Page 62 of Tides That Bind

Riley turns his head to the side and his shadow skates across the floor of the porch. I feel it, his pending shut down, just the way he did in the car after Career Day.

“Riley?”

“He did when he was deployed,” Riley whispers quietly. “He asked me then to look out for you.”

I drop my head. “What about now? Why are you doing it now?”

“Because!” His frustration comes clearly when he whips his head back to me. “Because…Nate can’t do that for you anymore.”

My head drops, and with it, so do the pieces of my already shattered heart. I have to fight the urge to run into the kitchen and grab the vase, returning it.

“You don’t have to now.”

Riley snaps his head to me. “Of course I do.”

“You don’t even like me.”

He turns his head away and says nothing. Because what is there to say?

“Nate loved you,” Riley says. “And…”

“And what, Riley?”

“And I loved him. I know he’d want me to do it. So just put up and shut up. You don’t even have to say thank you. Just let me do it.”

I rub my forehead.

Riley clears his throat. “And there’s something else."

“What?”

He takes a long sip of his beer. “You’re going to hire me as your attorney.”

“I’m going towhat?”

Riley rises from the swing. “Do you want to get Tides back?”

“Of course.”

“Good. We’re going to sue the town and get him back.”

“We’rewhat?”

He takes another sip. “I’m going to need a few days to file the paperwork. I’ve never actually filed any complaint before and—”

“Riley, Riley.” I reach out, grabbing his arm. That catches his attention because we both look down at my grip before I release it quickly. “Can you slow down?”

Over the next few minutes, Riley more or less that we can have Tides back—if we’re willing to fight. How we go about that exactly, he might be saying in German.

I press my lips together, trying to gather my thoughts on the bits and pieces I do understand. “It’s not that…I…custody? Of a dog?”

“I mean, he’s property,” Riley says. “Legally speaking. We’ll ask for a writ of—”

“Riley, I got my GED, okay. I get you went to law school, I get”—I pause, correcting myself—“You’re alawyer, anattorney,whatever. But can you use kid gloves here for a second?”

Riley takes a deep breath. “We’re going to ask the judge to return Tides back since he was property wrongfully taken away. It’s calledreplevin…never mind,” he decides when I make a face. “The point is, he’s property of Nate’s estate just as much as this house is. That means, he belongs to you.”

“If he belongs to me, why did they take him in the first place? Especially after Nate’s been gone for almost three months?”

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