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“Where have you been?” Coop asks, scrunching his nose. “You stink.”
I glance down at myself. My jeans are covered in dirt—at least I think it’s dirt. There’s also a good possibility it’s a combination of dog and cat shit. My boots are also covered, and there’s a streak of something dark across my chest.
“I’ve been at Animal Haven.”
Coop grins. “Animal Haven, huh? Decided to give Mo a hand?”
“Something like that.”
“What is Animal Haven, who is Mo, and what in the world is that god-awful smell?” Nikki asks, covering her nose with her hand.
“Animal Haven is a no-kill animal rescue shelter, Mo is the woman who runs it, and I’m going to go with dog shit.”
Nikki takes a sip of her wine and turns around, giving me her back. “Why don’t you go get cleaned up, and then we can talk.”
“Or not.” Coop jumps up from his spot at the table, grabs a beer from the fridge, twists the top, and hands it to me. “I’d much rather hear about you and Mo.”
I take a swig. “There is no me and Mo.” Not yet at least.
“Sure. Why else would you jeopardize your recovery?”
“I’m hardly jeopardizing my recovery. I used my right arm to wash out cages and sat my ass on a riding lawn mower for a few hours.”
“And you just suffered a grade 3 concussion, and your doctor asked that you refrain from any strenuous activity for at least the next week,” Coop says.
“I’m fine.”
He smirks. “I’ll bet you are after spending the day with Mo.”
Nikki sits through our exchange with little to no interest.
I empty my beer and toss it in the trash. “I’m going to get cleaned up.”
After my shower, I make sure to pull on jeans and a T-shirt before walking back through the house. If I was at home, I’d have no qualms about staying in the buff, and believe it or not, that’s a hard habit to break.
Coop is standing at the sink.
“Where’s Nikki?” I ask, looking around.
“She stepped outside to take a phone call.” He turns around and wipes his hands on a towel. “That woman is hot, but she has to be the most pretentious, annoying person I have ever met. I don’t know how you work with her without fucking her or plastering a piece of duct tape across her mouth.”
It’s awful of me to laugh, but I can’t help it. “If you think she’s annoying now, you should hear her in bed. ‘Don’t do that. Stop that. Faster. No, that’s too fast. Just let me do it?
??,” I say, mocking her. “Hard to please, but even harder to say no to.”
“Shut up.” Coop stares at me, open mouthed. “You slept with your manager? Are you stupid?”
“She wasn’t my manager at the time; she was my manager’s daughter. And it wasn’t exactly my finest moment. I was new on the PBR circuit, Mo and I had just broken up, and I was drunk.”
“That’s an awful combination.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Are things awkward between you now?”
“Mo or Nikki?”
“Well, both, but mostly Nikki.”
