Sam bursts into a laugh while Adrian stares at him, probably because it’s obnoxiously loud. Not at all what his attempt at a joke deserved.
Despite my best efforts, Adrian leaves a few minutes laterwith an excited Minka, happy to escape the tiny tent.
“Could you have looked more desperate?” Sam whispers a few minutes later.
I stare at him. “Do you want me to remind you of the joke you laughed at for fifteen minutes?”
Sam waves me off. “I’ve got him right where I want him. Anyway, you know what we have to do, right?”
I hate that I get his meaning instantly. “Ugh, I don’t like going to people’s houses when I’minvited.”
Sam shrugs. “At least you won’t have to talk to the hosts this time?”
***
Nicholas shows up at the tent around one p.m. with Oliver, Matt, and Mickey.
“We’reneverhome. How are we going to take care of an entire living being?" Oliver is saying as Mickey beelines to me, scaring the owner of a brave little cat. The cat doesn’t even bother moving.
“Mickey,no.” Nicholas grabs him, giving the lady an overly apologetic look.
She smiles but still looks a bit spooked.
“We’ll raise him like we’re raising Mickey,” Matt argues.
“Hey, you’re not raising Mickey.I’mraising him.” Nicholas turns the party around, and they wait outside while I finish the checkup without any more commotion.
I can hear them fighting over Mickey’s guardianship and the fate of a future dog they’re definitely getting, no matter how much Oliver argues.
Once the lady has her sweet little Burmese in her cage, she takes my card before leaving.
Oliver storms in before the tent flap shuts. “Elliot, please tell Matt how big a responsibility dogs are so he stops behaving like an impulsive idiot.”
Matt and Nicholas follow, with Mickey running inside and, this time, happily greeting me. He struts around my feet, now that thehabit of pawing up to my chest has finally been trained out of him.
I kneel to give him all the scratches while he pants adorably.
“Elliot doesn’t have a leg to stand on. He adores Mickey.” Matt points at us.
Oliver folds his arms across his chest. “I do, too, doesn’t mean we’re ready for another one.”
“He’smydog,” Nicholas interrupts.
Everyone ignores him.
“They are a big responsibility. This one is cute but still a lot of work,” I tell them honestly.
“Stillmy dog,” Nicholas says.
“See.” Oliver points at me. “Even he doesn’t want us to adopt when he organized this whole thing.”
“You can definitely adopt, but don’t do it unless you’re sure.”
“I wasn’t sure when I adopted Mickey. You know,mydog? But I’ve never regretted it,” Nicholas chimes in.
“Yeah, but you adopted him for work,” Oliver says.
Oh, that whole thing. It’s so easy to forget our past when things are going great between us. But it’s a good reminder that Nicholas only adopted Mickey because I killed his owner, who’d murdered his wife.
