Page 75 of The Leaving Road

I couldn’t help but laugh, and it was quickly joined by Sloan, while Lexie and Jace just looked at us like we were crazy.

It felt good, it felt normal. It felt like the beginning of forever.

Chapter 47

Sloan

“It’s your turn.” Magnolia’s sleepy voice woke me, and I tried my best to wipe the sleep from my eyes, but I justcouldn’t.

“Sloan, you promised.” Her whisper turned pleading. “You said you’d take care of them; swore up and down like a kid.I promise I’ll wake up with them, babe; I promise you won’t have to worry about a thing.”

“Did I?” I asked her, pulling her closer and tucking her into my side, hoping the other noise I’d been trying to avoidwent away.

The soft little whines of two puppies we ended up keeping and were currently going through potty training were.

“Come on, Sweet Potato and Pie, Dad will take you out.” Trying my best to guilt Magnolia out of sleep and outside instead of me, I was only met with her soft snores.

Peaches popped her head up as I collected the puppies from their kennels. Once she realized what was happening, she laid back down and promptly went right back to sleep, having no need to go outside at two-forty-five in the morning.

While the puppies sniffed every blade of grass that wasn’t covered in a soft layer of snow and ice, I let my thoughts fill with the last few weeks. Filling all my free time with Magnolia, I’d all but moved in, my apartment was just a formality at this point.

We spent our evenings discussing our hopes and dreams for the future—her dreams of a low-cost vet clinic stirred something inside of me. I wanted to give her everything she wanted in this life, so I had a few things up my sleeve, and in turn, a few things in the works to give her what she deserved.

We argued like everyone and had to overcome our past, which wasn’t going to be solved in a day or a week, but she knew I wasn’t going anywhere. I was obsessed with her, and I knew she felt the same. I couldn’t call it anything else other than obsession—evenloveseemed lame. She consumed my thoughts, morning, afternoon, and night.

She hung out at both restaurants when I had to pick up a shift, and even lent a hand bartending once, but I quickly realized that wasnotgoing to work for me with the alarming number of men that hit on her and phone numbers she got.

Basically, if I wasn’t at work, I made sure I was invading every aspect of Magnolia’s life, andthriving in it.

Yipping had me going out into the freezing cold yard instead of watching the puppies from the porch, and I scooped them up to bring them back inside, snuggling them close. I remembered the argument that Magnolia and I had before I convinced her to keep these two.

“I caved. I named them,” I explained to Magnolia when she walked through the door after her shift at the clinic.

“We can’t keep them, Sloan, we just can’t. Puppies are a lot of work.”

“So? We have the time,” I argued

“We have the time. We. Have. The. Time?” she questioned me with her eyebrow raised.

Truth was, she didn’t really have the time. She was very busy with the clinic and repairs on the house, not to mention starting to think about her clinic and what she could offer.

“Okay, I have the time. I promise I’ll do everything.”

“You sound like a kid.”

“Please?” I gave her my best puppy dog stare.

“Okay, fine, I give in! How can I say no?”

“Meet Sweet Potato and Pie.”

Once I had the puppies corralled and back upstairs, and somewhat calmed down into their kennels, I was able to snuggle back under the covers with Magnolia. She wiggled over to me and cuddled in, and I breathed in her scent.

“You awake, baby?”

“Mmm…yes,” she whispered back, and I could hear the want in her voice.

“I love you, you know that?” I told her in the quiet of the night.

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