49. Indy
FORTY-NINE
INDY
After tossing and turning for most of the night, I finally fall asleep a few hours before my alarm is supposed to go off, and then somehow, I manage to sleep in.
And since my morning is already circling the drain, the T gets stuck between stations, so we sit in the tunnel for forty minutes, and it gets so stuffy that the whole thing ends in a lovely asthma attack.
By the time I make it to Callum’s I’m sweaty and in a terrible mood, and approximately one minor inconvenience away from lying down in the corner in fetal position because lack of sleep makes me dramatic as fuck, apparently.
The moment I step through his door, I find Callum waiting for me.
“I know.” I hold my hand up. “I know I’m late. I’m sorry. And I know I made a big deal out of you being late, so feel free to be smug about this.”
“You did give me shit about that,” he says thoughtfully.
“If it helps, I feel bad about it now.”
“It does a little.”
I kick off my shoes by the door and wrestle myself out of my jacket before I rake the hair out of my sweaty face.
“You look chipper,” he says.
Observant, I want to say, but that’s mean, and my crappy morning isn’t his fault.
“I’m fine.”
He leans his shoulder against the wall. “What happened?”
“Subway problems,” I say. “It was packed, too, so now I smell like sweat.”
“You can take a shower, you know? And borrow some clothes. Easy fix,” Callum says.
Technically he might be right, but I glower at him anyway. “You’re a giant. In what world do your clothes fit me?”
“I’m actually the runt of the family.”
“Your poor mother.”
“Go,” he says. “Find clothes. There should be stuff there from when I was in college that might fit you. I think it’s somewhere in the back of the closet.”
“Yeah, fine,” I say with a sigh. “Just let me grab my stuff.”
“You can do it later,” he says. “Go on. Take a break. You look like you need it.”
“Based on how this day is going so far you’ll stumble on my bag and break something. I don’t have the money for that lawsuit.”
“Most of my body parts are insured.”
“Of course they are.”
He grabs my shoulders and starts herding me toward his bedroom.
“I know where it is. No, wait, I forgot my bag.”
“It’ll still be there. Relax. Maybe take a hot shower? Actually, you really should take a hot shower. I’ll make you some tea.”
I dig my heels in just as we’re about to round the corner and turn around. I narrow my eyes at him.
“You don’t know how to make tea. You don’t even have tea here.”
“My cabinets are stocked. You don’t know what I have in there.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” he says quickly. Too quickly. “Other than my deep concern about your well-being.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing!” he says. “I’m actually a bit hurt that you would just accuse me of—”
He’s stopped by the knock on the door.
I raise my brows at him.
“Coach,” he says. “Said he was gonna drop by. You just go ahead with that shower of yours while we talk football. Remember how boring you find football?”
I take a step toward the door, and he steps in front of me.
There’s another knock.
“Coming,” Callum says loudly, throwing me a quick look before adding, “Coach.”
“Fine,” I say. “I’m just…”
I duck past him and run to the door while he lets out a shout and tries to tackle me. I get to the door before him and pull it open.
There’s a woman standing there. She looks between me and Callum, a startled expression on her face.
“Hello?” she says.
I don’t have the time for polite greetings. Instead, I whirl around and pin Callum with a look.
“Indy, this is Tina,” Callum says. “Tina. Indy.”
“Yeah, great,” I say. “She’s holding a puppy, Callum. Why is she holding a puppy? Please tell me you didn’t buy a puppy.”
Callum scoffs. “Of course I didn’t buy a puppy. I’m not a moron.” He goes and takes the wiggly cocker spaniel puppy in his arms. I almost start to relax.
“I’m babysitting her,” he announces.
There goes that relief.
“I really am so grateful,” Tina says. “I was all out of options. Brad was supposed to stay home with her, but then his father fell on the stairs, and I have to be on a plane to Chicago in”—she glances at her watch—“oh, about an hour and a half. I don’t know how to repay you.
Seriously. I packed everything you need in this suitcase, and I will pick her up first thing Monday morning. You’re literally my hero.”
“It’s not a problem,” Callum says. “You’re doing me a favor, actually. Free puppy time? Hell yeah!”
Tina laughs. She kisses the top of the puppy’s head and Callum’s cheek, and then she’s off.
Callum is too busy baby talking the puppy to pay any attention to me at first, but eventually he lifts his head.
“I didn’t buy a puppy,” he says. “If anything, you should be proud of me. I’m being very sensible. This is a trial puppy I will give back in a few days.”
“Yeah,” I say slowly. “Hey, do you think this puppy is a fan of planes, by chance? Or football? Because the last time I checked you’re playing Seattle tomorrow.”
It takes a moment for my words to register, and then his face falls.
“Shit,” he says. “I am playing Seattle, aren’t I?”
“Uh-huh. Jet’s leaving in a few hours, isn’t it?” I purse my lips thoughtfully. “Really puts you in a bit of a pickle if you think about it.”
He looks remorseful for about two point five seconds before he lifts the puppy up, holding her face next to his. The puppy starts licking his face.
“Pwease,” he says.
“No. Ugh, no. Eww. No baby voice. That’s fucking weird.”
“In that case, stay here while I’m gone and take care of Nova. Or I will only speak in a baby voice from now on.”
“I will quit,” I say tonelessly.
“Please? It’s only for a few days. I’ll pay you extra.”
“You’re already paying me more than a normal person would. You know, you can just be one of those asshole bosses and demand I babysit your puppy.” He makes a face, and I bite back a smile, crossing my arms over my chest. “Go on, give it a go. Be a dick, and I’ll help you with the puppy.”
I’ve never seen anybody look so conflicted in my life.
“You have to do it?” he finally says.
I snort out a laugh. “Because?”
He lets out a deep, forlorn sigh. “Because I demand it.”
“This was pathetic.”
“I know. You should feel sorry for me.”
I blow out a breath and shake my head. “Fine. Give me the puppy and go pack your suitcase.”
He hands Nova over. The puppy wiggles a bit but then settles in against my chest.
“See? You’re a natural.” He heads to his bedroom.
“I’m taking a really long lunch. I need to go get my stuff from my apartment if I’m staying the night,” I call after him.
He just laughs.
I grab an overnight bag from my place and make it back to Callum’s right before he has to take off to make the team jet.
He’s already running late, which apparently does nothing at all to discourage him from spending the next ten minutes crouched by the door, cuddling the puppy like he’s shipping off to war instead of boarding a private plane to a football game.
Eventually I have to physically shove him into the elevator.
“Text me updates,” he says while Nova gnaws happily on the sleeve of my hoodie.
“I will have no one to text those updates to if you don’t get out of here, will I?”
“I miss you already!” he yells dramatically just before the elevator doors close in front of him.
I’m left standing alone in Callum’s absurdly fancy entryway with Nova tucked against my chest.
The puppy blinks at me sleepily when I lift her higher.
“You really are adorable,” I tell her. “And no, I will not admit I said that to anybody.”
She licks my nose.
“A walk and dinner? I mean, it sounds like a pretty good date to me. God knows I haven’t had one of those in a long while.”
Nova responds by sneezing directly into my face.
I bury my nose in the back of her neck and breathe in the puppy smell before I go back inside the apartment.
I put her down on the floor where she starts sniffing around while I go through the bag Tina handed over with Nova and find a tiny harness.
The second I pull it out of the bag, Nova loses her mind.
I watch with amusement as she sprints circles around me, jumps, and barks excitedly, nails skittering against the polished hardwood floor.
“Oh my God.” I laugh. “Okay, come on now. You want to go outside? You’re gonna have to chill out for a second.”
Nova clearly takes that as encouragement and my very reasonable suggestion does absolutely nothing. A few minutes later, I’m on my knees on the floor, trying to wrestle an overexcited puppy into a harness when the door beeps and Nick walks in.
He stops dead in the doorway and blinks at the scene in front of him.
Nova takes the open doorway as her cue to seek freedom and sprints toward Nick’s legs.
“No, no, no, no, no, no—” I lunge after her and miss, and Nick keeps staring, doing nothing at all.
In the span of approximately half a second my brain produces about eight hundred catastrophic scenarios involving traffic, elevator shafts, kidnappers, predators, and me having to explain to Callum that I lost Nova.
“Oh fuck,” I gasp, scrambling to my feet. I slam straight into Nick in my haste to get out the door.
“Oof.” His arms wrap around me automatically to steady me before I can knock us both off our feet.
“Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck,” I say while I try to unsuccessfully untangle myself from him. “Nick!” I snap when he still isn’t letting go. “I lost the puppy!”
“Unless that puppy learned how to operate an elevator in the last thirty seconds, we’re probably okay,” he says dryly.
And now that he’s said it and some much-needed oxygen has finally reached my brain for the first time since Nova made her escape, I realize I can still hear barking somewhere directly behind Nick.
I peer over his shoulder. Nova is jumping up and down, ears flopping around her head, tail wagging madly.
Nick turns his head. “Sit.”
The puppy plants her butt on the floor immediately and observes us, her head tilted to the side.