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“What?”
“She goes byGinnynow.”
Noah shrugged. “Ginny, Nia, whatever she goes by…you need to talk to her and stop being such a…”
“Limp dick?” Simon.
“Idiot.” Spencer.
Graham leveled him with another famous scowl. “Child.”
“Mature, all of you. Maybe I like being a childish limp dick idiot.”
“Gav,” Noah sighed and he knew right away that it was always a bad thing when your big brother sighed and usedthattone.
“Why am I talking to her? What purpose does this serve? Who does this benefit?”
Spencer’s hand went up. “She’s still my best friend and Mom loves the hell out of her. If the two of you can’t even be around each other and behave like adults, it’ll be really hard to invite her over.”
Narrowing his eyes at Spencer, Gavin shook his head. “You knew she was in town, didn’t you? And instead of saving me all this…trauma, you let me find out for myself.”
“Trauma? She broke your heart, get over it.”
Gavin snarled, feeling the frustration building in his chest. Of course his brother would think that heartbreak wasn’t a big deal. Spencer had never had his heart broken. If he wasn’t afraid of what Graham would do, Gavin might have launched himself across the table to punch Spencer in the face.I love my brothers and will not inflict violence upon them,he repeated those words to himself.
“Look, Gav. Whatever happened was terrible and we are fucking sorry that it happened toyou. But both of you owe it to yourselves to address it.”
‘Address it’, like we just had a tiny fucking argument. Hilarious aren’t they?
“I make no promises that we’re suddenly going to bebesties,” he said, shooting Spencer a glare. His brother just shrugged and sipped on his beer. “But fine, if it’ll get all of you off my ass.”
“For the record, she doesn’t know why you cut her off.” Spencer met his eyes for a brief moment before looking away. Which meant that Ni-Ginnyand his brother had talked about him at least once since she moved to town.
“And I bet you pretended like you didn’t know either.”
Spencer shrugged and glanced around at the brothers. “It’s not my business, that’s between the two of you.”
Gavin sighed and finished his beer, got to his feet and walked back to the house. While he understood their reasons for making him talk to Ginny, Gavin didn’t fully trust himself to be around her without completely losing his mind.
Because even after all these years, she was still the most captivating woman he’d ever laid eyes on.
* * *
Sleep eluded him for the rest of the week. Gavin would climb into bed exhausted and Cedar would tuck herself into his side. But then he’d lie awake for hours before getting a little bit of shut-eye until his alarm would ring. He did his best to stay positive through the day, not wanting to take out his frustrations on his staff, but it was taxing.
Especially since they’d had a group of new volunteers starting that week and he had only so much patience with those who wanted to play with the animals rather than do what they were there for—help.
When he decided to open the Rhodes Pet Shelter, Gavin had been nervous about the scope of work. It took him a while to really break even, find the right staff and make the shelter a trusted place. But his unconditional love for animals really helped make that all happen. At first, the shelter only housed dogs. Then one abandoned cat led to another and now they had a variety of household pets residing at the shelter. They even had a section for slightly more unusual house pets like rabbits, ferrets and hamsters.
Having that many animals in one place meant that there needed to be regular cage cleanings and while he was exhausted, it was the one mindless task that he could do. When he walked into the shelter that morning, the volunteers were waiting for instructions and raring to go. After a quick meeting and a change of clothes—because everyone had learned that it was important to clean cages in your oldest and rattiest wardrobe—everyone kicked into gear. He’d split the team into two groups: one was to empty the cages and keep the dogs entertained outside, while the other cleaned up. He even had a smaller team set aside for medical check-ups for some of their older dogs.
It had taken him a while to really get this system running seamlessly, but Gavin was pretty proud of how it was turning out every month.
Gavin was showing one of the volunteers the best way to reset one of the cages—pull everything out, run through with the broom and then with a mop before changing out the bedding—when his two-way radio squawked with a request to step outside. The only people who had radios were the regular staff, so he knew that if someone was requesting his presence, it was probably something important.
Straightening his t-shirt and shorts, Gavin flipped his cap to face forward so that the brim was shading his eyes and stepped outside to find volunteers playing around with the dogs. While it was still pretty cold out, the animals were having the time of their lives and the staff were either covered up or working up a sweat running around the cordoned off area.
His eyes darted to the blonde waving at him from her perch on a fence and waving at him. A year into opening the pet shelter, a woman walked into the lobby anddemandedGavin give her a job. She had no experience with animals—outside of the goldfish she’d had as a kid—had worked as a bartender for the last five years, but she had moxie. Gavin was desperate and Bronte Laurie was his only choice at the time. Over the years, they’d found a perfect rhythm of working together and she’d become one of his closest friends. Standing at five foot, four inches, with light blonde hair and blue eyes, Bronte was a force to be reckoned with. She was fierce and feisty, hard working and dedicated to the animals at the shelter. For someone who knew nothing about animals, she’d picked it up faster than any of his other employees.
