All of them in cages.
There were several men standing around with their arms crossed over their chests, staring at two dogs in cages facing each other.
One dog was whimpering, cowering so low that his face was pressed down into the metal bars and dirt. The other dog was growling low in his throat, pressing so hard against the cage that he was making himself bleed.
My stomach soured.
I was going to have to witness an atrocity, and there was nothing that I could do about it.
FOURTEEN
The struggle bus should have a loyalty rewards program.
—Holly to Denver
DENVER
“I think we should keep him.”
I ignored all of my daughters, and the damn mutt that somehow found its way over to my house more often than it was at Holly’s, and finished pouring my to-go cup of coffee.
They carried the damn Pomeranian puppy around like it was a stuffed animal.
Honestly, I would be surprised if the puppy could even walk at this point.
My day had started early.
The only bright spot in it so far was getting to spend a silent hour with Holly cleaning out the horse stalls while she got everyone fed.
Not that my girls weren’t great or anything, but they’d been fighting since the moment they’d come in the door twenty minutes before.
One being pregnant and the other two having their periods synced meant that there was constant fighting, and none of them cared how fucking awful it was to listen to twenty-four-seven.
“You can’t even take your laundry to the laundry room, and want to add another animal to take care of to the mix?” Joe called Catalina out.
“I take my laundry to the laundry room!” Catalina denied.
“You do.” DeeDee laughed. “When you’re out of clothes and need some clean jeans. That’s why Dad gets so mad at you. He says that if you brought it in earlier in the week when he’s caught up on laundry, he wouldn’t have to do so much on the weekend.”
That was the fucking truth.
It was a constant battle with Catalina.
They all helped do laundry, but I still did the bulk of it.
Always had.
At least now I didn’t have to get yelled at about Juliana’s clothes being washed with cow shit.
The girls knew what they got when they left their laundry for me to do.
“Hey, where’s Holly at, Daddy?” DeeDee suddenly interrupted my thoughts.
“Workin’, darlin’,” I replied. “Why?”
“She was supposed to come home and feed Froto, but she hasn’t come by yet. That’s actually why I still have him. She forgot her lunch today and was going to kill two birds with one stone as she swung by.” She looked at her phone. “She was supposed to be here over an hour ago.”
I shrugged. “She’s a vet, baby. They’re busy people.”
