Page 108 of Always Be an Us

The last thing you want to do is to fall for Declan. He will never be able to love you back.

What if it's already too late?

"I'm going to go check on the food," I say and rise suddenly. My stomach feels tight as I head back to the counter, so much so that I wonder if I’ll be able to choke down the burger.

This time, when I pass Rick, he’s alone.

His eyes are still irritated when they meet mine.

"What's up?" I ask slowing to a stop. "I saw you and Lou arguing earlier."

"Yeah." The word is drawn out, and then he turns and starts walking, beckoning me over. I follow him to the kitchen, where Yule is putting the finishing touches on the salad. He glances at us curiously, as we both walk through the backdoor leading to the backyard.

There I find something that makes me gasp.

"Oh my gosh." In front of me, on the end of a rope tied to the fence is a mid-sized, mixed-breed terrier with shaggy black hair who blinks up at me and dances on his front feet when I arrive. He lets out a short yip, and then his tail wags when I drop to my knees. He doesn’t smell too bad, just a little earthy. His fur is soft too. I start scratching his head and the wagging increases.

"He's adorable. You got a dog?"

"Not really. Poppy found him on a hunt, no tag and no chip. Animal rescue is too crowded to take him in. I wanted to keep him at my house until an owner showed up but then Lou had a problem with it."

"Why would Lou have a problem with you keeping an animal at your house?"

He raises an eyebrow, but it still takes a few seconds to hit me. "Oh."

"Yeah," he says.

Vague discomfort trickles through me. I always suspected Rick and Lou had a thing. Their fights always seemed to have sexual undertones, and I would sometimes catch them looking at each other.

But Rick has been like a second dad to me and hearing about his sex life is as awkward as I thought it would be.

"Congratulations," I say. "Are things getting serious between you two?"

"Serious enough for her to not want dog fur around my house. She's allergic."

"Oh," I say. I move my hand behind the little pup's ear, and he purrs his satisfaction. He also gives me a pitiful hang-dog look, as though he can tell the direction of Rick and my conversation. "How about I keep him?"

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I need a guard dog anyway after what happened." Just thinking about the break-in made the temperature out here feel like it dropped several degrees. The memory of going home and finding everything shattered on the floor…someone lurking in the shadows…

I swallow to suppress my shiver.

Maybe a dog could help with that. This pup doesn’t look all that threatening but at least he could be a warning dog.

"You sure your boyfriend's going to be okay with that?" Rick asks wryly.

"He's not my boyfriend," I respond a tad sharply. "And Declan has no say in what I keep in my house. After all, he's going to leave eventually."

I need to remember that bitter fact and stamp it at the forefront of my mind.

In fact, for the sake of my heart, we should make our separation sooner rather than later.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Declan

The interrogation of Nate Huntley gets more confusing and more frustrating as it continues.

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