impregnated by a dog that wasn’t. The breeder probably got rid of the puppies so they didn’t have to report the pregnancy.”
“Report it?”
“A responsible breeder only allows a few pregnancies, so each one has to count. A responsible buyer would want to know that information before they purchased a registered puppy. There’s also the possibility that the bitch was too young to have a litter, even if it is purebred. The AKC has rules about that too.”
“So, we either have fancy shmancy dogs or those adorable mutts that are a mix of all sorts of breeds.”
“Technically, you could have both.”
“How?” I asked.
“If she bred with more than one male during ovulation, she could have been impregnated by multiple sires.”
“We could have a Jonas and Lawson situation here!” Darcy looked confused, so Brighten explained. “We have some friends who are twins with different biological fathers. I mean, they haven’t been through genetic testing or anything, but it’s clear as day.”
“Oh! That reminds me! Griff did his verbal vomit routine and told her about our situation. She thought that you and I were in a throuple with my brother.”
“Ew!” Brighten exclaimed with a look of horror. “No!”
“He had the same expression as he explained that wasn’t the case,” Darby assured her.
Brighten gagged dramatically before she said, “Absolutely not!”
“You know, when you react that way, it’s really bad for my ego.”
Darcy giggled before she said, “But it’s funny.”
I frowned at her, but her smile just got bigger, so I shook my head before I told Brighten, “Since you and Hawk weren’t planning to have me and Griff home this evening, I’ll take care of dinner. Will you send Nix and Hawk a text telling them to pick up some beer?”
“Will do. I’m going to hang out in my blissfully quiet house until they get here,” Brighten said as she walked toward the back door. “I’ll see y’all in a bit.”
“You guys have a very unique relationship,” Darcy mused as she watched Brighten leave.
“I’ll explain it tonight after we’ve had a few beers. I’m guessing that will make it easier to wrap your head around.”
“That wild, huh?”
“We didn’t think so, but once everything came to light, it kind of seemed that way.”
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DARCY