Hot Sauce (Suncoast Society #26)(34)

“How old is he?” Reed asked.

“He’s about five.”

“He obviously loves you,” Lyle said.

She grinned. “Yeah. Tony brought him over to meet me right after he got him, even before Kelly got to meet him. Carlo was snuggling and loving all over me. Tony didn’t tell Kelly that the first night. It wasn’t until later, when they brought him over to me to watch for a weekend when they went out of town, that she saw how much Carlo adored me.”

“Bet that pissed her off,” Lyle said.

She snorted. “Yep. Ask me if I care.”

“Where’s his leash?” Reed asked. “We’ll walk him for you.”

“Oh, I usually turn him out loose in the backyard and watch him. Come on, I’ll show you around.”

She turned and started walking through the house. It was obvious Carlo didn’t want to move from his new friends, so she had to call him. “Come on, buddy. Walkies!”

The dog froze, spat out the wubbie, and bolted past her, obviously knowing where he was going.

The men laughed and followed.





Vanessa wouldn’t deny that she felt relief. The two men had passed the Carlo test with flying colors. He did like most people, although some he would regard with distrust, or at least be wary with them until he got to know them better. Not everyone got the immediate paws-up from him the way the men had.

The only person she’d ever seen him outright hate was Kelly.

After flipping the switch to turn on the lights in the backyard, she led them through a back sliding glass door in the kitchen-dining room area, and they walked out onto the screened pool lanai. From there, into the yard, where Carlo immediately went to go do his thing.

“When I can,” she said, “I take him around the neighborhood for exercise.”

“Does he stay out here all day?” Lyle asked.

“Oh, no. He’s an indoor dog totally. He doesn’t even like to go outside if the grass is wet. He’s like, ‘Ew! Wet-grass poisoning!’” She mimed high-stepping with her hands. “It’s hysterical to watch.”

“Does he swim in the pool?” Reed asked.

“Hell, no. He hates it when I go into the pool. He’ll whine and walk around the edges, all worried about me. We take him to the groomer…” She caught herself. “He goes to the groomer for baths and trims,” she said, now feeling a little more subdued.

It was tricky how Tony slipped into her mind and conversations in so many things, so many places, so many ways…There wasn’t much in her life she couldn’t talk or think about that didn’t have a direct connection to her brother.

After Carlo finished, he streaked back into the lanai, eagerly waiting at the sliding glass door to go inside. She opened the door for him and he ran into the kitchen. There, he plopped his furry butt down in front of the counter, staring up at it eagerly.

“What now?” Lyle asked.

She reached over and got Carlo his treat out of the Batman cookie jar. “He knows the jar is right there.” She laughed as she handed the treat to him. “He’ll sometimes stare at where he knows it is, like he’s trying to tell me, ‘It’s right there!’”

After she rubbed his head, the dog bolted out of the room, returning a moment later with a different wubbie and continuing his earlier game, mumbling at the two men.

“Oh, you’re in trouble now,” she said. “He wants to play some more.”

She liked that both men dropped down to their knees to play the game with Carlo. She knew the dog had to be hurting as much as she was, knowing there was something seriously wrong with his one human, but without the understanding that his daddy wasn’t ever coming home again.

After a few minutes, she knew she couldn’t let the men sit there all night playing, even though that wouldn’t be a bad thing. “So, eight tomorrow morning?”

Reed didn’t look up from where he was faking out Carlo. “Yes, we’ll come get you.”

Carlo’s tail was wagging furiously, the happiest she’d seen him since…

Since a week ago.

In fact, it’d been a littler earlier than this time exactly a week ago when Tony had died, and she stood there in shock next to his bed while a hospital chaplain and a nurse observed her from close by. She’d stroked his hand, telling him the joke wasn’t funny, that he had to open his eyes and look at her.

She slumped against the counter.

In a flash, both men were up and moving, on either side of her.

“Are you okay?” Lyle asked.

She slowly shook her head, bursting into tears. Hell, she hadn’t cried in years, and it felt like all she’d done the past week was cry.

“It was a week ago,” she whispered. “About a week ago right now.”

They got her out to the sofa, flanking her, sitting with her. Carlo’s tail slowed as he stood in front of her, then eventually he dropped his wubbie and sat in front of her, his head in her lap.

Breathing hurt.

Everything hurt.

“When does it stop hurting so bad?” she managed through her tears, no longer caring that these men were almost strangers. She was done pretending she was strong enough to deal with this alone. Now she wished she hadn’t shuffled her parents off as quickly as she had. They’d been calling her every day to talk, to check on her, and she’d been putting on an act for them so they didn’t worry about her.