Chapter 8
DARCY
I glanced over at Tansy and rolled my eyes before I explained, “Yes, I spent the night at Crow’s, but nothing happened.”
“That sucks. Or does it?” I didn’t answer, just focused on the dog in front of me and then jerked my head back right before he did a full body shake and sprayed every surface of the room with soapy water.
When Tansy burst out laughing, I looked back over at her and saw that she was grinning from beneath the cheap clear plastic drop cloth that was draped over her head and flowed down to the floor.
“Buying an entire case of these was the best investment I’ve ever made.
I’m dry as a bone while you look like a drowned rat and smell like a wet dog. ”
“I’m going to accidentally leave the door open when I dry him so you get hair in your food,” I threatened.
Tansy knew I wasn’t serious but didn’t call me out on my lie. Instead, she asked, “Did you want something to happen last night?”
“No. Yes. No!” I decided emphatically. “I took a vow of celibacy, remember?”
“You were serious about that?”
“Yes!” When Tansy burst out laughing, I gave the dog in front of me a break and aimed the sprayer at her as I yelled, “You didn’t believe me?”
Tansy danced around, trying to avoid the water even though she was soaked.
Once I went back to rinsing the dog, who was standing patiently in the waist-high sink in front of me, she explained, “It’s not that I didn’t believe you.
I just thought it was a heat-of-the-moment declaration because you realized what could have happened that night. ”
“It was, but I’m sticking to it.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
I let the hose retract into its holder above me before I grabbed a towel off a nearby hook.
As I did my best to dry Bruno, a husky mix with more hair than brains, I smiled at him and cooed encouragement in the hopes that he might not .
. . Just then, I felt him tense again and turned just in time to avoid getting my face drenched, although it didn’t really matter in the long run since the rest of me was soaked.
“Aren’t you going to ask why I think it’s a bad idea?” Tansy asked.
“I was hoping that if I made you wait long enough, you’d suffocate under there,” I replied as I reached for another towel. I burst out laughing when I looked over and saw how red her face was. “How have you not run out of oxygen yet?”
“I’ve got enough in here to make it until he’s damp instead of dripping.”
I used the towel to scrunch the hair around the dog’s neck as I made kissing noises and talked gibberish that most people reverted to when they were interacting with a sweet dog like this one. Then I unlatched the door to let him walk away from the sinks and down the steps.
Tansy ripped the plastic off of her head and took a deep breath of fresh air, which probably didn’t smell very fresh since we were in the presence of a wet dog. She squealed loudly when he shook himself again, spraying her thoroughly.
I was still laughing when he stopped shaking and pulled a few treats out of my pocket to reward him for that perfect performance.
“I’m going to take Bruno outside for a break before we start the drying process,” I told her as I put a slip lead on him and started for the door. “Are you going to do anything productive today or just follow me around and critique my life choices?”
“Is it really a life choice, though? Celibacy seems drastic in the grand scheme of things, Darcy. It’s not like you were sleeping with a different man every night or something.”
“That’s not the point.”
“What exactly is the point?” Tansy asked in confusion.
“Look at my dating history,” I said as I watched Bruno drip all over the floor while he sniffed the gen-pop area.
I murmured encouragement to get him to come to the back door and then took off his leash as soon as we walked outside into the play area where the other dogs were hanging out.
Once I was sure Bruno was okay, I looked around to assess the other dogs and walked toward the small fountain we had installed so they always had access to fresh water.
I told her, “If you lined up ten men, I would immediately be attracted to the one without a job or prospects, who is just staying at his mom’s for a few months ‘to help her with the bills.’”
“As a bonus, he’d probably be wearing an ankle monitor.” I flicked water at my sister, and she growled before she said, “Why do you insist on my needing to be as wet as you? Dog drool and undercoat shampoo do not fall under my department!”
“Consider it a perk of the job,” I teased as I sat down on the bench beneath a large umbrella and leaned forward to give scratches and rubs to the dogs crowding around my feet.
“So, since we’ve moved to Rojo and are getting a fresh start where no one has any expectations of us, I’m going to change my life in all the right ways.
I’m not going to party anymore, or at least not nearly as often, and I’m not going to make haphazard, dreadful dating choices. ”
“It’s not like there aren’t any good men out there, Darcy! We’ve been introduced to at least a dozen since we got here. And we have the distinct advantage of knowing their history and background because of their connections to our cousins and their friends.”
“You have a point,” I conceded.
Tansy was right. Sophie and Fallon wouldn’t hang out with guys who were anything like the men I had always seemed to attract. If they tried, I knew that their friends, most of whom were the men my sister was referring to, would run them off in no time flat.
“Are you punishing yourself for regrettable choices you made in the past?”
“Not really. I’m just trying to avoid making them in the future.”
“Did your therapist suggest a year of solitude and sadness?”
I giggled at her description of my plan and shook my head. “No. We have been discussing the reasons I probably made those shitty choices, and they all seem to point to our father.”
“Daddy issues,” Tansy said knowingly. “I get it.”
“Well, I would hope so because you’ve got the same problem!”
“I do not!”
“I go for men who want something from me, while you go for men who need something from you.”
Tansy looked disgusted at the thought and then horrified when she realized I was right. “I do, don’t I?” When I nodded, she whispered, “God! You’re right! So does Clancy.”
“She’s always said that you only foster men until you find them their forever home,” I reminded her.
It seemed that even though our conversation hadn’t helped with a solution to my problem, which boiled down to how I was going to resist pouncing on Crow Forrester the next time I saw him, it had helped my sister shine a light on her own.
I knew I was right when Tansy asked, “The next time you go in, will you ask if she’s taking new patients?”
◆◆◆
CROW
“Did you bring me a present?”
My dad’s question struck me out of the blue. It was the answer to my prayers, and considering what Brighten said this morning after she’d had all night to think about having three puppies running all over the place, it would answer her prayers too.
“Actually, I brought you three.”
“What’s the occasion?” Mom asked as she slid a mug of coffee over and then sat down on the stool beside me.
“You could have at least wrapped it,” Dad teased.
“I hope it’s that carburetor I’ve been trying to find.
” He took the lid off the box and gasped before he whispered, “Holy shit! They’re so little.
” Dad reached in and held all three dogs snuggled together in his big hands as he brought them up to his chest. “Look at these babies, Sunshine!”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my mom’s head turn and realized exactly what I’d just done.
I was almost afraid to look at her, but I finally resigned myself to the fact that I’d had a good life and could die without too many regrets.
I kept my body as still as possible, knowing sudden movements were often what prompted predators to attack.
Instead, I slowly turned my head to face my mom and then had to resist the urge to rear back when I found her so close that our noses were almost touching.
Since we were just inches apart, she didn’t have to raise her voice to more than a whisper before she hissed, “You little fucker!”
“It was an accident?” While I knew that should have been an answer, the fire in her eyes made it sound a lot more like a question.
But it had worked no better just now than it had when I was a kid. Mom’s eyes narrowed before she hissed, “Fix this. Right. Now.”
“Babe, look at ‘em,” Dad said with a big goofy grin.
My big, bad biker father was a sucker for puppies.
When my brothers and I were small, he bought us each a puppy - although they weren’t just any puppies.
By the time we got them, they were already housebroken and trained to protect, although Mom had always said that we didn’t need protection from the outside so much as we needed protection from each other.
Over the years, we’d fostered other animals, sometimes without our parents even knowing.
But once we started graduating and moving out on our own, Mom insisted that the rotating door of animals be closed.
She’d commiserated with my aunts about how much of a circus each of their houses was while filled with kids and pets, so once we were gone, she embraced the empty nest.
She’d decorated a few of the bedrooms for the grandkids they have now and the ones she knew would be coming in the future, but the rest of the house was in the process of a complete makeover, from fresh paint to new flooring.
She was gradually replacing scratched and tattered furniture with new pieces, keeping in mind that her grandchildren were feral just like her kids had been, but since they didn’t live in her house, she could finally have nice things again.