Page 40 of The Love Wager

“My ex and I were super emotional when we sat them down,” he said, getting choked up, “but we were just honest.We said, ‘Listen, when we bought you two and brought you home, we had every intention of staying together forever.’ ”

Hallie narrowed her eyes. Had he just said “bought”?

“ ‘But sometimes forever isn’t possible, and that’s okay. We love both of you, but we’re going to have to split you up.’ ”

Hallie still just kept hearing the wordboughtas he continued speaking. He was blinking back tears, clearly very emotional, but she was having a hard time empathizing, because she couldn’t figure out what he’d said.Bought?!

“It’s never ideal to split up your kids, to each take one and go your separate ways, but somehow that seems better than a lifetime of forced interactions that would surely end in fights, right?”

Hallie pursed her lips before saying, “So the twins were adopted...?”

He smiled guiltily and said, “I wouldn’t say adopted, per se, because we wanted to make sure we got the exact kind we wanted.”

Hallie just stared at him, the gooey feeling gone. Dried up. Turned to dust.

“I know, I know—rescue is the thing to do.” He sighed and steepled his fingers under his chin. “But we really wanted Labradoodles from the same mother.”

Dogs?He was talking about hisdogs? Surely he couldn’t have thought that was obvious, could he? Hallie couldn’t stop her eyebrows from bunching together as she said, “So they’re not actually twins.”

Now his eyebrows went down. “No, they are.”

“Twin dogs are actually super rare.” Hallie knew it was splitting hairs, but she was suddenly irritated as hell at the dentist. “One pregnancy with just two puppies in the litter.”

“Oh.” He cleared his throat and looked confused by her words. “Well, they’re identical Labradoodles from the same litter, then.”

Hallie rubbed her lips together and told herself it was no big deal. So the guy talked about his dogs like they were his children; that wasn’t bad, right? At least he wasn’t a dick who hated animals. She inhaled through her nose—chill, Hal—before saying, “So you each walked away with one of the dogs when you split up...?”

He nodded, and his eyes filled with tears again. “One of the reasons we wanted Labradoodles was because they’re very emotional animals, but that was what made telling them so tough, y’know?”

Hallie nodded her head in an understanding way, but she was struggling. “I can’t even imagine.”

She kept trying to find empathy, because she was a very empathetic person, but Dr. Stephen was literally crying at dinner because he was worried about the emotional scars he and his ex-wife might’ve left on their dogs.

Dogs she’d thought were human toddlers five minutes before.

Once he’d wiped his eyes and they’d moved onto a safe topic—the new movie theater out on the west side of town—she excused herself to go to the restroom. But as she crossed the restaurant and headed for the hallway that led to the facilities, she was filled with disappointment.

Because the dog conversation, or maybe the misunderstanding about kids, had brought on the ick. She’d lost that initial attraction for the dentist, and she could tell it was lost forever.

“How’s it going with the doc, TB?”

She turned around, and there was Jack, also entering the bathroom hallway. He was giving her a grin, and she felt her face fall into a huge smile as she found comfort in her partner in crime. “Oh, my God, Jack, you won’t even believe it.”

She grabbed his sleeve and jerked him closer to the ladies’ room so they were out of sight from the table. She looked up into those teasing blue eyes and quickly told the absurd story. “I mean, am I being a bitch? Is he a delightful dog lover and I’m just an ass?”

He narrowed his eyes, and as he looked down at her, she was struck again by how tall he was. “Did he literally call them his kids, or was that you paraphrasing?”

She squinted and recalled the conversation. “At first he called them the twins, but then yeah, he totally called them kids.”

“You’re not wrong here; that’s bonkers.”

“Thankyou.” Hallie felt a little better. “How’s Carlie?”

“Great, except she told me she wants to be ‘treated like a queen.’ ”

“So?” Jack seemed like he’d treat a significant other well. “Is it that hard to treat a woman well?”

“No, a fucking actual queen.” He glanced over his shoulder, like he was worried about getting busted, and said, “She wants a man who will put her on a pedestal, shower her with gifts, defer to her wishes—her words, not mine—and never look at another woman again.”

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