I glare at them. “He loves me. He just…” I hedge. “Maybe he has amnesia.” I look at the vet tech with pleading eyes. “Dogs can have amnesia, right?”
“Uh.” She shifts from one foot to another, looking uncomfortable. “Look, I’m just the tech… But I don’t think they found any head trauma…”
I sigh.
The goons behind me laugh louder.
Taking the leash from her hand, I crouch down to Boo’s level. After a second, he turns his beady eyes toward me.
“Hey, Boo,” I whisper.
He cocks his head at the sound of my voice. A few seconds pass before he wanders closer, plants his tiny paws on my knee, and licks my downturned face.
“Aww, you do love me,” I say, stroking him gently. “But, for the record, that kiss would’ve been so much nicer if you’d done itbeforeyou had your face up in that corgi’s butt.”
As I lift him into my arms, he licks his tiny tongue up the length of my cheek a second time – ignoring my wishes, per usual.
Clearly, there’s been no permanent damage to his personality.
I hug him close as I walk back toward my friends, who are still cackling like hyenas. (Assholes.) Right then, in that moment, with my dog in my arms and a room full of crazy people who love me, I know that somehow everything is going to be all right.
That lonely feeling I carried around for so many years has vanished with the knowledge that I couldn’t just disappear one day, winking out of existence without causing so much as a ripple.
Because these people, in this dingy waiting room?
They’d notice.
Chapter Thirty-One
I did it, once. Woke up five hours later
covered in glitter and full of regret.
Phoebe West, describing her one and
only experience using Pinterest.
“Thank god you’re here,” I mutter, yanking Nate inside and slamming the front door behind him.
He stands in the entryway, looking at me strangely.
“What?” I ask defensively.
“Your shirt is on backwards and you’re wearingflats.” His eyes narrow. “I don’t know whether to run for my life or take your temperature.”
I smack him on the arm. “You’re supposed to be here to help, not make fun of my fashion choices.”
“Give me a kiss hello and maybe I’ll help you.”
I rise up onto my toes and peck my lips against his. “There.”
Something dark flashes in his eyes and before I know it, he’s spun me around, backed me up against my front door, and is kissing me with so much heat it’s all I can do not to melt into a puddle right there on the floor of my foyer.
Holy frack.
“Thatis a kiss hello,” he rumbles against my lips.
“Hello,” I breathe, feeling dazed.