Page 41 of Protection for Rowan

Thario nodded. "He's not a therapy dog, but he knows. He's a good boy, and on days I'm not at my best, he stays by my side like Velcro. I appreciate his concern."

Rowan placed her hand on the dog, who leaned against her. He was trying hard to give her comfort. It was easy to lean into the dog and let him take the fear and upset. Neither Thario nor Shine said anything, but the silence wasn't stilted, instead it was comfortable.

"Do you think they'll catch him?" She couldn't look at either of them, so she kept her eyes on Frog.

“They are looking,” Thario said.

"His house is being watched, and they have an APB out on him. Also, one of the officers said they were watching his credit cards. They will find him."

“I worry about going back to work.”

Thario cleared his throat. "There's a network of retired military. Not all of them are SEALs. There are a few women in the group, too. They do things from time to time to help out. If you want, I could ask if any of them could give some time to watch."

“Oh, I don’t want to bother anyone.”

"They would love to help out. We've done it for another case with a Marine. She'd retired, and someone came after her. The men and women in the network set uptwenty-four-hour surveillance on her. The guy was caught four days after they started watching."

She shook her head. “That sounds very involved.”

"It is, but with everyone giving a few hours a week, it's not hard to fill the hours. And that's for a twenty-four-hour watch. A few hours of you at work would be easy to fill. Guys like sitting around drinking coffee. Some of them shoot the shit for a bit when they change watch. I could set it up."

“Can I think about it?”

"Sure. Just know these guys love this, and they love helping. Retirement isn't kind to everyone, and having a purpose wakes some of them back up."

She held his gaze. “I’ll consider it.”

Frog sighed and laid his head on her leg, looking up at her like she was his. She rolled her eyes. “Okay, Frog. So you think I should do it?”

Frog wagged his tail and gave a short yap. The dog was very communicative. He was getting his point across, and she was starting to feel better.

Thario stood, and Frog's ears rose. "Do you want anything to drink? You can stay there, Frog, I'm good." The dog huffed and snuggled closer to her.

“Water would be good.”

Shine stood, too. "I'll take some water."

“Cool. I also have some cookies someone brought me. I can’t eat them all. You two need to have some.”

Laughter escaped her lips. “You’re offering because I lost so much weight, right?”

“Not true. I would have offered even if you hadn’t lost any weight. If you’re hungry, you should eat. Weight doesn’t matter.”

“Wow, that’s a mature take,” Shine said.

Thario scoffed. “What? I’ve matured. Trauma makes you grow.”

The words made her want to laugh. "That's only partly right. Sometimes, the opposite happens. You're lucky you got growth from it."

Thario snorted. "Yeah. I mean, I had to shrink to grow."

Shine shook his head. “Ouch. That’s being harsh, man.”

"It's the truth. Even with these legs on, I'm not as tall as I used to be. When I don't have them on, I'm positively short. It's okay. I've come to terms with the fact I don't have the lower part of my legs. It just is."

Rowan stood and moved to the kitchen, grabbing a cookie off the plate. “Your reaction is very mature.”

Thario met her gaze. "It took me a long time to get here. Before all this, I was very immature. I mean, I became a SEAL, but I was a punk. I wasn't a good guy. Not that I did anything abusive or really bad, I just didn't care about other people. Not like I should have cared. I took advantage of women, having sex and walking away without a backward glance. It wasn't good for me or for them."

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