Had the neighbors cornered them too?
“Daddy?” Brady had a slightly whiny tone in his voice and Icould hear his patience dwindling. “Daddy, puppy?”
Gareth was vibrating with excitement and he was wiggling somuch his tail was swinging back and forth. “Are you ready to play?”
It was a ridiculous question and just got him more worked upwhen Brady heard me and let out a squeal. “Puppy.”
Yep, he wasn’t going to have any issue playing with Gareth’spup side.
“Let’s go play.” Little Brady was something I knew. PupGareth was something I knew. Bates would be happy and confident no matter what.Jude would be frowning no matter what. “Yes, we’re going to have so much fun,pup.”
It was going to be fine and there would be no surprises.
Chapter 24
Bates
Nothing was going like I’d expected except for Brady andGareth.
Brady’s squeals as he called to the puppy had to be echoingthrough the building, and Gareth’s excited bark every time Brady called out forhim was everything I’d imagined…and adorable. But Jude was another storyaltogether.
He was relaxed.
He wasn’t frowning.
He was even sitting on the floor and smiling every timeBrady raced by the front of the couch, either chasing Gareth or running fromhim.
It was slightly unnerving because it wasn’t anything like Icould’ve predicted. I’d expected nervous. I’d expected growly. I’d expected himto be an obsessive worrier over Brady…but he was very calm and just taking itall in, and I wasn’t sure why.
And I wasn’t the only one who was confused.
Even Cashel kept sending the carefree-looking Domquestioning glances, but thankfully, he was sitting just to the side and mostlyout of view of the normally frowning Daddy who was leaning against the couch.
We’d spread out around the room without thinking about it,probably knowing the chaos of Brady and Gareth running around, but givingCashel some space from Jude seemed to be working out well. Cashel was confused,but he wasn’t glaring daggers at Jude or assuming the worst, and Jude waspleasant.
So we’d made a surprising amount of progress.
But part of that might’ve been because Jude was smiling andgiving instructions to Brady like the whole thing was perfectly normal. “Gentlepets, Bambi. Don’t hurt the puppy.”
Considering the puppy outweighed Brady by asignificant amount, I wasn’t worried, but since it might be Jude’s way of beingnice to the puppy, I didn’t point it out.
I did, however, watch curiously as everything moved in perfectharmony.
It was actually kind of disturbing and I was wondering howto check to see if Jude was a pod person when Brady threw the ball down thehallway again and the partners in crime went racing off together. “I think I’mgoing to need to find a longer place for them to play next time.”
Was there a conference room on campus we could reserve thatwould have enough privacy for them to run around like maniacs?
Jude actually chuckled as the ball went flying toward thefront of the apartment and two cuties thundered after it. “I’m not sure I haveany suggestions for that, but it’s not a bad idea.”
Nodding mostly to myself as Brady threw the ball and laughedas Gareth charged after it, I wished I had a better idea because they wereadorable and clearly needed more space. Every time they got up to full speed,they got to the back of the apartment and had to turn around and start all overagain.
It was wearing them out wonderfully, but it wasn’t enoughroom.
And at some point, I was pretty sure they were going tosmack into the far wall because they were getting closer and closer with everymad dash.
“I guess it’s something I’ll keep in mind for the nextapartment.” It made me wonder if there was any way to search for apartments byhallway running length.
Was there a way to word that where it wouldn’t sound like Iwas insane?