by Hayden Hunt
But that was fine. It was a small price to pay to continue having Bailey at my house. She brought a lot of positivity into my home. I could deal with the rest.
“When can we meet tomorrow?” he asked immediately, an edge of irritation in his voice.
“Well, I have the day off tomorrow, so we can meet whenever you’d like.”
“Let’s go to the dog park in the morning then. 9 am. Is that okay with you?”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” I said as politely as possible, despite the bite in his voice.
“Perfect. Then I’ll see you then.” He very reluctantly handed over Bailey, cooing at her the entire time. “I’ll see you tomorrow, baby. Soon you’ll be back here living with me, I promise.”
I pulled Bailey into my arms. “I’ll take great care of her, I swear,” I promised him.
“You better,” he mumbled as he followed behind me to the door.
“Excuse me?” I couldn’t help snapping. “That was unnecessarily rude.”
He shrugged, as if it didn’t much matter what I thought.
“Well, I’m kind of doing you a big favor here,” I reminded him.
“Oh please,” he huffed.
“You don’t think I am?!” I said it sharply, but not loudly. I didn’t want to scare Bailey.
“You think I’m an idiot? I can see that you love Bailey. I can tell that you want to keep her. I don’t believe for a second that you’re merely doing this out of the kindness of your heart.”
“No? Well, if you don’t think I’m being kind, then why are you letting me do it?”
“Because you’re right. You may like Bailey, but I also do believe you’re protecting her. She’s not comfortable here. As much as I want to spend time with her again, it would be selfish for me to force her to stay here when she’s this distraught.”
Hearing this, I softened on him. He might have been completely rude, but at least he really did care about this dog and was willing to put his own feelings on the back burner for her. Not a lot of people were that sacrificial.
“But,” he continued, “don’t think you’re going to get to keep her. I will have her back with me, no matter what it takes to get there. Even if I need to move into another place, she’s mine and I won’t let her go again.”
I gave a sideways smile as I stepped backward out the door. “Oh, I don’t doubt it for a second.” I turned around and hollered over my shoulder. “See you tomorrow at nine!”
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