Page 64 of Reed

I step back and eye her skeptically. “Perfect?” It’s been a lot of things, but I wouldn’t call it perfect. My mother helped put a stop to that. “It’s ended perfectly.”

She glances over her shoulder, toward the hotdog vendor, and smiles. “It has.”

Throwing my arm around her, I tug her into my side. “Come on, let’s get home and relax.” When she bands her arm around my back, something settles inside me—a sense of peace and belonging.

I feel at home.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-SIX

REED

As soon aswe got in the SUV to return home, it started to piss rain, but I was thankful it didn’t happen beforehand. That would have put another damper on the night.

After waving Tyson off on his quest for a hookup, Gia went up to bed while I was left with making sure the dogs went out to pee. Which is easier said than done when the demon dog refuses to go outside during the rain.

Annoyance rumbles inside me, and I stare down at it, and it tilts his head as if surveying me like I’m the one with the problem. “What sort of fucking dog are you?” I tip my head toward the door. “Go on. Go piss.” I motion toward the door. “Go!” I have Gia waiting in our bed, for Christ’s sake. He steps forward, and jubilation fills my bloodstream, then it pokes its head outside and stops. Then he looks back at the kitchen table, and my gaze follows, where a jacket hangs on the back of a chair. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I grumble.

My phone pings, and I pull it from my pants pocket, and when Gia’s face fills the screen, her biting on her bottom lip with her tits half hanging out her lacy red bra, I almost want to kick the dog outside and leave it there.

“For fuck’s sake.” I spin and grab the jacket, hating the fact it belongs to numbnuts. Then I hold it over my head to shield me from the rain and step outside, but when I turn back to face the dog, it hasn’t so much as moved. “Come on. What the hell are you waiting for?”

It lifts its head up at me, then a loud bark erupts from it.

“Shhh. Shut the fuck up,” I whisper, then move closer to it. The thing is somewhat attached to me for some unknown reason, but it does make me feel slightly reassured that he isn’t going to attack me. I bend over the furball. “Come under this, you dipshit.”

When the dog steps between my legs, I’m dumbfounded. Absolutely. Fucking. Dumbfounded.

“You don’t like the rain? Fuck me, you are broken.” Instead of analyzing the inner workings of this animal, I throw in the towel and use the jacket as a cover for it. I need to get back to Gia; she’s probably playing with her clit right about now. “If you were mine, I’d ask for a refund,” I grunt down as it sniffs the grass.

The cold rain is soaking through my shirt, but with Gia’s naked body in mind, I suck it up. “Can you hurry up? I need to find the other fucker next.” I know where Bubbles will be, hunkered down in Bryce’s room. The dog might not be a bulldog, but it sure acts like one, a protector through and through. “At least I picked the right kind of dog.” I grin, and the rain lashes down on me.

When it finally finds the right spot, I’m soaking wet and livid, but eager to get upstairs. I quickly throw it a treat on the floor, and instead of placing the jacket back on the chair, I decide to let the dog use it as a comforter and place it on sofa. “There. Use that as a pillow.”

The dog jumps on it, and I wince when it starts digging around like a lunatic. Oh well, not my dog, not my problem. I smile at the thought of Tyson being pissed when he discovers the dog used his jacket to sleep on, then I head upstairs.

Bryce’s door is ajar, and when I poke my head inside, my heart constricts at the sight, then freefalls, pounding against my ribcage so strongly it feels like it’s bursting to get out.

The sight of Bryce clutching the damn Happy Meal toy in one hand and an arm thrown over Bubbles as he snuggles up with her is almost overwhelming. A surge of what I think is love strikes me. A feeling I welcome instead of rejecting. My mouth feels like there’s wool stuffed in it, and I find the ability to move is stolen from me.

Bubbles licks at Bryce’s face, and the kid simply grins down at the dog as if it’s the best thing he’s ever encountered.

I’ve never been one to say a child is cute, or an animal, or anything for that matter, but I can admit my son and his dog are cute as hell.

“Did you jump in the lake again?” Bryce rubs at his eyes, and it’s only now I realize how far I’ve stepped into his room and made my way over to his bed. Not that it was a difficult task, given his room is small and fairly sparce.

I smile at his words. “No, buddy. It’s just raining heavily.”

He nods, then follows it up with an exaggerated yawn. “I let Bubbles out earlier because Tyson said it was going to rain.”

Of course he did. The man thinks he knows everything. What is he, a meteorologist now?

For some insane reason, I don’t want to move, yet I don’t know what to say to him. The little boy and his mutt have stolen my heart, just like his mother. My ass touches the bed without thinking, and I stroke over the dog because I’m unsure what to say or do.

Bryce’s room is small and painted blue, with soccer trophies on a wooden shelf that make me smile with pride.

When we move into our own house, I’ll build one of those courts for him and his friends to kick the ball around on, and when my best friends bring their kids over, they can play in the pool I’m going to design with the kids in mind, and we can have a games room and a soft playroom for the baby.

Bryce shuffles from beneath the covers to sit up and grabs his cup of water from his bedside table. As he takes a drink from it, my focus latches on to the photo previously housed in the hallway. The one with Jaxon, Gia, and Bryce fishing and a wooden cabin in the background.

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