AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Come on now,” he said. “It’sourdog. At least be honest with me if you’re not with yourself.”
“Fine,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Our dog that lives with you.”
“For now,” he said.
She didn’t ask what he meant by that. He’d said it so softly that she could have imagined it anyway.
29
REALLY MISSING
Three weeks later, Cal pulled into his Latham liquor store. It’d be opening in twenty minutes and he’d beat his grandfather here.
“Come on, Harley, out you go.”
His puppy was growing faster than he wished, and at just over thirteen weeks, was pushing thirty pounds. They’d said he was at the higher size end and he was wondering if he should have named his dog Moose instead.
Harley let out a bark and wanted to jump down, but no way Cal was letting him. It was still too high up and he didn’t want to worry about broken puppy bones.
He picked Harley up and set him on the ground. Most of the snow was gone for early March. Didn’t mean they couldn’t still get a storm or two yet, but by now it wouldn’t last long.
Harley started to tug on his leash to get to the door. They still had a lot of training to do, but accidents in the house were less and less. Not bad considering Harley was with him in the truck and on the road most days. They had no set routine. If it was cold or miserable out, his pup stayed with the girls in the office while he ran around.
It seemed to be working so much better than he ever thought it would and couldn’t believe it’d taken so long for him to get a dog.
More like for Mia to see what he was missing in his life without knowing fully.
He unlocked the back door, punched in the security code and then went to his office. He didn’t have much to do but wanted to talk to his grandfather before he went to Clifton Park and met with Neil.
“You’re here early,” his grandfather said five minutes later. “I’m starting to think you come here just so I’m not alone. You know I’m fine. Everyone is.”
“I know you are,” he said. “I wanted to talk to you.”
“Oh,” his grandfather said. “Everything okay? Come here, Harley. I told your daddy I was going to start keeping treats here and I am.”
Cal grinned when his grandfather opened a drawer in the desk and pulled out a bag of dog treats, handing one off to the puppy.
“He’s still learning manners,” Cal said when Harley started to jump up and down.
“You’ve got time yet to teach them to him. I’m glad this is the only Harley you own. I worried there for a bit.”
“It was a phase,” he said. Yeah, he’d wanted a motorcycle. Maybe he always said he did because his father talked about it too.
But his father never bought one. He remembered those conversations between his parents. When it came time to decide, he started to realize that it was a game his parents had with each other.
His father would bring it up only to have his mother tell him no. He was sure his father never intended on getting one. Cal realized that deep down he didn’t want one either.
And that he couldn’t do everything his parents did in hopes of bringing them back.
“One that most men have, I believe. Harley sure is turning into a good-looking dog.”
“He is,” he said. “I’ll be happy when he’s sleeping through the night.”
His grandfather laughed. “One day you’ll have children and realize that having the dog just get up once was a walk in the park. Or maybe Harley is preparing you for kids?”
He looked at his grandfather’s raised eyebrows. “Not yet,” he said.
“But you want them?”
