“Bad why?” I asked.
“She didn’t sleep well last night,” Janet explained. “Saw her light on more than it was off. And when she went to find you this morning, she couldn’t. She wanted to talk to you, and my baby girl doesn’t deal well with frustration.”
I watched said girl stomp through the yard, all the way up the stairs, and into the house. The door slammed behind her.
“So what you’re telling me is I should’ve called,” I guessed.
“You should’ve called,” she confirmed.
Shit.
I was no good at this relationship thing.
I was rusty, and the last one I’d been in had ended in disaster. I needed to get my butt in gear and figure it out.
“I think you should’ve called, too,” Denver pointed out.
He’d actually told me to call her last night and tell her what was going on, but by the time we’d gotten into the nitty gritty of it, and I had something to share, I’d realized that I didn’t have her damn number.
Which was quite stupid of me.
“Shut up,” I grumbled.
The guys crowded close, and Boone squatted down, ass to calves, to study the dogs.
“Look familiar?” I asked Boone and Denver when they got close.
“Aren’t those the two missing dogs?” Thumper wondered. “The ones that went missing when the teen boys yeeted themselves?”
Crass as ever.
“They look it.” I crouched down next to Boone. “Same markings.” I touched the white spot on the top of one of the dog’s eye, making him look like he had an eyebrow. “What the hell do you think is going on?”
“I was thinking they looked familiar,” Janet said. “What were they dropped off here for?”
I tugged the note free that was stapled to the rangy looking dog’s collar and flipped it over.
It said nothing more than “thought the families might want them back.”
“This is so freakin’ weird,” Janet said.
The door to Constance’s house slammed for a second time and then she was marching down the stairs, looking only a small amount more put together.
She still had the sweatshirt on. She also had the boots. But now she was wearing leggings without holes and socks that came up to her mid-ankle, slouched down low into the boots.
Her hair wasn’t any better, either.
I grinned.
“You love her, don’t you?”
I looked at Janet, who was crouched down low in the middle of the dogs and my club members.
“Yeah, I do.”
“She deserves it,” she exclaimed. “She’s beautiful and kind. Loving and determined. But she is so focused on Wendy that she’ll never take care of herself like she needs.” She studied me with eyes so intense it was uncomfortable to face her. I forced myself not to look away. “My baby is the best thing that’ll ever happen to you.”
I sobered immediately as the SUV peeled out of the driveway. “I won’t disappoint her again, Janet.”
