Play Fair(61)

I’d spent the past hour looking at all the different local shelters’ websites. When I clicked on the last page, I’d about given up hope of finding what I was looking for. And then I saw him. He was a two-month-old Great Dane/American Bulldog mix, solid white with a black patch over his eye. He was perfect.

When Landry got out of the pool, I rushed her through getting dressed. We usually went and got something to eat after class; she was always starving. But I drove us straight to the shelter instead. It took three pages of paperwork and one cuddle session in front of a shelter worker, and then he was ours.

We were stopped at a gas station on the way home; the puppy had peed in Jacks’s Tesla. “Landry, be sure to hold him tight, there are lots of cars around here.” She had him in her arms in the front seat while I did my best to soak up urine from the backseat. Maybe Jacks was right after all—getting him potty-trained before they moved was smart.

“Okay, Momma.”

I went stock-still, my eyes searching the parking lot. Was she here? Had she spotted us? I stood up, checking every car window I could see into. And then I realized something, she didn’t call Amelia Momma, she called her Mom. I dipped my head down to look at Landry. She was cuddling the puppy and giggling while he licked her face. She didn’t have a care in the world. She hadn’t seen her mom; she’d called me Momma. My eyes filled with tears. I took a few seconds to get my emotions under control and then I threw away the rags I was using. “Okay, sweet girl, climb in the back and get your seat belt on.” I waited for her to buckle up and then I passed her the wiggly puppy.

I couldn’t leave her. What the hell was I thinking? Me going away wasn’t our only option here. They wanted permanent? We’d give it to them.





Chapter Twenty-seven


Jacks

Last night had been fucking brutal. Bryan had destroyed me. What I couldn’t figure out was why, because I knew she hadn’t had one foot out the door. Right? Maybe she just wasn’t willing to fight for us. I hadn’t talked to her today. I was avoiding her, which was easy because I was in the studio and she was with Landry at swim. See? I knew she had swim class today.

“Earth to Jacks.” Luke snapped his fingers in front of my face.

“Sorry, what?”

He cocked his head. “How you doing, man?”

I shook my head. “I feel like my heart was ripped out of my fucking chest and the sun will never shine again.”

Luke’s eyebrows rose. “I wish there was something we could say, or do, to make it better.”

“There isn’t.” I didn’t want to talk about it, it hurt too much. The thought of Bryan leaving was literally gut wrenching.

“What are you going to do?”

I looked over to Smith. “What can I do? She’d rather run than fight. And I can’t even blame her. Between Landry and her mom…my life is chaos right now. She has every reason to want to go.” I just thought we meant more to her than that.

“Fight for both of you.” My head shot up at the sound of Dylan’s voice. I hadn’t even heard the door open.

“What?”

“You heard me, Jacks. Fight. Fight enough for the both of you.”

I stood. “Are you kidding me right now? You’ve been all but daring her to leave for the past month, and now that she actually is, you want to be supportive?”

“I realized something last night.” She closed her eyes, steeling herself. “I was wrong.”

She opened her eyes and I held her gaze. “She lied. Last night, she lied about why she was leaving. Didn’t she?”

“Go ask her yourself. Go fight.” She gestured to the floor above us.

I turned toward the stairs. I’d show these people a fucking fight. I wasn’t going to let her leave us, and she had another think coming if she thought I’d let her sacrifice herself for us. I entered the main floor to the sound of Landry laughing. It was her super happy laugh; it sounded like little bells. I followed the sound into the backyard where Landry, Bryan, and Dagger were running around with the cutest white puppy I’d ever seen. “B?”

Bryan looked up when I walked out onto the back porch, her smile wary. “Hey.”

I stared across the yard. “Whose puppy?”

“Landry’s.” She reached down and gave him a good tummy scratch when he rolled over at her feet. “I saw him on a shelter website and I couldn’t resist.”

I nodded. “A going-away present?”

“Something like that.”

Her answer cut deep. If we were going to have this out, it was going to happen right fucking now. “Hey, Buttercup? Uncle Luke is making lunch. Why don’t you go eat and then you can come back out and play.”