Page 9 of Housebroke

Hazel winced as the sounds of battering rams continued from the main house. That was some serious noise, and it had been going on for the past few hours. She hoped Linc had apologized in advance to the neighbors.

At least it was a corner lot, so maybe fewer people would be annoyed.

She had thought about going outside to take the dogs to the pool, but on second thought decided to wait until the sounds of a war zone ended.

If it ended. For all she knew, Linc might decide to do this into the night. She might have to dig into her backpack for her earplugs.

Instead, she got out her menu list for the day and started prepping dinner. If Linc was going to work late, he’d be hungry. And it was her job to see that he was fed.

While she was prepping ingredients, her phone buzzed. She glanced over, wrinkled her nose, and went back to working. Until her phone buzzed again. And then again. She washed and dried her hands and made the call.

“That took a while. Where are you?”

She rolled her eyes at the judgmental voice of her sister, Natalie. “I was preparing dinner for a... client.”

“Oh, new job?”

“Sort of. What’s up?”

“I haven’t heard from you in two weeks. I hate when you disappear like that.”

“I didn’t disappear, Nat. You text me every day. I answer.”

“It’s not the same when we don’t talk. I can tell from the tone of your voice something’s wrong. And with you, something’s always wrong.”

Count to ten, Hazel. One... two... three... four...

“Nothing’s wrong. Things are actually going well. I’ve got a job, a place to stay, good food to eat. It’s all great.”

“Hmm.”

Hazel’s big sister was notorious for her profound lack of belief in her. When she had gotten engaged to Andrew, neither her mother nor her sister approved of him and both warned her that he was going to break her heart.

Okay, so they’d been right about that part.

“Seriously, Nat. Everything’s great. But I’ve gotta go so I can get this dinner out on time.”

“But where—”

“We’ll talk soon, okay? Love you, bye.”

She clicked off before her sister kept her on the phone for an hour grilling her about... well, everything.

When her phone rang ten minutes later and she saw it was her mom, she ignored it, knowing that as soon as Nat had gotten offthe phone with her, she’d called their mother to gossip about her. So instead, she put the stuff in the fridge and decided she’d risk the noise and took the dogs outside.

Fortunately, the uproar had ceased, at least for the time being, so she could relax and take Gordon for his swim, and the dogs could enjoy some outside time. After she removed Gordon from the pool, she climbed onto one of the rafts and just... floated. The sunshine and the pool felt amazing, and that tight coil of tension in her shoulders dissolved.

Until a giant tsunami of a wave washed over her, upending her into the water. She came up and dragged her hair out of her eyes to see Linc’s grinning face in front of her.

“What the hell was that?” she asked.

“Cannonball, obviously. This water feels amazing.” He pushed off and then he was under the water. Where he had gone, she had no idea, but he was under there for a while. Even Penelope got curious, peering over the side of the pool. Penelope was always concerned when people were in the water. Not that she’d rescue anyone, of course. But she was good at being concerned.

When he came up, shaking his head, Penelope took several cautious steps back and barked.

“Aww, I’m sorry, baby,” he said, pulling himself out of the water. “Did I scare you?”

Penelope came over, sniffed him, then parked herself next to him and licked his arm.

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