Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 72196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
“What’s with the dog?” I asked cautiously.
“It’s a bribe,” he told me. “My daughter said she’d only love me again if I bought her a puppy.”
My mouth fell open in shock.
“She did not.”
He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“She did.”
My stomach tightened. “You know, right, that she was just saying that. She knows how allergic you are to them.”
I remembered him picking Mogley up, and immediately breaking out in hives wherever Mogley’s fur touched him.
It’d been horrible.
By the time Travis was done, he’d broken out in hives from wrist all the way up to his neck.
He’d told me that it was only a temporary thing, but I saw the discomfort in his eyes as he’d left that night.
And when I’d visited him a few hours later, he’d still had those hives.
He hadn’t acted like it bothered him at all, but still.
“She knows that I’m allergic.”
My mouth pinched shut. “She wouldn’t have made that request of you. It has to be Allegra trying to be funny.”
Travis shrugged. “You like dogs. Reggie is always asking for more. As long as you take care of him, and do all the loving that he’s going to need, then I don’t think it’ll matter, will it?”
Technically, that was true. Travis could be around the dog, as long as he didn’t touch the dog. The dog would have to stay off the furniture, or at least the furniture that Travis sat on. I’d have to make sure that I washed his clothes and put them away the instant that they were hung up instead of leaving them on the couch for a few days. Because it was inevitable that dog hair would get everywhere if I did.
I licked my lips, knowing that he wouldn’t budge on this.
So, instead, I walked over to where Reggie was cuddling the dog and scratched the cute little puppy’s fluffy head.
“Yeah, Trav. I’ll help.”
My brother glared at Travis, making me breathe out in frustration.
Michael and Travis likely would never get along. Even when Travis did something nice like buy my daughter a puppy that he knew would cause him discomfort.
Chapter 9
“As fuck” is my favorite unit of measurement.
-Fact of Life
Travis
Present day
“It’s all right, Tobias,” I said into the phone. “I’m calling him next.”
“Let me know if you get a hold of him,” Tobias sighed. “Oh, and I forgot to ask. How is the dog doing?”
Tobias had been the one to find me the chocolate lab puppy. He’d even gone as far as to meet me halfway with the dog.
I’d only broken out in hives for about thirty minutes before my Benadryl had kicked in, and since then, I’d taken a constant dose of the stuff.
My throat hadn’t stopped itching since I’d gotten the dog.
As for Dante? Well, I already knew what he’d do.
I didn’t reply at first, contemplating what to say.
We both knew that the possibility was low that he’d answer, but we’d try.
“The dog’s good, Toab-Toab. Hannah’s doing a superb job cleaning up the mess I left in her lap.”
At my words, Tobias started to laugh. “Have a good one, bro.”
Tobias said goodbye, and I immediately went back to my phone app and dialed Dante’s number.
He, unsurprisingly, didn’t answer.
“Dante,” I said into my phone, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Please call me. Call any of us. We just want to know that you’re okay.”
I hadn’t seen my brother in well over a month and a half. He’d completely gone off the grid since I’d seen him last, and it was an odd feeling.
Dante was normally the man that all of us could depend on. When he was the one hit with the tragedy, none of us knew what to do. How to react.
And honestly, he didn’t either.
I secretly thought that was why he’d stayed away as he had, because he wasn’t handling it all that well. Though, who the fuck could blame him?
Someone knocked on my office door, and I put the phone down with a soft thump.
After rubbing my face with my hands roughly, I said, “Come in.”
Today was the anniversary of my sister’s suicide. The day that my sister had decided that taking her own life was the answer to the problems that she faced.
Not that my sister didn’t have her problems. They would’ve broken anybody.
When my sister was a teenager, Tobias’ good friend had raped her. Repeatedly.
She’d never fully recovered. Then, she’d gotten into drugs—which she’d been on the night that she’d been driving Dante’s family home.
After that day, she’d sobered up…or at least we’d thought that she had.
Which had been all of our faults. Tobias had really been the only one to stay on her hard. The rest of us had just been tired of it…which had been our own selfish protection act. We didn’t want to deal with it anymore. We were all sad, worn down, and had our own problems.