Page 17 of Her Greatest Mistake

She stares at the wall behind me as a flush creeps up her neck to her cheeks and ears. “Yes.”

And just like that, I’m fourteen again.

Braxton gives me a white-toothed grin when she walks outside and spots me standing at my regular spot by the fire hydrant on the curb. My hands are in my pockets, but I’m quick to pull them out and wrap her up in my arms when she gets close enough.

Her usual scent of peaches and vanilla is tainted with the smell of wet dog, but I don’t care. I pull her as close as possible and breathe her in.

“I missed you,” I say after she pushes me away with a giggle.

“You saw me four hours ago.”

“Exactly.” I scoff.

She rolls her eyes playfully, and I softly move her to the inside of the sidewalk before tossing my arm over her shoulders. My dad taught me early on that the man should always walk on the side of the sidewalk closer to the road, and for some reason, it’s always stuck. Maybe because I like knowing I’m protecting Braxton.

I’ve been bringing her to and from her summer job every day since she started last month. Yeah, it’s a forty-minute walk from my house to the doggy daycare and another half hour from her house to mine, but I don’t care. I take every minute of extra time I can have with her. Even if it means I have to endure sweaty balls in the summer heat.

“How was your day?” I ask.

She slides her arm around my back and leans into my side. “Amazing. If I didn’t want to be a vet, I think I would want to run a doggy daycare. I can’t get enough of all those cute smiles.”

I don’t have it in me to tell her that dogs can’t smile. If anyone could actually make it possible, it would be my Braxton. All she’d have to do is flash one of her dimples and they’d be putty in her hands.

“Who was your favourite today?”

“Definitely Perry. He’s perfected his shake a paw and can do both paws at once now,” she exclaims.

“Have you thought of a career in dog training?”

She shakes her head. “I don’t think that’s for me. I prefer the end result rather than the journey getting there when it comes to training.”

“That’s fair.” We hit the crosswalk just in time for the white stick man to start flashing, and we hurry across the road. “Your future dog is going to be the best-trained one in the world.”

“Our dog, you mean,” she corrects me.

I smile. “Yeah, my bad.”

“Do you have any name ideas? You know how bad I am with names.”

“Any name we pick now will probably change by then, Brax.”

“Nuh-uh. Let’s make a promise on it.”

Glancing down at her, I take in the look of concentration on her face and stifle a laugh. “If it’s that important to you, then fine. But this promise could compromise the integrity of all past and future promises if it’s broken.”

“Mmhmm. Now, tell me.”

“Hades. I would name our dog Hades.”

She looks up at me, her head craning back due to our height difference. Bright blue eyes glimmer with the promise of a future. God, I love that look.

“The king of the underworld. Scary and ferocious. It’s a name for a big dog with dark fur.”

I shrug, a rush of embarrassment flooding me for a brief moment. “It’s just an idea, obviously. I don’t know why I would choose that name. I guess I think it would be pretty badass.”

Her fingers press into my side, and she moves closer. “No, I love it. Hades it is.”

The memory leaves me breathless, and for a moment, I’m suspended in time, lost between past and present. It’s not until an elbow digs into my side, the same spot young Braxton’s fingertips were, that I come to.

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