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“Wait. What?” Tripp said as he shot daggers at me.
“Who’s got a cute what?” Trevor asked, walking in behind Tripp and his father. Of course, the whole damn family would be walking through the very door I was trying to escape out of. We would have been better off going out the front door.
“Tripp’s got a new puppy!” Chloe called out as I hit her on the arm as a warning.
“Wait!” Tripp cried.
I panicked and did the only thing I could think of. I unwrapped the puppy and shoved it in Trevor’s face. When he was little he was a sucker for a cute puppy; I was hoping things hadn’t changed.
“Oh, my gosh! Look at this little guy,” Trevor said in a baby voice as he took the puppy from my hands.
“Great, you want him? He’s yours,” Tripp said.
“It’s a girl!” Chloe said with a clap of her hands. I hit her a few times to get her to take it back a few. We weren’t out of the woods yet.
“Aww, he’s so cute. Don’t worry, Tripp. I won’t steal your girl.” Trevor looked at me when he said that and winked, causing my cheeks to heat up.
“Now wait a second here,” Tripp started. I knew I had to cut him off.
“Tripp mentioned he wanted a hound dog, and when I saw this little girl in town, well, I had to get her.”
I could feel angry eyes on me, but I kept going.
“I mean, she was the last puppy and I felt so bad, I had to take her.” Looking at Tripp, I motioned with my head to Chloe, hoping he would catch on. “He was afraid y’all might be mad if she was in the house so I was fixin’ to take her to the barn.”
“What? Nonsense. Tripp, we don’t mind your puppy being in the house,” John stated.
“Hell, Patches is always in the house,” Trevor said with a deep rumbling laugh.
John sighed and lifted his cowboy hat to run his hand through his dark hair. A sigh of resignation escaped his lips.
“What’s her name, Tripp?” Trevor asked.
Chloe grabbed onto my hand and squeezed it hard as I held my breath.
It felt like forever before Tripp finally spoke. “Hemingway’s Whiskey. Hemi, for short.”
I pinched my brows together as I tried to figure out how in the hell he came up with that name off the top of his head. I knew it was a Kenny Chesney song, and Tripp liked his Kenny Chesney. But Hemi?
“What the hell kind of name is that for a girl?” Trevor asked.
Tripp forced a smile. “The moment I found out the dog was mine, I wanted to drink a fifth of whiskey.”
I laughed. Awkwardly. “Ha! That’s a good one.” I hit Tripp on the chest as Chloe belted out a fake laugh of her own. She had no clue what Tripp even meant.
“Hemi is a cute name!” Chloe pipped in.
Tripp ruffled her hair and said, “Then that’s her name. You like it, Harley?”
“Me?” I pointed to myself. “Yeah. I love it!”
An evil grin spread over Tripp’s face. “That’s good, considering we have shared custody of Hemi.”
“Yes,” I said without thinking. My eyes jerked back to Tripp. “Wait. What?”
“But y’all aren’t even dating,” John said.
“Well, Harley has agreed to help me out with training little Hemi.”
“I’m confused,” Chloe stated as her eyes bounced from me to Tripp.
“It’s called karma, Chloe,” I replied as I took her hand in mine. “Tripp, you want to take Hemi out with us to go potty?”
He shook his head. “Nope.”
“Karma?” Chloe asked as she looked up at me. “What’s that mean?”
“Hey, little bit, I want to show you something for the spring fling today!” John said as he reached and picked up his granddaughter.
“You two can take care of the puppy, right?” John asked. I was pretty sure he had already caught on to the little game we were playing.
Swallowing hard, I replied, “Um, yeah. Sure we can.”
John flashed us a smile. “Great. Make sure to get the pen that we used for your mother’s old dog. It’s down in the main barn. You’ll want to make sure Hemi has a safe place to be.”
Tripp and I looked at each other as John walked away with Chloe.
“Classic. Where in the hell did the dog come from?” Trevor asked.
“Chloe’s soft heart just couldn’t bear to leave the puppy. She’s been hiding him in her dad’s office since last night.”
“I knew I heard a dog barking last night,” Trevor said. “I thought I was hearing things. Was that Chloe taking her out? I heard the front door alarm chime a couple of times but thought it was Aunt Vi coming in and out.”
“Aunt Vi’s here?” I asked with a huge smile.
“Yep.”
“Listen, someone is going to have to have a talk with Chloe about this. It was dangerous for her to be taking that dog out last night,” Tripp stated.
