Page 124 of Heart Strings & Hotlines
I’m sittingin the aisle seat of an airplane, with Kara to my right. Thane is across the aisle to my left, his fingers poking feverishly against the keyboard. His muttered rumblings seem to be irritating his seatmate.
“Brad.” The hostility Kara used to embed in that word has long lost its venom. “Don’t you own a plane? Why are we flying commercial?” We’ve been sitting on the tarmac for close to twenty minutes due to a mechanical issue.
His fingers pause on the keyboard while his head tilts to the side. It takes another moment before he turns to look at his sister.
“Oh. Yeah. I do.” It’s his version of a shrug.
“You own a plane, and you don’t fly on it?” I tried to keep the accusation out of my tone, but that’s a tidbit that’s hard to pass over.
The balding man to Thane’s left leans forward in interest.
“I forgot I had one. I don’t really care for travel. I think my executives use it occasionally, but I only bought it for the tax write-off.”
“You forgot you own a plane?” the man asks. The disbelief in his tone is understandable.
Thane growls, the man shrinks back in his seat, and I shake my head. Then a very distinct yip hits my ears, and I snap my attention to Thane.
He minimizes one screen and brings up another where a video of Hercules is clear as day.
“Did you put a nanny cam in her pen?”
“Yes.”
His nosy neighbor sits forward again and squints at Thane’s screen.
“Why?” Kara leans over me, now invested in his screen as well.
“Why? Mrs. Perez tried to kill me with peanut butter. You think I trust her not to poison Hercules too? That’s all I need. Could you imagine the backlash?Thane Wilder kills beloved petwould be all over the news.”
“Someone tried to kill you?” I cast Mr. Nosy a mind-your-own-business glare, but he ignores me.
“And you really think you’re going to give her to the shelter?” Kara laughs next to me. “You know, I looked up the Maltipoo breed. They tend to pick one person to attach themselves to, and based on what Mrs. Perez said, Hercules never bonded with the guy who had her before.”
Thane frowns at his sister. “What do you mean, bonded?”
“She only stops yipping and howling when she’s in your lap, or when you’re holding her or paying attention to her.”
“She’s a spoiled pain in the ass. I didn’t do that to her. She came that way.”
“But she settles with you because she feels safe.”
“A dog cannot feel safe with a human.”
“They absolutely can,” Mr. Nosy inserts himself. “They don’t call dogs man’s best friend for nothing. They take comfort from you just as you take comfort from them.”
“I most certainly do not take comfort from this ratdog.”
Kara and I exchange a look that calls out his bullshit like a flashing neon sign.
“If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have put a nanny cam in her pen. You care if she feels safe.” Mr. Nosy is really pushing it now.
“Don’t you have a movie to watch or something?” The threat in Thane’s tone does nothing to deter his neighbor.
“No way. You folks are a lot more interesting than anything I can find on the boob tube.”
“The boob—what the hell are you talking about?”
Hercules howls, and Thane’s attention is immediately sucked into the screen. “See? Look at this.” He angles his computer screen my way. “What is she feeding her? Is that a lasagna? Hercules has a very strict diet, and I left explicit details in a laminated folder, and now she’s feeding her… What is this?”
