“If I can get past the fire at Bright Start, I think I can handle something else.”
“Except you weren’t invested in him when that fire took place. Things are different now. You’re invested. Your emotions are involved on a different level.”
I hate her words because this is something I don’t want to think about, let alone talk about. “Look, Mom, I appreciate the concern, but I’m fine, and I really can’t talk about this right now. Mo is probably wondering where I’m at.”
“Okay. I’m sorry if I upset you. That wasn’t my intention.”
I blow out a breath and look up at the fluffy clouds floating across the sky. “It’s okay, Mom. I’m not upset.”
“Bring Trevor by. I’d like to get to know him.”
“I will.”
“Okay, sweetie. I love you.”
“Love you too, Mom.”
She hangs up, and I stuff my phone in my back pocket. Well, that put a damper on my day.
“Milo. Come on, girl.” She leaps to her feet and runs across the yard. “Over here,” I say, guiding her with my voice.
I clip the leash on her, and together we walk through Animal Haven in search of Mo. We find her in the back, on her hands and knees scrubbing out the kennels. I put Milo in an empty cage so she can’t get into anything she’s not supposed to.
“Hey,” Mo says, wiping an arm over her sweaty forehead. “It took you long enough to get here. Grab a hose.”
Don’t mind if do. “I’ve actually been here a little while, but I was stuck on the phone.” I pick up the hose and turn the dial to full blast. “With my mother,” I add.
Mo swallows, her eyes darting to the scrub brush in her hand. “Oh yeah?” she says, running it across the floor. “What did she want?”
I tap the spray nozzle against my palm and take a step toward her. “Oh, you know, just to talk.”
“Good. That’s good,” she says, concentrating on the floor of the kennel as though she’s performing brain surgery.
“Did you talk to your dad today?”
“Uh…yeah, actually, I did. But only for a minute this morning.”
“And what did you two talk about?”
“Just the normal stuff. He asked about Animal Haven. That’s really about it.”
“Liar,” I shout, squeezing the trigger. A heavy stream of water blasts Mo in the chest.
She falls backward, eyes wide. “What was that for?”
“You told your dad about Trevor and I.”
“Trevor and me.”
“Huh?”
“You said Trevor and I, it should’ve been Trevor and me.”
I growl, and Mo throws her hands up.
“I don’t need a grammar lesson from you right now.”
“Okay. Sorry,” she says.
“For correcting my English or blabbing to your dad?”
“Both?”
I blast her with another shot of water. Mo sputters, throwing her hands in front of her face.
Milo is going crazy in her cage, running in circles and barking incessantly, trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
“You deserve that,” I say, lowering the hose. “You knew your dad would tell my mom. Did it occur to you that I hadn’t told her?”
“I’m sorry, okay? I was just excited, and I tell my dad everything, and when he asked what I did last night, it just sort of came out. Then Rhett walked into the room and put his hands on me while I was talking, and I ended up rushing off the phone without telling my dad not to say anything.”
“Let me get this straight. I had to endure a lecture from my mom about Trevor because you and your horny boyfriend couldn’t keep your hands off each other?”
At least she has the decency to cringe. “Yes?”
I raise my nozzle, blasting her again, but this time Mo is ready for me. She lunges to the side, grabbing a second hose, and drenches me. We’re both sputtering, trying to drown the other, and I’m sure from the outside we look like lunatics. But we’re in the moment, and the only one here to judge us is Milo—and she’s blind.
Mo tries to stand up but falls on her ass. The joke’s on me, though, because her nozzle shoots upward, hitting me in the face, and I choke on my own laugh. She tries again to get up, but her rubber boots are no match for the slick concrete, and she falls again—only this time she lands in a pile of dog poo.
I gasp, releasing the trigger at the same time she does. Mo slowly lifts her free hand, which is now a disgusting shade of brown.
“Arf.”
“Quiet, Milo.” The yapping stops, and I scrunch up my nose and look at Mo. “That’s a good color on you, matches your hair.”
Her eyes narrow. “This is your fault, and now I’m going to have to work the rest of the day sopping wet and smelling like dog shit.”
“Here, let me fix it.” I flick the nozzle from stream to spray and aim it at her hand. “There, problem solved.”
Mo shakes her head, flinging water from her face. She drops the hose and very carefully climbs to her feet.
“Truce?” I offer.
“Sure.” The soles of her rubber boots squeak against the floor as she takes a step toward me. “We can call a truce.”
“Good, because I really didn’t mean to cause this big of a mess,” I tell her. “I was just mad that your big mouth blabbed my life to your dad before I had a chance to tell Mom.”
“Do you feel better?”
“I do, actually.”
She takes another step forward, and that’s when I notice her holding her other hand out to the side—the hand that had been gripping the hose. There’s a streak of brown running down her arm. It must’ve gotten there when she fell.
“What are you doing, Mo?”
I take a step back as she closes in on me, and when she’s about a foot away, she lunges, tackling me to the ground.
“Payback!” she yells, trying to rub her arm in my face.
I try to douse her with the hose, but we’re too close together, and I end up drowning the both of us. Mo wrestles the hose from my hand, blasting me in the face. We’re rolling around on the floor, both of us struggling for dominance, when a loud whistle pierces the air.
Mo and I freeze. She’s on top of me, her hips pinning me to the floor. She looks up, and I tilt my head back. Trevor and Rhett are standing in the doorway, both of them grinning from ear to ear.
“What are you two doing?” Rhett asks.
Trevor walks the short distance to us and crouches down. He swipes a finger across my cheek, brings it to his nose, and recoils.
“Why do you have shit on your face?” he says, wiping his finger on his work pants.
“Mo told her dad about us, and he told my mom, and then she called and gave me the third degree.”
“And that’s a problem?” he asks, looking at me tenderly.
“No, it’s not a problem. I just wanted to be the one to tell her.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Yeah, Claire, why didn’t you?” Mo says, crossing her arms over her chest.
“You stay out of it,” I say, pointing a finger at her before I look back up at Trevor. “Her grandclock is ticking, and I wanted to be sure you and I were, in fact, a we before I told her.”
Trevor furrows his brow. “Grandclock?”
“Yeah, you know, when a mom wants to turn into a grandmother but her child isn’t popping out kids so she hounds them every chance she gets,” I explain.
“Oh. Oh, damn. Vivian does that with Rhett and me,” Mo says.
“All the damn time,” Rhett adds, grabbing two towels off the shelf.
He hands one to me and the other to Mo. She crawls off of me, and Trevor pulls me up to a sitting position.
“Speaking of my mother, she wanted to invite the two of you over for family dinner tonight,” Rhett says. “Coop and Adley will be there.”
“That’s why we came by,” Trevor says. “And to bring you lunch, which is in the refrigerator.”
“Thank you. That was very thoughtful, and I would love to have dinner with your family. Tell Vivian I’ll be there.”
“Tell her we’ll both be there,” Mo adds.
Taking the towel from my hand, Trevor wipes the smudges off my face. “I would kiss you, but you stink.”
I rip the towel from his hand, and Mo laughs.
“Why are you laughing?” Rhett goads. “You look worse than she does.”
Mo gives Rhett a sugary sweet smile. “Are you going to be a nice boyfriend like your brother and come wipe me down?”
“Hell no. I know that look, and you’re evil. If I get within reaching distance, I’ll be in just as bad a shape as the two of you,” he says, taking a step back. “And Trevor’s right; shower before you come.”
Trevor stands up. “Maybe twice.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I wave them away. “I’ll ride out later with Mo and go home with you.”
“Sounds good. Dinner is at five,” Rhett says, dipping his hand in his pocket.
Trevor’s gaze bounces between Mo and me. “You two okay here?”
I look at Mo slumped against the wall. She smiles, and I nod.
“Yeah, we’re good.”
With a smile on their faces, Rhett and Trevor walk out. A second later Trevor walks back in. “Where’s Milo?”
I point to her old kennel. “Down there.”
Trevor opens the gate and reaches for her. As soon as she catches a whiff of his scent, her little tush is wiggling like crazy. He scoops her up and heads for the door.
“Where are you taking her?”
“With us. You two have a mess to clean up here, and she can run around with Duke and Diesel at the ranch,” he says, referring to Rhett’s dogs.
“Don’t let her get trampled by a horse.”
Trevor stops and looks at the mess around us. “Trust me, she’s safer at the ranch than she is here.”
40
Claire
Mo waits for Trevor to leave again, and then she looks at me. “I’m sorry I told my dad about you and Trevor.”
“No, you have nothing to be sorry for. It’s my fault. I should’ve told my mom sooner. I’m sorry I drenched you with the hose.”
“And I’m sorry I wiped poop on your face.”
I look down at my soaking-wet clothes and the questionable stains I got from rolling around on the floor, and for some reason I bust up laughing.
Mo smiles, watching me, and after a few seconds she starts laughing too. Before I know it, we’re a hysterical mess.
“Look at us,” I pant, trying to catch my breath. “Two grown women having a water fight.”
Mo wipes the tears from her face and sighs. “I haven’t had this much fun in years.”
“Me neither.”
“I’m thinking I should piss you off every few months just so I can have a good laugh.”
“I’m all down for the good laugh, but lets try to avoid the pissing-off part.”
Mo nods and holds out her hand. I grab it and yank her in for a hug.
“I’ll agree to that,” she says.
“I guess we need to clean up this mess.”
She looks at wet floor and nods. “I guess you’re right. And I still have to do afternoon chores. I’ll be lucky to make it to Vivian and Sawyer’s on time.”
“I’ll stay here and help you. Together we’ll get it done.”
She lifts a brow. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“How about while we clean you give me the lowdown on you and Trevor? You know I’ve been dying to get the details.”
“I can do that.”
Mo and I spend the next hour cleaning up the mess we made, which was more extensive than I’d realized. Water easily drains on the floors because of the way the building was built, but we had water everywhere—the walls, the ceiling, the giant food trough. And that was unfortunate because the top layer of dog food was soggy, and we had to scoop it up and throw it out. And that doesn’t include the poop smeared across the floor.
But by the time we got done, the kennels were spic and span, and Mo had heard my tale from the very first time Trevor and I kissed right here at Animal Haven to the dirty deed that went down last night. Of course I left out all of the intimate details—those are just for Trevor and me—but I am a girl, and I do like to indulge myself in a little girl talk from time to time.
“So Trevor’s a dirty talker? Rhett’s the same way.”
My eyebrow juts up. “Really? I never would’ve guessed that.”
“Oh yeah, he lives for it. It must be an Allen thing.”
“Must be.”
“Well, I’m happy for you.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that. Now if I can just get my mom on board.”
Mo purses her lips. “I’m sorry, Claire, but I’ve never known your mom to be anything but completely supportive of you and your decisions. I have a hard time believing she isn’t on board. She’s known the Allens her whole life, and she knows Trevor. Why wouldn’t she be on board?”
“It’s not Trevor she has a problem with, it’s me.”
“Explain.”
“She thinks I’m still insecure after Daddy’s death.”
“Well, are you?”
“No.” I frown and think about it a second. If I can’t be honest with my best friend, who can I be honest with? “I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
“Claire.” Mo stops what she’s doing and looks at me. “Safety and occupations and firefighters have been a huge source of anxiety for you since your dad passed away, and this is your first time dipping your toe back in the water, and you didn’t really dip your toe—you dove right in.”
“Because I’m tired of being so uptight and following my damn rules. I don’t want to have those insecurities, Mo, and I really want this with Trevor. I love him.”
“I truly believe that you love him, and I know you don’t want to have those insecurities, but what happens if they rear their ugly heads and you change your mind?”
“I would never intentionally hurt Trevor.”
“I know you wouldn’t, but you might unintentionally hurt him if you’re not careful. I know you don’t want to hear what your mom has to say, but maybe she’s right. Maybe you should take a step back and do some soul searching and make sure this is something you’re one-hundred-percent ready for before you wade into the deep end.”
“I think I’m already there.”
“I think you are, too, but it’s not too late for me to toss you a safety ring.”
“Why are we talking in pool lingo?”
Mo laughs. “I have no idea. Maybe because we’re both still soaking wet.”
I smile and then sigh. “I don’t agree with you and my mother entirely, but I see your point. Maybe I should talk to Trevor about this and get his take—although I don’t want to spook him.”
“He won’t be spooked. From what Rhett told me last night after we got home, Trevor’s already floating around the deep end in his raft—with a beer in one hand and an engagement ring in the other.”
“Oh no,” I laugh humorlessly, shaking my head. “We’re far from that.”
“I mean that you’re it for him. He believes in you and in the two of you together that much.” She reaches out to squeeze my hand. “I agree. Talk to him and give him fair warning that you’re a flight risk. That way he can at least be prepared.”
“I’m not a flight risk, but I’ll talk to him tonight after dinner.”
“Good. Now let’s finish here so we can get cleaned up and make it to Vivian’s on time. She’s an amazing cook. I don’t even know what she’s making, and my mouth is already watering.”
41
Trevor
“Thanks for keeping an eye on Milo while I ran home and took a shower.”
“No worries,” Mom says, looking over her shoulder. “She’s out back with Duke and Diesel.”
That little fur ball loved hanging out with me today. Normally I’d look at a prissy little thi
ng like her and think there’d be no way she’d last a minute on the ranch, but Milo is something. I had to keep a close eye on her because, well, she’s blind, but I’ll be damned if that little thing didn’t use her nose and ears to get her everywhere she needed to be.
“It smells amazing in here. What are you making?”
“Garlic chicken and loaded mashed potatoes. It’s Claire’s favorite home-cooked meal.”
“How do you know?” I ask, lifting the lid to one of the pans on the stove. There’s a white cream sauce simmering inside, and it smell delicious. “What is this?”
“I know it’s her favorite because I called her mother and asked. I made Mo’s favorite the first time we had her over for dinner after she and Rhett started dating, and I wanted to do the same for Claire.” Mom slaps my hand away and puts the lid back on the pan. “That’s a provel garlic cheese sauce for the chicken.”
“You called her mother?”
“Yes. And I even invited her and Phil to dinner. They’re out on the patio having a glass of wine and keeping an eye on Milo.”
Shit. I look down at my shirt and pants, wondering if I’m dressed up enough to meet Claire’s mother. Okay, I’m not meeting her for the first time, but that’s what it feels like.
“You look fine.” Mom stands in front of me and runs her hands down the front of my shirt. “Sharon is going to love you almost as much as I love Claire.”
“Almost?”
She smiles and shrugs. “I’m just glad you finally saw what’s been right in front of you this whole time.”
I squint, thinking back to that conversation Mom and I had in the hospital after the fire.
“There’s a girl, but your head and your heart have to be ready for her, and when they are, you’ll see her.”
“You’re obviously not there yet, and when you are, you’ll realize you don’t have to look far because she’s been right in front of you this whole time.”
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