Page 85 of Learning to Run

He’d seemed very sure pups drank water, but I could see himchanging his mind.

Cashel shook his head as Jude pressed his lips together likeit was hilarious. “No, um, puppies drink water from bowls.”

Well, that would be messy.

And I wasn’t sure they had the right mouth structure to makethat work.

“Yes, bigger puppies drink from bowls but cute little onesuse bottles.” Probably. “Aren’t you a cute little puppy?”

Pretending to be confused, I took the sippy cup from Casheland held out my arms. “You were the cutest little puppy.”

Nodding slowly, Brady climbed over Gareth, knees and elbowsgoing everywhere. “I’m very cute.”

And very confident.

“And so fast.” Brady kept nodding as he climbed into my lap,ignoring any awkwardness as he latched onto the praise. “You raced after theball and you played with the other puppy. But puppies need cuddles and waterand treats when they’re good.”

Bingo.

“I was very good.” Curling up on my lap, he rested his headon my chest and seemed to have decided that being a good pup was the way to getthe most cookies. “I get lots of treats.”

“I agree.” Bringing the sippy cup up to his mouth, I madesure Jude only saw confidence and acceptance as I helped Brady with the water.

His Daddy was the definition of protective, and I didn’twant to accidentally give any impression that I was uncomfortable with Brady.The cute nut was dramatic and adorable, but I knew not everyone would’ve beenrelaxed around him.

But luckily for Jude, I was not everyone.

It’d have taken something a lot more interesting than beinga little pretending to be a pup to shock me. Hell, he was fully clothed andbeing adorably manipulative, that was not something to worry about.

So as Brady relaxed and sucked on his cup like a good pup, Ipetted the pup’s head and smiled at the other pup who was grinning like a goofballand wiggling excitedly. “I think we should find some puppy cartoons for ourcute pups.”

And that got wiggles from both of them.

Cartoons and cuddles and cookies…it wasn’t a bad way tospend an evening with family.

Chapter 25

Gareth

“That was so much better than coloring with him and gettingyelled at for picking the wrong crayon.” Stretching out on the bed, I wiggledand yawned as exhaustion started to hit me. “It’s more work, though.”

Bates chuckled as he lay down beside me and ran a hand overmy chest. “It’s a lot more work, but you both had fun.”

Before I could do more than nod, Cash hopped up on the bedand sat cross-legged beside me. “I was a bit worried that it would be awkwardor stressful, but it wasn’t, not for very long at least.”

Good point.

“Okay, I had a lot of fun, but why did Jude enjoy himself?”I didn’t think that was a stupid question, but I was glad when they both pausedand looked thoughtful. “So I wasn’t the only one who found that weird?”

My pup side hadn’t really cared that it was strange. He’dbeen more focused on Brady and being fast and playing, but human sub me wasstarting to realize how strange the night had been because it hadn’t beenstrange.

Just thinking about that sentence made my head hurt, so Iwas glad when Bates and Cash both shrugged.

“Well…” Bates was definitely the big thinker of the group,since he thought about stuff without obsessively worrying, so I was curious tohear what he’d think. “Part of it might be that Jude had a rough childhood. Iwon’t go into detail about what I heard, but he doesn’t really know what asupportive family looks like, normal or more fascinating.”

Brady’s family was definitely on the more fascinating end ofthe scale no matter what it looked like.

“So we made him nervous and confused?” I could agree withthat assumption. “But why did seeing me and Brady play make him feel better?That doesn’t sound reasonable.”

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