up my coffee, and went to flop onto my living-room couch.
“I fucked this one up big-time, buddy,” I shared with the bulldog that had made himself at home on his new fluffy dog bed on my living-room rug. “She wasn’t supposed to go to that damn shelter until tomorrow.”
Obviously, the animal shelter hadn’t released the information about exactly who had adopted Brutus.
I’d probably been picking him up while Layla had still been doing rounds.
I grinned as the animal lifted his head and appeared to glare at me in disapproval.
“Okay, okay. Maybe I should have told her, but it was supposed to be a damn surprise. Since she couldn’t take you home, I decided the next-best thing was for you to be here, where she could see you all the time.”
Seemingly mollified, the beast dropped his head between his paws again, but he continued to watch me carefully.
“Jesus! Am I really having a one-way conversation with a dog?” I asked myself, thoroughly disgusted.
I had to admit that Brutus was growing on me already. All he needed to make him happy was a little love, and one of those beef-and-cheese treats I’d bought from the pet store when I’d gone for supplies.
Although I was starting to rethink those treats. Brutus had started to fart like a champion once he’d eaten the first one.
“Right. So you’ve obviously got a sensitive digestive system,” I informed him. “I’m prescribing a good probiotic, a high-quality limited-ingredient diet, and treats with no lactose or fillers,” I said in my best no-nonsense doctor voice. “Allergy testing, too. I’ll look into that.”
Maybe I wasn’t a veterinarian, but I could certainly recognize a gassy disorder, even in a dog. Gas was gas, whether it was coming from a human or any other mammal.
I took a slug of my coffee, wishing I had more experience as a dog owner.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like animals, but we’d barely been able to feed the human mouths in our home growing up, so adding some canine ones to feed as well had been impossible.
I knew it had killed Noah not to be able to give Jade a puppy or a kitten, since she’d pretty much been wild about any four-legged creature.
I’d hardly been home long enough to sleep while I was in school, so the thought of having an animal to care for hadn’t even entered my mind, and I hadn’t had the extra money to feed a dog, anyway.
Now that I was capable of providing any kind of care Brutus needed, I felt comfortable about having him around. I just wasn’t sure what to do with him.
He didn’t look like he was interested in any of the dog toys I’d purchased, and he wasn’t exactly an energetic canine.
I watched as the bulldog slowly rose, walked over to me, and promptly flopped down at my feet. He put his head on top of my foot, and then began to snore moments later.
I wondered if this was his way of thanking me for taking him out of that chaotic shelter environment, or if he just . . . liked me.
I reached my hand down to scratch his head, wishing humans could be as trusting and uncomplicated as Brutus.
CHAPTER 16
LAYLA
I swiped a tear from my cheek right after I’d pulled into Owen’s driveway and turned off the motor.
Maybe it wasn’t wise that I’d continued on to Owen’s house after I’d talked to him.
I was feeling emotional, and that probably wasn’t a good state of mind for me to be in when I was around him.
The truth was, I had wanted to see him, even though I was feeling sad. He was the one person who would almost always understand, and if he didn’t get the reason that I was upset, he’d stubbornly keep trying.
Owen makes me . . . happy.
Maybe I wasn’t always willing to admit that to myself, but right now, I was really tired of telling myself that Owen was nothing but a friend.
We connected on a level beyond friendship, beyond anything I’d ever experienced before or probably ever would.
Dammit! I knew this would happen! I knew I’d fall hard for him.
And I had fallen, regardless of the fact that Owen and I had conformed to an unspoken rule not to get too physically close again.
I was in love with the stubborn man, whether I wanted to admit it to myself or not.
Every part of my soul was demanding that I reach out for what I wanted.
I grabbed my cell phone from the