Page 216 of Come Back to Me

It meant that the night we were supposed to spend by the lake, enjoying the sunset, didn’t happen like we planned.

I half-expected he’d pull away, stick to the couch, and forget about our talks, but though he came home late every night and woke up before I did, I knew he slept beside me.

The faint scent of his aftershave on my pillow, the watch he forgot and left on my nightstand—they were clues and I cherished them.

I didn’t mind when Lindsay started eying me oddly—maybe she’d seen him sneak out of my room?

His absence, however, meant Callan and I had to face our dogs on our own.

“Why does he keep biting me?” I groan, wiggling my hand to shake off the sting.

“Be grateful yours has hardly any teeth. Mine’s are sharper than a razor,” he grouches. “I had to buy new socks becauseRocket’s obsessed with chewing on them. I think Zee’s idea of a punishment is dropping a pair into the stall whenever she goes for a ride. How else is Rocket even accessing my socks when the little shit refuses to come into the house?”

Plopping down on the dirt-packed ground, I mutter, “It’s destiny.”

“What is?”

“Or do I mean karma?”

“What?!” he snaps, his tone unusually sharp, but I understand.

Wanting to love something that seriously dislikes you gets pretty wearing.

I rub my nose because I refuse to cry. “Karma. We adopted dogs for everyone, we tried to bewitch them, yet here we are. Complete and utter failures.”

“At least we got them out of the paddock.”

“That was last week’s win. Anyway, how are the stables any better?”

“We don’t have to worry about them running off,” he points out, sounding as glum as I feel.

“By this point, they’d probably be happier if they did,” I grouse.

“We can’t give up, Tee.”

“I never said we would. I ... Are we distressing them by making them put up with us?”

At that, he tumbles back on a pile of hay. “Damn, I never thought of it that way.”

“You two sound cheerful.”

The deep tenor of my fake un-boyfriend comes as a delicious surprise. When I perform the quickest sit-up in history, it’s worth it when I find him watching us over the stable door.

Happy to see him in the light of day and when I’m actually conscious, I beam a grin at him. “What are you doing here?”

“He lives here, Tee,” Callan says wryly.

“It’s early!” I argue.

Cody and I share a knowing look. “I heard you’re still having issues with the dogs.”

Callan plucks at the hay bale. “The hellhounds, you mean.”

“More like hell pups. They’re not exactly terrifying, Cal.”

“Maybe because you don’t keep being bitten by them!”

“We’ve tried everything,” I wail.

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