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I stare at him, a little fucked on the inside. “I don’t know how to be a dad,” I admit. “She deserves—”
“She’ll make it easy.” His jaw clenches, his eyes darting around my face as if he has more to say but can’t. Or isn’t ready to. “Come on.” He hands me the crutches he got from the car, and then waits as I put my arms through each one, slowly making my way around the car and toward the front steps.
I’m nearly at the door when a muddy dog flies past me, inches from my broken leg, and skids through the hallway.
ELEVEN
Scarlet
“Bear, no!”
“Oh no,” Waverley squeals. “Oh no, I’m in trouble.” I watch as she looks up at Lance, her gaze still a little awestruck. “I was supposed to get a towel,” she tells him.
“Ave,” I sigh. “What have I told you about that dog?”
“I couldn’t find him before. I thought he was at Nana Frey’s.”
“Bear?” Lance mutters, his face now pale from climbing the steps.
Shit. Trust everything to come barrelling at us all at once. “Yeah. We have Bear now. I’m so sorry I never said, with everything—”
“Bear? As in…?”
We lock eyes. I nod, swallowing around the uneasiness in my throat. I should’ve warned him. He’s just met Ave for the first time, and now I’m shoving his mother’s dog in his face. “Shower. Now, Bear. Come on.” I cringe as he bounds on skittering paws up the stairs.
“I’ll take him,” Charlie tells me, smiling wide as he follows a sheepish Ave up the stairs.
I look down at the muddy path left behind and shake my head. I scrub at my face, wondering how Lance must feel after everything that’s just unfolded in the last five minutes.
“You said Mason lives here?” Lance questions.
“Yeah,” I sigh, dropping my hands. I feel utterly drained. “Yeah, he does.”
“I thought he was allergic to dogs.”
I can’t help the smile that taints my mouth. Of all the questions I thought he’d have, that wasn’t the one I expected. “He gets an allergy shot. They keep a wide berth, and it seems to do the trick.”
“I see.”
There’s a heaviness in Lance’s eyes, one that I can’t seem to ignore. I know he’s tired. I know he’s barely eaten the food at the hospital and that today has been a lot. But the spark I saw ignite out on that terrace… If nothing else feels okay right now, bringing him here does.
It was the right thing to do.
“I’m about to get dinner on,” I say, thumbing toward the kitchen. “You can get comfortable in the sitting room if you’d like. Get that leg up.”
I watch him lift his gaze to the high ceiling, the curved staircase, the rooms darting off to the sitting room and different wings.
And I know that it was the right thing to do.
“Thank you,” he says, looking back at me with something like awe in his stare. “Thank you, Scar.”
“You’re welcome.” I give him a small smile and walk into the kitchen, knowing I should help him get comfortable, but sensing he needs a minute alone more.
It’s half an hour later when Charlie walks into the kitchen with a soaked towel clutched in his fist. “That dog is a complete dick sometimes.”
I chuckle, continuing to egg wash the pie. “Thank you for bathing him. Where’s Ave?”
He disappears into the washroom to discard the towel, then comes to stand opposite me at the kitchen island. “She’s in with Lance.”
