Chapter 23 #2
Griz was coming out the front entrance. He had Goldie on a leash, my dog, my actual dog, trotting next to him like she belonged to him now.
And next to him was a woman. Pretty, put together, laughing at something he had just said, completely relaxed in his presence the way you were only relaxed around someone you knew well.
Something white and hot went through my vision.
I parked crooked and got out of the car and I was across that parking lot before I had a complete thought in my head.
“Are you serious right now?” My voice came out louder than I planned and I didn’t lower it.
“You have my dog. You have my dog and you’re out here—” I looked at the woman and back at him and every coherent sentence I had prepared on the drive over had went away.
I moved toward her and Griz stepped between us so fast I didn’t fully register it happening.
His hands closed around my arms.
“Hey.” His voice was low and firm. “Stop. You trippin Ivy!”
“Get off me—”
“Ivy.” He said my name like a period.
“Stop and listen to me. This is family. She’s visiting. That’s it.”
I looked past him at the woman who was looking at me with an expression that had shifted from surprise to something considerably less friendly.
“I was excited to meet you,” she said, her voice flat now. “Griz been talking about you. But you keep coming at me and I’m going to have to show you something out here in this PetSmart parking lot.”
“Raja.” Griz said her name without looking away from me. “Please take the dog and get in the car.”
“Griz. The bitch finna get it! I already got some pressure build up.”
“Raja. Please.”
A beat. Then I heard her take the leash and footsteps moving away and a car door.
I looked at Griz and he was looking back at me and his hands were still on my arms and I was breathing hard and my eyes were burning.
“Family,” I said.
“Family,” he said. No defensiveness. No performance. Just steady.
“She was laughing like she was your bitch! Y’all don’t look alike. What family is that?”
“People laugh with family Ivy.”
I looked at him and I searched his face for the lie and I didn’t find it and that made me feel both better and worse simultaneously because if it wasn’t a lie then I had just charged across a PetSmart parking lot ready to fight an innocent woman over a man who technically wasn’t even mine.
“She just got a dog herself,” he said. “I didn’t know what food to get yours. I needed help. That’s the whole story.”
I pressed my lips together.
“Give me my dog,” I said.
“Nope!” She smugly said.
I stared at him.
“You’ll get her back when you come home,” he said. “That’s the arrangement. Nothing about that will change.”
“Griz I swear to God—”
“Brendon sped up the process for me. We will close on the house in two weeks,” he said. “That gives you two weeks to make a decision you already know you’ve made. When you’re ready to stop fighting it, Goldie comes home with you. To my house.” He held my eyes. “Your house.”
My throat was tight and I hated how tight it was because I didn’t want him to see it.
“You kidnapped my dog,” I said. “You actually kidnapped my dog.”
“She’s safe. She’s fed. She’s happy. Chill!”Something moved at the corner of his mouth. “She snores like yo ass. That’s cute. The ride over here put her to sleep.” He had jokes at the wrong time.
“I know she snores. Give me my dog back man! Don’t be evil.”
“No, Ivy. Stop asking, and go home. I don’t want to rough you up out here, you’ve already made a scene. I’m not gonna hurt your dog. I love you too much to do something that’s gonna hurt you. Besides, she just be chilling. She’s not a problem at all.”
I felt a tear move down my face and I turned my head so he wouldn’t see it but it was too late.
He reached over and put his thumb against my cheek and I stood there and let him because I was tired of fighting things I was losing anyway.
Now, I truly did believe that the girl was his family.
Although I wasn’t going to apologize to her, I felt like I had just made a fool of myself.
Griz pulled something out of me no other man had ever done, or whatever be able to do.
“Go home,” he said. “I got her. I promise you I got her.”
He pressed his lips to my forehead and held them there for a second and I stood in a PetSmart parking lot with wet eyes and a missing dog. I had a fiancé who had no idea that his entire world was two weeks from changing completely.
Today just showed me, there was no way that I was going to be able to live a happy life without this crazy ass man that was standing in front of me.
I couldn’t lie like I even wanted to. I told him to take care of my dog, and that I will FaceTime her, and come over to see her.
I didn’t care what he said. He had just made up my mind for me. I had no choice, but to be with him.
And the most honest thing I could say about how I felt standing there was that I already knew what I was going to do.
I had known for a while.
I just hadn’t been ready to say it out loud yet. The life, my man had provided me was very good. But I could provide that for myself, and I had no doubt that Griz would provide for and protect me even better.