Chapter 9
CROW
“I’m amazed at their progress!” Nichole Grissom, my grandma’s best friend, sighed as she rolled Wakko over onto his back and assessed him. “Darcy, you’ve done a wonderful job of documenting their weights and measurements, and I think the feeding schedule you developed has been perfect.”
Darcy looked so proud when she said, “Thank you. When Yakko opened his eyes this morning, I felt like a proud mom.”
“You should! The two of you have done such a terrific job with these pups,” Nichole said as she picked up Yakko and held him close to her face.
His eyes were open but still unfocused, and she smiled when he started squeaking in protest at being woken up from his nap.
“They seem as healthy as can be right now, but they’re still very young.
Other problems could develop, but we’ll deal with them as they come along.
I think you have everything covered. You make a great team. ”
“I go back to work tomorrow, so we’ll have to juggle their schedule around, but we’ll keep plugging along until they’re able to stay alone.”
“They’ll stay with Crow while I’m at work, and then we’ll swap custody when I get off,” Darcy explained.
Over the last week while I’d been on vacation, Darcy and I had spent every evening together, sharing dinner and then hanging out with my family that drifted in and out of my house.
Darcy had met all of my siblings and seemed to be developing a solid friendship with Brighten, something that would be important if I got my way.
In the evenings after Griff was settled for the night, Darcy and I hung out, watching whatever caught our fancy and talking about everything and nothing all at once.
I felt like I already knew her better than I’d known any of the women I had dated before, from her food likes and dislikes to her phobias and fears, probably because I’d spent so much time talking to her rather than focusing on anything else.
In most dating relationships, we would have been talking at restaurants or out at the bar with friends, but because of the puppies’ schedule, we’d been forced to stay home.
During the last week, Darcy had learned a lot about me too.
Of course, spending time with my family added to that, and not necessarily in the best way.
Most people would run for the hills when confronted with a room full of that much crazy, but she seemed to enjoy it.
Darcy quickly jumped in when the inevitable insults started, which Griffin was convinced were our love language.
When everyone left and we were alone, I got to know the real Darcy Middleton. And I liked everything I’d learned so far and was happy to spend even more time with her.
As much as she seemed to like me, Darcy kept her distance when we were alone - at least physically.
She was very careful to stay on the opposite end of the couch while we watched movies and then took off for her home before she fell asleep.
We hadn’t mentioned dating again, although that’s what it felt like to me, which was my plan all along.
It was easy to understand why she’d made such a declaration - her entire life had been turned upside down.
First, she’d relocated from her hometown in Colorado to Rojo, and then she’d opened a business with her sister.
During the course of those major events, she’d also met dozens of new people and found herself in a few sketchy situations - namely being alone in a bar after having too much to drink.
The bar owner in me knew what horrible things could happen to women in that situation, and the big brother in me wanted to bust heads at the thought. Even if I’d never spoken to Darcy again, I had been there to step in that night. I was even happier now that we’d become friends.
Now I just needed to wait her out until she realized how amazing it would be for us to become more than pals.
I hoped she would come to that conclusion soon, though, because once the puppies got a little bigger and she didn’t have to be around quite so much, I’d lose my excuse to be with her all the time.
It didn’t help that I had to go back to work tomorrow, something we hadn’t really talked about much.
She was fully aware that I worked at a strip club, but that didn’t seem to bother her at all.
I wondered how she’d feel if we were more than friends, though.
I’d dated women in the past who had a huge problem with the thought of me being surrounded by mostly naked women, but I didn’t think Darcy would care as much as they had.
Or at least I hoped she wouldn’t.
“How was your vacation?” I asked, changing the subject.
“It was wonderful, but I’m glad to be back home.
You know I hate to leave the clinic, but I’m trying very hard to work my way toward the thought of turning over control of it to someone else.
It would help if there were people lining up to take on that stress, but so far, I haven’t had anyone offer. ”
“Considering the enormity of our extended family, it’s kinda crazy there’s no one willing to jump in.”
“I know! I’m going to have to look outside the family for someone, and you know that’s not always the best solution.”
Darcy looked confused, but I nodded in understanding.
There hadn’t been many situations that had required Nichole’s expertise lately, but I’d heard about lots of them over the years.
Having a former physician turned veterinarian who owned a medical clinic, even if it was for animals, had come in handy with our family and even more so for the members of my club.
Lucky for us, several of the Kings’ kids had joined the medical profession and now had a clinic of their own.
“But that’s a problem for another day,” Nichole announced as she put Dot back into the warmer. “Right now, I’m going home to eat a nice home-cooked meal before I finally sleep in my bed again.”
“You missed your bed more than you missed me?”
“You were a lot easier to miss when you were a child,” Nichole retorted before she patted me on the cheek and then turned to give Darcy a hug. “Call me if you need anything else. I’ll be in touch later this week to discuss the contract for our rescues.”
Darcy smiled as Nichole let her go, and I left her in the kitchen as I walked Nichole to the door. Once I’d gotten my own hug, I came back to find Darcy standing in front of the open refrigerator.
“Hungry?” I asked.
“Starving! I left my lunch too close to the edge of the counter, and a Great Dane named Mitzie helped herself.”
“I was thinking we might do something different for dinner tonight.”
Darcy shut the door and asked, “Like what?”
“We were invited to a cookout,” I explained. “You’ll know plenty of people there, and they won’t mind if we bring the puppies. As a matter of fact, they probably won’t let us eat if we don’t.”
“Is this a ‘we’re gonna need to stop for food on the way home’ or an ‘I should go put on stretchy pants’ kind of cookout?”
“I’m not sure I understand your question.”
“There are different kinds of cookouts. There are the plain hotdogs with no char at all on stale buns and some chips kind of get-together, or there are cookouts where the person on the grill lives for that shit and cooks meat to perfection with side dishes so divine it could only be called a feast. The first kind is the one where you enjoy the company but grab fast food on the way home because you’re starving, and the second is where you enjoy the food and the company and roll yourself out to the car with meat sweats so you can go home and sleep off your food coma. ”
I burst out laughing, thinking of the different get-togethers I’d attended at friends’ homes over the years, and knew she was right.
However, insults weren’t my family’s only love language.
Food ranked high on that list, and everyone in my family took it seriously.
My Gamma’s mission in life was to make sure no one around her was ever hungry, so every visit to her house included plenty of time at the kitchen table while we ate whatever goodness she gave us.
My dad had become quite the grill master, and my mom still couldn’t make a meal to feed anything less than an army, so there were always leftovers that we eagerly accepted and ate on for days after a meal at their house.
“Which kind is it?” Darcy asked.
“What you're wearing should be fine,” I managed to choke out rather than begging her to never wear anything but what she had on right now. “You might want to bring a suit, though. We usually end up in the pool whether we want to or not.”
“As hot as it was today, I can get behind some pool time,” Darcy said eagerly. “When do we need to be there?”
“I’m sure it’s already underway.”
“Let me go grab my suit. I’ll meet you outside in five minutes.”
I gathered up what I’d need tonight, packing a bag with some swim trunks and some clean clothes - only because inevitably, someone would push me into the pool at some point, and I was never in trunks when that happened.
Once I had the warming box and bag of supplies loaded in the truck, I looked up to find Darcy crossing the street with a bag of her own.
Thankfully, she was still wearing the tight tank top and jean shorts, but she’d taken the time to pull her hair up into a messy bun and put on flip-flops that matched the sunglasses she was wearing.