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"Zoe?" Jared said, drawing her attention. She looked up at her boss, hoping against hope that he hadn't heard.
"Yes?" she asked, hoping he wasn't going to try and comfort her. She hated pity more than anything.
"Are you going to eat that?" he asked, looking down at her salad with diced up chicken and licking his lips as if he were staring at fillet mignon.
Relieved that he hadn't heard, Zoe sighed as she looked down at her salad. She was pretty hungry, but maybe she shouldn't overdo it, she thought even as her stomach protested.
"No. Do you want it?" she asked. She'd barely finished asking when Jared reached out and snatched up her bowl. Well, at least she cut out two hundred and fifty calories off her diet, she thought with an inward sigh.
"Thanks," he said, already picking at her salad and snacking on a cucumber slice as he made his way over to the refrigerator. "I need you to run an errand," he said, grabbing a bottle of creamy French dressing from the fridge and smothering the salad in it.
She licked her lips hungrily as she imagined how good that would taste. For the past two and a half months she'd forgone any type of condiment on her food, telling herself that she didn't any extra calories. After what she'd just heard she had to agree.
"Sure. What do you need?" she asked, grabbing her purse, glad to have a distraction from what she'd heard.
"Could you run some contracts down to the animal shelter? They need us to build some new kennels and fix one of the buildings," he said around a huge bite of salad.
"No problem," she said, getting to her feet.
"After that you can take the rest of the day off," Jared said, surprising her.
"A-are you sure?" Zoe asked nervously, even though by this point she should be used to Jared's kindness and generosity. It seemed that nearly three months of kindness wasn't enough to make up for three years in hell, but she was working on it.
Jared simply chuckled. "Yes, I'm sure. Get the hell out of here and enjoy your weekend," he said as he made his way to the office to get the contracts, but not before he snatched her ice water up on the way almost as if he couldn't help himself.
As Zoe followed after him she couldn't help but wonder if there was a name for this little food obsession all the Bradford males seemed to suffer from. Although, she wasn't going to complain about it since it was helping her lose weight.
Chapter 9
"Please don't look at me like that," Zoe whispered, feeling helpless as large brown chocolate eyes looked up at her pleadingly.
"It would never work out between us," she added, wishing Tom, the animal control officer would hurry back so she could leave.
Toby simply cocked his head to the side and let out one of the most pathetic whimpers she'd ever heard, causing her to worry her bottom lip.
"I'm sure a very nice family will come along soon and take you home with them," she rushed on, hoping she'd be able to convince him to stop making her feel guilty. "I'm sure they'll have plenty of kids to play with you and sneak you yummy table scraps. I'm on a diet so anything I gave you would be gross and nasty. You wouldn't want that, now would you?" she asked, sounding hopeful.
Instead of losing interest, he wagged his tail and let out an adorable little puppy bark. She frowned. Could a forty pound dog really be considered a puppy? She didn't think so, but Tom had assured her that the German Sheppard-husky mixed dog was only a puppy. She'd have to take his word for it since she knew absolutely nothing about dogs.
"Please don't look at me like that," she whispered, feeling herself weaken. "I can't have a dog, buddy. I'm sorry," she explained, but the look of adoration on his face said that he simply didn't care. "I rent and my landlord was very specific in the lease that I can't have dogs and if I take you home I'll have to find another place to live and I really like my place so please stop looking at me like that. I'm sure you'll have a new home really, really soon, okay?" she said, having absolutely no doubt that someone would scoop up the adorable dog soon.
"Don't count on it," Tom said as he walked back into the kennel room.
"What do you mean?" Zoe asked, standing.
"He's scheduled to be put down today," he said with a shrug.
"B-but....he's just a puppy," she said, throwing a nervous look at the dog who was still watching her.
"I know," Tom said, not sounding happy about it at all. "But this is a city funded shelter and this little guy has been here too long. I don't have a choice in the matter," he said, frowning up at the clock on the wall. "Actually, he was scheduled to be put down twenty minutes ago, but you showed up just as I was getting the room ready."
As if he could understand, Toby let out a pitiful whine. Zoe tried not to look down at the dog, knowing she was so damn close to doing something stupid.
"Isn't there any way you could give him another week or two?" she asked, already dreading the answer.
"I wish I could," Tom said, gesturing for her to follow him back out to the front.
She threw one last look at the pitiful dog before she followed. It was sad, but this kind of thing happened every single day, she told herself. Besides she really didn't have a choice in the matter. Trevor had been very clear about the rules when she moved in, granted she hadn't known that he owned the house at the time, but there was still a long list of rules that she'd agreed to and one of them had been no pets.
Besides she really didn't know anything about dogs other than they needed to be fed and walked. Puppies needed to be housetrained and she didn't have a clue in how to go about that. There really was no choice in the matter, she decided as she said goodbye to Tom and headed for the door.
Just as she placed her hand on the doorknob Toby let out a pitiful howl. It was one of the hardest things she'd ever done and she knew she'd probably have to cry herself to sleep tonight, but she left, trying to ignore Toby's pleas for her to return.
**********
"Where the hell is the food? I'm starving," Jason complained, again.
Trevor shot his cousin a glare. "Stop bitching."
"Just as soon as you feed me," Jason said with a sniff.
"I'm still trying to figure out who invited you," Trevor said, glaring at his three uninvited guests. Jason ignored him as he searched through the now empty bags of chips, mostly relying on his right hand for the job since three of the fingers on his left hand were still in finger braces. Brad shrugged and Mitch snagged a fresh beer as he tried to discretely text message his wife, again.
