Page 44 of Bossy Baby

“Caleb does love his babies. That house is huge. They must have plenty of room to run around. It’s not as big as your house, though.”

Only the best for his boy. Mac didn’t say that, though.

“Do you only like cats? What about other animals?”

“I like all animals,” Mac told him. “There was a K-9 handler in my unit. We all spoiled his dog rotten whenever we weren’t in the field. They retired the dog after his third tour. That dog had probably saved us a couple dozen times. He was a real hero.”

“Do you know what happened to him?”

“The soldier’s parents adopted him until Carl could make it home.” Mac didn’t share that Carl had never made it home. The parents had kept the dog, though. Mac had made sure the dog had a good life.

“That’s amazing. Avery is about to start volunteering at the new organization that’s opening. They train dogs for military men and women who are disabled or have PTSD.”

“I heard.” Mac had thoroughly checked out the group to make sure the charity was legit. He wasn’t about to have Avery involved with anyone or anything that would hurt him. The organization was indeed legit. They wanted to do good work. Mac might have even given them a large anonymous donation to help them get started.

“Maybe after they open, we could help out too.”

“If that’s what you want to do. I’m sure they’ll appreciate all the help they can get.” Mac would have to be careful, though. Checking out the group of men who were starting the charity had been eye-opening. They were seasoned vets, a lot like him…trained to spot a liar. Hard to bullshit.

“Cool.” Hayley wiggled around in his seat.

Mac turned onto his street. He pulled out his phone and handed it to Hayley. “The code is 128863.”

“Okay.” Hayley pressed in Mac’s code.

Mac wondered if Hayley understood that Mac was giving him all his trust. “Find the app on the home screen that looks like a house.”

“Wow. It looks just like your house.”

“That’s the security app. Tap on it.” Mac waited until the app came up.

“It wants another code.”

He pulled in front of his gate. “395577.”

Hayley put in the second code.

“Look for any zones that are red.”

“They’re all green,” Hayley told him.

“That means that none of the entrances or accesses have been breached.”

“This is some serious security.”

“Force of habit,” Mac lied. “If everything is good, you can press the button that looks like the gate.”

Hayley pressed the gate tile.

In front of them the gate began to open.

“That’s really cool.”

“Once we get inside, we’ll download the app to your phone. I also need to add your fingerprints to the alarm system for the house.”

“Mac.” Hayley lowered the phone. “You don’t have to do this.”

He pulled up in front of the house. “I haven’t shown you the pool. Or the rest of the house.”

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