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They didn’t know.

They didn’t know Daniel wasn’t nothing to me. His struggles were not some abstract idea, because he mattered to me. They didn’t know because I couldn’t—wouldn’t—tell them.

If I did, I’d lend him my protection. They wouldn’t write that review because me asking them not to would be enough. If I just said, Look, this is the guy I’ve been seeing. Please don’t. They wouldn’t.

But I couldn’t do that. Because then I’d be giving Daniel to Neil.

And that was worse.

I wiped under my eyes.

“Grace costs you nothing,” I said. And I went back inside.

Chapter 19

Daniel

I was in the dining room cleaning up the mess when Alexis came back into the house with Hunter behind her.

The dining room was destroyed. Fucking destroyed. There was a piece of French toast stuck to the wall, coffee on the Oriental rug under the table, orange juice splattered all over the hutch, broken glass.

“I think I’m going to have to set you guys up in the four-season porch,” I said to her, shaking my head at the room. Thank God I always made enough for seconds.

Hunter pushed his face under Alexis’s hand and pressed his body to her leg.

“I didn’t like the present, Hunter,” Alexis mumbled.

I looked down at his shaggy head. “I think my dog might be in love with you. And grounded,” I muttered. “He’s definitely grounded.”

She laughed dryly.

I shook my head. “What is his problem? He does not listen. I can’t even get him to sit half the time. I mean, I know hunting breeds are stubborn, but Jesus.”

“He’s deaf.”

I stared at her. “What?”

“He’s deaf, Daniel. Maybe not totally, but—mostly.”

I blinked at her. “Wha—how do you know?”

She gave a one-shoulder shrug. “Watching? When you give him hand signals, he obeys. When you talk, he ignores you.”

I looked down at my dog. “Hunter, sit.”

He looked up at me with his blank face.

“Sit, Hunter,” I said again.

Nothing.

I put an index finger up in the hand signal for sit.

Hunter sat.

“Oh, wow,” I breathed. “This clears up so much,” I said in wonder.

She laughed weakly.