Page 59 of Otter Heart
Adam dragged me toward the sound, gripping my arm tightly. I managed to keep my feet under me as we charged through the bushes. Branches whipped at my face and arms, but I didn’t care. I had to get to Bessie. She justhadto be okay.
We finally broke through the shrubs, ran an easy ten feet, and I heard the squeal of rusty hinges as Adam pulled the shed door open. And then he gasped.
“What?!” I barked, tears threatening already as I smelled the blood in the air. “What’s wrong?! Is she hurt?”
He squeezed my arm, and I could hear him smile. “No.”
“What’s going on then?!”
“She… She had puppies.”
All the emotions I was storing inside me suddenly fell away and all that was left was confusion.
“She… she what?”
“Puppies,” Adam repeated as he counted under his breath. “Eight of them.”
Bessie made another high-pitched whine and Adam gagged.
“Oh… oh god,” he groaned, pulling away from me. “Nine.”
I just stood there with my mouth hanging open in shock.Finally, there was only one thing I could think to say as I turned my gaze down in Bessie’s direction.
“You little slut.”
Chapter Twenty-Six: Adam
“Well, I guess that explains why she was getting so fat,” Mateo laughed as he conversed with the neighbor. “I guess I know what she was doing when she was sneaking out all the time too, the little hussy.”
“I’m sorry,” his neighbor chuckled. “When I saw the two of them playing together, I thought she was fixed so I didn’t think much of it. I guess maybe I should’ve kept them apart.”
All three of us were standing on the back patio of the neighbor’s condo. The rain had stopped and while Adam and I were still soaked, the newly revealed sun warmed us through pretty quickly.I stood a couple feet away with my gaze pointed back at the shed. There Bessie laid in a nest of fresh blankets with her nine pups. Next to her sat a large black German Shepherd, looking just as proud as he could. Both of them stared down at their pups. Four of them were gold, four were black, and one was a mottled mixture of both.
In the time it took to get the neighbor and the blankets, Bessie had licked the pups clean. An act which I found horribly disgusting. But now that they looked like puppies and not wet, sticky little gremlins, they were sort of cute. And all of them were suckling away, fighting each other over who got which nipple. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, it was probablythe most adorable thing I’d ever seen. The whole dog thing was really starting to grow on me.
Despite the cuteness and the feeling of relief that everything way okay, I was beginning to grow anxious. Seeing Mateo again was the last thing I wanted to do and the more time I spent around him, the more I felt like I’d be forced to explain myself about why I was going home. As much as it hurt to think about leaving, I still didn’t want to tell him everything I’d been feeling. Especially when he didn’t feel that way about me.
Then again, in his moment of need, he’d calledmeinstead of talking to his neighbors that were much more available. He chose me over everyone else to help him. That had to mean something, right? It wasn’t just about convenience anymore. There had to be something more going on.
Maybe… Maybe we needed to talk after all.
“Well,” Mateo said at last. “Do you mind if I leave her here for the moment? Just so she can rest. And I’m not really prepared to have puppies, so I need to get some things.”
“That’s fine,” the neighbor replied. “I’ll keep an eye on all of them while you get things situated.” He paused. “Besides, I might want to keep one if that’s okay with you.”
“Of course! I can’t have ten dogs in my condo! The pups will have to go eventually either way. So just let me know which one you want and when they’re ready, I’ll bring it over.”
“Sounds good. Let me know if I can help with puppy food and stuff too. It’s the least I can do.”
“Thanks. I will.” Mateo turned in my direction. “Adam? Can you take me back to the house?”
“Y-Yeah,” I murmured, shaking myself out of my thoughts. “Of course.”
I took his arm and we both waived goodbye as we headed back to his condo. Our shoes squelched against the pavement, the water having soaked them all the way through. But I ignored it. I was too busy trying to figure out what I was going to say to him. However, not a word was spoken until we were inside the house and the door was shut behind us.
“Mateo,” I said, not willing to waste another moment. The words were clawing at my throat, begging to get out. “I have to know something. Why… Why did you callme?”
He glanced up at me, his brows furrowed in confusion.
