Page 86 of A Much Younger Man
“He’ll be here in the morning,” I reassured her.
“Hello, gorgeous.” Rico tried reassuring her too, but she continued to look subdued. We binge watchedPit Bulls and Paroleestogether—Callie seemed to like that show—until I fell asleep on the couch with her big, warm body lying between my calves.
At about two in the morning, there was a knock at the door.
Disoriented, I got up and looked through the window.
Beck stood there, guitar in hand, looking ruffled by wind and altogether not dressed warmly enough.
I opened the door to let him in. “Hey. I said you could leave her tonight.”
“I didn’t feel right without her. And I didn’t want her to think I would go and not come back.”
“She’s safe here, Beck. She’ll get used to it if you need me to dogsit.” I had my hands in my pockets, but he moved into my space anyway. He smelled of woodsmoke, and sea air, and beer, and weed, and something that was utterly, instantaneously recognizable as Beck.
I breathed him in and knew I’d never get my fill.
He set his guitar down and crowded me until I put my arms around him. “Missed you.”
“Me too,” I admitted. “Callie and I watched Animal Planet, but she never took her eyes off the door. Guess she missed you too.”
“I’m so cold.” He put his hand out to greet her from within the circle of my arms. She tried to nudge between our legs. “How come you didn’t come with us?”
“Seemed like it was the local college set.”
“No one would have cared.”
“I didn’t want to spend the night sitting on the ground.” I teased, “And smoke always finds the best-looking guy. Was it fun?”
“Mmhmm.” He let go and fell onto the couch. Callie jumped up beside him. They took up nearly the whole thing, so I sat in the chair opposite. “It was weird, though. It felt like being back in high school.”
“How so?”
“It was as if the last year never happened. I played guitar, we drank beer, people messed around. Maybe fifteen minutes would go by, and then I’d remember about Bryce and how I got here.”
“Well, that’s good, isn’t it? I mean, that you had that opportunity to be a kid again. You know, Callie would thrive with me, I think. If you wanted to, you could get a place, go back to school. Make a fresh start.”
His gaze flew up to meet mine. “Is that what all this is?”
“All what?”
“I noticed you have a new dog bed. I see the toys.” He stood and began stomping around, taking stock.
“Beck—”
“You think just because it’s you it’s okay for me to walk away?” He clipped Callie’s leash to her collar. “Or are you thinking that if you keep Callie, that’s a good excuse to keep me around? People won’t think anything of it because it’s about the dog.”
“No, that’s not it at all.” I held out a placating hand. “But leaving her with me sometimes would give you freedom to work and go to school and just…be young and carefree sometimes.”
“And then what? I get busy with friends my own age and everything will be okay?”
“I didn’t think that far ahead.” He stopped in his tracks and picked up one of the toys, a particularly resilient shark-shaped stuffy. “This is actually kind of awesome.”
“Take it. Callie tried to kill it for quite a while. She likes it.”
He tucked it under his arm. “I know you mean well, but you’re not taking my dog.”
“I never even imagined taking your dog.”
