Page 89 of Doing Life

“Sure there is. I get to come home to you.”

His cheeks heated. “Oh, flattery will get you laid.”

There was a hesitation, and then Sloan said, “Have I told you how beautiful you are today? How incredibly hot you are? How you’re the finest thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life?”

Lance cracked up. “You are a shit.”

He did love that about the fine son of a bitch.

“I mean it.” Sloan reached over to touch his leg, which of course set off a spasm of canine jealousy, and both dogs were all over them, Sloan laughing and telling Maynard, “No, buddy. You can’t have beer.”

Lance hooted. “So much for the mood.”

Sloan snorted. “We’ll regain that when we lock them out tonight.”

“Yeah. At least Maynard has stopped howling when we do that.” The first couple of nights had been… challenging. But neither of them had ever even thought of Maynard being on a trial run.

He was home for good.

“I think Abby bites him now.”

Lance nodded. “I can get that.”

“I just want to bite you. Speaking of, what do you want for supper?”

He pondered that, but it was really Sloan he was thinking about. About how he loved these quiet moments the most. These times when they were nothing but two guys planning supper.

He had never thought that he’d get this in life. Honestly. He thought—he didn’t know—he thought that maybe he’d fall apart, he guessed.

“What’s the matter?” Sloan squeezed his leg.

“Nothing. I don’t think anything’s the matter. I was just thinking how cool this was, and then, to be honest, I was thinking about how I never thought that this was something I could hope for.”

“Sitting in the backyard with dogs.”

He nodded. “Exactly. Sitting in the backyard with dogs.”

“Well, I’m hoping for something even better.”

Oh, that was intriguing. “Yeah?”

“Yeah, I want to sit inmybackyard in the snow with dogs.”

“Ah, but you don’t have any grass, do you? That’s just mean.”

Sloan pinched him just enough to make him twitch. “I’ve got grass, sort of. I mean, there’s a patch of grass, and then there’s dirt, pebbles, and sand in my backyard. It’s fenced, but even better? I have a deck, and there’s going to be a hot tub. So we can bubble.”

“I could probably finance that, the bubbling.”

“You’d do that for us, would you?”

“I would. You let me know what it’ll cost and we can do it from here, before we move back home.” God knew he had enough money. Thank goodness, because God knew Maynard could eat. That pup could pound down some kibbles.

“I love how that sounds in your voice, babe. Move back home.” Sloan shifted in his seat. “How do you feel about pizza for supper?”

Lance shrugged, his cheeks heating. “Sure. You know how I feel about pizza. I am pro pizza in every way.”

It was easy to eat, he could pick it up with his hands, he didn’t have to worry about it. All in all, it was a win.

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