Page 121 of Hound Dog
Instead of Freckles, the hedgehog came rolling down the hallway in her little bubble ball thing that she used to roam the house. She ran right into the back of Meryl’s good ankle.
“Haylee said I had time to make my choice. That I could wait until she came back.”
My heart jumped.Until she came back.Which meant shewascoming back.
“Right,” I said, nodding. “I’m not trying to rush you. I just have a, um, friend I was meeting with this evening and they were thinking of adopting a dog. I thought if you knew right now of one you could part with, I could borrow one of them and see if it was a good fit.”
Meryl gave me a soft wink. “Oh, Finny. You know me well enough. I don’t even want to give any more of these sweet babies away. You really think I’m going to let them go a second sooner than I have to?”
I chuckled. “Guess not.”
“Besides, aren’t you fostering a couple of dogs through Yvonne’s animal rescue?”
“Yes.” I nodded. That’s how I got around the new rule. I could foster a couple of dogs for a week or two. And Yvonne was happy to let me foster since I had such a high success rate setting up adoptions.
“But you aren’treallyhere to ask me about my dogs, are you? You want to know about Haylee.”
My gaze dropped to my feet, and I couldn’t even look at Meryl. “Is she okay? I mean, she’s a millionaire now, so she must be okay.”
Meryl gave a quick, humorless chuckle. “If that’s really what you think, then you don’t know Haylee half as well as I thought you did.”
Slowly, I lifted my gaze to hers just in time to catch her say, “She misses you. She thinks she’s hiding it well, but I can see it in her eyes when we Facetime.”
I gulped, trying to swallow down the softball-sized knot in the throat. “Do you know when she’s coming back?”
Ifshe’s coming back.
Meryl shrugged. “Soon. Probably. But why would that matter? You were the one who wanted the break, after all.”
She was poking me. Blaming me. And I deserved it.
Because nothing had changed in the last few weeks. I was still the same Finn. The guy who grew up without a dad. The guy who couldn’t commit.
And she still deserved better than me.
So why the hell am I standing here on her doorstep if nothing has changed?
“Can I offer you a little advice?” Meryl asked, though I got the impression it wasn’t a question. I was getting that advice whether I wanted it or not.
“Life Lesson Number Two Million Twenty-three?”
Meryl gave my sad attempt at a joke a small smile. “Actually, we got a lot of our life lessons directly from those awful horror movies she loved to watch.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Number One: never ever pick up a hitchhiker,” Meryl said. “Two: if Jamie Lee Curtis arrives at a cocktail party, bee-line it out of there. Three: never assume a massive flock of birds overhead is natural migration.”
“Mmm,” I tsked and shook my head. “Haylee loves birds. She would have been watching them through binoculars as they attacked her and Tippi Hedren.”
“Exactly the reasons for these lessons! And lastly: never stop fighting.” She paused and scrunched one shoulder to her ear. “Normally, in horror movie lessons, that’s specific to fighting for your life. But I think it applies in love, too. So, I guess the only question left is, how are you going to fight for her, Finn?”
My heart thundered in my chest so hard that I was pretty sure Meryl could hear it. How many times did I have to explain myself? Love wasn’t in the cards for me. It was a rain-slick road, and I was the novice driver who had no idea how to navigate the dangerous curves ahead.
The only way I knew how to love Haylee was from afar. The best way I could show my love was to let her go.
“I don’t think I should fight for her,” I answered honestly. “I think Haylee deserves a hell of a lot better than me.”
I wasn’t sure what I expected Meryl to say in response to that. But I definitely didn’t expect her massive eye-roll. Or her disapproving snort. “Oh, God. You’rethatguy.”
