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“I’dloveto hear about them,” I said.
“The next time you get a few beers in me, I just might tell you about some of them.” He glanced toward the main road. “Do you wish I had beaten up Trip?”
“No,” I replied. “But if he keeps pestering me about that damn hockey ticket, I just might take you up on that.”
29
Beth
Christian hung out for another hour, then had to leave to take Heidi home before football practice. He gave me a very long kiss goodbye, like he was giving me something to remember. And it worked, because I was floating on cloud nine all through lunchtime.
“You’re in a good mood,” Suzie said when she arrived at work. “I could hear you whistling from across the field.”
“Iamin a good mood!”
“It wouldn’t have anything to do with the football-playing gentleman who you came home with last night, would it?”
“It’s possible that the two things are related.”
I waited for her to comment on the fact that I had gone out with Christian and Braden on two consecutive nights, but she only grinned at me. “Live your best life, Ms. Foster!”
I was in such a good mood that I didn’t remind her to call me Beth.
That afternoon, we gave baths to Logan’s four dogs: Loki, Heimdall, Freya, and Odin. They were clean and dry when Logan arrived to pick them up. And when the passenger door to his SUV opened, it was Claire who hopped out.
“Hi Beth!” she said, hurrying through the gate like she was late.
“Hello! I wasn’t expecting to see you today.”
“I made Logan bring me. I wanted to make sure you were doing a good job.” She ignored the herd of dogs that were wagging their tails around her and ran into the kennel.
“You’re right on time,” I said when Logan got out of the car. “They’re freshly bathed and groomed. Loki was even easier to handle now that he’s used to us.”
Logan came through the gate and crouched down to greet his four dogs, who swarmed around him excitedly. Then he rose and said, “I was an asshole.”
“Huh?”
“Shouldn’t have dumped Claire on you,” he said, voice more gravelly than ever. “Didn’t have a lot of options. And I’m dealing with my own shit. But that still doesn’t make it right. Sorry.”
Behind me, Claire emerged from the kennel with a poop scoop in one hand and a bucket in the other. She immediately set out to clean the field.
“I was mad when you did it,” I admitted. “But Claire ended up being a lot easier than I thought. She’s a sweet girl.”
Logan stared at me with hard eyes, and I felt myself drawn to him. His presence was powerful, like an exotic animal that might behave unpredictably. Now that he was here, standing in front of me, I couldn’t stop thinking about the situation with him and the other two guys. How they shared a woman, and wanted to do the same with me.
“How was your trip?” I asked.
“Bad,” he said bluntly. Lost to Seattle and Calgary, and tied against Vancouver and Edmonton.”
“At least you got to go home, right?” I said. “To Canada?”
His eyes were unreadable as he stared at me. “I’m from Toronto. Edmonton and Calgary are shithole towns filled with shithole people.”
“Ah, sorry. I keep forgetting howbigCanada is.”
He grunted. “Got plans tomorrow night?”
“Um. Not really. I do have to watch the dogs here…”
