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Reaching for the onion ring, I saturated half of it in ranch dressing before I shoved the whole thing in my mouth.
“Oh, God,” I moaned as I closed my eyes.
Flavor burst on my tongue, and it was amazing.
I couldn’t wait to have another one.
“You gonna share any of those?” Will teased.
I handed one to Ashlie, who was digging into her mac ‘n cheese, then one over to Petra, who promptly saturated it in barbeque sauce from her ribs.
Both said a ‘thank you’ with their mouths half full, then allowed me to go back to my orgasmic onion rings.
I was just about to shove a fourth into my mouth when Will’s phone rang.
I didn’t even have to guess who it would be.
I knew.
Brianna was so unoriginal.
And, of course, with Will’s loud ass phone announcing to the world everything that was said, I heard the words, “Sally is waiting on your front porch for you to come home.”
Will cursed. “Shit.”
When he hung up, he looked at me pleadingly, but with an annoyance so great I couldn’t explain the feelings that started to roll through me. I looked at him with anger in my eyes.
“Who the heck is Sally?”
Will groaned guiltily.
“Sally is my nieces’ dog. Promise, not what you were thinking,” he explained, sounding tired all of a sudden.
“What?” I faltered. “How did I not know you had a dog?”
“’Cause half the time she’s not at home,” Ashlie said. “Are you leaving, Uncle Will?”
“I probably should,” he grumbled as he popped one of my fries into his mouth.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m willing to share just about anything with you, but not my food. I can’t share that. It’s too…important.”
Something must’ve come off as desperate to me because he quickly offered me a green bean off of his plate.
“Uh, no.” I shook my head. “Thanks for that, though. It was a nice gesture.”
He chuckled as he popped it into his mouth, then ate his grilled chicken salad in about half the time it would take a normal person.
“Mom,” he said around a bite of lettuce. “Can you take…”
“I have the kids and your girl, honey,” she said. “Go get that dog in.”
With a sigh he downed half his glass of water, gave me a quick peck on the lips, then was gone.
“Get to pay after all!” I teased the moment he was gone.
Dick snorted. “Doubtful.”
I found out what he meant five minutes later when I asked for the check.
Turned out, Will had enough time to drop her his credit card before he left, leaving me nothing to pay for.
Not even the tip.
CHAPTER 18
Yes, I’m smiling. But you are not the reason.
-text from Shine to Cannel
CANNEL
Five minutes into our drive to my car, Will sent me a text begging me to run by his house to look for his dog.
Before I could ask, he’d said something had come up at work and that he hadn’t even had the chance to go home before he’d been ordered to the station.
Which was why I was at his house, walking up to Will’s front porch and staring at the keypad.
He’d given me the key code to his alarm system and begged me to go look for his dog.
His dog that I didn’t even know he had.
How did one know someone for weeks, date them, have sex with them, and not know that he had a dog? Even when you were sleeping over at their place?
Whatever the reason I didn’t know about Sally, something about the fact niggled at me.
Like… why?
That would be something that would come up in regular everyday conversation.
But, then I had to admit, the only reason I was really worrying about the dog at all was the text message I’d gotten about two minutes after Will had left.
Unknown: How much do you even know him? What makes you think he’s actually going to work? He could very well be going out to see someone that’s not you.
Logically, I knew that they were trying to instill doubt.
Logically, and illogically, I was not the same person.
I hadn’t been since I’d been taken and turned into a simpering idiot who couldn’t take a poop without first being given permission to do it. Or hell, just the fact of having to ask to do it changed me.
There were a lot of dark days that I could remember with O’Ryan. Habits that I’d formed to keep myself safe. Habits that were really hard to break.
I had to stop myself from doing a lot of stupid things. Like changing my scent. Or getting close to running out of toilet paper. With O’Ryan, we always had to have at most and at least six rolls in the cabinet, or it took up too much space. And God forbid I think about adding more or less.
I was so lost in thought, thinking of everything that I used to be, that at first I didn’t see the Doberman practically sprawled out in the window box planter that hung off the front porch until I was nearly beside it.
