Chapter 14
“IS YOUR mom okay?” James asked as Lyle pulled up in front of James’s house. He hefted the cooler and put it in the back before getting in the car.
“Mom is fine. I think Loopy will be good for her, especially since her trip got canceled and she’s going to be home before her surgery.
She’ll have work to do, but she even admitted that she was counting on the travel to help keep her mind off the surgery.
” Lyle sighed. “Which means she’s more worried about it than she’s letting on, and I wonder what she isn’t telling me. ” He didn’t move.
“Look, if you want, we can just go to your place. We don’t need to go hiking or anything if you don’t feel up to it.”
Lyle sighed. “Let’s get the dogs and we can go.
There is nothing I can do about any of this, and I’m not going to spoil our day with my worrying.
” He sat straighter and put the car in gear.
“Tomorrow you need to spend the day studying and I only get you to myself for the rest of the day, so I intend to make the most of it.” He pulled away, and James smiled as they rode with the windows down.
Once they had the dogs in the car, they got back on the road.
It was a beautiful fall day and the fresh air seemed to do them all good.
Lyle drove them up to Pine Grove and parked.
It was busy—lots of people seemed to have the same idea they had, but James found a great spot away from everyone else and set out the blankets on the ground.
The dogs sniffed the cooler and tried to see what was inside, but Lyle got them settled on the ground, and they knew better than to get into everything.
In any event, they were still on their leashes, which were close at hand.
“I made sandwiches. Nothing fancy.” James pulled out what he made for Lyle. “Roast beef with a little horseradish mayo.”
“Yummy,” Lyle said as he took a bite. He grinned and ate the rest of the half sandwich.
James handed him a Coke and took one for himself, then ate his own sandwich before lying back on the ground.
Lyle did the same, head resting on James’s shoulder.
The dogs all gathered around, finding spots near them.
Lyle stroked Daisy’s back, and James had Dash right up against him.
The other two settled near James’s hips.
What a lovely way to spend a quiet afternoon.
At times like this, when he was quiet and still, James’s mind usually ran to the pile of work that needed to be done.
But right now his entire attention was on Lyle, on how he smelled and the way he felt against him.
James turned his head to the side, and Lyle did the same, their gazes meeting before Lyle shifted slightly and kissed him.
“You make me really happy,” Lyle whispered.
That was a different sort of declaration, but James would take it. “Yeah? You make me happy too… and horny,” he whispered. “The big H’s.”
Lyle chuckled softly. “You do the same to me, but it seems every time we try to do something about a certain H, we get interrupted. And it isn’t like we can do anything about it right now.”
Lord, James wanted to. Electricity frizzed though him, and he wanted nothing more than to strip Lyle naked and watch him squirm and cry out his passion from under him. Damn, he wanted that so badly. “I know. But I still want you.”
“I can tell,” Lyle whispered. “Your desire is making itself known, and unless we’re setting up camp, we don’t need a tent pole at the moment.” Lyle grinned, and James adjusted things to be less obvious and more comfortable. “Not that I’m disappointed in the effect, or the view for that matter.
“See. It’s what you do to me.” James told him.
“Well, let me think. My mother is busy, and she has Loopy to care for. The new neighbors have moved in, and they seem nice enough and rather quiet. Debbie and Kevin haven’t been around, and I think they’ve figured out that they should just go on with their lives.
So if we’re lucky, when we get back to my place, you and I can have some uninterrupted alone time.
” Lyle rolled slightly onto his side and slipped a hand under James’s shirt.
That felt good, and Lyle let it roam across his chest. The man had magic fingers, and James closed his eyes and just let himself feel the intimacy. They were in no hurry, and goodness knows the dogs weren’t. They seemed to have settled in for a happy, peaceful afternoon.
Dash raised his head and growled. The others did the same, and soon all four dogs were on alert. “I have them,” Lyle said as he gripped all four leashes.
“What the hell is going on?” James asked. “They were so quiet and peaceful.” At the moment, the dogs stood in a row, all glaring at a picnic table fifty feet away.
“Jesus. It’s Debbie and her husband. They’re just setting up at a table.
” Lyle petted the four dogs and did his best to try to get them to settle.
“She isn’t going to hurt any of you.” Lyle coaxed the dogs down off alert.
“I know you are protecting me and James, but we’re fine and so are all of you.
Just relax and cool your jets.” James managed to get Dash to calm down and lie next to him.
That seemed to help the others settle as well.
“I hate that woman,” Lyle said softly once they had all settled once more.
“Not because of what she wanted to do with the dogs. If she had inherited them, they would have been hers to do with as she wanted. I would never have known any different, and that would have been the end of it.” Lyle hmphed softly.
“The funny thing is that I would never have met you, nor had the dogs, and I’d have the same boring life I had weeks ago, just going on into the future. ”
“Yeah, so… none of that has anything to do with her.”
“True. But I hate her because she keeps thinking that she is owed something. That she deserves more than what she’s getting, because that’s just not how it works. Her mother knew the type of person she is, and she didn’t want her dogs in Debbie’s care.” He sighed. “She knew that I would love them.”
“Yes, she did.” James lightly stroked Lyle’s arm. “And she knew that you would take good care of them.”
Lyle sighed, his hand resting on James’s belly. “I know I have to let go of this hate. That it will drive me crazy if I don’t just let it all go, but I don’t want to. Does that sound dumb?”
James didn’t answer. He just let Lyle talk if he wanted.
“I never want to see her again. She made things harder for her mom, not easier, and she couldn’t simply comply with her mother’s wishes.”
“In the end, she had to, and the four dogs are happy here with us. So letting it go means that she has no more power over you or the dogs.” He slowly sat up, looking at Lyle where he lay.
“If you let go of the hate, it’s like doing it for them as well as yourself.
And you know these guys, they’re happy.”
“Except when they see her,” Lyle said.
“I think they’re just trying to protect you,” James told him.
“They sense your reaction to her. So let it go. Besides, we have real evil people that we can hate. People who are more selfish and uncaring than her.” There was so much he wanted to say about the guy who stole dogs and used them as bait to train animals to fight.
It was disgusting and a hell of a lot worse than Debbie’s selfishness. At least in his opinion.
“Okay. I’ll give you that.” He stroked Daisy, who had pressed close to him. “It’s funny. I’ve had these dogs just a few weeks, but everything seems so right at the moment. Does it seem stupid for me to worry about things like that?”
“Why worry?” he asked, brushing the hair from Lyle’s forehead.
“Because I always wonder when things will change and when all the bad stuff is going to come charging in and wipe away what I’m feeling now.”
“How can it if you don’t allow it to? I mean, something bad might happen, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be fixed or that it negates the good things.
Shit happens, and so does good stuff. I guess we need to be able to take one along with the other.
” Sometimes it was the only way to get through the day.
“But I worry….”
James leaned closer. “I get that. But think of it this way. Right now, you’re happy, so am I, and the dogs are in some state of bliss.
Worry only clouds that. So enjoy the good and hold on to it to get you through the sucky.
” He grinned. “Think about it. This morning, we walked into a mess at the shelter. That was pretty sucky. But we got the dogs back in their enclosures, recovered the ones that had been taken, and rescued four dogs that had been taken from their owners. In the end, the crap brought a pretty good result.”
Lyle sat up too. “I know. It’s just hard for me not to worry about my mom.”
James nodded. “And maybe that was why she was reluctant to tell you. Parents will do just about anything to protect their children. I have a case right now in a family law class where a mother took the kids in the middle of the night. She snuck them out of the house, crossed state lines, and showed up at a school friend’s with a kid in each arm, asking for help.
They took her in, but the husband filed kidnapping charges, and because she crossed state lines, she found herself in trouble and was facing arrest. She refused to return because of the abuse. ”
“What happened?”
“The authorities threatened to arrest her, and she still refused. The feds arrived to arrest her. But the friend she had been staying with had the presence of mind to take pictures of her the night she arrived and was able to convince them that she was the victim of domestic abuse. The thing is that she was willing to go to jail to keep her kids away from an abuser. Mothers are like that. They will do just about anything to protect their children. We all do it. We don’t tell our spouses things that we know will hurt them.
So I just think your mom wants to protect you. ”