giant cardboard box on the counter. I didn’t see any air holes in it, which was hopefully a good sign.
“Those better not be kittens,” I warned. “Or puppies or ferrets or any sort of live animal that people seem to love transporting in boxes. The inn is full. And the manger.”
“Wrong on all counts,” she said, placing one of her squirrels carefully in its lined basket. She picked up another and started the feeding process all over again. “You just missed Journey.”
I held in a curse. It wasn’t a big deal—we lived next door to each other, for crying out loud—but a smile and a kiss from him would’ve gone a long way to restoring my mood. Then I thought about what she’d said. “Wait, he brought the box?”
Even as I posed the question, I was lifting the flap. I peered inside to find the box chock-full of high-end dog supplies. There was unopened dog food, some collars, harnesses, and one of those fancy fountain water bowls, still sealed in the original packaging. I picked up one of the Kong toys—it still had the tags on it. As relieved as I was not to find a furry face in the box, I was still confused. Why would he get rid of all of Snickers’ things?
I looked at the contents for a few moments before my heart kicked into overdrive. Maybe something happened to her. “Is Snickers okay? What happened? Why didn’t he call me—”
“Will you calm down?” Bailey tsked. “And I think her name is Raisin now. I don’t know exactly what happened because he was in a rush. My best guess is that he gave her away, so he doesn’t need all this stuff anymore.”
“Gave her away.” I looked at her blankly, trying to process words that weren’t making a whole lot of sense. I looked down at the unused princess pillow. I remembered that he’d bought two because they were on sale. “Gave her away?”
“Well, I’m just hypothesizing here. He didn’t stay long, and I didn’t want to press.”
“Why… why didn’t he bring her here? I would’ve rehomed her.”
“Yeah, right into your home,” she teased. “What’s the count now, a wolf, a raccoon, and a couple of chinchillas?”
And a rat named Barney, but who was counting? Like I said, the inn was full.
When Bailey noticed I wasn’t amused, she sobered. “Look. I know it drives us crazy when people do that, but it’s none of our business.”
It felt like my business. Right now, it felt a lot like I was still in love with a guy who was addicted to throwing people away like yesterday’s newspaper. “I guess,” I finally said. My jaw was so tight it was starting to ache, so I worked on unclenching.
Bailey sighed. “JJ is a good guy. He probably found a great home for her. You know he wouldn’t do anything less.”
“I know that.” He was a good guy all right, but Jesus Christ, what was it about commitment? I was surprised he even had a cell phone contract.
“Besides, where was he supposed to keep her anyway?” Bailey went on. “He was only supposed to be here for the summer. Is he supposed to take her with him to the Amazon?”
“The Amazon?”
“Yeah, he was on the phone at the coffee shop with some guy named Logan.” She leaned forward as she gave me the scoop. “Greta seems to think he was talking about heading to the rainforest in a couple of weeks. He seemed jazzed about it, too.”
She continued chattering about whatever else Greta managed to hear, but I turned her out, too busy catching up on all this new info.
So this was it, then. Damn, I’d known it was coming the whole summer, but the reality was a bit of a slap in the face. He was cleaning house, getting rid of things he didn’t need, and jettisoning entanglements… like his dog. The next thing he was going to chuck to the curb was me. The first time, I hadn’t seen it coming. At least this time around, I’d known what I was getting into from the beginning. I did a quick mental check to see if that made things easier.
Nope, not even a little bit.
Realizing I hadn’t said anything in some time, Bailey’s chatter died down to nothing. She bit her lip. “I’m sorry, Cam, I wasn’t thinking. Greta probably heard wrong anyway.”
“No, it’s fine,” I said calmly. The truth of that settled in my bones. I just got caught up