when it rings and December’s name pops up. “Hey, babe.”
“Tomorrow’s Friday,” she says as a greeting, and I feel my brows dart together.
“What?”
“Tomorrow is Friday, Gareth, which means tomorrow my parents are planning on coming to your house for dinner.”
“Okay?”
“Okay,” she whisper-hisses, and I realize she’s been whispering this whole time.
“Why are you whispering?”
“Because my place isn’t huge and Mitchell is in my living room and I don’t want him to hear me.”
“You don’t want him to hear you tell me that tomorrow your parents are coming to dinner?”
“No. I don’t want him to hear me freaking out about my parents coming to dinner with your ex—his mom—around.”
“She’s not going to be at dinner tomorrow, Ember. We’ll take them out. I’ll send Mack a text and see if he has a table at Flame available. If he doesn’t, I’ll make reservations somewhere else.”
“Thank you,” she breathes, and I know then she’s been more worried than she should be about this.
“Babe, breathe. It’s going to be all good.”
“I just want dinner to go well.”
“Then it’s probably better that we don’t have dinner at home,” I say, and then add, “Beth got Max a dog.”
“What?”
“Beth got Max a dog. Mom says it’s a werewolf. I’m not sure those exist. Still, it would suck if they do and he transformed at dinner with your parents around.”
She giggles then pulls in a sharp breath. “Melbourne’s—”
“In our room,” I cut her off. “I told Max to find him and put him in there. Do you know if he’s ever been around a dog before?”
“I have no idea. Are you keeping the dog?” she asks, sounding curious.
“Yeah.”
“Just like that?”
“Like I told Mom, I’ve been meaning to talk to the boys about getting a dog, so at the end of the day, Beth saved me listening to the boys fight about what kind of dog they each want. And I’m not giving her what she wants, which is for me to be the bad guy who tells Max he can’t keep the dog, which I know would start another fight.”
“I really don’t like her very much,” she murmurs then sighs. “I should let you get back to work, we can talk about this stuff later.”
“I should be done in an hour.”
“All right, I’ll see you at the house then, and don’t worry about stopping to pick up dinner. I got the stuff to make spaghetti, since it’s easy.”
“Sounds good baby. I’ll see you at home.”
“Yeah.” Her voice is warm and soft. “See you at home. Love you.”
Fuck, I love that. I love knowing that no matter what bullshit happens, what I have to deal with, at the end of the day, I get to go home to her and my boys.
Fourteen
December
“Sloth, come here.” Max pats his thigh, and the huge gray dog—who looks like his face is melting off and nothing like a werewolf—walks slowly to where he is standing just outside the open back door. “You can do it, not much farther,” Max encourages him, but the big dog gives up and stops to rest, causing the loose skin covering his body to slide toward the floor.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a lazier dog,” Gareth mumbles, and I glance up at him briefly. He’s right; the dog is lazy. He’s also seriously overweight. Beth, not surprisingly, didn’t tell Gareth much about where she got him, just that she adopted him from somewhere in Nashville. If I’m being honest, the ugly dog is actually very sweet, which is a surprise, since he was a gift from Beth. I just worry he has some kind of health issue that is making him as lazy as he is.
“I think I should see if I can get him an appointment at July’s clinic, just to make sure there’s nothing wrong with him,” I say, watching Sloth get up, move out the door, and go to Max, who is now standing out in the middle of the yard shouting for him.
“That’d be good, babe. If she has time to see him today, I can take a break from work to run him over there.”
“I’ll send her a text before I finish getting ready for work.” I turn toward him and rest my hands against his stomach then lean up on my tiptoes. “Will Melbourne be okay out here?”
“Babe—” His lips twitch. “—I think that dog is in more danger than the cat is.”
“You’re probably right.” I lean up farther, touching my lips to his, and his hand slides down to