Page 11 of Pucking Revenge

Beckett, miraculously, remains in his crouched position, still holding the dog, and now his son. “Yeah, let’s go find your mom, okay?”

Finn takes off first, and we all follow. The second he’s over the threshold, he screams, “Mom, Winnie, Addie! Bossman boughts us a dog!”

The foyer is tight as we all shuffle in. Aiden is bouncing on the balls of his feet, still as ecstatic as Finn. Beckett is half carrying the dog, who isn’t sure about following along with our obnoxious crowd. Gavin heads straight to the living room, pointing toward me. “We definitely need a drink for this.”

Brooks presses a palm to the small of my back and guides me forward and out of the craziness. “You seem far too excited to be here,” he teases, his breath warm on my neck.

The big family thing is still a novelty to me. When I was a kid, it was just Mom and me. Then, when I was in high school, my brother was born. After that, she was home even less. Her days were spent shuttling him to doctors’ appointments and therapy or working so she could afford to take him to those appointments and therapy.

More often than not, I was home watching television while my brother hung out in his crib. My friends were Monica and Rachel or Pacey and Joey on Dawson’s Creek. When he graduated from the crib, I spent my days keeping him entertained in ways that wouldn’t wear him out. To this day, my eye still twitches any time I see a puzzle.

The chaos of a big family like this is enthralling. I don’t quite understand all the intricacies, but like Gavin, I’m predicting an evening full of entertainment, so a drink sounds perfect.

“You did what now?”

We’ve all filtered into the living room when Liv appears, with their youngest daughter Addie in tow. Addie is four and since the day I met her, I’ve never not seen her in anything but pigtails. Liv pulls up short, and her eyes go wide when she catches sight of the audience.

With a lip caught between her teeth, she scans us, then her attention falls to the dog. For a long moment, she doesn’t move. Then, without a word, she closes her eyes. Knowing Liv, she’s taking deep breaths in for four, then letting them out for four. It’s what she does at work. At least when Beckett is around. I’ve never seen anyone get under her skin quite the way he does.

“Meet Deogi,” Beckett says, holding up one end of the leash. The other end is still clipped to the puppy that’s now letting out the cutest little playful growls and wrestling with Finn.

Gavin spits out his drink. “He named the dog Dog?”

“What did you do?” Liv’s hands are on her hips now.

Winnie, Liv’s daughter, appears at the bottom of the stairs. Like her little brother, the ten-year-old instantly drops to the floor, her grin wide. She’s Liv’s mini me, with brown hair and brown eyes, but she’s got a dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose. And, if I’m not mistaken, the braces are new. Poor kid, I’ve always been told those things suck. We couldn’t afford them, so I have an imperfect smile, but what can ya do?

Beckett moves closer to Liv, his voice soft. “We got married because of a dog.”

“Because you ran over a dog,” Gavin calls.

Turning to Brooks, I cover my mouth to keep from laughing.His green eyes are bright and full of humor.

“I didn’t hit the dog,” Beckett calls back, though he doesn’t turn away from his wife. “Charlie did.”

Their driver.

Gavin snorts. “That’s not what the papers said.”

“Enough,” Liv cries, craning her neck to look around her husband. “Gavin, why did you let him get a dog?”

Gavin’s eyes go wide, and this time I can’t hold in the giggle bubbling up inside me. Clearly, he didn’t expect to be put in the hot seat. He cocks a brow at Beckett, then shrugs and tugs on the sleeves of his suit jacket. He leaves us all holding our breath in anticipation for another long moment before he lets out a heavy sigh.

“He was stuck at the farm, Liv.” Behind the bar, he uncorks a bottle of Jackson pinot noir and snags a wineglass, no doubt to give him something other than Liv to focus on while he straight-up makes up stories.

Beckett nods. “Yes, the farm.” The words are tentative. Like the rest of us, he probably doesn’t know where Gavin is going with this.

“What farm?” Liv demands.

“The one on Blackstone.” A smirk teases Gavin’s lips, like he’s really settling into his story. He holds out the glass of wine and raises his brows at me, so I shuffle closer and accept it.

It’s at this point that I realize he means the shelter. The team did a photo shoot with puppies at that particular one last season. They raised quite a bit of money for new equipment and supplies for the shelter, and they brought a lot of attention to the place. Within days, almost every dog had been adopted. We have another event planned next week.

“Anyway, Beckett was all ‘the dog is not staying at the ducking farm.’ He was shouting and yelling and making a scene. The volunteers there were confused about the ducks. They didn’t understand that your husband has just lost his mind and doesn’t curse anymore.” Gavin takes a deep breath. “So they handed him the dog.”

This guy is good. Even I’m starting to believe this all really went down, when I know firsthand that Gavin was just as shocked to see the puppy as Liv.

Liv shakes her head and turns to me. “He bought a dog,” she mouths, her eyes wide and her face ashen.

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