Page 26 of Return to You

“The damn thing showed up here after it had been hit by a car. I fixed up his leg and the dumbass went right back out and got hit again. The damn thing cost me six hundred dollars in vet bills. I had to chain it up so it’d stop playing chicken with traffic.”

Kade hadn’t expected to hear that his dad had actually been trying to help the dog or that he’d spent money on the animal. “He was out of water and it’s ninety degrees outside.”

George sighed and his shoulders rounded in a defeated posture. “Dumbass knocks the thing over every morning. I don’t know what the hell to do. I was gonna bolt it down but I—” George started coughing again.

“I can take him,” Kade offered.

He’d planned on telling his dad that he was taking the dog, but that’s when he’d thought he’d been abusing him. It was clear to him now that the thing was too much for his father to handle.

“Good. Take him.” George cleared his throat and wiped his forefinger and thumb beneath his eyes. “I didn’t want the damn thing anyway.”

Kade never thought he’d see the day when he felt sorry for his father. But that was exactly what he felt now. And he wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

Before he left, he turned back once more to ask, “What’s his name?”

“Dumbass,” his father answered gruffly.

Right. Kade grinned. Dumbass.

9

Ali paused as she slid her key into the front door. She’d only been gone for twelve hours but it seemed like so much longer. She felt refreshed and relaxed for the first time in ages and she didn’t want to open the door for fear of what awaited her on the other side. She no longer felt like she was on the brink of a nervous breakdown but she knew that could change in a second.

She took a deep breath and opened the door. The house was quiet. No television. No music blasting. Her eyes darted around the front room. To her great surprise, she noticed there were no shoes, no book bags, no dirty plates, and no soda cans strewn about. And if she weren’t mistaken, those looked like vacuum lines on the carpet.

Damn. Ricky must’ve cleaned up. As much as she appreciated her nephew’s efforts, it broke her heart to think of him cleaning on a Friday night.

A buzz sounded and she grabbed her phone out of her purse. It was a text from Jess that read:

Just wanted to make sure you didn’t turn into a pumpkin.

Ali smiled as she quickly texted back:

That’s the coach, not Cinderella.

Tonight had been just what she needed. Mindless entertainment, junk food, and engaging adult conversation. After the Grey’s marathon they’d ordered pizza talked about all the changes they wanted to make at work, gossiped about people in town, made summer plans, and debated which of Carly Phillips’s books was actually the best. For the record, Ali believed it was Hot Zone while Jess made a strong case for The Bachelor citing as evidence that it had been chosen by Kelly Ripa’s book club, Reading with Ripa. For several, precious hours, there was no mention of the twins, Patrick or Kade. They were just normal friends in their late twenties.

Before Ali knew it, she checked her phone and saw that it was almost midnight. A sense of panic gripped her that she’d let the time get away from her. She grabbed her shoes, purse and told Jess she needed to get back. Her friend made a smart-ass comment calling her Cinderella freaking out that the clock was going to strike midnight.

In reality, what she’d feared was not a magical spell being broken, it was what KJ might be doing. Kade had texted and let her know that he’d picked up the boys after school and was going to take care of dinner, but that was it. Since then it had been radio silence. She hadn’t told him that KJ wasn’t allowed to go to anyone’s house except Ryder’s. Or that the boys weren’t allowed to be out after ten p.m. Both rules that had been implemented after late night calls from Ethan and trips to the police station to pick KJ up.

She heard a cabinet close in the kitchen and headed that way. There she found Kade standing at the counter, wrapping something up in tinfoil.

His back was to her and he was wearing charcoal sweats and a white T-shirt. Her eyes traveled over the dips and lines of his chiseled upper back that stretched the thin material. Then, she lowered her gaze to the rounded curve of his backside. Even covered with loose cotton it looked tight enough to bounce a quarter off of.

“Did you have fun?”

At the sound of his voice, her eyes shot up. She was relieved to see that he was still focused on whatever he was wrapping and hadn’t caught her staring at his quarter-bouncing ass.

“Umm…” She could hear her heart beating in her head, it sounded like the drumline in a high school band. “Yeah. It was fun.”

“Good. I’m glad.” He moved to the refrigerator, opened it, and bent down to place the tin foil covered dish inside.

Like a magnet being pulled by an outside force her eyes once again landed on his butt, now displayed like the piece of art it was.

“Are you staring at my butt?” Kade asked, his head still ducked in the fridge.

“No,” she denied as she felt heat rise up her cheeks. Licking her lips nervously she attempted to change the subject. “Um…do you know where KJ…or um…where the twins are?”

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