Calmly, Carefully, Completely(83)

I nod. “A lot,” I admit.

“Uh oh,” he breathes. His brow arches. “You’re in love with her.”

I nod, and a grin steals across my face. “A lot,” I say again.

Maggie walks into the room and lies down at my feet. “Cute dog,” he says.

“She’s a trained killer,” I say.

He laughs. “Tell me another one.”

“Try to get close to Reagan and see what happens,” I warn. I’m not kidding. That dog almost made me piss my pants that one night.

“I’d rather not,” he says. “So, you doing okay?” he asks.

“I’m sorry,” I blurt out. He looks up, shocked.

“For what?” His brow furrows.

“For ignoring you. For not answering your letters. For being mad at you when I told you to run.”

His mouth falls open, like he doesn’t know what to say next. “I should have stayed.”

“I didn’t want you to stay.” I heave in a deep breath. “I was jealous,” I admit. It hurts like f*cking hell, but it’s the truth. “You went off to college and started living the dream. And I wasn’t there.” We’d never, ever been separated before that.

He sits down on the edge of the bed. “We were pretty stupid to work with Bone when we knew it was wrong.”

I nod. “Fucking idiots.”

“We should have known better,” he says.

“Yep.” I sit down beside him.

“Do you want to kiss and make up now?” he says, grinning.

I reach over and hug him, knocking him to the bed in the process, and he wraps his arms around me. His grappling quickly becomes wrestling, and he pins me for a minute on the sheets. But we’re pretty evenly matched. I wiggle out of his hold and flip him over, and it’s my turn to be on top. He makes a noise because he knows I have him, and then he flips me over his head. I live for this shit, but then I hear Maggie. Sam freezes on top of me and looks down.

Shit. Maggie has her teeth bared at him, and she’s gnashing them. “You might want to let me up,” I warn.

“Is she going to bite me?” he asks.

“Fuck, I don’t know.” He lifts his hands and moves to the other side of the room. Maggie hops onto the bed, gets between me and him, and growls. “Mags,” I say, just like Reagan would. Maggie turns and slides her head under my hand. A laugh bursts from my throat. “Now that shit’s funny,” I say.

Sam doesn’t agree, if his scowl is any indication. “You cheated with a f*cking dog,” he says. But a grin breaks across his face.

I scratch Maggie behind the ears. She loves me. Already. “He’s all right, girl,” I tell her. She nuzzles my hand, her eyes going back and forth between Sam and me. “She can tell us apart. Ain’t that some shit?” I ask.

Sam backs out of the room, and I follow with Maggie at my heels. I sit down on the couch, and she drops at my feet and lays her head on her paws.

They still have the movie turned off, and I can tell they’re waiting to grill me.

“Did you two make up?” Paul asks, as he crosses one foot over his leg. He’s trying to be casual about it, but we both know there’s nothing casual when he’s being serious. And he’s serious about this.

“We tried, but then Pete sicced his dog on me,” Sam grouses. He sits down on the arm of the couch. Emily’s in Logan’s lap in the lazy chair, and Matt and Paul are on the other couch.

“Who’s the girl?” Paul asks, jerking his thumb toward the bathroom.