“I’m going to work out something with Mandy, and in the meantime, I’ll try to talk to Max.”
“You don’t need to talk to him,” I grit out.
“He loves Hunter. If I can make him see that what he’s doing is hurting him—”
“He won’t care. He’s trying to hurt you,” I say, cutting her off.
Pulling her hand from under mine, she sits up, and asks, “Can you drop me off at the bank?”
“Shel—”
“I don’t want to be late,” she interrupts.
“Do you want me to get your van to you?”
“I’ll just walk home,” she says quietly, and I take a chance to look over at her and can see the progress we made this morning is long gone and she’s back to being pissed off at me.
“I’ll pick you up. Tonight, you and Hunter are coming to dinner with us.”
“No, we’re not,” she replies evenly.
“I already told Aubrey and Steven you guys were,” I lie, and can see her back go straight out of the corner of my eye at my words.
“Fine,” she hisses, and I have to fight back my smile as I pull up in front of the bank. Before I even have the truck in park, she’s out the door and rounding the hood. Rolling down the window, I yell out, “Have a good day, baby.” My words gain a glare from her and a few looks from people on the street as they look between us making me smile.
“Bre, Steven,” I call, walking into the house, with Penny following slowly behind me. The medication she’s on for the infection has made her a little sluggish, but when I picked her up, she was definitely happy to see me. Either that, or she was happy to be out of the cage she’s been in while shes healed.
“Yeah, Dad,” Aubrey says, stopping at the top of the stairs leaning over the banister.
“Come on down.” I drop the bag of Penny’s bowls and food on the table near the door.
“Oh, my God! You got us a dog!” She squeals when she notices penny at my feet then bounds down the last flight of stairs toward us, causing Penny to move behind me and whimper.
“Calm, gorgeous,” I say gently, and she stops mid-run and looks up at my face.
“You got us a dog?” Steven asks, and I glance back up the stairs to him.
“Come down. I want to talk to you and your sister.”
“Sure, let me just hang up with Mom,” he mutters, disappearing from sight.
“What’s wrong with her, Dad?” Aubrey asks quietly, squatting down and getting eye level with Penny, who is still hiding behind me.
“I’ll explain once your brother gets down he
re,” I reply softly just as Steven comes back into sight and takes the stairs down two at a time.
“I can’t believe you got a dog,” Steven says, and I smile at him then step back so Penny is forced to come in front of me.
“This is Penny.” I reach down, rubbing the top of her head. “She’s just had surgery and isn’t feeling very good right now, so you both will have to take it slow with her.”
“She’s so cute,” Aubrey says quietly, dropping to her knees and holding out her hand for Penny to sniff. “What kind of dog is she?”
“Part German Shepard, not sure what else.” I smile at her then look at Steven when he asks.
“Why’d she have surgery?”
“She was tied up for too long outside without food or water. The rope she was tied up with was left so long it embedded in her fur and skin, so she had to have surgery to have it removed, along with the infection it caused.”
“People are such dicks,” he growls, and I feel my chest expand with pride.
“They are,” I agree, then continue softly, “I brought her home to get her healthy and to find her another home.”
“But—” Aubrey starts, as two sets of eyes swing to me.
“Unless you guys can prove you’re responsible enough to help take care of her,” I cut them off.
“I’ll walk her,” Aubrey says, rubbing the top of Penny’s head as she presses into her hand with her nose.
“I’ll help too, Dad,” Steven promises, and I nod at both of them.
“She has food and bowls there.” I nod to the bag I brought in. “Set her up and show her around,” I prompt, and Aubrey calls Penny to follow her while Steven stays at my side, and I know why when he speaks.
“Mom said to tell you she would be home tomorrow, so… you know, you don’t have to worry about us being over there.”
“Good,” I agree. I finally talked to Tina after days of her avoiding my calls. She made it perfectly clear she was still pissed but wanted to see the kids, which I told her I had no problem with as long as she was going to be home at night with them.