Page 130 of On The Rocks

“The real question should be are we naked?”

“That is the better question, yes.”

“Yes and no. You coming over? I got steaks.”

“That sounds damn good.”

“Okay.” He clicked off.

As usual, Kain wasn’t much for niceties on the phone. I should probably go home, but I wasn’t quite ready to be alone. Ididn’t know if talking to my big brother would help matters, but it couldn’t hurt.

Bells might be a good one for advice, as well.

Not that either of them had been good at the whole relationship thing to start, but they were damn solid now.

I rolled up the steep drive to Kain’s place. They were still living in the show house that would become Kain’s headquarters for his east coast branch of is architecture firm while building their new place. The glass palace, a few miles away from the orchard, was damn impressive.

Bells’ tank of a car was parked beside Kain’s motorcycle. His truck was parked off along the side of the house. Once the weather was nice, he preferred to drive his Indian or Harley over a vehicle.

I parked beside the Oldsmobile and hopped out.

A whine from the brush stopped me in my tracks.

Kain opened his door. “Well, get in here.”

“Just a second.” I stepped off the driveway to the edge of his property. Another whine, more pitiful than the first, came from the bushes a few feet down.

“What’s going on?” Bells ducked under Kain’s arm, her bare feet slapping on the slate as she hurried down the walkway to me.

“I’m not sure. Do you hear that?”

We both went quiet and then I frowned. Maybe I was hearing things. Then it came again.

Her eyes widened. “Is that a dog?”

“Guess I’m going to find out.” I sat down and skidded down into the dropoff, since the tangle of brush roots didn’t do much to slow my descent. Kain had practically cut into the side of the hill to build the house.

Thorns cut into my ankles as I slid down a few more feet to an animal half hidden by the brambles that were twisted around a patch of half-dead shrubs.

“Hey, careful.” Kain followed me, anchoring himself on one of the sturdier trees.

“Hell, it is a dog,” I muttered as I got closer. It was a pit bull curled into itself, shivering. It was muddy and had terrified bloodshot toffee-colored eyes. “Hi there. Are you stuck?”

It just whimpered and curled tighter, but didn’t stop staring at me.

I skidded down a few more inches and grabbed onto the base of a bush, but it started to give way under my weight. I had to move fast. “I’m going to get you free, okay, buddy?”

I reached out, finding mud-caked fur. The thorns I’d hit on the way down were wrapped around his leg. I gently pried it free, and the dog started thrashing, which wasn’t helping my hold on the bush that was about a minute away from giving way.

I scooped him up and he—that was obvious now—immediately tried to crawl into my skin.

“I gotcha, buddy.”

He whined and tucked his big head into my neck. We were both covered in mud and some of the brambles, but they were too small to be more than annoying as I slowly crawled up.

Kain held out a hand to me. “Want me to take the dog?”

I tried to pull him free, but he whined and wouldn’t have it. “I think he’s stuck to me at this point.”

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