“I know. I’m working some things out.”

“Okay.”

I chewed the inside of my cheek for a moment before I spoke. “I want to figure out how not to be afraid of animals anymore. Can you help me with that?”

Chapter 30

-Logan-

Thanksgiving had come and gone, and I’d managed to survive a day with my parents as they continued to argue about the pictures they wanted to display at their anniversary party.

The entire weekend had been a madhouse at both the Crazy and Magnificent Moose, and I was ready for a twenty-four-hour long nap.

I rubbed my eyes and blinked a few times, trying to get my brain to focus on my computer screen. I’d spent every spare second over the last three days entering all of our inventory into the program I’d picked up at the trade show, and I was almost finished.

Or had been before something had exploded. Now it said I had four thousand gallons of ice cream and no prepared pancake mix.

What had I done wrong?

Sky, who was lying on the floor by the door, poked his head up and looked at me.

“What?” I asked.

His canine expression clearly said he was ready to go home. Shane would be by early to take him for a run, and Sky needed his beauty sleep.

“Almost done, buddy.”

I glared at the screen, and my first thought was to text Victoria. After she finished laughing at me, she’d root out the problem and fix it.

Only I’d promised I wouldn’t bother her.

For the past week, I’d been sending her exactly one message a day, right before I went to bed. It had taken an immense amount of willpower to keep the content to a brief version of, “I hope you had a good day. Remember, I love you.”

Victoria always answered within a few minutes with something akin to, “Thanks. I miss you. I’m still working on it.”

Still no I love you.

I should have found peace and hope from her communication, but I felt like we’d hit a wall that had become a maze she was trapped in the middle of and I was never going to find her again.

No matter how much I wanted to.

My phone, which I’d sat face down on my desk, buzzed. One glance at the clock on the wall told me it was past midnight and that I needed to finish up and get some sleep before all of this started again in a few hours.

I frowned. Who would be sending me a message this late? My heart sped up, and I licked my lips before turning my phone over and bringing it to life. Maybe Victoria was finally ready to talk.

I let out a frustrated breath when I saw Shane’s name on the screen.

Shane:Rachel and I are coming in the back door. Don’t shoot us.

Sky raised his head again, and his ears twitched. A low growl rumbled in his throat. The fact that I could hear his tail swishing told me that he knew who was coming.

“Logan?” Shane asked as he came down the hall.

“In here.”

Sky got to his feet, stretched, and moved away from the door before Shane opened it a few inches. The faint smell of fried foods rolled in. “Why are you still here?” he asked. He wore workout clothes. Had he taken up midnight running?

I shook my head. “Don’t you have school in the morning?”