Page 132 of On The Rocks

The bath was a battle of wills, but I won.

Kind of.

It took three rinses to find that he was actually a pewter gray color with white patches on his chest and around one eye. He smelled like Bells, which wasn’t a bad thing, and loved getting toweled off.

Not so much on the bath part.

I wrapped him in two of the towels and set him outside the bathtub, took a quick shower, and scrubbed down the shower before I got dressed.

All the while Elmer’s big toffee eyes followed me.

I bundled him up in my arms in the towels then opened the door and found Kain. “Hey.” The dog wiggled in my arms, and I tightened my hold. “Think it still needs a mop.”

Kain grunted. “I’ll handle it.” He gave Elmer’s head a good scratch. “I hear he’s got a name.”

“Elmer.”

He took a second then snorted. “Good one.” He rubbed his thumb between Elmer’s eyes and the dog groaned out his appreciation. “I ran into town and got him some food.”

“Thanks, man.”

Kain grunted. “All good. He’s probably starving. How’s his leg?”

Elmer leaned on my chest and sighed, staring at me like I had all the answers. “Think it’s just scrapes. He’s not bleeding, though, so I think he’ll be all right.”

“So, you got yourself a dog.”

The dog whisperer woofed his approval. I sighed. “Evidently.”

Kain slapped my arm. “Dad.”

“Ugh. Fuck off.”

My brother threw back his head with a deep belly laugh. “C’mon, steaks for all. Elmer can have the bone when we’re done.”

I jostled him into the curve of my arm. “I’m not sure dogs are supposed to do that anymore.”

“Bah. Elmer can handle it.”

Elmer, in fact, could not handle it, and threw up on his rug.

But he did enjoy the bag of bougie food from the local pet store. The conversation took a backseat to the new man in my life. I made a halfhearted check on the local Facebook groups, but no one mentioned a missing pit bull.

“How was your trip?” Bells asked as she cleared the table.

Even though Elmer had just yakked up his toes, he still leaned hard on her leg, staring at the platter that once was full of steak.

“Nice try, my guy. No more table scraps for you.” She gave Kain a pointed stare.

He just shrugged and set his bottle of cider on his belly. “Dogs eat bones in Hawaii.”

Bells gave him a rub. “He probably hasn’t eaten in a while. I can see some of his ribs. Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you get all the food you can handle, love.”

He wiggled his little stump of a tail, and his big tongue lolled out.

“We went to Miami. I haven’t been down that way in a long time. Freaking humid, but the ocean made up for it.”

“Usually does.” Kain sipped from his bottle. “So, how far gone are you?”

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