Page 40 of Boss Me Around

I tighten my grip on her hand and say in an emotion-rough voice, “It sure is.”

It’s better than okay.

It may just be the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

Am I really going to let it slip through my fingers?

Chapter Seventeen

STARLING

Kyle isn’t where the old grain shed used to be.

He isn’t on the Chastain farm or down by the crumbling silo or hitching a ride on the main road leading into town. He isn’t hanging with the goats the YMCA hired to chomp the long grass in their field or window shopping on Main or watching the boats come in by the marina.

By the time Christian pulls into The Dirty Taco to grab the takeout I ordered on the drive over, it feels like we’ve searched every square inch of Bad Dog.

“There has to be somewhere I haven’t thought of yet,” I say when Christian gets back with the food. I perk up. “Or maybe he’s already come home waiting for us on the front porch!”

“Let’s go check,” he says, shifting into reverse. “If he isn’t there, we can eat, check on Bella, and go back out again.”

“But it will be dark by then,” I say, clutching the bag of warm tacos on my lap. “And turkeys roost at night. He’ll be up a tree somewhere, and we won’t be able to see him.”

At least I hope he’ll be up a tree. Surely, his instincts are still strong enough to drive him to seek refuge from danger once it’s dark.

“Then we’ll get up early and look before work,” Christian assures me. “Sunrise is still pretty early this time of year. We should have at least an hour of daylight before we have to head over to the shelter. And when we get there, we can ask Sheila to send out a lost pet bulletin.”

I nod, trying to take comfort in the plan, but when we get back to my place to see no sign of Kyle, I’m so upset I can barely eat my chicken soft taco with extra guacamole.

“One more bite. You need your strength,” Christian urges from the couch, where he and Bella are snuggled up watching America’s Funniest Home Videos. I had a feeling she would love it as much as Kyle and Keanu do—she does—and I’m clinging to the hope Kyle might hear the canned laughter, realize how much he loves our happy home, and come scratching at the door.

“I can’t,” I say, staring at the carcass of my picked-apart taco. “Even Dirty Taco guac with extra cilantro can’t ease my pain.”

Christian’s lips twitch. “Dirty Taco guac. Is anyone ever going to tell Hortensia how filthy the name of her restaurant makes everything on the menu sound?”

I shake my head listlessly. “No. Never. And I wouldn’t want them to. I want to keep adding to my ‘eat dirty tacos, live the good life’ Dirty Taco t-shirt collection for the rest of my life. The D.T. is a bright spot of hilarity in the barren landscape of my miserable, Kyle-free life.”

His brow furrows sympathetically. “He’ll come back. He adores you.”

“Unless he’s been shot,” I say, a lump forming in my throat. “Autumn wild turkey season started last weekend. Wren texted to remind me to be extra vigilant from now until the end of the season. This is the absolute worst time for him to have escaped.”

“Come on,” Christian says, waving me toward the couch. “Get over here. You need skunk snuggles. Skunk snuggles make everything better.”

Rising slowly from my chair, I shuffle over to where Christian and Bella are cuddled under my big fleece blanket. Bella looks up at me and lets out a sweet little chirp that has me fighting tears again. “She’s such a good girl. I’m so glad you saved her. I hope you guys live happily ever after and she’s still giving you love licks ten years from now. Skunks only live a few years in the wild but can live as many as fifteen years in captivity. And she was only two when she was turned into the shelter.”

“I know,” Christian says, gently covering me with the blanket as I sink down beside them. He wraps his arm around my shoulders, cuddling me close to his side. “I did my research after Bella and I got home that first night. I wanted to be sure I knew what I was in for.”

I glance over at him, a little surprised. “And you still kept her? I thought you were afraid of long-term commitment.”

“It’s different with the right girl,” he says. Before I can think of how to respond to that, he adds, “Is it okay if we sleep over? I have extra clothes and a toothbrush in my gym bag in the truck. I figure we’ll be ready to head out and look for Kyle faster in the morning if I’m already here.”

I nod, more touched than I can express. “Yeah. That would be great. It would be hard to be alone right now.”

“You’re not alone,” he says, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “We’re here for you, Baxter.”

As if seconding her dad’s sentiment, Bella roots into the covers between us, snuffling and wriggling until she finds a cozy spot and relaxes with a sigh of contentment.

We sit that way for a long time, with Christian’s arm around me and Bella’s warm weight between us and the television flickering in the dim living room light and it is…right. As right as things can be without Kyle here, anyway.

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