“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I hedged, sneaking Kosher another fry.
He licked the fry from my hand, then swallowed it whole.
“Uh huh,” he agreed. “I can see that.”
I grinned unrepentantly at him. “Where’s Foster?”
He pointed to a room beyond the bar. “Something came up. I was sent in here to take you ladies home with me for a while. You can meet the puppies.”
“Puppies?” Mercy and I chirped at the same time.
We’d both done amazingly well about not hinting about wanting to know what was going on. It would be a losing battle. Something we both knew we wouldn’t be winning wholly for the fact that if Trance had wanted us to know, he’d have told us. Instead, he’d cleanly glossed over the two men having ‘something to do,’ and had told us what we were doing. And I was fairly sure he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Sighing, I said, “I’ll go with you on one condition.”
He raised his brow at me. “What’s that?”
I grinned.***“I want the white one,” Mercy said from her perch on the floor next to me.
Oakley, Trance’s daughter, picked up the white one and gave her to Mercy. “This one’s daddy’s favorite. You can’t have her. You can have him, though.”
She pointed at the other white one. The one Trance’s son, Ford, was currently torturing…I mean holding.
“Your husband won’t let you have another one,” Trance drawled from his spot on the couch.
He was scratching Tequila’s head.
Tequila was the mother of the massive brood. She was also a trained K-9 officer, but Trance had never used her in the field.
Kosher was the father of the brood, and surprisingly protective of them all.
“How much longer do they need to stay with Tequila before they’re ready to be weaned?” Mercy asked, totally disregarding Trance’s comment.
“They were ready a week and a half ago, but Viddy here seems to think that we’re keeping them all, which we most definitely are not,” he said, directing that comment at his wife who was sitting on the chair beside her husband.
Viddy shot him a look. “It’s not that I want to keep them, it’s just that I want them to have really good homes. Homes that I can visit whenever I want to so I can check on them. Make sure they’re happy.”
I understood that.
Although I’d heard about the retired K-9 officer dying a year or two ago, I never connected them with anyone I knew until Viddy had mentioned it upon arriving at their home.
“So I can pawn them off on my brothers, make them pay, and you’re happy?” Trance asked hopefully.
She considered it for a moment, and when she didn’t find any problems with it, she answered simply. “Yes.”
He jumped off his chair. “Sold!”
Viddy laughed as I looked down at the puppy in my lap.
I currently had the brute of the bunch.
Trance and Viddy said that Ford had started calling him Morris, and I had to laugh.
“I have a bird named Boris. They’d be best friends,” I cooed, petting the beautiful black and brown puppy in my lap.
He seriously was the most adorable thing I’d ever seen.
“You have a bird?” Trance asked in disgust. “Aren’t they gross?”
I shook my head. “Surprisingly, no. He is annoying, though.”
“He says, ‘boom goes the dynamite’ when we fuck,” Foster drawled from the doorway.
I gasped, covering the closest child’s ears, which happened to be Ford. “Watch your mouth!”
He grinned. “I’m sure he’s heard worse.”
Trance snorted, not saying a word. Viddy, though, glared at her brother in law.
Grinning deviously at Foster, she turned her evil smile to me. “So Blake…did you know that Foster hates hearing the sound of a nail file? And his feet are ticklish? Oh, he’s afraid of heights, yet he doesn’t like to admit it. Or…mmmmppph.”
Foster covered her mouth. “Remember, sister dearest. I know things about you, too. I’m sure Trance would love to know what you got him for his birthday.”
“You wouldn’t,” she glared.
He grinned deviously. “Try me.”
She opened her mouth to, what I’d guess was, blast him, but she closed it with a snap. “To answer your earlier question, Blake. Yes, you can have the dog.”
“No, she can’t,” Foster tried.
“Why not?” I asked.
He scowled. “Because the apartment doesn’t allow pets.”
I could tell he was lying.
“Actually, Downy had Mocha there for months before he moved out. I’m pretty sure they won’t mind,” Miller said, coming into the kitchen with a beer for each of the brothers.
Foster punched Miller in the arm, making him rock back on his feet and laugh.
I smiled, enjoying the way the brothers teased each other.
I never had anything like that.
My parents had had another child a few years after I was born, but he’d been born stillborn. Something that had torn both of my parents up so badly that they never tried to have any more.
I looked down at the puppy in my arms. “Do you want to come home with me, Morris?”
“No! His name isn’t Morris anymore! It’s Molder!” Ford yelled loudly.
I blinked. “So it’s okay if I take Molder home with me?” I asked the little boy.
He studied me for a moment. “Yeah, I guess.”
Viddy giggled, slapping her husband on the arm. “That’s you coming out in him.”
He shrugged. “At least that’s a somewhat good thing. He’s got your temper, though.”
Viddy smiled widely at her husband. “That’s true.”
“Trance, did mom tell you she was coming in in two weeks?” Miller asked, taking a seat on the floor beside his wife.
Trance shook his head. “No. Why?”
Foster took a seat on the couch directly behind me, and moved me until I was leaning against his legs.
“She said she had some news and that she wanted to tell us about it in person,” Foster said, scratching ‘Molder’s’ head.
“Are you sure you want a dog?” Foster whispered, interrupting the conversation I was listening to.
I nodded. “I’ve always wanted a dog. He’s cute, too.”
He sighed and pulled my hair backward until I looked up at him.
“You know that they shit and piss, and all that fun stuff, right?” he confirmed.