Page 44 of Sleeping with the Frenemy

That was more the norm.

“So what’s the plan with this dog?” Saint asked.

“We’re going to take him to animal control in a bit. Why? Do you want him?”

“Hell no,” Saint said. “I have enough on my plate. You better not even mention the possibility of a pet to Rosie either or I’ll sic Lola on you.”

“Damn. That’s just plain cold-blooded.” Leo liked Lola even though she had the tendency to bitch him out. He needed it most of the time, his mouth ran away from him a lot, but sometimes she did the most when he was just playing around.

“You better call Mami and Papi. They were about to force Cristian to file a missing persons report.”

Leo winced. He could only imagine the earful he was about to receive from his parents. “Uh. My phone is at like one percent. I forgot to charge it, but I don’t want them to worry. Can you tell them for me?” he asked.

“Leo...” Saint sighed. “I thought you were over being this flakey.”

Ouch. That hurt.

“Look, just tell everyone that I’ll be there as soon as I can. The—” Leo clicked the end button. His screen showed thirty percent battery life, but Saint didn’t need to know that. He’d already left everything including the recipes he wanted to try prepped for Liam, so it wasn’t like they couldn’t get started without him. Therefore, Leo only felt a little bit guilty when he turned off his phone and continued to the coffee shop at the next corner. There he ordered two cold brews, his with three pumps of caramel and hers with nothing because she was weird like that, and three breakfast sandwiches: one for him, one for her, and one for Dumpy, who was already drooling everywhere. The server was nice enough to throw in a big bowl of water and a few of their homemade dog treats. He and Dumpy sat on the patio enjoying their breakfast before heading back home.

“There you are,” Sofi said when they entered the apartment. “I was starting to get worried he’d run off again or something.” She was already dressed in a pair of high-waisted light blue jean shorts and an off-the-shoulder crop top that was designed to look like the Puerto Rican flag with one blue sleeve that went into a blue triangle on her side and a white star over her nipple. The other side was the three red stripes interspersed with two white stripes. “I was about to go look for you.” She stood in the kitchen with her hand on the counter sliding her foot into a high-heeled sandal also made to look like the Puerto Rican flag.

Leo wiped at his mouth to make sure he wasn’t drooling as much as the dog had when he’d spotted the breakfast sandwich. “We stopped to grab some breakfast.” He placed Sofi’s coffee and the bag with her sandwich in it on the island. “Then Dumpy decided that he had to sniff absolutely everything on the way back.”

She gave him a look as she slid on her other shoe. “Stop calling him that.” She straightened and adjusted her blouse so the neckline sat higher on her chest. “Let me grab my purse and then we can go.” Her long hair was slicked back into a low bun at the base of her neck leaving her gorgeous face front and center. Her baby hairs were laid perfectly and she had on huge gold hoops that had the wordBoricuawritten across them. She had on multiple gold necklaces, one with her name, one with a Puerto Rico medallion, and the other with an outline of the island. Her lips were painted a blood red and her skin shimmered.

Leo fought the urge to walk up to her and kiss her silly. “Are you going to eat your breakfast?”

She eyed the bag and coffee. “I’ll bring it with.” Apparently, the walls had come back up, because she was acting like nothing had happened last night. She waltzed off, two Puerto Rican flags on her back pockets, and came back a moment later with a Puerto Rican flag mini backpack and the towel he’d used on Dumpy last night. “I hope you know that we’re taking your car because that dog will not be getting hair all over my back seat.”

About twenty minutes later they were finally on their way, Sofi sat in the passenger seat with Dumpy on her lap because he’d freaked out and refused to get in the back seat. Now Dumpy was cuddled up to Sofi’s chest with his head thrown over her shoulder just like a baby. It was cute as hell.

Leo knew by the way that she kept petting him from head to tail, like a mom comforting her child, that this trip to animal control was going to be a huge waste of time. There was no way that they were leaving the dog there. Still, he decided it couldn’t hurt to give things a little push. “This place looks cold and sad,” he said when they pulled up.

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Sofi replied.

The inside looked even worse. “It’s like a DMV or something.”

“Shh.” She hushed him because the worker had just stepped up to the desk from a back room.

With her ’90s mom haircut à la Meg Ryan and wide smile, the older lady looked nice enough he supposed. “Can I help you?”

“Hi, we found this dog last night.” Sofi motioned to Leo standing there holding Dumpy in his arms while the big baby looked around in terror. “We wanted to bring him in just in case someone was looking for him.”

“Okay. Can I ask, did you happen to find him near Humboldt Park?”

Sofi and Leo shared a look.

“Yes,” Sofi replied. “Right off Division Street.”

“How do you know that?” Leo asked. “Besides this Boricua Bratz Doll.” He used his thumb to point to his side.

Sofi smacked his arm lightly.

The woman smiled, but it fell quickly. “There was a bust there a few nights ago. The police found thirty-four dogs of various ages. Apparently there was dogfighting happening on top of the other illegal stuff. This guy looks just like a few other puppies that were brought in. They said they weren’t sure they got them all.”

Leo tightened his hold on Dumpy. “Dogfighting? People still do that?”

“Sadly, yes.”

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