Joke’s on You by Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,40

I dropped her to the ground.

“You can take my keys that are on my key ring,” she said. “I have an extra set in the house.”

Seconds later, I was kissing her hard and leaving her there in her driveway to watch me drive away.

In the meantime, it felt like I’d left my heart behind, and I couldn’t figure out whether that was a good or a bad thing.

Chapter 9

Dogs make me happy. People? Not so much.

-Delanie to Dillan

Dillan

I was knee deep into changing my business hours, working out new hours with my kitchen staff, and listening to Delanie bitch.

When I’d said that she was stubborn last week, I’d been kidding myself. She wasn’t just stubborn. She was obstinate, bull-headed, and annoying.

I loved her to death and all, but Jesus. She really needed to deal with shit or let it go.

Finally having enough of her ranting and raving, I placed my pencil down carefully, then turned my entire body to face her.

She was talking to me, while also sitting on the kitchen floor with a dog in her lap. She was steadily petting his head, crooning as she spoke. Which only annoyed me more.

I mean, I knew why she was doing it. She was trying to keep her voice uplifting and positive as to not spook the very skittish dog in her lap—he’d been brought here the night before as a rescue who’d previously been a service dog but, sadly, had been given to new owners after his old owner’s death and had been mistreated.

“Of course, you’re going to go,” I said firmly.

Delanie rolled her eyes. “I’m not. I just got back after being gone for a week. Then I was gone for a week before that. I haven’t worked with the dogs in over two of those. I miss my baby. And I’ve put a lot of strain on Booth. Not to mention you’ve practically had to work two jobs while I’ve been away.”

True.

I had.

I’d worked at my shop from three in the morning until eleven. I’d gone home and worked her dogs, which took at least three more hours. Spending an hour with each dog. Then I cleaned their kennels, forced something down my tired throat, and had gone to bed only to get up and do it all over again.

The thing was, she did the same thing for me all the freakin’ time.

Sure, not on as big of a scale that I was doing for her lately, but she’d done the same thing for me quite a few times.

“Honey, it’s the governor,” I whispered. “This isn’t an opportunity that you can afford to pass over.”

“Not to mention,” came Booth’s reply. “What this could mean for your business. More employees. More dogs matched with veterans. More income. Recognition. You have to do this.”

I loved him.

I watched as Delanie turned to face him. Neither she, nor I, had heard him come in.

Yet, there he was.

I smiled at my man, who had Asa asleep on his shoulder.

“I miss my baby,” she whispered.

Booth’s smile was soft.

“He misses you, too,” Booth said. “But it’s only for another four days. And it’s a six-hour drive home. It’s worth it. And we’ll keep doing the FaceTime thing. Just know that I still don’t cut his peanut butter and jelly sandwich crusts off right, so he’s going to complain.”

Delanie laughed and wiped her eyes.

“I’m so tired of driving, though.” She sighed. “Taking that big ass truck through rush-hour traffic literally makes me break out in hives.”

I saw the moment that Booth was going to take the leap.

“Bourne’s going to Austin for two days,” Booth said. “He has to go down there to pick up some equipment that’s being donated to us from Austin SWAT. He has to take a trailer to get it all back. He can stay an extra two days with you.”

Delanie immediately started to backpedal, but Bourne walked in the door then, having heard his brother’s suggestion.

“I don’t mind,” Bourne said. “I wanted to get a tattoo from a man down there anyway. I can use the extra time to do that.”

Delanie opened her mouth to say no, but nothing came out.

With all three of us looking at her, offering her perfect suggestions, she really couldn’t say no.

“Okay,” she said carefully. “Umm,” she hesitated. “Tomorrow, I’d have to leave around one. They want me to be there early the next morning and I don’t want to chance not being there on time.”

Bourne rolled his eyes. “I’ll get you there, don’t worry.”

As they talked,