Table of Contents

Title Page

Before

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

After

When it’s Not

Right

By

Amanda Flieder

www.amandaflieder.ca

Copyright © 2018 Amanda Flieder

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, and recording or otherwise – without the prior written permission of the author, except for brief passages quoted by a reviewer in a newspaper or magazine. To perform any of the above is an infringement of copyright law.

ISBN: 978-1-7752514-2-2 (ebook)

Before

Start a new chapter in your life!

Jayler Wakefield stared at the posting on the board in the employees’ lounge. It was an in-house job advertisement. Bowler’s wasn’t a big chain, but six months ago head office had announced opening a new location out of state and everyone had been waiting to see where it was. It was in Alaska.

“Huh. All that hype about an out of state branch and it’s opening where they get twelve months of winter,” Jewel, a new cashier who constantly chewed fruit flavored gum, shrugged and turned to the room in general. “I guess Oahu was too much to hope for.”

Jay didn’t notice when Jewel left. She just kept reading the poster and trying to find the small print. Something that would say she wasn’t acceptable. Most of the jobs were going to be hired local, but this posting was for six people to be core staff – management and trainers. Jay was qualified for at least two of the listed positions. And relocation would be paid, along with assistance in finding a new place to live once you got up there.

Start a new chapter in your life! Her eyes were drawn again to the bold, red font at the top of the posting. She touched the knot on the stitches holding her lip together and thought about her half empty apartment with the blood stains on the carpet that just wouldn’t wash out completely. She thought that a new chapter sounded pretty good.

∞

Cory Reaper settled lower into the nest he’d made and sighted out along the road again, this time using the scope on his rifle instead of the binoculars. The dust of the approaching convoy was drawing into range. The intelligence he’d been given two hours ago was that the mark would be in the third car back, probably in an armor plated limousine. He had two rounds: one armor piercing to take out the driver, one armor-piercing tracer to ignite the car if it didn’t catch in the crash. The smoke would draw in guerilla fighters. Survivors wouldn’t last long.

He released the safety and tightened the stock into his shoulder. The limo was third in line, and riding low – obviously homemade armor. The back windows were tinted, the front ones were clear. The driver even had his window down so the smoke from his cigarette didn’t bother the passengers. Cory waited for the first vehicle to come around the bend before he eased the trigger back. The recoil was smooth, his line of sight through the scope unbroken. The limo tipped over the corner and rolled, the doors crumpling into the roof and floor. Sparks from the metal scraping on rock ignited the exterior of the car as it settled on the dried-up creek bed. No one crawled out of the broken windows. The trunk exploded, scattering the would-be rescuers, and blasting flames through the interior of the limo.

Cory watched for a full minute, unmoving, before quickly dismantling his custom rifle. He placed each section in the case, put the case in his pack, sent the text he needed to and confirmed the bank transfer, and then abandoned the nest that had been his home for the past four days. Tomorrow he would step back off the MIA list again and rendezvous with the chopper on the legal side of the border (where he was supposed to be), and a week from now he’d be retired. He picked up the issued rifle (which was the one he was supposed to have) from where he’d hidden it a few hundred yards away, slung it comfortably, and started jogging. He was so very ready for retirement.

Chapter 1

“Welcome to The Brew,” the bartender said with an engaging smile, ample cleavage bulging out of a tiny tee shirt. “What can I get for you? Want a menu?”

“I have no idea, and yes please,” Jayler smiled back.

The bartender laughed. Her laugh was deep and rich, like dark honey, and made her name tag – Hi! My Name Is Louise – bounce eye-catchingly. Jay opted to sit at the bar and dropped her jacket on the back of one of the tall chairs. A menu slid in front of her as she sat down.

“So no idea because you don’t drink and are trying it for the first time, or no idea because you know I can make anything and it’s all simply too good to be true?” Louise asked, taking advantage of having someone to talk to in the nearly empty pub.

“No idea because I’m happy and celebrating and don’t know what to order for that,” Jay replied, tucking a few unruly curls behind her ears and hoping they might stay there this time.

“I have lots for that. What’s your favorite flavor if you could pick anything in the world?” Louise leaned on the bar, her poor tee shirt threatening to give up its burden under her open smile. Jay felt sorry for the fabric, but assumed the tips were worth it.

“Chocolate,” Jay answered instantly. “That dark and white chocolate marble fudge they have at the bakery up the street.”

Louise looked surprised, then laughed again as she straightened up. “Me too! And I have just the drink. Made it up myself in honor of that fudge!” she said as she turned to face the bottles lined up on backlit shelves behind the bar, Jay turned her attention to the menu. One laminated page, burgers and appetizers on the front, salads, sides and dinners on the back. She eyed up the pizza: three kinds of meat with pineapple and tomatoes. Extra cheese for a dollar more.

“So I haven’t seen you in here before. What are we celebrating?” Louise asked, putting two glasses in front of Jay and starting to pour equally into both.

“I haven’t been in before,” Jay looked up from the menu, about to say something else, and then stopped. “Oh, I can’t afford two,” she bit at her bottom lip nervously.

“They’re on the house, being as we’re celebrating,” Louise whispered conspiratorially, adding a heavily mascaraed wink. Jay felt her lips turn up slowly in a genuine smile. “That’s better,” Louise tapped Jay’s chin with her finger in a friendly way. “So what are we celebrating?” she asked, going back to pouring the drinks.

“The end of probation at work, a raise, and a real start on a new life,” Jay announced proudly. Louise looked at Jayler, really looked at her, then thudded the bottles she was holding down and hustled around the nearby end of the bar. She threw her arms around Jay in a rib-crushing hug.

“Congratulations!”

Jay laughed out loud, surprised, and hugged Louise back. She didn’t know why, but suddenly she was fighting to not cry. She just felt... happy.

“Well my goodness,” Louise said, stepping back. “Oh now don’t you start. My waterworks get pumping and it’ll take me an hour to get my face cleaned up and another half hour to get this mascara back on!” She grabbed a clean towel off the stack behind the counter and dabbed gently at Jay’s cheeks as Jay laughed again. “You laugh just like Christmas bells,” Louise said with a smile. Jay shifted uncomfortably in response to the compliment and bit at her lip in a shy smile as the blush flared her pale skin almost as red as her hair.

“How do you know I haven’t been here before?” she asked, changing the subject.

“With that mane? That hair I’d remember,” Louise answered, walking back around the bar. “Actually I do remember you, though. You work over at the new Bowler’s. What’s your name?”

“Jayler. And you’re Louise?” she asked, hesitantly.

“When I’m at work, yeah. Otherwise I’m Lou,” she stuck a hand across the bar. “It’s really nice to meet you, Jayler.”

“Just Jay,” they smiled and shook hands warmly. “Lou, how do you walk in those boots?”

Louise laughed and dabbed whip cream onto the tops of both drinks. “Practice,” she said with another heavy wink. She passed one of the drinks to Jay and held her own up in a toast. “To Jayler. For breaking out of her rut.”

Jay blushed, smiling widely, and clinked her glass with Lou’s.

∞

Cory let the wind slam the door behind him. A storm was threatening to make the evening interesting, and he wanted to grab a burger before heading home. Hopefully he could beat the weather, but as Louise smiled at him he thought maybe he could stand to get a little spatter on the windshield. Usually Tony worked the bar on Fridays.

The redhead Lou was chatting with between random drink orders glanced at him and he made sure to reinforce his feet against tripping on the step down onto the main floor. He walked past her, smelling only a whiff of plain shampoo, the same as whenever he passed her in Bowler’s when he was shopping, then went to the opposite end of the bar to sit.

“Hey there, handsome,” Louise greeted him with a smile and a menu.

He stood up and leaned over the bar, his eyes tracing over the almost painted-on tee shirt and pants she was wearing. “It’s a cruel world that makes you an honest woman,” he sighed, sitting down. She laughed and set the menu in front of him, her left hand splayed in the middle of it.

“Four karats and a ruby band are my seal to stay that way.”

He lifted her fingers, making a show of admiring the rest of the rings she was wearing today. They were all real, he could tell.

“You’ve showed me these at least a dozen times and I still just see the fingers.”

She giggled and shrugged from the elbows, showing a lot more than fingers. He released her hand, shooting a quick glance at the redhead. She’d just had a pizza delivered. Pale skin, tidy clothes and shoes – but not expensive ones – and that mane of heavy red tangles.

“You willing to cheat on me already?” Louise asked, teasingly, noting his notice.

“Can’t cheat on someone you don’t have,” he smiled at her and sat back. “But Tony is a lucky man.”

“I remind him of that every day,” she said with a wink as she filled a glass with ice water for him. “You want a burger or some ribs tonight? Or we got the wings on special, twenty for twelve dollars.”

“A burger. I’ve been dreaming about bacon and mushrooms all afternoon.”

“Done.” She set the glass in front of him and wiggled away, pausing to put in his order with the kitchen, and then went back to chatting with the redhead.

Cory sipped at the water and watched the room in the big mirror behind the bar. This was his favorite seat, he could see the whole restaurant – including into the kitchen – with barely a turn of his head. A number of young workers off shift early for the weekend were just settling in, which explained why Louise was at the bar tonight. A few regulars were here already, and the rest would show up in the next half hour or so. A blond wearing as much as Louise, but only half as well, and a wanna-be cowboy were cuddled in one of the back booths, ignoring the world and feeding each other from an appetizer mix plate.

The waitresses circled, short skirts and tall boots leaving the depraved masses from whatever worksite was running right now tongue-tied and ordering up the first round of liquid courage. In about an hour friends of the waitresses would start to trickle in, also in short skirts and tall boots. All the girls would drink for free for the weekend, all the boys would go back to work hung over and broke (a few pretty happy about it), and Tony wouldn’t bother to show up until Monday so Louise could take the week off. There were no bouncers here at The Brew. Louise had three sets of Golden Gloves on display in the back office – she’d been a featherweight back in high school and a high school coach in the years since – and Cory wasn’t the only regular that had a colorful past.

That left the redhead. He’d seen her working at the new store, Bowler’s, a few times. Spoken with her once and made her blush. Had been itching for the chance to do it again but hadn’t seen her again until now.

It wasn’t much of a chance though. Louise hovered over the redhead like a mother hen, not leaving much of an opening for conversation, and Cory wasn’t good at small talk anyway. He decided to wait for a better opportunity, preferably once he’d had a chance to learn more about the redhead so that he could be good at talking to her.

∞

Jay ate the pizza between chatting with Lou. It tasted as good as it had sounded on the menu. Over the heavily cheesed slices, she learned more about the town and the people, and Lou found out more about Jay. Louise slid back over from filling another order as Jay was nursing her last sips of liquid chocolate heaven.

“He’s staring at you again,” Lou whispered loudly, putting the finishing dabs of whip cream on another round of drinks for them to share.

“His head hasn’t turned away from his plate since it landed in front of him. I don’t know why you think he’s watching me,” Jay glanced at the blond man at the other end of the bar again, confirming that yes, he was still not paying the slightest attention to anything but the last of his fries.

“Because I know that from that seat a person can see the whole bar without turning around, and he ain’t looking at the mirror very much. You and I are the only things this side of the building that are worth looking at, and I’m not his type.”

Jay felt the blush trying to creep up again. Louise had magazine perfect hair and makeup, with salon hands and a body that would make a swimwear model hang her head in overwhelming inferiority. She also handled the bar and money for this pub and the previous one they’d had in New York City, being as she was a bartender and a Chartered Accountant.

“Aren’t you every man’s type?”

Lou burst out with her warm honey laugh as she set the new drink in front Jay.

“Maybe,” she said with a wink as she leaned on the bar. “But John Olsen ain’t interested in chasing married ladies. Much to the chagrin of a few married ladies around town that would love to get their fingers in that blond hair of his. He’s also smart, funny, and never leaves a debt for anything with anyone around town, which leads me to think he’s honest too,” she picked up the almost empty glass in front of Jay and took a couple of steps toward the waitress who’d just showed up a couple of chairs down. “And he’s gorgeous!” she called back.

The blush Jay had suppressed a moment before flared all over her face. She dipped her head and took a sip of the new drink, whip cream bumping against her top lip. She looked furtively over the rim of her glass at the man that Louise called John Olsen. Blond hair, angular features with a rugged scrub of whiskers, and lean muscle on his arms up to where they disappeared into a shoulder hugging, black tee shirt. He’d made a point of talking to her one time in the store while she’d been working, had been awkwardly loud, and she’d ended up blushing madly. She remembered to look away and set her glass back down. Louise was grinning at her. Jayler felt her face start to glow.

∞

Cory finished the meal and tossed a fifty on the bar beside his empty plate. He’d almost been able to feel the redhead’s eyes going over him in assessment and was warming up to the idea of trying to talk to her again. Maybe he could get her to say her name so it wasn’t creepy that he already knew it. Louise slid up to the counter and counted off his change quickly, handing him back the bills as he was pulling on his jacket.

“Her name’s Jayler Wakefield and you should say hello to her because you’ve already dug up everything about her so that you could shop at Bowler’s,” she winked at him. He smiled at her, bluffing bravado.

“Are you trying to set me up again?”

“Every chance I get,” she smiled her big smile, but was still talking quietly. “Someone, one day, is going to get through to you. On that day, I’m going to be her best friend and finally find out all the nitty gritty dirty on you, the same way you got it on everyone else,” she winked again as she sauntered away, back toward Jayler.

“You never complained about me knowing too much about you,” he offered lightly, following just far enough behind to watch her ass from across the bar. She noticed him obviously eying her and put enough extra effort into stepping to have made a lesser man cry. “You’re an evil woman, Louise.”

“That’s because you were nice about it,” she replied to his first statement, alluding to the embezzling employee his research had uncovered. “And I am, John, but only for you,” she replied to his second statement, leaning onto her elbows on the bar by Jayler and popping her cleavage a dangerous amount considering the tee shirt she was almost not wearing. He rolled the folded the bills she’d given him as change and, reaching carefully so as not to touch her at all, tucked the bills between her breasts. It won him a smile and a wink and a place right beside Jayler without an audience while Louise went to put the money in the tip jar at the other end of the bar.

Jayler had watched the proceedings with a sideways grin, but quickly ducked her head over her glass when he turned toward her. She seemed to shrink into her chair, away from him. He was suddenly, keenly aware that he was standing too close to her, and she was frightened of him. Louise was already on her way back, but got held up by a waitress who had a new order. The idea of making the redhead blush again evaporated and Cory tried to figure out something so that he didn’t feel like he was looming.

Jayler set her drink down and reached for a napkin that was sitting on the bar on Cory’s side of her, and she actually mumbled an apology for reaching for it. Cory filed her as off limits with the logic that Jenny, his sister, would fly up and fillet him if she found out he was harassing someone. He’d caught enough hell from her over the years, and he didn’t need any more – even if it was deserved the times it had happened.

“Are you still lingering?” Louise asked, sauntering back over and leaning precariously far over the counter as the door opened and another tableful of workers came in.

“You know I can’t leave when I still have questions,” he replied smoothly, leaning on his side of the bar so he was bordering on too close to Louise, gaining a dare of a smile for doing it as she arched a perfect eyebrow at him. “Tony asked me to deliver some fuel for the tank at your place, but didn’t say how much. Get him to call me?”

“I’ll find out and call you myself,” she smiled at him as if she was actually coy.

“You stay out past my bedtime and I don’t like calls that late,” he replied, making her laugh. Her attention shifted to another group of workers coming in, already with local girls mixed in, and she frowned a bit.

“How did you say you were getting home, Jay-bird?” Lou turned to the redhead.

“Oh, um, I’ll just be walking,” Jayler answered quietly, darting a glance at Cory. “It’s only a couple blocks, over to the new apartments,” she added quickly when Louise frowned.

“What’s wrong?” Cory asked.

“These boys ain’t been in for a while, they’re on the three-month shift, which means the plants and the mine are both on days off this weekend,” Lou slanted a quick look at Jayler before staring him in the eye and tipping the top of her head toward the front doors. Cory knew that look. His sister and brother-in-law had given it to him many times the last time they visited and the two littlest of their three kids got too far away from their parents, but were still close to him. The new pack of workers aimed for Louise and she beamed a smile at them.

“Sit wherever you like, fellas, the girls will be with you right away for ordering drinks and dinner,” she shooed at them with her towel, making all but two men laugh and turn away toward the few open tables.

“Aw, come on, Louise, one beer just to get us to the table?” one worker leaned on the bar beside Jayler as the other tried to figure out how to shove in between Cory and the redhead. Cory grinned at the guy closest to him and slid an arm around Jayler’s waist, physically pinning her to his chest as he picked up her jacket and purse in his other hand.

“Thanks again for dinner, Lou,” Cory lifted Jay to her feet. “I’ll settle out the tab when we’re back in town next week.”

“That’s what you said last week,” she pointed a perfectly manicured fingernail at him as she picked up the phone handset in her other hand.

“Yeah, but this week I mean it,” he grinned and fit Jay into her jacket, relieved that she seemed to just be quiet and let him do it. He waved as he pressed a hand into Jay’s back and ushered her out the door. Lou returned the gesture as she pressed her phone to her ear and Cory heard her asking Tony to come in to help in the kitchen, as if he was simply extra staff. Their private code that the other needed to come in as quickly as possible.

“Did I… did I miss something?” Jay asked, digging in her heels and resisting his push for her to get into his jeep.

“This crowd is about to be full of people you don’t want to know,” he answered, reaching around her and opening the passenger door.

“I don’t know you, either,” she tried to duck under his arm and he caught her. He spun her around and lifted her neatly into the passenger seat. She clutched at her purse and curled her legs up to her chest, failing miserably at trying not to appear terrified.

“I’m going to drop you off at your apartment, which is what Louise asked me to do. Then I’m coming right back here to wait for her husband because it’s probably going to be a bad night,” he explained.

“I think I’d rather walk,” she stated, her tone neutral and her gaze not lifting past the top of the dash.

“Shit,” Cory sighed, every marker for an abusive relationship suddenly obvious. “You want me to drop you off at a friend’s place instead? I don’t have to get within sight of your place if your guy is going to be a dick about it.”

Chapter 2

Jayler stared up in complete surprise at the man Louise had said was named John. He looked like he was resigned to wait patiently until she was able to respond.

“Um, no, that’s not… I live alone. I mean, he’s in jail, back in…” she shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. It’s just that,” she paused, trying to put her thoughts in order around the few drinks and John’s recent actions now being followed up with a concerned stare. “I don’t know you, I feel like I’m being abducted after getting thrown in your jeep, and that’s making me feel scared.”

“Oh,” he answered, looking mildly confused, and then swung the door shut as he pulled his phone out of his pocket.

“That’s not helping,” she told the window she was looking at him through.

He pulled his keys out of his pocket and pressed a button. The steering column beeped and the jeep’s engine started, startling her. Suddenly she realized that she could see his mouth moving, but she couldn’t hear what was he was saying over the jeep. The air conditioning kicked on and the stuffiness cleared out as he was dialing another number.

Cory listened to the phone message at the house, left a quick message that he would try the cell numbers, and hung up. He dialed Austin’s number next, figuring he’d catch less flak from his brother-in-law than if he called his sister with this people question. Austin picked up on the first ring. Cory could hear the minivan’s engine and the kids clearly through the van’s Bluetooth.

Shit.

“Hey, Uncle Cory,” Austin called over the noise in the minivan, his voice nearing a breaking point. At least two of the kids were crying, and it sounded like that had been the status quo for longer than sixty seconds.

“Hey,” Cory tried to talk quiet enough not to be overheard by anyone passing on the sidewalk, but loud enough so Austin would hear him. “You got a second for a people question?”

“Yeah, sure,” Austin blew out a sigh. “I’m trapped behind an accident and late for picking up Mommy at the airport and everyone is screaming. Good timing.”

“Want me to call Jenny?” Cory asked, not sure if Austin was venting or legitimately pissed.

“God, no,” Austin answered, laughing. “I need to talk to an adult,” he clarified. “I guess you’re close enough.”

“Asshole,” Cory stated.

“Language,” Austin warned him.

“They’re all screaming. They won’t hear me,” Cory reasoned.

“Yes, yes they are. And yes, yes they will,” Austin sighed. “What’s the people question?”

“All the job site work crews are off this weekend and Louise asked me to make sure one of the girls in the restaurant got home safe,” Cory explained. “But Louise asked with that same look that you and Jenny give me when one of the kids is getting away, not out loud.”

“Okay. There’s no problem there,” Austin noted.

“Yeah, but the girl, Jayler, she didn’t see the look,” Cory stated. “She’s scared I’m kidnapping her.”

“Did she say that she was scared?” Austin asked.

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Because I put her in my jeep.”

“Did you tell her that Louise told you to?”

“Yeah. But she said she doesn’t know me so that’s still scary for her,” Cory added. Austin was quiet for a second.

“Did Jayler agree to get in the jeep?”

“No.”

“Okay, so technically you are kidnapping her and she’s allowed to be scared of you,” Austin explained. “You need to let her out of your jeep.”

“But Louise said it’s not safe for Jayler to walk home,” Cory reasoned.

“How far away does she live? And is Jayler one of your safe people?”

“Four and a half blocks,” Cory answered easily, then hesitated. “She works at the new Bowler’s. I only talked to her once before, but it looks like she’s friends with Louise.”

“Is she one of your safe people?” Austin repeated.

“Well, no,” Cory finally admitted, confused about why he was hesitating.

“But she’s someone that you want to be one of your safe people?” Austin asked carefully. Cory knew he was fidgeting and wanted to stop, but his feet kept moving anyway.

“I don’t…” Cory sighed, getting frustrated.

“Situation breakdown,” Austin coached using key words to lead into the routine questions so Cory could figure out why he was getting frustrated. “Is she pretty?”

“Yeah. Red hair, long. Around five foot six. Caucasian with freckles.”

“Background check?”

“Incomplete. She relocated and I haven’t looked up from where. All local checks are clear.”

“Have you had an actual conversation with her?”

“No, not…” Cory sighed again. He skipped over the rest of the questions and just started talking so that Austin would know what everything was. “She got flushed and blushed when I said hi to her that one time, but no eye contact and all body language defensive. Now all behavior markers are present for domestic abuse.”

“Any visible scars, bruising, or lacerations?” Austin asked the obvious question. Cory stared at her through the passenger window long enough that she shifted closer to the console between the seats.

“Scarring to left eyebrow and left side of top lip,” Cory replied, looking back at his feet as they started shifting around again. “No visible bruising or lacerations.”

“Any information regarding a domestic partner?”

“She told me he was in prison when I asked if she was getting abused.”

“When did you ask that?”

“Just before I called you.”

“Before or after you put her in your jeep?”

“After,” Cory noticed the knot in his stomach was starting to ease up.

“Is there any alternative transportation for her?”

“She said she wanted to walk,” Cory replied, the doubt heavy in his voice even to his own ears.

“Is that a safe alternative?” Austin asked. Cory glanced at the crowd that was gathering outside The Brew.

“No,” he confirmed.

“Is it a safe alternative if you go with her?” Austin offered. Suddenly the knot in Cory’s stomach released completely.

“Yeah,” he said.

“Okay, try offering that.”

“Okay.”

“And, Cory?

“Yeah?”

“It’s okay if she says no and you watch from here to make sure nobody follows her. You scared her and she’s allowed to be scared. You are technically kidnapping her right now, and don’t forget that you’re typically large and looming.”

“Okay.”

“And, Cory?” Austin’s tone changed from coaching to warning.

“Yeah?” Cory asked, worried again.

“Don’t tell your sister about this one. She’ll freak right out,” Austin advised.

“Okay. There’s a message on your home phone. I just said that I was going to try the cell phones next. No details,” Cory warned his brother-in-law.

“Perfect. I’ll just tell her that you called me and you’re good. You can tell the girl in your jeep –”

“Jayler,” Cory interrupted.

“You can tell Jayler that you’ve got PTSD. And don’t forget to apologize to her for putting her in your jeep without her permission,” Austin had to raise his voice to get over the pitch of the oldest screaming at the twins to ‘shut up because Daddy’s on the phone.’ Cory didn’t bother trying to say good-bye now that all the kids were screaming. He disconnected the call so that Austin could yell at his kids in peace, and just hoped that they were clear of the accident soon because the twins still fell asleep within five minutes if the vehicle motion was constant.

Chapter 3

John hung up the call and opened the passenger door to the jeep. Jayler tried to shrink further away from him, but he didn’t reach in like she’d been worried he might. He just leaned on the door and bent over a bit so that he could make eye contact.

“I’m sorry I scared you. I shouldn’t have put you in here without your permission,” he apologized. She waited for the ‘but’ statement to follow, but there wasn’t one.

“Okay,” she replied, drawing out the word as she didn’t know how to respond because she was still bordering on terrified.

“Lou wanted me to make sure you got home safe. You said you wanted to walk, but I don’t think that’s safe,” he looked over his shoulder at the crowd. When he turned back, he really only looked concerned. “Are you sure you don’t want a ride home?”

Jay felt her head nodding.

“I really want to just walk,” she confirmed.

He stepped back so that she could climb out, no questions asked. Jay stepped out of the jeep, hedging close to the back door so that she was as far from John as she could get. He waited for her to get clear before swinging the passenger door closed. He scanned another worried glance over the crowd, and suddenly she felt really weird for being afraid of him. Louise had been genuinely nice to him. He’d only been really abrupt about physically removing her from the pub and then forced her into his vehicle…

Yeah, no, she was good with being afraid of this guy. That was the correct reaction. Possibly she should also be angry, but he looked like he was capable of handing out more than he took when it came to exchanging anything remotely angry. Fear was definitely the correct response right now. Possibly terror once she was home.

“Will you let me walk you home?” he asked, hitting a button on his keys and turning off his jeep.

“No,” she drew out that word too, damn it. She’d tried to control her voice from turning it into a question and just ended up sounding undecided. He nodded and looked down at where the toe of one of his shoes was pushing around the loose rocks close to the front of his foot.

“I am sorry that I scared you,” he repeated, not looking up from fidgeting.

“You said that already.”

He just nodded again, and then his fidgeting stopped and he scanned over the growing crowd. He just looked worried as another truck pulled up nearby and six guys piled out, shifting almost unconsciously so that he was blocking them from being able to see her.

“You should get going,” he said. His head was still tilted down, but she realized he was watching the bar.

She didn’t bother to say anything, just skirted around his jeep and crossed the parking lot, remembering how to breathe once she was on the sidewalk and walking away. Cory watched her go, seeing her shoulders drop as her back relaxed after the scare he’d given her started wearing off. Austin was right that Jenny would be pissed at him if she found out about this.

He went around the jeep and climbed in, adjusting the mirrors so that he could keep watching Jayler, and talking nonsense into his phone so that he could keep sitting here in the parking lot and watching the crowd to make sure that she wasn’t being followed. She was a block and a half away when the same two guys who’d tried to get too close to her in The Brew broke away from the crowd and started walking in the same direction that Jayler was going, two more guys with them.

Cory waited before jumping to conclusions, bringing up Austin’s number for speed dial just in case. Jayler turned the corner for the street that her apartments were on and the four guys started jogging. Cory hit send and put the phone to his ear.

“What happened?” Austin asked immediately. From the sound of it he was still stuck in traffic, but had disconnected his phone from the van’s audio system.

“She walked. I didn’t go with her because she didn’t want me to. She’s being followed. Four man team.”

“Are there any police nearby?”

“No.”

“What’s her address?” Austin demanded. Cory rattled off the apartment complex name and street intersection, Austin repeated it back. “I’ll call it in to Rick. You’re not to engage unless warranted. No lethal force. Extract her to a safe location. If you hurt anyone, keep her in the jeep outside the apartment until Rick gets there.”

Cory hung up and gunned the jeep’s engine to life. He drove normally out of the parking lot so that he didn’t arouse any suspicions and took a different route to her block. She wasn’t anywhere on the street. He idled up to the next intersection. She was just off the street she’d been on, and was now engaged in a verbal confrontation with someone that hadn’t followed her from the bar.

Cory answered his phone as soon as it buzzed.

“Update,” Austin ordered.

“She’s entered a verbal confrontation with a fifth unknown. The four man team is inbound.”

“Authorities have been notified and a car is on route to your location.”

“Underst–” Cory stopped talking as the individual that she’d been arguing with dropped a billy club out of his sleeve and hit her in the side of the head with it. She dropped like a sandbag and didn’t move. That definitely was action that warranted engagement. “Shit,” he stated, turning off the jeep. He opened the door, leaving his phone on the seat and the call connected, and then strode across the street. “Hey! Asshole!” he yelled, making sure it was loud enough that Austin would know what was happening.

“Fu–” the guys expected reply fizzled out when he looked up. “Bitch had it coming!” he changed his tune and started backing away.

Cory heard the footsteps behind him as he knelt down to check that she was still breathing. She was out cold, but otherwise seemed okay for the moment. The guy in front of him seemed to grow a pair of balls now that reinforcements had arrived. Cory checked over his shoulder and watched the four man team fan out in a typical brawling pattern. Two of them had previously suffered broken noses, and all four had facial and knuckle scarring that indicated at least a recreational level of drunken fighting. The conservative conclusion was that they were without formal training, so unpredictable. So far only one of the five had produced a weapon.

The taunting was generic and meant to be inciting. Comments aimed at him that equated to steroid use and gym time, all derogatory. Comments aimed at Jayler that equated to gang rape. Lethal force was not allowed. The civilian was to be extracted to a safe location. He was to secure the civilian and return to the rendezvous point.

Cory glanced down at Jayler again. Her pulse was strong and her breathing regular, but there was swelling near her temple. A small trickle of blood had appeared, originating from inside her ear. He internally updated her status to requiring immediate medical attention and stood up.

The guy with the billy club attacked first. Cory caught his wrist, broke his elbow with a counter strike, smacked the club out of his hand, and then flattened his nose with a quick jab. Someone’s arms dropped over his head in an attempted choke hold. Cory dropped before they got a grip, picked up the billy club and slammed it up into the guy’s balls, and then surged back to standing by leading with an upper cut that connected with the guy’s lower jaw. That guy was still toppling when Cory got punched and countered by kicking out the puncher’s knee. The last two charged him at once, attempting to overwhelm. Cory dodged directly in front of the first and grappled him into a throw that tangled him into the second. They both went down hard. Two kicks, one to each face, and they weren’t fighting anymore either.

Cory picked up Jayler carefully, mindful of the head injury and ensuring that she still had her purse, to carry her back to his jeep. The guys who were still conscious cringed out of his way so that he didn’t have to step over them, and he didn’t have any further problems on the short walk to his vehicle. He opened the back door and loaded her so she was lying across the full bench seat, then clicked the seatbelts around her so she was secured in place from rolling onto the floor. He made sure her feet were clear of the door before he closed it and then grabbed his phone and climbed in behind the wheel. His phone was still lit up and sounded like kids stuck in traffic so he put it on speaker.

“The guy she was arguing with pulled a billy club. I’m on route to the hospital. She’s unconscious and bleeding from the left ear.”

“Have authorities arrived yet?” Austin asked.

“No,” Cory confirmed before answering. “Five hostiles are currently one block west of the apartment address.”

“Which direction are they moving?”

“Stationary,” Cory stated.

“I’ll notify the authorities,” Austin replied, and then disconnected.

Cory turned off his phone and drove the ten minutes to the hospital in silence. He pulled straight into the ambulance bay, which ensured that he was immediately attended on by three EMTs and a hospital nurse yelling at him to move his vehicle. He unlocked the doors and climbed out.

“Single blow to the left temple by this,” he tossed the billy club to the nearest EMT as he came around the hood. Only the one he tossed the club to stopped yelling at him. “Contusion swelling at the left temple and bleeding from the left ear,” he yelled at the other three as he yanked the back passenger door open. The nearest EMT blinked at him, looked in the back seat, and then pushed past him to get to Jayler. Cory opened the front passenger door and pulled the front seat as far forward as it would go in case the EMT wanted to climb into the back.

“How long has she been unconscious?” another of the EMTs asked.

“Just over ten minutes,” Cory provided. The nurse disappeared inside the hospital and then re-emerged pulling a stretcher.

“Your relationship to her?” the nurse asked when Cory handed him Jayler’s purse.

“No relation,” he stated, closing the passenger doors on the jeep as Jayler was rushed inside. The radios of the two EMTs that stayed outside blandly told them about five injured people at the address where Cory had left all of them, and that police on scene were requesting an ambulance.

“How do you know how and when she got injured,” the nurse pressed.

“I’m going to move my vehicle,” Cory stated. “I’ll be in the waiting room for police to arrive with those guys,” he pointed at the ambulance the EMTs had jumped into.

Chapter 4

“Hey, John.”

Cory looked up from the floor tile he’d been staring at for the past twenty minutes far enough to see the trooper’s uniform shoes and pant legs. The voice was safely familiar.

“How about we sit in your jeep while I interview you?”

Cory led the way outside, breathing a sigh of relief once he was back in the parking lot. He’d done enough research on the hospital to be able to go inside if he was hurt bad enough to have to go, and to get to and from his psych appointments, but the constant flow of people in and out of the emergency area always put him on edge. He climbed into the jeep behind the wheel and unlocked the doors for the trooper to get in on the passenger side.

“Okay, so I have one story that you jumped all five guys with a baseball bat,” Richard Olsen started, opening his tablet case and bringing up the voice recording app. “The other story is that you went all kung-fu movie without provocation. None of the five can remember that there was a woman there. And I have a bank machine six feet from where the altercation happened that I’m requesting the camera footage from when the branch opens tomorrow morning. The woman you brought in woke up a couple minutes after you dropped her off. She doesn’t remember anything past having a yelling fight with her ex-husband,” Rick looked sideways at Cory. “He’s the one with the broken elbow and flattened nose,” he said, and then pressed the ‘record’ button. “Tell me what happened, right from the beginning.”

Cory recited through the whole story, starting when he paid Louise for his food and ending when Rick walked up to him in the emergency waiting room. He included his brother-in-law’s name and contact info for the report, so that they had something official to match to for the calls Austin had made. Rick asked a couple more questions, confirming details, and then shut off the record app and closed his tablet case.

“Are you just going to head straight home?” Rick asked. “Or did you need to talk to Doctor Vern before I let you go?” Cory thought about it long enough that Rick sighed. “I’m just asking because your terminology gets really military in the middle of your story, Cory. Are you wigging out? Did you get triggered on anything that happened?”

“I think I’m actually okay,” Cory answered. “I triggered a bit in the fighting, but Austin was on the phone so I wasn’t alone. I didn’t fully wig out at all. I left the dogs inside, though, so I do need to go straight home.”

“If you’re sure,” Rick looked doubtful. “I’m still going to call Doctor Vern to let him know that you were involved tonight and ask him to call you tomorrow. I’ll come out myself tomorrow afternoon if I see anything from the bank machine that looks other than self-defense. Did you call Austin back yet?”

“No. I was going to when we were done.”

“Okay,” Rick agreed, his hand moving to sit on the door handle. “Just so you know, Jayler’s fine. She’s got a mild concussion, but the bruising was all surface and the bleeding was a ruptured ear drum. She’s got tubes in both ears, though, so likely that wouldn’t have happened if she didn’t already have swimmer’s ear. I’ll make sure she gets home safe tonight.”

“If that was the ex she’d said was in prison, then –”

“Make sure to check the apartment,” Rick interrupted with a grin, finishing the sentence. “Way ahead of you for once, Reaper.”

“Don’t get used to it,” Cory chuckled, relieved.

“Please,” Rick rolled his eyes. “If your recovery takes much longer, my dust will settle before you even show up,” he opened the passenger door. “Go straight home after you call Austin. Leave your phone on in case I have to call you.”

“Sir, yes, sir,” Cory smirked at the man that the kid he’d trained had turned into after leaving the army. Rick was still chuckling as he climbed out and closed the door.

Cory called Austin back, noting the minivan was quiet now and Austin’s phone was connected to the van’s sound system again. He was still on his way to pick up Jenny, but was blissfully clear of the accident and the twins had fallen asleep. He asked most of the same questions that Rick had for Cory’s head being on straight, and reinforced that Cory needed to talk to Doctor Vern at minimum over the phone.

Cory was smiling when he hung up. He’d only been retired for eighteen months, but had been kept on the base for ten of those until he’d been deemed safe to retire off-base. He’d followed his shrink’s advice and found a small town with decent enough services and old friends… but his shrink on the base had expected that meant living closer to Jenny and Austin. Cory had looked up Rick, talked to him about what was going on, and he and his wife Barb had emailed the next day with a couple houses that were for sale. Cory did all the research he needed to, transferred what he was allowed to of his files to Doctor Vern, and basically stayed out of trouble. He did local fuel deliveries, ran a snow plow in the winter, had a decent enough pension, and a few off-shore bank accounts from the other work he’d done while he was still in the military that covered any surprise expenses (although mostly those accounts just sat there and accumulated interest).

He still called Jenny every day, just like always, and Austin called a few times a week just to shoot the shit. The friends he’d been slowly making over the last eight months were good ones – take Lou and Tony for example – and his recovery was about a year ahead of what the base shrink had predicted. Everybody, including Cory, knew that he was never going to be completely recovered. The part that made him smile was that the people inside the trust circle were all okay with that, and helped him through the hard stuff.

Eight months ago he wouldn’t have even been able to talk to Jayler because she was a stranger. Tonight he’d talked to her, and gotten in a fight to protect her, and hadn’t even had a thick flashback. Progress, he grinned and gunned the engine. Now he just had to get home and feed the dogs.

∞

Jayler talked to the cops, answering all their questions and then going back over the relationship history she had with her ex-husband. Thankfully she avoided having to dredge up all the details because she had the needed file numbers memorized, had recently been in contact with the cop handling her case, and had a copy of the old restraining order in her purse. The order still had a month on it, thankfully, so they had a solid charge of breaking that to keep him away from her and get a new order started.

The cops left and then the doctor came in to let her know that she was medically free to go whenever she was ready, her insurance through work covered the cost of coming in. She was familiar with the care requirements for everything wrong with her, but the doctor listed through everything anyway. Then the doctor left and she put on her jacket and grabbed her purse. Her phone had migrated to the bottom again, but hadn’t broken even with getting bumped around as much as it had likely been. At least there was one lucky thing. And there weren’t any missed calls or messages, either, so two lucky things.

What she didn’t have was any extra money for a cab across town. She sighed, realizing that meant her emergency stash was about to dip back down to almost nothing. At least she had the emergency stash. That got her up to three lucky things.

“Jayler Wakefield?”

“Yes?” she turned around, expecting another cop from how he’d said her name, and was surprised to see a State Trooper standing in the door. He was as tall as her dad and looked like he played rugby in his spare time. His wedding ring was clearly visible against the brim of the uniform hat he was holding.

“Did you have time for a few questions?” he asked, completely polite.

“Um, yes?” she asked, kicking herself for sounding so apologetic and not being able to stop nervously looking around at the little room. He was smiling warmly when she looked back toward him.

“How about we get out of here and grab a coffee while we chat, then,” he offered.

“Um,” Jay did the math in her head and realized her emergency fund would hit zero.

“My treat,” he smiled again as he put his hat back on. “It sounds like you’re at a point where you deserve a free coffee.”

“Okay?” Jay answered in a question again. He stepped back from the door and gestured toward the exit.

“Did you have a ride home? Or anyone who was picking you up?” he asked as they started down the hall together.

“No,” she admitted. “I was just going to call a cab.”

“I’ll make sure you get home safe then,” he nodded, as if to himself, as he was talking.

“Oh, no, that’s not –”

“My wife yelling at me is scarier than you’d think,” he grinned sideways at her as he interrupted.

“Oh! Um, well, I guess…” her voice trailed off as she could hear her ex arguing with one of the cops that had talked to her already. She couldn’t see him, but that was definitely his voice.

“Where did you say you lived?” the State Trooper asked, his hand pressing to the middle of her back as the automatic doors slid open to the outside.

She fought with the wind to keep her hair out of her mouth while she gave him the address. Of all the days, she had to pick today as the one where she’d decided to keep her hair down. It was a mess. He led her over to one of the big SUVs in the parking lot, this one with Trooper emblems on the back and sides, lights on the top, and an off-roading snorkel for the engine running up beside the windshield. He opened the passenger door for her, and then waited for her and her hair to all get inside before swinging it shut.

His questions were all just repeats of what she’d already talked to the cops about for the drive over to the only coffee shop in town that was still open. She answered everything – again – as well as she could remember. He wanted to know more about the strange encounter with John Olsen, though, and reassured her that he would talk to John about appropriate behaviors.

“Is there something wrong with him?” she asked carefully, making the Trooper who said she should call him Rick laugh out loud.

“He’s ex-military,” Rick shrugged, as if that explained everything. “We’ve got a few PTSD cases in town. John’s one of the only ones trying to get past it. He’s still got some bugs to work out,” Rick tapped his temple, “but he’s okay.”

“Do I need to worry about getting, um…”

“Momentarily kidnapped again?” Rick filled in the words she wasn’t doing well putting together. “No. He won’t do that again. Probably next time he sees you he’ll shuffle his feet and ask if you’re all right.”

He changed the conversation over to what kind of protections she had at home – if any – and giving some simple tips for what she should pick up until the cops got everything sorted out with her ex. Jay inwardly cringed that she was going to have to start carrying animal spray again. He asked if her building allowed dogs as he parked in the drop-off space beside the front doors, and advised her to look into it when she said she didn’t know. She couldn’t help but feel relieved when he offered to walk her up to her apartment and to make sure that all her locks were working properly.

She was especially grateful that he was there when they got upstairs and her front door was broken open, and she had a shoulder to cry on once they’d confirmed all the damage.

Chapter 5

Cory hung up the call and looked around the living room. Rick had told him to clean up… he’d laughed about it though, so probably he’d been joking. It was hard to tell over the phone. Cory stood up and walked around the main floor, then went down to the basement and confirmed the cleanliness of the rooms he’d framed and finished down there after fixing up the main floor to how it currently looked. Everything was as tidy as normal, and Rick had been up to the house often since Cory had moved in, so the comment to clean up had probably been a joke.

The indoor dogs followed him around, and then lay down on their pads when he settled back into his chair in the living room to resume watching the movie he’d been playing. It was another home video that Austin and Jenny had made up of the kids, this one about an hour long and hitting all the high points of John’s latest birthday, and was a blast to watch. Not as good as being there like Cory had been able to for the previous birthday, but still great. Even better was that Austin put everything on disk and mailed it so Cory could watch whenever in spite of his internet connection being sketchy at best.

It was so crazy to think that John, Jenny and Austin’s oldest, was five years old and starting Kindergarten next month. And Jenny had just found out she was having a little boy this time, which would round out their house to four kids. John was excited to have a brother as an ally in the battle against his twin sisters, and the twins were doubly angry about not being the babies anymore. Cory laughed to himself once the movie ended and he’d shut off the TV. He’d have to plan to fly down and visit once Jenny stopped modeling the maternity shows and took time off for having the new baby.

He wrestled with the dogs a bit once the new puppy got both older dogs to start playing, being careful with the puppy that Tank had carried home last week. That guy was still really little. Trench couldn’t usually be bothered with the puppy, but Tank was taking good care of the new addition. Cory had found the neighbor where the puppy had come from, found out that the litter had been abandoned, and gotten permission to keep the survivor. The little guy was pretty fun to have around. Cory warmed up the late morning bottle for him and tucked it into Tank’s armpit (she got mad when he fed the puppy himself) and then went outside to check on the other two dogs that didn’t like being in the house.

Penny, short for Pensive, was hanging out in her usual spot by the front steps. She watched him with more calm interest than terrified apprehension, which was an achievement that had taken the four months since she’d started coming around the yard, and he figured she’d be happy to take over the enclosed porch for the winter. He’d even been able to pat her head a couple of times over the past weeks.

The other dog had simply moved into the yard two months ago. Cory had started feeding him on the third day when he hadn’t simply gone away again, and he hadn’t eaten any of the offered food until the day after the bowl had been set out for him. He was a hard case with a greying muzzle, big enough to be dangerous and too indifferent about everything to be a bother. A couple of the neighbors thought he might have belonged to one of the hermit trappers, but nobody recognized the photos on Cory’s phone. After a couple weeks of the dog hanging around, Cory had set up a lean-to for him against the side of the house where the dog typically slept and put some old blankets in it. That offering had been accepted on the same day.

“I’m going to head over and split some wood while we’re waiting for Rick to get here. Do either of you want to come?” he asked the dogs in the yard as he brought the axe out of the shed. Penny laid her head back down and returned to watching. The old guy stood up and stretched, yawning wide, and then followed Cory up the small hill to the splitting stump. Cory split the bucked logs for an hour, the old dog just hanging out and chasing mice over by the stacked pieces that were already cut, and then they went back down to the house so Cory could wash up ahead of Rick arriving. The old dog went over to his lean to and groaned as he lay down on his blankets, grumbling once he was settled. Cory chuckled at the sound effects and gave Penny a careful pat, noting that she was just watchful and not scared, and her tail thumped once as he was walking up the stairs to the porch.

Once showered and shaved, he microwaved a frozen dinner for lunch and still had time to clean up and make coffee when he was done eating. He was sitting on the steps with a hot cup of coffee – flavored with heavy cream and instant hot cocoa because he could – and waiting for the Trooper’s SUV. He’d warned all the dogs that company was coming over. Pensive went and hid around behind the house when Cory sat down with the coffee, and none of the dogs barked when Rick’s SUV pulled into the yard and the expected three visitors climbed out.

“Is the coffee still hot?” Louise called over, her big smile as warm as the day.

“If not, you can just hold the pot for a few minutes,” Cory called back, making her laugh. Lou and Tony had been among the first people he’d made friends with after moving here, with Tony chiding that it was because Louise took in people the same way that Cory took in dogs.

“You’re a flirt, Cory,” she said, coming up to the stairs. “But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wish that I’d had a daughter to try and hook you up with,” she winked and squeezed a hand on his shoulder as she walked by on her way to the coffee pot. Cory heard her greet the dogs, squealing quietly about the sleeping puppy, as he watched Rick help Jayler and all the bags the women had brought out of the back of the SUV.

“I tried again to tell her not to bother, but…” Rick just shrugged, the bags shifting as he did.

Jayler smiled at Cory, more than a bit shy but determined to try and not be. The side of her face was still bruised, but the swelling was completely gone, and she didn’t seem to be having any balance issues from the concussion. She seemed at a loss of what to say as she looked around the yard.

“Well, come on inside,” Cory offered before the silence had a chance to get more awkward. “Lou will have the coffee pot hooked up to an IV if we leave her in there unsupervised for too long.”

∞

It was Rick’s day off, but he’d only finished half his coffee when Barb called his cell to see if he could go check out a mischief complaint. She ran dispatch and was working today, but she was still his wife so knew he was closer than anyone else, and that Rick had everything in his SUV just like on a working day.

“You ladies able to be trusted not to harass this gentleman?” he’d asked, standing up and dropping his phone back in his pocket.

“I’m not promising anything,” Lou had smiled from where she and Jayler were digging through the kitchen for everything they needed.

“I’ll just file the complaint when you get back,” Cory agreed as he saw Rick to the door.

“I’ll bring the laptop out of the SUV. Save me from wasting that much battery on my tablet,” he said, overly loud to see if he could get Louise laughing because he saw she’d just taken a drink of coffee. She snorted a bit, but didn’t spill a drop. “I tried,” he admitted.

“You’re just not funny,” Cory reminded him.

“I’ll call ahead when I’m on my way back,” Rick took the steps down at his usual steady pace. There wasn’t a lot that he hurried for, but Cory knew it would be better for the mischief makers to not be around when the Trooper arrived. Rick possessed a laid back personality and the reflexes of a rattlesnake.

The women in question were starting at the chopping that they needed to do when Cory came back into the kitchen, Trench eying them up from under the table to see if either of them would start spilling everything. Cory sat down in the chair that Lou had put his coffee mug on the table in front of. Rick had told him about the vandalism at Jayler’s apartment. Her ex might as well have torched the place. He’d opened every can, jar, and package (including what was in the freezer) to piss on all her food, opened and shit in or on all of her toiletries, gouged every wall with screwdrivers (her only tools) before putting them in the oven and melting all the handles, and then poured at least four bottles of bleach on everything fabric – her furniture, clothes, bedding, bed, and the apartment carpet. She couldn’t afford the renovation on her own, couldn’t afford losing the damage deposit and extra cost for moving out of the rental, and although her insurance company dealt with the initial mess they were dragging their feet getting a qualified contractor in for a quote. In the meantime, she was living in a busted up home without useful furniture, and worrying about when her ex was going to be away from police supervision again.

So, of course, Louise and Tony had stepped in and had helped get the whole place cleaned up as best they could and then installed much better locks. Then Tony had emailed Cory the full public files of the building complex, so that if Jayler did become one of his safe people, Cory would be able to help fix her place. If she did ask him, he’d get paid by the insurance company for any work he completed, including the cost of consumable supplies, so he just had to dig up the paperwork from when he’d set up as a contractor (for working on his own house a little cheaper) and then track his hours and supplies the way they wanted it all reported.

The reason Jay and Lou were here now, in his kitchen, was because Rick had shown Jayler the footage from the bank machine security camera a few days ago. It had been over a week since the fight, and Tank had brought the puppy home the day after it happened, so Cory had been busy with his own life once Rick let him know he was clearly acting in self-defense and (after learning Cory was a veteran) the five guys weren’t pressing charges. Jayler had only just started going back to work a couple days ago, and only part-time due to the concussion. She’d hatched a plan to cook something to say ‘Thank You’, but Rick had canceled that because Cory had a hard time with freshly prepared food if he didn’t see it prepared. She’d been fairly persistent, though, so Lou had proposed that they all come out for an afternoon and make dinner at the house.

Lou had also quietly asked Cory if any of his dogs would be good for Jayler to take home because her building was fine with one pet per apartment. The building managers also wanted her place not to get vandalized again, so fully supported whatever dog she wanted to get. So far, she hadn’t talked to any of the dogs, which meant Cory didn’t know if any of them liked her. Trench was definitely the keenest, but food was involved so that wasn’t a surprise.

Then again, if she always cooked, Trench was the obvious choice. And he was eighty pounds of malamute with an additional thirty-five pounds of something a lot calmer. The vet didn’t know what the mix was and neither she nor Cory had been interested enough to run DNA. Trench was basically one hundred and fifteen pounds of protection, masked as a breathing, shedding throw pillow. The vet had figured Tank was probably fifty-fifty for husky and something else – likely one of the shepherd breeds – but she was a lot more energetic, and at eighty-five pounds she would destroy an apartment out of complete boredom in only a few days. The past week after bringing home the puppy was the calmest she’d been in the seven months since she’d showed up on the porch.

Both Pensive and the old dog outside wouldn’t work for what Jayler needed. Penny was too scared to be good for protecting anything, despite looking purebred malamute (if the pictures Cory found on the internet could be trusted). The old dog hadn’t bothered to react to any of the names that Cory had tried on him, so even if Cory thought he would be okay in an apartment, not being able to call him wouldn’t work in town.

The puppy woke up and decided that the two women chatting and laughing was more interesting than hanging out in the living room. He tumbled in like a tiny hurricane and played around everyone’s feet under Tank’s watchful eye. Trench decided that if the puppy could get away with it, he should be able to as well. He started out hovering by Louise because she was familiar, but drifted closer to Jayler as time went by because she showed more interest. She and Lou were talking about the dogs Jayler had grown up with when Cory started another pot of coffee and prepped the early afternoon bottle for the puppy. Cory was laughing at one of Lou’s pet stories when Trench followed Jay to the bathroom because she’d been slipping him treat-foods from the counter whenever she thought Cory wasn’t looking.

“That boy looks like he’ll be a good match for her,” Lou stated as soon as the bathroom door closed.

“She can take him if she wants to,” Cory shrugged. “Would she be allowed to have him at work, just in case?”

“Considering what her face still looks like, I can’t see them having a problem with it,” Lou nodded to herself, her mind already made up on the matter. “At least until that ex of hers is thrown out of the state or buried. Preferably the latter,” she said as she dumped whatever she’d been dicing into one of the pots on the stove. “You seem pretty comfortable with having her around your place, though,” Lou slanted a grin at him. “I thought you’d be more fidgety.”

“She’s just as on edge as I am,” he answered, holding out his mug as Lou was filling hers.

“Oh, I know,” Lou winked over her first sip of this cup of coffee. “I just figured you’d be worse off on account of her being so pretty.”

“Everything she’s wearing today used to belong to my sister,” he reminded her, shaking his head. After Rick had told him what happened, he’d stopped at The Brew and dropped off everything Jenny had forgotten or simply left behind over the years for Lou to give to Jayler in case any of it fit. Pretty well all of it had, except the pants were all too long so Jay had to roll up the cuffs.

“I’m just saying, a handsome guy like you should be matched up,” she set down the mug and turned back to the next vegetable to be cut up. “And she’s really nice.”

“Thanks for the matchmaking, Aunty Lou,” he replied, making his voice sound sing-song and nasally. She mockingly glared at him and threw a piece of a carrot in his direction. He caught it easily and munched it while she sang along with the radio until the song she liked ended.

Lou was shooting worried glances toward the bathroom by the time the next song started after the short commercial break.

“She’s been in there for a while,” Lou stated, interrupting herself singing along with the next song.

“Sometimes people are,” Cory shrugged. “I seem to recall that most people know how a fan works, though, so it’s not much of an issue.”

“Don’t get vulgar,” she chastised him.

“How was that vulgar?”

“I’ll just go see if she’s okay.”

Lou wiped off her hands on the towel over her shoulder and left the knife on the board. She wasn’t trying to impress anyone for tips today, so she wasn’t wearing any make-up and was dressed more like someone expecting to chop firewood and make dinner. She still smelled good when she walked by, though. Cory decided he was going to have to bug her about that as she knocked on the bathroom door.

“You all right, Jay?” she asked, pulling her arm back from reaching over Trench because he was lying across the door. “Jayler, honey, are you all right?” she called a bit louder.

A few seconds later the door opened. Jayler stood there, eyes wide and bottom lip quivering, her knuckles turning white around her phone. Trench jumped up to his feet and started whining, pushing on Jayler’s legs as he stared up at her face. Cory was already crossing to where they were standing before he realized he was moving.

“They released him this morning,” Jayler whispered. “They just called to let me know now.”

Chapter 6

“Oh no,” Lou reached out with an offered hug, but was interrupted when Trench barked and Jay looked down at him. Jayler grabbed a fist-full of fur with her free hand, then dropped to sit on the floor and wrapped her arms around his neck. Trench folded his head over her shoulder and sat down, stoically keeping himself between Jay and everyone else while she started crying.

That was when the power went out.

Cory looked around at the rest of the house from where he was standing. He’d just refilled the fuel for the generator yesterday, so there was no reason for the power to turn off. Unless the generator was acting up again like it had been just after he moved in. He was pretty sure that those issues had been sorted out completely since Tony had come out to spend an afternoon on electrical maintenance and repairs, though.

“Didn’t Tony fix that genny for you?” Lou asked, as if reading Cory’s thoughts.

“Yeah,” Cory replied.

Pensive’s whining, scared bark sounded out back of the house twice. Trench lifted his head to look past Cory and Lou, his top lip curling up even though he wasn’t growling. Jayler hugged the big dog tighter. Cory did some quick math in his head for the address that Rick had been called out to and came up with more than enough time for the mischief makers to get to his property using the trails rather than the roads.

“Is there somebody outside?” Lou asked.

“I’m thinking that call Rick left to go check out had time to get here,” Cory noted, shaking his head. “I’ll go out and make sure Penny doesn’t bite anybody. Just stay inside and lock the door,” he told Lou.

She nodded, her hand reaching over Trench and settling on Jayler’s hair. Cory crossed over to the front door, noting a shadow passing outside the living room blinds that was too big to be one of the ravens that stole leftover food from the dog bowls. Tank growled at the shadow and scooped the puppy up in her mouth to carry the little guy to her sleeping pad in the corner. She dropped him there with a no-argument Mom Order to stay put. Cory pulled his phone out of his pocket and speed-dialed Rick’s cell number.

“Richard Olsen,” Rick answered on the first ring.

“I think your mischief call just showed up here. The power in the house went out and Penny’s barking out back,” Cory told him. Rick sighed heavily on the other end of the line. “I’m going to go out and make sure she doesn’t bite anyone. If I see who it is I’ll give you a description when you get here.”

“All right, that sounds good.”

“I’ll call you right back. Lou is going to stay in the house with Jay.”

“Thank you for the update,” Rick replied, one hundred percent professional so still obviously with civilians. Cory disconnected the call and put his phone in the back pocket of his jeans.

“I’ll be right back,” he called as he pulled on his jacket.

“I’ll just go lock the door,” Lou’s voice was followed up with what could only be the sound of a kiss to the top of Jayler’s head. “You’re such a good boy,” she cooed as Trench’s collar tags jingled. Cory closed the door loud after he went out, making sure it was obvious somebody had come out of the house.

“Pensive!” he called, coming down the stairs. “Penny! Come here, girl,” he called again once his shoes were on the ground. She scrambled around the side of the house a few moments later and darted into her spot snugged into the corner between the porch and the stairs. She was shaking and whining, but had come when he’d called her. “Good girl, Penny,” Cory spoke to her normally. She didn’t calm down at all, but she didn’t get worse when he spoke. Her own little steps of recovery progress. “That’s a really good girl,” he added, feeling a bit proud of her. He heard the deadbolt thunk.

Cory started on his way over to the generator shed. He glanced into the lean-to where the old dog usually stayed, but the nest of blankets was empty. The old guy wasn’t keen on strangers, though, so that wasn’t much of a surprise. Penny’s whining wasn’t getting any quieter as Cory walked away, though, which was odd… he added a quick look over his shoulder to the obvious looking around the yard for the old dog and saw that she was following him about five paces behind. Cory grinned to himself and kept walking. Pensive was probably eighty pounds of what appeared to be purebred Malamute. She was full of sharp teeth and thick muscle and she was hiding behind him – a squishy human – for protection.

The door on the generator shed was hanging open. Cory cursed under his breath and hoped it was just teenagers who were bored and decided to spray-paint a few things.

Pensive barked once, full throated and angry.

Cory’s training jerked him backwards into a crouch the moment before a small caliber shot blasted through the yard. The bullet impacted with the wood pile right where Cory would have been if Penny hadn’t warned him. A tiny shower of disturbed wood bark rained down close to the pile.

“Damn it!”

Cory looked toward the unfamiliar voice. He saw the guy with a handgun held badly and a cast on his other arm, and likely fourteen other similar situations rolled over behind his eyes simultaneously. Everything crashed in on his brain at once and he felt the first tip of the slide into a full wig-out.

The old dog leapt from a low belly crawl advance he’d been making, unseen by either man behind the shed, and locked his jaws around the forearm attached to the hand holding the gun. Cory hovered at the edge of the slide because the dog was something he hadn’t seen before in previous situations. He focused on the old dog, intent on keeping his mind staying in his own yard, right here with his own body. The old dog clamped the arm, twisted his weight, and threw the attacker face-first to the ground. The execution was perfect right up to the point where a handler typically called a dog off. The old dog jerked at the arm until the gun dropped and then dug with his front feet, tossing the handgun about ten feet away. Once the gun was out of reach, he released the arm and lunged to wrap his teeth around the attacker’s neck from the back, and lay down with his chest on the attacker’s bitten arm. The old dog settled there, snarling and pressing his teeth a little tighter each time the attacker did more than lie there and scream.

Cory focused on the grey muzzle of the old dog and his controlled restraint of not shaking the attacker and of not crushing his jaws together on the soft neck. The attacker was fully pacified. The bleeding from his arm was oozing slowly and superficial with no arterial pulsing. The trees behind the dog were evergreens, not sand, not scrub, and not jungle. That was his house to the right, where he lived with the dogs that were currently inside and barking like mad, and his generator shed to the left.

Something cool pushed against his right hand. Cory looked away from the old dog and saw Pensive pushing her nose under his palm. She was whining, but looking at him with darting glances. He was having a hard time breathing. She pushed her whole head under his hand and then under his arm. Then she was pushing on his ribs with her shoulder, pushing away the band that was squishing his chest and stopping him from inhaling. He buried his hands in her thick fur and held on, gasping as she cringed and shivered, fighting with herself not to run away.

“Good girl,” he finally choked out as the dogs inside went quiet. “Good girl, Penny.”

“Cory!” Louise yelled from the porch. Cory heard the front door slam shut and the shotgun from the entrance closet load. She came down the steps slowly, scanning the yard through the sights until she looked directly at where he was sitting with Penny.

“Parsley and chives,” he called over to her. His safe words to let her know that he was okay.

“Not with vodka,” she replied with her own safe words, relaxing her hold on the shot gun as she walked across the yard to him.

He kissed Pensive between her ears and released her slowly. She squirmed free, out of arms reach, but paced restlessly close by and kept whining. Lou set down the shot gun a few steps away before walking over and crouching beside where Cory was sitting. She looked over at where the old dog was restraining the attacker, who had stopped screaming and was just pleading for someone to get the dog off him, looked at the pistol lying in a patch of grass, and then looked back to Cory.

“You need me to call anybody for you, hon?” she asked gently. He shook his head to the negative. She held out her hand over where his were sitting on his legs and he pressed the knuckles of his right hand up against her palm. Her fingers were cool and soft when she wrapped her smaller hand around his larger one and squeezed gently. “You going to be all right if I go pick that up?” she asked, nodding to the handgun.

“Yeah,” he answered with a word and a nod this time.

“Okay,” she squeezed his hand again. “I’ll grab it and come right back.”

She let his hand go and stood to walk over and pick up the small gun. She removed the magazine and pocketed it in her jeans, removed the loaded round and pocketed it in her jeans, then flipped the empty gun a few times to get a good look at it. A few clicks and a couple motions later and she had half the pieces of the handgun in one of her coat pockets and the other half in the other coat pocket. She came back and crouched beside him, her perfume and soap smell anchoring him in the yard – and in the here and now.

“Are you going to get that new dog off him?” Lou asked.

“I don’t know his name or what commands he’s trained to for calling him off,” Cory admitted.

“Oh. Hmm… oh well,” she shrugged, making it suddenly normal and okay for a dog that big to be holding a person by the neck like that. “I heard you call Rick before you came out, so I’ll just take all these firearms inside and let him and Jay-bird know that things are under control out here. Then when I come back out we’ll see if we can get your dog off Jayler’s ex. Do you want to stay out here, or come inside?” she asked it so plainly, her hand settling on his wrist as she talked, that he almost started to say he’d come in. Then he realized leaving the dogs out here with the guy who’d just shot at him was probably not the best idea.

“I’ll wait out here.”

“Okay, hon,” she smiled at him, leaned over a bit, and kissed his temple. Her perfume wrapped around him again. “I’ll be out pretty quick, and I’ll make sure Tank and Trench stay inside.”

“Thanks, Lou,” he smiled at her. She beamed back and patted his arm, then stood up and walked back to the house, barely slowing down when she picked up the shotgun. She unloaded it and pocketed the rounds without breaking stride and without looking down at down at the gun.

Cory pulled his phone out of his back pocket, checked that it wasn’t broken, and set it on the ground so it wouldn’t break when he shifted around to sit. Penny inched herself closer with each pacing loop until she ‘accidentally’ bumped into him. She jumped back a bit when he held his hand up, but then paced in closer again until she could carefully duck her head to press up into his fingers. He petted her carefully and her tail wagged a bit.

“You’re a good girl, Penny,” he told her, repeating the praise over and over.

Slowly, her body edged under his arm and her ribs pressed against his side. The last of the tension in his chest eased out from the pressure. She stayed there for a minute, trying hard to trust him as he stoked the back of her head and neck, and then he let her walk away as soon as she decided to. She took up the restless pacing again, but stayed well out of arms reach. She wasn’t whining anymore, though, and Cory was getting further away from the mental slide with every passing second.

Shit, he’d just been shot at again. It had been two years since anyone had shot at him. He looked at the dogs in the yard and wished they’d been there with him for the last time before now, too. Then again, both these dogs wouldn’t have lasted long in the heat with the thick fur that they had. He’d figured the old dog was some kind of mutt, but now he wanted to get him into the vet for DNA and find out what kind of mutt. His fur was thick, with the same kind of undercoat as the malamutes, but the coloring was too brown. There could be some shepherd in the mix, but his head was boxy around his eyes like one of the bully breeds and, with his greying lips pulled back like that, his long snout and teeth looked more wolf than anything. Jayler’s ex tried to move a leg and the old dog snarled, wiggling his head a bit as a reminder that the man was not in charge of the situation.

Louise came down the stairs with a steaming mug in her hands and a grin pulling at only one side of her mouth.

“Jay-bird is sitting at the table with Trench trying to be a lap dog. Rick was already on his way back, but now he’s coming at double-time,” she said. “And I made this abomination for you,” she handed Cory the mug. “I don’t know why you can’t just drink black coffee like a normal person,” she chided, sitting on the ground beside him.

“I can drink black coffee,” he said, smiling at the mug. “I just choose not to.”

She chuckled and looked over where the old dog was keeping Jay’s ex crying.

“Next time you come to town, I’m sending you home with a restaurant pack of frozen ribs for that old boy over there,” she nodded to the old dog. “I think he deserves a better taste in his mouth than whatever that is he’s holding on to.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Cory agreed, sipping at the sweetened coffee concoction. “Did Rick have any ideas of how to get him to let go?”

“Oh, he had an idea. I’m just not sure I want to try it yet,” she stretched her shoulders and sighed, slanting a grin at Cory. “Rick didn’t think my idea of sitting here and trying names until we got one the old boy would listen to would be very efficient, but after what he’s done for you I hate to think of hurting him by shoving something in his mouth to pry him off. Trying names has my vote.”

Cory laughed into his mug. Louise never ceased to impress him.

“Joe? Mikey? Spot?” she started calling random names. “Walter? Baily? Max? Buddy? Snowball? Bear?”

“You missed Rover,” Cory told her.

“Thanks,” she nodded to him. “Rover?” she called.

The old dog ignored her completely aside from an ear that twitched because she was speaking with an elevated voice.

“I’ll go get something to pry him off with,” Cory sighed.

He left his coffee beside Lou and went over to the shed as she continued calling random names. There was a heavy-duty rake with a thick, wooden handle that should work for prying open the old dog’s jaws so they could get Jay’s ex out of his mouth. He found the tool he was looking for and the right screwdriver and went back outside to sit with Lou.

“Daisy? Sue? Lulu? Luke?”

She kept going with a mix of male and female names as Cory took out the screws holding the rake end onto the handle. He checked the handle to make sure it wasn’t splintering, chuckling when Louise called out ‘Mary Poppins.’ Cory took another drink of coffee while it was still mostly hot. He didn’t know how long it would take to get the old guy off, but expected the coffee would be in that awful, luke-warm state once the removal was over.

“Give me a few more names,” Louise motioned for him to sit back down when he stood up. Cory grinned at her. She was enjoying this way too much, and he couldn’t even fault her for it. He walked over and stood beside the old guy and the jerk who’d tried to shoot him.

“Well, I hate to have to do this, sir, but…” his voice trailed off as both of the old dog’s ears shot up to attention and his gaze locked onto Cory. “Sir,” Cory said again, and the old dog’s tail thumped twice. “Good boy, Sir. Now let go,” Cory ordered. The old dog growled when Jay’s ex moved. “Drop it, Sir,” Cory pointed down as he tried a different command. As if he’d just said a magic spell, the old guy’s jaws opened wider and he released the attacker. “Heel, Sir,” Cory patted his leg and the old dog – still growling at the prone man – stood up and paced behind Cory to come and sit beside him.

“Ha!” Louise laughed and clapped her hands.

“Good boy,” Cory told the dog, who only looked up at him as if waiting for Cory to say something that made sense. “Well done,” Cory tried, and got the same look. “I give up. You did good, Sir.”

Sir’s mouth fell open and his tongue flopped out one side as his whole body relaxed and his tail thumped on the ground. He head-butted Cory’s hip affectionately and then just leaned sideways like Cory’s leg was a wall and he was drunk enough to need the support to stay upright. Cory scratched at Sir’s head and ears, making the mutt mutter happily.

“I’ll be damned,” Lou laughed as she was standing up.

Jayler’s ex tried to slither away from Sir and sit up at the same time. Cory placed the rounded end of the rake handle at the center between his shoulder blades and pushed him back down.

“You can just stay there until –”

“I’m bleeding! I’m dying!” the man on the ground hyperventilated, interrupting Louise.

“Bleeding: yes. But dying? Not yet,” Lou said as she walked over with Cory’s coffee. “Keep trying to get up and that’ll change fast,” she promised.

Chapter 7

Cory left off petting his dog to take the offered mug and got another, harder head-butt to the hip.

“You got a first aid kit inside?” Lou asked.

“Under the sink in the kitchen,” Cory told her. She slapped a hand into his bicep a couple times, her version of well-meaning and supportive taps, as she turned toward the house.

“You’ve got good dogs, Cory,” she smiled up at him. He looked at Sir and Pensive and then smiled back at Lou.

“I really do,” he agreed.

She slapped his bicep again and then sauntered over to the house, returning after a few moments with the first aid kit she’d asked about and a couple bottles of water. She cut back the sleeve and poured some of the water over the arm so she could check the damage Sir had done. The bruising looked like it was going to be the worst of the injury, but there were a couple places where Sir’s teeth had torn skin. She used the tensor wrap in the kit to hold some gauze in place, the quick bandaging project good enough to get him to the hospital. He only had bruises on his neck and a few lasting impressions, but the skin was unbroken. Louise popped one of the cold packs and pressed it to his neck so that any swelling would be controlled. He swore at her the whole time, but Sir growled at him every time he tried to move and Cory didn’t see a point in telling the dog not to.

She cleaned up the scraps of garbage and repacked the kit, then took everything she’d brought out over to the generator shed. A couple moments after going inside, the generator started up and she came back out – carrying everything she’d taken in – and closed the door.

“I guess you’re just waiting out here for Rick to get back?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Cory nodded to the positive. “We’re good out here,” he smiled at the dogs.

“Okay,” she offered her free hand to Sir and got a friendly sniff. “We’ll get back to making dinner once you come in. Don’t forget your phone is still over there,” she reminded him.

“I won’t,” he assured her. “Thanks, Lou.”

∞

Rick had the expected reaction when he pulled into the yard: Cory could see him laughing through the windshield. The Trooper was straight-faced and serious, though, while loading Jayler’s newly hurt ex into the back of his SUV. Sir kept a watchful eye on the SUV door once it closed, Penny had already gone back to her spot beside the stairs, and Cory led Rick into the house so they could sit at the kitchen table to give statements. Cory went first while Louise put all the pieces of the handgun into a zipper kitchen bag and gave it to Rick, and then Rick made a couple of phone calls to the guys in town that he knew Cory had given permission to for hunting on the property once the season started. Cory knew two of the guys had wanted to set up trail cameras, but didn’t know if they’d made it out to do so yet; turned out one of them had.

Cory went out to the two camera locations and pulled the memory cards. He found a relic of a trail camera on his way back up to the house and was surprised to see that the little solar panel half-way up the tree above it had kept the battery going for at least a couple of years past when the camera had apparently been forgotten. He worked the cover open with his pocket knife and took out the memory stick. The inside of the camera was still clean and the seals hadn’t been damaged when he opened the cover, so he clipped the cover back on and continued on his way. He gave the three devices to Rick, both of them doubting anything useful would be seen because of the locations, as Rick was finishing up talking to Jayler.

“Is… is he going to get released in a few days again?” she asked, cradling Trench’s head in her lap. Rick actually broke from being a Trooper and laughed.

“No, Jay. He’s not getting released for a while this time,” he assured her. “Mike from Forensics will probably come up tonight and get that bullet out of your wood pile. Should I let him know that you ladies will need a ride back to town?” Rick aimed the question at Lou.

“We’ll see how dinner goes,” she replied from her spot in front of the stove with a shrug, a look at Trench cuddling with Jay, and a wink aimed at Rick. “We both packed a couple things in case we got stuck here for the night due to you having to rush off to work. I’m not letting you drive at night after the afternoon you just had, so shush up,” she interrupted Cory before he could make the offer to take them into town. He tried to start again and she pulled the wooden spoon out of the pot she was stirring to jab into the air in his direction. “I said shush up,” she ordered.

“Sounds good,” Rick nodded at Lou as he stood up, talking over Cory’s head on purpose.

“I am actually okay now,” Cory interjected.

“Good,” Lou went back to stirring. “Let’s keep you that way.”

“I would rather stay here tonight,” Jay mentioned quietly, talking mostly to Trench. “It feels safer than my apartment,” she admitted, hugging the big dog that was half on her.

“I’ll call ahead and let you know who will be up to check the wood pile and when to expect them,” Rick said, collecting all his stuff and the latest evidence off the table. “You guys have a good night.”

Cory walked him out to the SUV. He scoffed a quick laugh at the muddy footprints on the windows surrounding the back seat.

“I just cleaned those,” Rick muttered, shaking his head. “Talk to you later,” he said as he climbed in behind the steering wheel.

Cory simply waved. Rick wouldn’t be able to hear him if he tried to say anything over the yelling that started coming out of the back seat as soon as the front door opened. The SUV rolled out of the yard, Rick talking into the radio handset so he didn’t have to bother with his phone, and Cory turned to go back inside. He noticed his phone still sitting in the grass and picked it up; no phone calls, but two text messages from his sister that shared photos of the kids.

He was still grinning at the picture of the twins in an overloaded bubble bath, both of them obviously laughing and bubbles all over Austin and the bathroom, as he walked back into the kitchen and sat down at the table by his coffee mug. Louise demanded to know what he was looking at and then, within a few seconds after turning the screen so she could see, stole his phone to go through the rest of the kid pictures that Jenny and Austin had sent since the last time she’d gone through his photos. The easy conversation slid over to Lou’s phone and the latest pictures of her grown boys with their latest girlfriends. Louise didn’t like either of the new girlfriends, but only because they seemed to like that her boys were already setting up to be successful in their careers more than the boys themselves.

Jayler finally started to feel like she could settle down again after dinner was on the table. She ate with Trench’s head in her lap, scratching his ears every few seconds and sneaking him food when she thought Cory wouldn’t notice. The thought of going back to her apartment tomorrow was still making her feel a bit sick every time she started thinking about it, and she ended up just shoving the food around on her plate instead of actually eating.

“You can’t be full already?” Lou asked, noticing the fidgeting. “Half of what’s missing from your plate is in Trench, so I know you didn’t eat that much.”

Jay smiled at the tone. Louise looked like a rock-star’s girlfriend, but she was utterly and completely a worried mom.

“I’m just having a hard time thinking about going back to the apartment tomorrow,” Jay admitted. “I know I’m worried about nothing because Rick has –”

“You’re not worried about ‘nothing,’” Cory interrupted. “An asshole that beat you up for a few years, and hunted you down after getting out of jail to beat you up again, just tracked you here and started shooting at people. It’s only been a couple hours since Rick took him off the property. That’s not ‘nothing.’ You’re allowed to feel a little fucked up.”

Jayler stared at him for a moment, then the reality of his words crashed over her and, as much as she didn’t want to at all, she started crying. Uncontrollably. Louise chastised him as she bustled around the table to wrap Jay up in the safest hug humanly possible. Cory knew he’d said something wrong based on the reactions he was getting, but didn’t know what. He’d just said the truth. He finished eating while Louise got Jay moved into the living room and nested into a couple blankets on the sofa with a movie playing, and then cleaned up the kitchen as Louise finished her dinner.

“I’m sorry I snapped at you,” Lou said as she put her plate in the dishwasher. “You’re so blunt sometimes. I forget you read people easy, but don’t know how to talk to them.” She leaned on the counter and smiled around his arm when he didn’t say anything. “You scrub that pot any harder and the finish will come off,” she warned him. He stopped and actually looked at the pot.

“It’s stainless, though,” he showed her. “There’s no finish to scrub off.”

Her smile turned into a smirk. He scoffed at himself for being so gullible and then chuckled. She hung out in the kitchen and bantered with him as he finished the dishes and put everything away.

Jayler turned down the TV so she could better hear the laughs and comments coming from the kitchen. It had taken all of two seconds for Trench to climb on the sofa with her after Lou had left to go help clean up dinner, so now Jay was using him as a pillow – snuggled between the massive dog and the blankets – and watching the puppy playing more often than she was watching the movie Louise had put on the TV. She really did feel fucked up. She felt scared, and angry, and indignant, and guilty. Part of her even felt like what had happed today was her fault. Her mom would’ve just hugged her and told her that things were going to be right as rain right away, just like Lou had done. Jay still felt too scared to believe that things would really ever be okay.

She rubbed her fingers into the heavy fur around Trench’s neck and he grumbled happily. His pretty blue eyes smiling at the attention when he looked back at her with his tongue hanging out between rows of teeth that would not look out of place in a wolf’s mouth. He definitely made her feel a lot less scared.

The puppy tangled in his own feet and spilled across the rug from excitement when Cory came into the living room with a dinner bottle for the little guy. Tank laid down on her bed and Cory tucked the bottle into her armpit as the puppy scrambled up to get at the nipple. Tank stared at her human with adoration as Cory rubbed her head around her ears and praised her for being a good mom.

“How are you feeling?” he asked Jay, awkward with the question because he didn’t know if he should be asking or not.

“Fucked up,” she replied, suddenly grateful that he’d given her the right wording to explain how her emotions actually felt. “But you said that’s allowed, so…” her voice trailed off and she shrugged. “I guess that makes me okay?” she asked, hating that her voice kept making everything a question like back at the hospital when she’d met Rick. Cory cracked a grin.

“Yeah. Lou’s the only one in the house with a solid mental state tonight,” he agreed. Jay laughed – it was only funny because it was true – and then a few tears leaked out. “Did you want a box of tissues or anything?” he asked.

“That would probably save your blanket from getting snotted on,” she admitted.

“That blanket’s seen more snot than you can make or imagine,” he stated, standing up and opening one of the cupboards beside the TV table to retrieve the offered tissues. “Last time Jenny was up here with the kids, that was the TV room blanket for the twins. They both had colds.” He held out the box, his gaze dropping to Trench when the big dog growled quietly up at him. Jay took the tissues, Trench shifting under her head and shoulder so that he was definitely further forward on the sofa than she was. “Looks like you’ve got a new roommate for when you go home tomorrow,” Cory noted.

“Really?” Jay looked at the big dog hopefully.

“If you want to take him, sure,” Cory nodded. “I’m going to go feed the dogs outside. Lou’s in the bathroom, but she never takes that long. She’ll be out in a minute or two if you need anything.”

Chapter 8

Sir was easily the happiest that Cory had ever seen him. Not that they’d know each other for an extended period of time, but the old dog was visibly pleased with himself after the events of the afternoon. Considering the events, Cory was pretty happy with how the old dog had handled himself as well.

Cory didn’t break routine at all for feeding, making sure that he gave both dogs permission that they were allowed to come and eat as he walked away from the dishes. The ravens were already starting to close in – settling noisily in the trees around the yard – waiting for the dogs to finish so that they could steal away anything that was left over. Sir typically cleaned out his bowl, but Penny would always leave a few nuggets and then sit nearby and wait for the ravens to come down. She always looked pleased with herself that she’d shared with them. Cory had asked about that behavior when he’d taken the puppy to the vet last week, and she’d figured Penny had seen ravens caching food close to her and thought they were feeding her, so was now returning the favor.

Cory had tested the theory and put less food in her dish for a couple days. Penny had still left the half dozen nuggets at each feeding and then waited for the ravens to come and steal it. He’d shrugged off feeding the birds and accepted that Penny was good at sharing, and gone back to feeding her the regular amount. There was no sense in having her go hungry for being kind.

She detoured from her usual direct walk to her bowl and rubbed her shoulder against the back of Cory’s leg as he was putting the food bag back into the locking storage bin. The latch on it was sticky since that bear had mauled it last month, so he called her a ‘good girl’ as he fought the bin locked. Her tail slapped him a couple of times before she’d completely passed him, so he called her a ‘good girl’ again and glanced over his shoulder to see that she was walking away with her tail still wagging a bit.

He made sure their water buckets were clean and full (sometimes the ravens used them for ‘washing’ the nuggets) before he went back inside. Louise was curled up on the opposite end of the sofa from where Trench and Jayler were sitting, both women tucked into the nest of blankets. The number of blankets seemed to have increased since before Cory had gone out to feed the dogs. They were watching some sappy romance comedy that he hadn’t seen before, but he recognized the actors’ faces.

“Did you want me to change it?” Lou asked, holding up the remote.

“Nope,” Cory settled into his favorite chair. “This looks like it’ll be funny,” he added.

“Mike called my phone to say that he’d be the one coming up to get the bullet out of the wood pile. He’ll be leaving town in about fifteen minutes,” Lou smiled at Cory. “He’s going to stop by The Brew and get a row of ribs for each of the outside dogs. Rick talked to him and let him know I wanted to do that.”

“Okay,” Cory nodded. A row each would be too much for the dogs in one serving, so he’d have a few days’ worth of special treats. They’d earned it, he figured.

Cory chuckled at the one-liners in the movie as he did the quick math for when Mike would be arriving. The movie had just started, which meant it would likely be close to ending when he needed to go out and wait on the porch steps so Sir wouldn’t bark and Penny wouldn’t run off. Mike could drop off the ribs, take the photos and measurements that he needed, pack up the piece of wood the bullet was imbedded in, and still be home before today technically became tomorrow.

Cory stretched and smiled at the brightness behind the blinds. He’d liked coming up here for training in the summers because of the long days. He’d been a bit worried about the winters and the long nights before he moved, but that had been easy to get used to, too. Especially once the dogs started moving in and gave him a solid schedule for feedings and sleeping.

He looked around the living room. The puppy was passed out in a milk coma despite Tank giving him a tongue bath. She’d already yanked the finished bottle out from under her leg and dropped it off her pad. Trench was beyond content with being the foundation cornerstone for the pile of blankets and women on the sofa with him, and the ladies were both laughing at the movie. For a passing moment, Cory wished that Tony was here so they could play cards, but then realized that would make for an odd pressure on Jay by becoming some kind of societal couples’ night.

His phone buzzed with the expected text from Jenny asking how the dinner had been. Cory replied that Rick had been called for work and he, Jay, and Lou were watching a movie. She replied with a widely grinning smiley and a ‘thumbs up’ emoji.

“Is that Jenny?” Lou asked.

“Yup,” Cory answered, pausing at putting his phone down when she held out her hand for it.

“Well, hand it over,” she demanded when he didn’t pass the phone immediately. “I didn’t get around to putting her number in my phone yet so nights like this are still the only time I get to talk to her. I need pregnancy updates and more baby photos.”

“You’re going to be the most annoying grandmother ever,” he stated, passing his phone across.

“My boys already know that,” she replied, dropping her reading glasses off the top of her head to land perfectly on her nose.

His phone buzzed regularly for the next twenty minutes. Cory knew there would be jokes and digs at himself, planted through their conversation, and waiting for him to read whenever he got his phone back. Austin and Jenny like Lou and Tony as much as Cory did.

Mike came and went as expected, Lou sending home a plate of leftovers for him so that he’d have something to eat when he got home. Cory set up the needed spare beds in the big second bedroom – he had a bunch of folding furniture now that Jenny and Austin had so many kids – and then settled back into his chair in the living room to watch the next movie Lou and Jay had picked. The end table beside his chair had grown a beer and a bowl of chips while he’d been making up the beds, and the dogs had come back in from their nightly romp outside.

The ladies had picked another sappy, funny movie, but it was one that Cory had seen about a dozen times. Lou hadn’t seen it before, and kept throwing glares at him when he was laughing before the jokes happened. Jay and Lou turned in when the movie ended, Lou asking him to leave the blankets in a pile on the sofa so that she could quickly nest in with her morning coffee to watch the news. Trench padded along at Jayler’s heels as she went down the hall to go first for using the bathroom to change and wash up for bed, and Cory grinned that she invited the big dog into the bathroom with her this time. He was going to have to pack up Trench’s stuff in the morning, including a couple days of food and the feeding schedule he’d kept the dogs on.

“You are really not giving me anything to work with,” Lou accused him quietly once the bathroom door was closed.

“For what?” he replied with a question. She rolled her eyes.

“How am I supposed to match-make when you won’t even flirt,” she stated with a wink. He groaned and leaned back in the chair until he was staring at the ceiling. “Good grief, now you’re acting like my boys,” she chastised him teasingly. “Come on. She’s smart, she’s funny, and she’s pretty,” Lou lifted her eyebrows suggestively.

“Good-night, Lou,” he grinned at her as he stood up. She scoffed mockingly and then giggled, hanging out her hand imperially for him to hold her fingers as she also came up to her feet.

“You could at least promise me that you’ll think about flirting with her,” she pressed the topic. “She might flirt back, you know,” she added, her eyebrows arching up again.

“Have a good sleep, Lou,” he stated as he clicked off the living room lights. He kissed the top of her head and left her at the door to the spare room.

“So you’ll think about it?” she asked, calling after him. He just laughed and shook his head, waving over his shoulder as he turned into his room and shut the door.

Chapter 9

Jay woke up in the strange room with a warm body pushing the mattress down beside her. She quickly remembered where she was and, smiling, rolled to her side to wrap her arms around Trench and snuggle with the big dog for a few minutes. He’d slept the whole night with his head on the pillow beside her, just like her first dog had when she was a kid. Unlike her first dog, Trench didn’t wiggle away after a few rubs and acknowledgement that she was awake; he was perfectly content to lie there and cuddle until her bladder told her that she needed to actually get out of bed.

The TV was chatting about the morning news in the living room, and Jayler could smell coffee and toast as she crossed the hall into the bathroom. Trench padded into the bathroom with her and lay down across the door after she closed it, the same as he had last night when she’d come in here. She scrubbed his ears and then sped through an abbreviated morning routine.

The big shower that dominated the bathroom kept pulling her attention despite her best efforts to ignore it, the same as it did every time she came in here. She hadn’t brought any hair products or body wash, and she’d just showered yesterday so that she wouldn’t have to worry about it today in case they did end up staying here because she usually only showered every other day… the shining chrome fixtures winked at her in the mirror through the floor to ceiling custom glass surround as she put on a bit of lip gloss. She reminded herself that she was already dressed for the day as she put the few toiletries she’d brought back into the little travel case, then turned to leave and ended up standing there, biting her lip and staring at the shower.

The plain, grey tiles on the walls and ceiling were simple and understated, and the teak slats covered from edge to edge in place of a tub. On a whim, she left her little travel case on the counter and pulled the shower door open to step inside. Measuring side to side, standing in the middle of the shower, her elbows were barely bent when she had one hand on the wall and one on the glass. She couldn’t touch the wall or glass from the middle when she reached out lengthwise. The main showerhead was one of those enormous squares that made a shower feel like it was raining. The smaller showerhead – the one attached to a hose – was still an oversized square, and was sitting on a vertical slider bar so the height could be adjusted for whoever was using the shower.

She stepped over and looked at the waterproof panel that was set into the wall at the opposite end, away from the showerheads. Oh my… Jayler held her breath and traced a finger down the column of options, simple button presses away from a heated bathroom floor, a steam sauna, dimming shower lights, a heated towel rack, and – if she wanted – music. She remembered to breathe again and quickly got out of the shower, closing the heavy door with a swish and a deep vibration through the glass walls that barely made a noise. Trench cocked his head at her, eyebrows lifted, silently asking why she was already out.

“If I get in I’ll never get back out,” she joked to him. “Come on. You probably need to go outside anyway,” she told the big dog as she picked up her travel case from the counter beside the sink. He grumbled about having to stand up again so soon, but circled around behind her legs and shoved out through the door first once she had it open.

“I’m putting on fresh coffee,” Lou called from the kitchen as Jay opened the front door for Trench. The big dog skipped on trying to use the outside steps and just jumped off the porch over them. Jay smiled at him as he started sniffing around the yard and then followed his nose into the nearest clump of trees. She closed the door and stretched her arms high over her head as she walked into the kitchen, the coffee pot just starting to pop and burble about boiling the water.

“Morning,” Jay smiled at Louise. The older woman was still in her pajamas, just one of her husband’s old tee shirts and some fuzzy flannel pants, with her hair messily piled away from her face and barely contained by an alligator clip that was a size too small. The puppy was chasing the threads dangling from one bottom cuff of Lou’s pants as she moved around the kitchen.

“Well there, Jay-bird, don’t you just look ready to start the day,” Lou complimented, her big smile lighting up her whole face. “You want breakfast?” she offered, pointing at the stove and toaster. Jay almost had time to inhale and reply that if Louise was cooking, she absolutely wanted breakfast, but her phone started ringing where it was plugged in beside the bed she’d slept in.

“Hold that thought,” she called over her shoulder as she jogged to the spare bedroom and answered the call. “Hi, Mom,” she said as she unplugged the charger cable so she could go back out to the kitchen.

“Hi, Jayler!” her mom answered brightly. She bubbled over with news from home, barely pausing to breathe, pushing in as many good stories as she could wring out of reality so that she could get her daughter laughing after everything that had been happening to Jay. Once it was Jayler’s turn to offer up how she was doing, thankfully she was already sitting at the dining room table with hot coffee in front of her and Lou squeezing her free hand as she stumbled through retelling the events from yesterday.

Her mom had already talked to Lou and Tony over the phone at length, and over video chat that one time, so when it became a three-way conversation of whether or not Cory could be trusted Lou’s warm laugh and honest assurances set aside the parental fears way faster than Jay could’ve stutteringly explained. Jay’s dad joined the conversation while Lou was still talking about Cory, and when they finished discussing Cory he asked a bunch of questions about the dogs – Trench and Sir specifically – and ended up laughing so hard about what Sir had done that when he slapped his hand on his jeans both Jay and Lou could hear the hit. Her parents loved the idea of Jay adopting Trench, both of them talking over one another to remind her about animal care requirements because it had been a few years since she’d had a dog.

Her mom hedged about flying up for a visit and to help with fixing up the apartment, but Jay knew her folks couldn’t afford that right now so argued about it until her mom agreed to wait for a while. The usual proclamations were spoken that if Jay needed anything – anything at all – she just had to call, then the goodbyes, and then Jay was able to hang up.

“I just love how you start to twang whenever you talk to your folks,” Lou chuckled.

“I love that it finally goes away when I’m talking to everyone else,” Jay replied with a sigh. She loved the south, but being from it and living in the north usually meant a lot of strangers saying dumb or rude things to her. Just like all the dumb and rude things she and her friends had said to that kid back in high school whose folks had moved into town from New York. What goes around definitely had a way of coming back on a person.

Lou broke into her thoughts with a chuckle and a pat on the hand, then stood up and sauntered back into the kitchen. The puppy picked up chasing the threads on her cuff again as soon as she started walking, and Lou crooned down nonsense at the little guy while she filled up her coffee cup again. Jay wondered if Louise even knew she was sauntering rather than walking, but guessed not. The older woman was just enviably comfortable inside her well-fitting skin.

They were discussing breakfast options when Cory emerged from the door leading down to the basement wearing loose sweat pants, the elastic at the top of his underwear peeking out above the sweats because he wasn’t wearing a shirt. He’d obviously just been working out. Jayler immediately felt her face heating up when he greeted both of them and reached for a coffee mug, looming over and around Louise as he did.

“Get your sweaty abs off of me,” Lou laughed at him, the open handed slap to his ribs loud in the kitchen. He snickered and then folded in a hug around her.

“Thanks so much for making coffee,” he made his voice gush with gratefulness and snuggled with her harmlessly as she burst out laughing, exclaiming in mock disgust how sweaty and gross he was being between guffaws. He left off after a moment, laughing, and filled the coffee mug he’d taken out of the cupboard.

“Get gone, kid,” Lou grabbed a towel off the oven handle and snapped it at his ass as he walked toward the table. He stopped and backed up, sticking his butt out toward her.

“Don’t leave me hanging,” he implored.

“Go clean up and put some clothes on or my foot is the only thing your ass is going to meet this morning,” Lou responded, her voice taking on a threatening tone. He laughed again and straightened up.

“You doing okay today?” he asked, turning his attention to Jay and then taking a sip of coffee. His nose wrinkled up and he set the cup down to start mixing in cream and hot cocoa.

“I… um…” she swallowed the surging embarrassment at suddenly not being able to talk and tried to look away from the long scar cutting through the squad tattoo on the back of his shoulder before he caught her staring as he put the cream back in the fridge and turned around. Nope, she’d failed miserably at not being noticed staring. “I’m doing better,” she said, glad her voice was working again. He nodded and looked around at floor level while he stirred his coffee.

“Where’s Trench?” he asked, careful not to drip on the counter when he reached over and dropped the spoon into the sink.

“I put him out already,” Jay hated that her voice rose into a half question.

“You’re not sure?” Cory smirked as he leaned a hip against the counter. He chuckled again when Lou smacked his arm with a backhanded flip of her fingers, half-turning so that he could talk to her instead of Jay. “What? You said last night that I should –”

“Shut your mouth from flapping, Cory Reaper, or I’m tossing three pennies into it and punching you hard enough to knock some sense into your brain with enough teeth to hold onto it,” Lou threatened him. Cory laughed again and turned back to face Jay. She quickly looked away from staring at the long scar again, the blush flaring up that he’d caught her looking at it twice in under a minute.

“Did you still want to take Trench home with you today?” Cory asked, sipping his coffee and then, this time, smiling at the cup.

“You don’t mind?” she asked, staring at her fingers laced nervously together on the table rather than at Cory.

“Nope,” he set the mug down. “I’ll go pull his gear together. Might as well add dog hair to the mess I currently am before I go clean up.”

“You want me to make you breakfast, hon?” Louise asked, getting eggs out for herself and Jay.

“Nah,” he told her. “You guys go ahead and eat. I’ll have a shower first so I’m not too gross to share the table with.”

Chapter 10

Jay tried to help make breakfast and got shooed out of the kitchen. She ended up sitting at the table and feeling awkward and uncomfortable that activity was happening around her, but she wasn’t helping with any of it, and thinking of a way to ask about the scar on Cory’s back that wouldn’t come off as offensive or outright rude.

Then again, outright and rude seemed to not be offensive to him at all, so maybe she could just ask. Or, she considered as a plate of eggs, hash browns, and toast landed in front of her, she could ask Lou because maybe the older woman already knew. That would be easier than trying to ask Cory.

The idea of talking to him would be a lot simpler if she hadn’t seen the video footage of him defending her from five guys. He was weird, that was for sure, but backwardly so and chivalrous. How he behaved now that she was getting to know him almost explained in a nice way why he’d locked her in his jeep.

“Are you thinking about the scar, or the shoulders?” Lou asked quietly after Cory had gone to take a shower now that all Trench’s stuff was piled by the door.

“The scar,” Jay replied with an eye roll. Rick had spent most of the drive up laughing yesterday because Louise had been so ridiculous about trying to match-make Jay with Cory.

“That’s boring,” Lou hedged, winking heavily.

“Ha ha,” Jay replied, not laughing. She dug into breakfast and started eating more forkfuls than she’d previously been pushing around on the plate. “Do you know how he got it?” she asked. Lou shook her head to the negative.

“I asked the first time I saw him wandering around without a shirt, but he just shrugged and changed the subject,” Lou answered. “It doesn’t seem to slow him down much, though,” she pointed around the kitchen and dining room vaguely with her fork. “He redid the floors, walls, and bathroom up here, turned the second spare bedroom into a small en suite and walk-in closet for the master bedroom, and then framed and finished the basement, after he moved in. I’ll get him to dig up the photos from the listing to show you how it looked before he bought the place.”

“He did all this himself?” Jay stared at what she could see. Nothing in the house was fancy, but it was all… finished. And it looked nice.

“Tony did the electrical, but Cory did everything else,” Lou confirmed. “He only finished about a month ago.”

“Huh,” Jay looked around again, trying to spot evidence of ‘home-done’ renovations and not able to find any.

“I’ve been trying to talk him into working on your apartment since he’s set up as a private contractor to get the cheaper prices for working on his place. It would give him a chance to make some extra money, and you wouldn’t have to worry about strangers in your apartment,” Lou stated. The logic was loaded with hook-up insinuations and strings that Louise was trying to tie onto it, but it was still sound logic.

They talked about renovations, houses, apartments, and pets, and were laughing over stories about a cross-eyed cat that Tony had rescued from an alley that had lived in their New York bar’s back office for twelve years when Cory came into the kitchen. Lou angled the conversation back to renovations and, after he ate, he took both ladies on a tour of the house to show off what he’d changed since he moved in. They finished in the basement because that’s where Cory had put his computer, and all the before, during, and after renovations photos were on an external hard drive.

Jay actually forgot to feel embarrassed as they all discussed the house and then the apartment. Cory even did a quick estimate for materials and time based on the floor plans that Tony had gotten for him and the damages that Jay and Lou described. He still had the recent prices for everything from finishing the basement, and he knew how long the work would take with himself doing it.

“You’d have to wait a few more weeks for me to be able to, though,” he warned her. “I won’t be able to spend all day in town until the puppy gets onto solid food.”

“You could just bring them with you,” Lou reasoned. “It’s not like Tank and Trench don’t get along.”

Louise and Cory both turned questioning looks at Jayler.

“Puppy!” she squeaked, actually excited that her apartment was going to get fixed sooner than later. Cory laughed at her as he printed out the estimate so that she could take it to her insurance broker. He turned off the monitor and stood to hand the pages to her.

“Let’s get you guys back to town,” he smiled at her as she checked over the estimate to make sure the whole thing had printed.

∞

Suddenly, life got better. It was a big improvement just like when she’d first moved up here, only this time things were setting up to stay better. Her ex got shipped back to prison for holding until the trial for the new charges, which meant she didn’t have to take Trench to work anymore – but Cory agreed that she could still keep him. Lou and Tony became those friends that you can call any time with anything, including that you had a bottle of wine, more than one glass already on the table, and dinner in the oven. Rick and Barb started coming by more often, usually to socialize with Cory without having to drive out of town, but that led to some late nights of impromptu dinners and laughing until her stomach and face both hurt. And then to lunches with Barb as Jay became better friends with her.

The dogs being around, especially the puppy, let her meet more of the neighbors and start a walking group one evening every week when everyone had the time off work. Carlos, a gangly seven-year-old who lived down the hall and not so secretly believed Cory was a real, undercover super hero, was over the moon happy when he got to name the puppy. Within the same week, Tank and the newly named puppy – Shield – got permission from Carlos’s mom to visit when they were in the building… and secret plans started getting made between Cory and Carlos’s dad for the puppy to be an eighth birthday present in a couple months.

Stripping out all the flooring got rid of the lingering bleach smell, and that weird odor she could never find the source of when it wafted up in the bathroom every now and then. While they were waiting for the new flooring to ship in, before Cory started repairing the walls, Jay spent three hours on a video chat with one of his friends from his sister’s fashion circle and got coached through a dying session for her ruined sofa. Now she had an amazing custom piece and the know-how to fix the clothes that she hadn’t been able to bear throwing away.

Somewhere between the walls getting fixed and notification that the flooring had arrived and was ready to be picked up, Cory stopped using the fake ‘John Olsen’ name when he met new people. Around the same time that the living room, kitchen, and dining nook only needed baseboards, he brought Pensive into town and took her to the vet for a check-up. Cory was brimming he was so proud of her coming in the jeep with him when he told Jayler about it the next day, and Jay had hugged him because she’d been so happy for him, laughing that he’d fidgeted his feet around and mumbled ‘yes’ toward the floor after she first asked if it was okay that she did.

“You can hug back, you know,” she’d chided him, after which his arms had wrapped around her cautiously. “I’m so happy about Penny’s recovery – it’s just great to hear about,” she’d added, giving him an extra squeeze.

Cory folded like a card house, all his pieces wrapping her close and the genuine affection in his embrace erasing everything for a stomach dropping moment that left Jay feeling light headed… and like an idiot. The hug was so harmlessly chaste that none of the dogs got upset, the affection level given to her equivalent to the sweet hugs he gave Louise. Besides, they’d been calling each other friends for a few weeks – since she’d come home from work and caught him washing dishes for her before he’d left for the day – and he was definitely someone who said what he meant and his actions always matched up with his words (for the good and the bad). He never would have called her a friend, one of his ‘safe people’, if he didn’t actually mean it. She’d stepped back out of the hug and completely hated her pale complexion for making the blush look so obvious.

“Did I do something wrong? Because now you look scared,” he said, confused concern knotting his eyebrows together.

“No, I… it’s not you, it’s that…” she stumbled on the words and then sighed. In for a penny, in for a pound, she reasoned, and then chuckled at herself. “I wasn’t expecting that hugging you would feel that nice,” she admitted, blushing a bit hotter. He smiled at the compliment, looking at his feet, and the tip of his shoe pushed at the mat she kept inside the door for wet or muddy footwear.

Carlos thundering down the hallway outside the door as he ran to his apartment shattered the awkwardness out of the moment. Jay and Cory switched to quietly talking about the plan for the coming weekend where Carlos would officially take ownership of Shield. Then Cory left for the day, the plan set to finish the floor in the bedroom and the final touches on the tub surround when he was back in a couple of days. Tank and Shield shoved around him to get into the hallway, Shield’s yips bringing Carlos back into the hall. Jay closed her door after calling out her hellos to the neighbors, begging off from visiting because she needed to get started on dinner, and was still smiling as she leaned back onto the door after locking it.

Trench got up from his pad in the living room and stretched, yawning loudly, and grumbled happily as he crossed the apartment for her undivided attention now that it was just the two of them. She hugged and scrubbed the big dog, getting enough fur on herself and the floor to knit a sweater, and just felt… good. She was still smiling, after changing and cleaning up the fur clumps, as she started making dinner. She clicked on the little radio Cory had brought for something to listen to while he was working, laughing out loud that her favorite song was just starting to play.

Chapter 11

Cory parked close to the house and unloaded the four bags of dog food two at a time. The rest of the groceries took another couple trips, and he had to keep telling Penny and Tank to leave the new bags of dog food alone each time he came back in the house.

It had been two weeks since Carlos had adopted Shield, and Tank was still sad about losing the puppy. Penny moving into the house had helped by giving the older dog a younger one to look after, but Tank still hadn’t gotten back to herself yet. Cory understood completely. His birth mom had died before he could really remember her, and his dad had married who he’d always thought of as his mom when he was five. People outside of his home town were surprised whenever they found out Cory’s dad had been married before, especially after meeting Jenny because of how much she looked like Cory. Then his folks had been killed in a car crash, and almost his sister along with them, and he’d left active duty to help his sister through rehab from the crash. She’d gotten better and he’d gone back on active duty, but there wasn’t a day he didn’t miss his folks.

As for Tank, the vet said it looked like she’d had at least one litter of pups before, and that her attachment to Shield likely meant that she’d lost the litter or had them taken away early. Her maternal instincts transferred nicely to Pensive, but Cory could easily see the familiar signs of grieving over the latest loss.

He got the dog food locked up and the groceries put away, made a small pot of coffee (enough for one cup), and then went and sat out on the porch with Sir to discuss potential puppy options. Tank was spayed when she’d showed up in the yard, so she wouldn’t be having her own litter again. Cory reasoned that he should get in touch with the local shelters to see if any of them needed a foster mom for any puppies.

The first snowfall of the season started as he was chatting with Sir, and the old dog huffed a grumble at the flakes when Cory brought his attention to it. Sir didn’t have any interest in coming into the house, but he’d been happy to move onto the enclosed porch. Cory had finished siding it so that it was fully enclosed, and then put on a door that he modified with spring hinges so the bottom half swung freely, ensuring that Sir could come and go as he pleased. The old dog hadn’t even hesitated to follow along when Cory moved his blankets out of the lean-to.

He was debating going inside when his phone rang. Jenny’s face and phone number were shining up at him when he checked the small screen.

“Hey, little sister,” Cory answered the call.

“Wrong. Please hang up and try your call again,” Austin stated. Cory smirked and disconnected the call. His phone lit up again a half-minute later. “You’re an asshole,” Austin said before Cory had a chance to say anything. Jenny was laughing in the background. “Here I am, doing you the fine courtesy of calling to let you know that we’re at the hospital, and you hang up on me.”

“Is everything okay?” Cory asked, immediately worried because Jenny had been having her worst pregnancy yet.

“So far, yup,” Austin confirmed. “Jenny went into labor about an hour ago. Mom’s hanging out with the kids until we get home. We just wanted to let you know.”

“Isn’t that a few weeks early?” Cory asked. She hadn’t been due for another two and a half weeks. He’d been counting.

“According to the medical norm she’s running early, yeah,” Austin answered. Cory could almost hear him shrug.

“I’m so done with this pregnancy! We’re having Conner today!” Jenny called out in the background. Austin chuckled into the phone.

“We’ll call with updates,” Austin said.

“Thanks,” Cory said. The call disconnected before he could push the button to hang up. As with every time Jenny was pregnant, Cory was glad his best friend had married his little sister. The thought of navigating airports and strange hospitals because he didn’t trust anyone to take care of Jenny except Austin… “Looks like I’m going to be an uncle again,” Cory told Sir and gave the old dog’s ears a thorough scratching. Sir smiled up at him from where he was lying, but Cory couldn’t tell if it was from the good news or the ear scratches.

While he had his phone out, he did a quick search for the phone number to the nearest shelter and made a call to see if there were any puppies that needed fostering. The shelter wanted to meet both Tank and Cory before agreeing to anything, but it sounded promising.

Overall, it had been a good day. He was waiting on more baseboards to finish up at Jayler’s, but those would probably be in tomorrow morning and her apartment would be finished by dinner tomorrow evening. Lou and Tony had called while he was shopping to tell him they’d decided that Cory was hosting Thanksgiving dinner because their boys weren’t going to be able to make it home this year – they’d also invited Jay and all three of them would be staying overnight at his place. Now Jenny and Austin were having Conner tonight.

Cory gave Sir an extra scratching before he went back inside to start making dinner. Tank and Penny were piled up to nap on one pad in the living room and barely moved when he walked past into the kitchen. It would be good to have another puppy around, he figured. The house had been too quiet the past couple of weeks.

He started washing and dicing vegetables to try avoiding thinking about what he was going to do after he was done at Jay’s apartment tomorrow. Boredom wasn’t a friend to the lingering PTSD and the anxiety that tagged along for the ride, and his last session with Doctor Vern had been focused on finding a new hobby. Jay had gotten him hooked on home cooking, so maybe he could start looking into that. And, if the snow picked up after starting so late in the season, his boss from last winter had already called to see if he’d drive a plow again this winter. Fuel deliveries, plowing, fostering puppies, picking up some chef skills, plus the usual chores for firewood and keeping the place clean with dogs… Both Lou and Tony, and Rick and Barb, had promised regular visits – weather depending – and he already had his ticket for the flight to Miami to stay with Austin and Jenny for Christmas. Jay was usually at Bowler’s, at the apartment, or out with either Barb or Louise, so he’d be able to talk to her typically any time.

That led to something that Cory did want to think about. He liked spending time with Jay. She’d talk about anything with him, and if she got uncomfortable or offended while they were talking she’d tell him why in the same point-blank style that Jenny used. Usually he had to ask why, but as soon as he asked he’d get told. And when he got told, she’d either be blushingly embarrassed or angrily flushed. Either way made her eyes stand out and – on top of a body that fit his swimsuit model sister’s clothes, and considering that he was partial to redheads – he didn’t mind that she told him off when she got offended.

She’d started hugging him a lot, too. Not in a confusing way or a flirty way, but the same way that she hugged Trench: arms all the way around and the side of her face pressed against him because she was leaning in. Like he was important to her and having him around meant something.

Cory diced up the chicken he’d thawed out and tossed it into a pot to brown. He’d picked up the same sauces that Jay used for stir-fries when he was shopping today and was hoping to get a concoction close to what she made. At the very least, he was hoping it would be edible. He poured on the sauce she used for seasoning the chicken and stirred so that nothing burned to the bottom of the pot.

Doc Vern had wanted to talk about Jayler in the last session, too. Cory didn’t want to get into that conversation yet, though, so he’d changed the subject. Anyway, there hadn’t been anything but the hugs to talk about in the last session. It had been after the session that Cory had been working in her bedroom, needed to move her dresser, and the top drawer had fallen out when he’d over-tipped it by accident after hooking one of the bottom corners on her laundry basket. She’d been beyond embarrassed that her two sex toys had bounced out of the mess he’d made into the middle of an empty spot on the floor. He’d laughed about it. If life in the military had taught him anything, it was that if you wanted to keep something private because you thought it was embarrassing, that was the first thing your commander would find in your stuff. Usually because you’d knock something over and whatever you were hiding would spill out into the middle of an empty floor where everyone would clearly see it.

The mishap had led to a great conversation about sex in general. They’d talked for over an hour, both of them sharing their likes and dislikes and a couple random mistakes that made for funny stories now that the utterly mortifying part of being in the situations was over. Then she’d made dinner for both of them, and while she was cooking they’d talked about shit that she confessed to not having told anyone about, and he hadn’t been able to bring up with any of his head doctors yet (and couldn’t have imagined talking to just a regular civilian about up until last week). Then they’d eaten and talked about normal stuff, and she’d hugged him like he mattered before he left.

Cory was pretty sure Doc Vern would get pushy about the Jayler conversation in the next session, if for no other reason than Cory was doing better than expected by helping her fix up her apartment and the Doc would want to keep seeing the progress. Probably it would be a good conversation to have in a session if anything confusing came up. The nice part with Jay, though, was that not much was confusing.

Once the chicken was done browning, Cory threw in all the vegetables that he’d diced and poured in the sauce that Jay used on top of the veggies. The goop in the pot smelled like what she made, at least. He mixed everything around until the vegetables were hot, but not wilting, and then remembered that he should’ve made rice. He turned off the burner and moved the pot away from the heat, and then dug through the pantry for the soft tortillas he knew should still be in there. The impromptu wraps weren’t as good as what Jayler made, but they were a large distance better than his usual frozen dinners or scrambled eggs and bacon.

He’d cleaned up the kitchen and was forty-five minutes into looking up random recipes when Jenny’s number called his phone.

“Hello?” he answered on the first note of his ring tone.

“Hey there, Uncle Cory,” Jenny said. She sounded tired and happy.

“Hey, baby sister,” he crooned back, turning away from his computer so that he could focus completely on the conversation. “How’s everything going?”

“Fast,” she chuckled. “Conner’s here and healthy and snuggling with his dad. He was almost nine pounds. I feel terrible because he came so quick there wasn’t time for any drugs. I’m not letting Coop take photos of me yet in case I look like I feel,” she laughed quietly. “The doc’s say I’m good and all my internals avoided rupturing on the scar from having the twins. A bit of tearing, but he was almost nine pounds so…” her voice trailed off into a chuckle.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, more relieved than he’d expected to hear that everything had gone well. The big concern had been another C-section like she’d needed with the twins (or complications because of that C-section).

“I’m okay,” she said. He could hear the smile in her voice. “I’m going to let you go so that I can start sending you pictures, though. And I still have to call Mama Cooper. She worries more than you, if you can believe it.”

“I don’t,” he replied. Jenny laughed quietly again.

“Talk to you tomorrow, Cory. Love you,” she said. Her voice was still smiling.

“Love you, too.” He smiled at her contact photo for the moment before his phone blacked out again. He closed the multiple recipe tabs he had open, opened a new search for baby clothes and toys, and started hunting for presents.

Chapter 12

Cory got into town early and headed straight to the hardware store. The baseboards had arrived and the same sales lady that had been helping him for the past year had set them aside for him to pick up. He thanked her, paid for everything and left, then stopped in at Bowler’s to pick up Jay’s keys so he could get into the apartment. She was in the middle of training a new lady for the floor staff, so he got the keys and left without more than a quick hello. Trench was duly disappointed that it was only Cory coming in with more building supplies and then he just went back to lying down in the living room after getting his usual pats.

Cory got everything he needed into the apartment, locked the door, clicked on the radio, and opened the fridge to grab a couple bottles of water. There was a note in the fridge with his name on it, sitting on top of a grocery bag that was beside a six-pack of the beer he liked and a bottle of wine that Jay liked. He picked up the folded note carefully and opened it at arm’s reach:

I know you’ll probably be done before I’m finished at work, and I didn’t know if I’d get a chance to talk to you at work, so this is my back-up plan. You have to stay for dinner tonight because Lou and Tony gave me a BBQ as a house warming and I’m making up steaks to celebrate having an apartment I want to live in.

I’m off work at 3:00 pm, so early dinner should give you enough time to get up to the house and feed the dogs.

See you when I get home.

J.

He smiled at the note, especially that she’d underlined ‘home’, and then used one finger to hook the edge of the grocery bag and peek inside. There were two steaks, a few potatoes, and some fresh vegetables that would roast up to taste awesome with Jayler cooking.

He took out the water bottles he’d originally opened the fridge for and swung the door closed. Leaving the note on the counter, he walked over to the balcony door and looked out at the little, propane barbeque that Lou and Tony had given Jay. It was small enough that the two steaks she’d bought would probably cover most of the grill, and it was still almost too big for the tiny balcony it was chained to. He adjusted the couple hours he’d expected to spend in town to stretch out for the day, realized that if he got Jay’s baseboards done quick he would have time to pick up the groceries he’d missed yesterday because the store had been closing after he’d finished fuel deliveries.

The apartment would be cleaned up and his errands would be done around the same time she was finishing work. If he timed it right, he could even pick her up. His phone dinged with the first of today’s photos of Conner, so Cory replied with the daily phone call as he turned away from the balcony and went down the hall to the bedroom to get started with getting finished.

∞

Jay couldn’t help but smile through her day. Training the new team member went great, Barb met her for a coffee break with fudge from the bakery up the street, and dinner was waiting in the fridge to get cooked up as soon as she got home. Cory had sent a quick text that he wasn’t going to turn down steak with a photo of her note sitting on the kitchen counter. She’d sent him at least four messages asking for pictures of the finished apartment, but he only replied to the second one that she’d see it when she got there. She typed up a fifth and final message asking for pictures as she pulled on her coat and hat for the walk home, hitting send just before she walked outside.

She heard the familiar ding of his message notification going off as she dropped her phone into her purse and started to pull on her gloves. Cory was half sitting on the front fender of his jeep just outside the front of the store, completely unaware of how he looked in old jeans, worn boots, and a fall jacket. He smirked at his phone – obviously checking the message that she’d just sent him – and then lifted the grin up to her. Her stomach summersaulted through a full gym routine when he reached over and opened the passenger door of his jeep for her.

“I already told you that you’d see it when you got there,” he said.

“Oh my God I have to hug you now,” she said, talking so fast that the sentence almost turned into a single word as she beamed at him. He shrugged and opened his other arm in invitation. She snugged under his arm and squeezed tight for a moment, and then stepped around the jeep’s door and tucked into the passenger seat.

“Here,” he held out his phone as she was clicking into the seatbelt. “Jenny had Conner last night. There’s about a million photos to go through.”

She was opening his messaging app before he even swung the door shut, and had started scrolling when the jeep’s engine fired up. Cory laughed at her when she showed him the first picture she fell in love with as he was climbing behind the steering wheel.

“Am I allowed to get my seatbelt on?” he asked.

“Nope,” she replied, turning the phone back so she could keep scrolling. “That wasn’t a million,” she stated, getting to the end of the photos as he dropped the jeep into gear and looked around to make sure he wasn’t going to drive over or into anything. He didn’t ask for his phone back now that he was driving, so she closed the app and opened the photo gallery. “You seriously didn’t take any pictures of the apartment today?” she whined as he turned onto the street. He just laughed at her.

“You’re going through my whole phone, now?” he asked, noting in a glance that she’d gone back into his messages and opened the thread for Louise.

“I can’t believe you didn’t even take some to send to Lou and Tony,” she said, after going through both threads to make sure (and rechecking the threads for Jenny and Austin, just in case).

“It’s not like you’ve got a long wait,” he answered, pulling into the parking lot for her complex. “And the apartment looks almost identical to yesterday. The few missing baseboards didn’t make a huge difference.”

“Ha!” she replied. “The difference is that now it’s done, and yesterday it wasn’t. Hand over the keys,” she demanded, holding out a hand as he turned off the jeep.

“And let you leave me down here when I know there’s steak up there?” he asked, cocking his half-grin at her. “Not a chance.”

She followed him up to the front door for the building, which he unlocked and then held open like a doorman before relinquishing the keys and following her up to her apartment. She kicked off her boots and dropped her purse, not bothering with her coat, hat, or gloves, and darted down the short hallway to look at the finished bedroom and finished bathroom. Everything just looked better today – and Cory had cleaned up so that her place was just as tidy as his house. Trench barked happily at her excited squealing and she cuddled with him extra hard before finally coming back to the entrance to take off her outerwear, the big dog ramming lovingly into her hips and legs as she did.

“You like the baseboards that much?” Cory chided.

“I really do! Everything just looks so…” her words froze as she looked around and her gaze landed on the dining room table. “You got me flowers?”

“Davey said those ones would go the best with the couch,” Cory admitted.

“Nobody’s ever gotten me flowers,” she said, looking up at him. “I was planning to do dinner first, but I’m just going to kiss you now,” she told him, point blank.

“Really?” he asked, surprised and hopeful and still bashful enough that she wondered why she’d waited this long to tell him that.

“Yeah,” she said, stepping close and wrapping her hands behind his neck to pull him down so their lips were almost touching. “You’re allowed to kiss me back, you know,” she chided. Then she didn’t need to bother talking because she was kissing him. His hands stroked her back and then he pulled her tight as she teased at his teeth with her tongue.

Trench barked and growled, then shoved in between them defensively and they both broke from the kiss, laughing. Cory praised the dog for his delayed reaction time, which had taken seconds to notice the embrace, bending low to reinforce the verbal accolades with rough scratches that got Trench’s back leg to shake and made the big dog grumble happily. Jayler laughed at the two best men that had fallen into her life since she’d moved away from her parents.

“I’m going to go change,” she announced. It was her usual habit to get out of work clothes the moment she came home.

“Okay,” Cory agreed, straightening back up and sending Trench out to his pad in the living room.

“Do you want to help me?” she asked, holding out a hand toward Cory. He looked at the hand shyly for a moment, and then his gaze traveled over her from toes to eyes so heavily that she could feel her skin prickling.

“Is that even a question?” he asked as a reply, wrapping his fingers around hers. She beamed up at him and rushed down the hallway, pulling him along with her, and closing the bedroom door once they were both inside so that Trench couldn’t interrupt again.

Chapter 13

Cory stretched and smiled as he climbed into the shower. Jay had wanted a lot more than just help changing her clothes. The first bit of steam showed the outline of Jay’s hair, shoulders, and ass from when he’d pinned her up against the tiles last night.

Jayler had booked herself a three-day weekend, so after steaks she’d packed a few things and then she and Trench had come up to the house with him. He had fuel deliveries today so had taken her back into town this morning, done his deliveries, met her for dinner and then come back home.

She’d really, really liked this shower, though. The marks and streaks from her hair, shoulders, and ass showed up as the glass started to steam up, too. He cleaned up himself quickly, enjoyed the recent memories as he wiped off the glass and tiles, and then spoiled himself with a warmed towel once he turned off the water.

An early dinner with Jay at The Brew when his deliveries were done had been nice, and Lou had joined them while Tony oversaw the bartending duties, then Cory had come home alone. He fed the dogs and then split firewood for a couple hours until it was time to come in and start a quiet evening. Tank playing with Penny around the wood pile had reminded him to call the shelter, and he caught someone before they went home for the night to set up an appointment for taking Tank in to meet the workers at the shelter. Jayler still had tomorrow off, and he had the final invoice to drop off with her insurance broker, so he was going to town to drop off the invoice in the morning and then spend the rest of the day with Jay. She’d mentioned running a few errands that she wanted to use the jeep for, and helping get bulk bags of dog food and a new dresser that she liked – and was on sale – sounded like a pretty good day.

Cory shaved, noticing his hair was getting in his eyes as he did which meant it was time for a cut. He wiped the sink and threw the used washcloth and towel in the laundry bin on his way out to the bedroom to get dressed in whatever was clean and comfortable for having a beer and watching a movie. Penny was relaxing on her pad in the living room but Tank led him around, anticipating what direction she expected him to go to grab clothes, and he made fun of her for tumbling around the bed and rolling in the blanket she pulled off the end. He dressed in an old pair of workout sweats and a tee shirt that had a hole where the tags at the collar used to be, and then herded Tank into the kitchen. He tossed her a couple of treats as he grabbed a beer and then settled into his favorite chair in the living room after giving a couple treats to Penny. He picked a Bollywood comedy with subtitles out of the list of available titles and laughed his way through to the right time to take his tranquilizer and get ready for bed.

∞

Jay changed into her PJs and washed her face, then just stared at herself in the bathroom mirror and wondered exactly what had happened in the past few months. She could recall the timeline just fine, but if someone had told her a year ago that she’d be this happy right now, she would’ve laughed at them.

Her phone dinged and she glanced down to see a text notification from Kev. Since he and Davey got a photo from Cory of her grinning about her finished couch, Kev was determined to include her in their huge circle of friends. She didn’t know how to fit into that group at all, but it was so much fun to chat with Kev in the evenings and share some jokes that right now she didn’t worry too much about how to be properly social with a couple of up-and-coming fashion gurus. It wasn’t even as if they were prying because she was a new safe person in Cory’s world, it just seemed like they were honestly interested in talking to her more after spending an evening video chatting to teach her how to dye the couch. They made making friends seem really easy.

The flowers Davey had recommended were still healthy in the middle of the table, looking like they belonged there. Jay smiled about having gotten flowers and turned off the hall light and then the bathroom before aiming her steps toward her bedroom. Trench followed close behind, jealously possessive now that Cory wasn’t around. The big dog climbed onto his claimed place on her bed, his head on the second pillow, and she wrapped her arms around his neck to snuggle into the thick fur.

Cory definitely wasn’t as fuzzy to cuddle with. Jay smiled again and squeezed Trench a little tighter. He grumble-growled happily and pushed back into her hug, almost breaking her nose when he flung his head around to try and lick her face before switching over to concerned inquisitiveness at her apparent spontaneous injury. She laughed at him and settled back down for going to bed once she confirmed she wasn’t bleeding and could still breathe normally.

Her anxieties didn’t bug her as much tonight. She’d been what she would’ve thought was rude this morning when she’d asked Cory if he was okay with being more than friends with benefits and less than a relationship. He’d just shrugged and agreed without even discussing it. She’d had a whole conversation planned out and hadn’t needed it at all because when she started into the explanation he’d laughed and said she was the only one qualified to decide what kind of relationships she wanted to have with whoever she wanted to have them with. Then he’d kissed her and said he liked how she was thinking.

For the first time in a long time, Jayler liked how she was thinking, too.

The following day, with Cory helping her with errands, passed just as easily as the whole weekend had. And then going back to work had been good which made that day pass easily, and then the day after and the day after that until months went by. Jay flew down to stay with her folks for the week around Christmas, her flights lining up by chance to have departure and arrival times close enough to Cory flying out to stay at his sister’s that he could give her rides to and from the airport, and that Trench could fit in with the arrangements he’d already made for his dogs being cared for by Rick and Barb. Her parents flew up for a visit in the spring and they all stayed at Cory’s house because the apartment was just too small, and a couple months later Jenny and Austin brought all the kids up for a week-long summer vacation away from the demands of her job (causing Lou and Tony to spend every moment possible spoiling the kids, with Lou admitting she wanted to give the parents time to make more because the first four were just so damnable cute).

Then suddenly a year was gone. Jay looked up from her life and realized her tidy apartment was dog-hair encrusted in spite of cleaning it two or three times a week, just like her parents’ house, and she had great friends who didn’t care that her house had dog hair all over it. Her parents had stopped worrying about her and their phone calls weren’t packed up with funny or good news only – her dad was even complaining about the annoying little things at work that he’d always talked about before everything with her ex had gotten so very, very ugly. Everything was just normal and comfortable. It was strange and wonderful and, she realized with a bit on awe, she was actually at a point where adding more to what she was doing seemed good.

Her boss had been hedging about possible promotion options. It wasn’t open conversation, more like phishing to see if she would be interested in talking about the bait he was offering. Her relationship with Cory hadn’t changed at all, which was awesome, but the casual situation was also starting to feel stagnant. She’d hedged questions to Cory about it, but he said he was still completely happy with the arrangements. Probably she just had to outright ask Cory about a more stable relationship and then see what he thought of it; being subtle didn’t work on him and she liked that a lot. She liked it enough to want more now that she was used to it.

Her reflection was smiling about stepping life up again, and on her own terms, when she finished washing her face and dried off the bathroom counter. She decided to talk to her boss before talking to Cory. Then she would have an idea about what was going on at work and could maybe have some celebratory news to open up the conversation for talking to Cory. Trench snuggled with her and soaked up the extra attention he was used to whenever Cory wasn’t here. Jay curled into bed and hugged her breathing, shedding, throw pillow tightly. Things were looking up.

Chapter 14

Cory stopped off at the animal shelter and dropped off Tank. Cindy had called first thing this morning that they had a new litter of puppies and wanted Tank to foster them if she hit it off with them. Considering how fast Tank had bounded to the front doors of the shelter, and the happy wiggling she did as Cindy lavished attention on her, Cory was pretty certain he was going to have an extra six puppies at the house by tomorrow. That was good, because the place had been too quiet since the latest four had adopted out a couple weeks ago.

Cindy waved and started turning Tank inside, laughing over her shoulder that Penny was sitting prettily, waiting by the front passenger door of the jeep for Cory to open it for her. Now that Tank wasn’t in the back seat to sit with, Penny got to sit in the front. Cory let her in, scrubbed her ears the way she liked once her harness was clicked into the seatbelt modification, and waved at Cindy as he closed the jeep door and went back around to the driver’s side.

He had a couple errands to run, his two-week checkup with Doc Vern, then dinner with Jay and Lou. Jay had promised to show him how to barbeque to perfection like she made look so easy, and Lou wanted proof that he’d figured out roasting vegetables properly. Tony couldn’t make it over to the apartment as it was his turn for dinner shift at The Brew, but Cory had promised him leftovers as he also didn’t believe that Cory had finally started learning how to cook things that were edible to the masses and not just Cory and Rick’s military trained pallets.

Penny stuck to his side through Bowler’s, proudly carrying the few groceries he put into the pockets on her service dog harness and sitting still for the two small kids that asked to pet her. Jay wasn’t working on the floor today, so after groceries it was a short drive over to The Brew to drop off the package Jenny and Austin had sent up for Lou and Tony – mostly brightly colored kid-made crafts if the package Cory had gotten was any indication. He was still early for the appointment with Doc Vern, so called Austin from the parking lot at the hospital to let him know the gifts were delivered to Lou and Tony and then shoot the shit for ten minutes. Jenny and Austin’s oldest son, John, took up most of the call with bragging about how much he was going to learn during the coming school year now that he was older, wiser, and starting Grade 1, and Cory hung up with a smile on his face when it was time to go in for his appointment.

The hospital didn’t bug him much now, especially with Penny tucked up close enough that he brushed her with his leg on every step. Actually, a lot of things didn’t bug him much with Penny around, which meant he’d likely qualify to keep a service dog forever and – with Tank fostering pups from the shelter – he’d likely even be able to rescue a puppy for his next dog and maybe take on a new foster-mom bitch so he could keep helping out with the puppies. With luck, that wouldn’t be a concern for quite a few more years, he thought, scratching at Penny’s ears as they waited to be called back for the appointment.

Doc Vern was his usual, likeable self. He was a meek frame of totally unremarkable physical features that were wrapped in tidy layers of casually professional clothing, capped by a studious nature and deep curiosity that were tempered by intelligence, humor, and a deep empathy. Cory had felt comfortable around him within a few minutes of meeting him, mostly because Doc Vern had admitted in the first five minutes of the first appointment that he wasn’t qualified in dealing with the traumas Cory had been through, and then promised to research whatever he needed to as things came up. He’d done a lot of research in the past couple years and was damn good at helping now. Aside from that, Cory liked him.

As expected, the conversation wrapped around to Jay and how the relationship was going. She’d come in twice for joint sessions, mostly to see how she was dealing with dating someone who was this fucked up, and Doc Vern had been surprised at just how great she handled the ups and downs. The surprise hadn’t lasted long once he got a bit of her back story, but the conversations during those sessions had been positive and Doc Vern had supported what he called a ‘good pairing of two people looking for a safe relationship to relearn trust’. Since those sessions, Doc Vern would ask how the relationship was progressing and probably reviewed all of Cory’s responses to look for problems. Lately, the problem that Doc Vern seemed to see was that the relationship wasn’t progressing; and today that was a big focus during the hour because – per Doc Vern – people usually wanted things to change and grow, especially in typical romantic relationships. For the first time, Doc Vern brought up the possibility of kids and family; topics that Cory already knew weren’t something Jay could do because of a tubal pregnancy, rupture, and following infection, but Doc Vern didn’t know that about Jay and it seemed rude to disclose so Cory just said he didn’t know but he’d talk to her.

That ran out the hour and they decided that the next appointment would be in three weeks unless anything sudden came up, which meant Cory’s head was improving out of the two week bracket he’d been in, and that was a good reason to celebrate by picking up a couple new toys at the pet store and taking Penny a bit out of town for some old-fashioned playing. He let her pick the toys she wanted, got a new tug of war rope for Sir to replace the destroyed one in the yard, picked out a couple really cute puppy chew toys in expectation of new puppies, and then loaded up the jeep. He picked up a quick lunch at a drive-thru and drove out to their favorite spot to play and nap.

Penny ran herself ragged chasing the balls and sticks that she kept bringing back so Cory kept throwing, half the time running after her (as if he could keep up) because she always grinned so happy when she 'won' the race to retrieve the toy. They shared the meat patty out of the burger and she stole the lettuce, sitting in the shade beside the jeep and listening to the birds and a nearby creek. Cory hugged her tight and smiled at the trees across the clearing. He got wiggling snuggles and happy, yipping barks in reply. Hard to remember that just over a year ago she’d been terrified coming into arms reach and was a nervous wreck even looking up at the porch. Now she never left his side.

He thought a bit about Doc Vern’s relationship concerns, which actually lined up a lot with some of the hedging questions that Jay had been doing for the past weeks – maybe months – and he now realized she was asking because it was likely she was looking for a more permanent arrangement. He’d have to ask her. Sitting here with Penny, he tried to imagine what a more permanent relationship would look like. His folks had been a great example, so were Jenny and Austin, and Austin’s folks, but considering his broken brain those were all well outside his comprehension or ability to emulate. Lou and Tony, and Davey and Kev, were marriages that made good relationships look pale in comparison. Cory knew his relationship with Jayler was good, but he needed to ask her if it was enough.

Thinking about life without Jay was sad, but it wasn’t an electronics-destroying mess of sadness that Austin had gone through when he’d been confronted with what he thought would be a life without Jenny. Then again, there weren’t any rules that said he had to have an attachment worthy of vandalism to qualify as proof of caring. Jay was as much a part of his life as… well, as he was right now.

Cory stood up and dusted dry grass off his jeans as Penny stretched and yawned loudly. In his opinion, he’d rather have Jayler sticking in his life. She was the only one who could say if she wanted to be there, though, so he had to ask her. And, now that it was the right time to head over to the apartment to get started on making dinner, once she was home and settled into comfy clothes could be the right time to ask.

“Come on, Penny,” he invited, opening the door for her. “Let’s go see if we need to pick up Tank or if she’s staying the night at the shelter.”

∞

Jay spun through the rest of the afternoon, nearly too excited to pay proper attention to her job. She’d promised to take two days to think about the news that her manager gave her before replying one way or the other, and she was so glad that Cory was coming for dinner because she wanted to talk to him about everything, but it was next to impossible to focus on the needed tasks right now as the to-do list for taking the promotion ran longer and longer in her head. And not just a promotion; an entirely new corporate position that came with a salary (which she was going to talk to Lou about the best way to negotiate) and better health insurance! She’d be required to travel, too.

Lou picked her up after work as promised and Jay dumped the happy news all over her on the short drive to the apartment. Louise laughed hard and hugged Jay harder once they’d piled out of the pick-up truck. As they walked to the elevator, advice for salary negotiations was already rolling off Lou’s tongue without even being asked yet because her business-trained mind clicked to the immediate needs of accepting a promotion.

Cory was already prepping dinner when they got up to the apartment, his welcoming kiss not even interrupting because Lou was the one talking when they came through the door. Jay changed with the bedroom door open so that she could yell down the hall about the offer and get Cory caught up to the same point in the day’s happenings where Lou and Jay already were. He joined into the conversation with advice and considerations and somehow dinner still got made in spite of video phone calls with Jenny and Kev happening simultaneously to get more business advice and opinions and Lou’s honey laugh warming up the little apartment like home as the dogs napped on the pad in the living room.

Jayler sat down for dinner and smiled at this slice of a little family she’d made since coming up here and couldn’t help but be grateful she’d uprooted herself so much. Lou and Cory both had so much experience training people and relocating, making it sound so easy that Jay had finally laughed at the two of them and then had to explain her own worries and fears. Lou had been the one to scoff.

“My dear girl, if you’re not scared of a big change than it isn’t a big enough change!” Lou had stated, squeezing Jay’s fingers in her own and beaming a smile bright enough to light up every corner of the apartment.

For the first time ever, Jay was able to shoo Louise out of the apartment before time for bed, and closed the door with a grin because of the heavily mascaraed wink after a long stare at Cory. Lou hadn’t been subtle that she wanted Jay to convince Cory to relocate with her. It wasn’t like Jay could make that decision for him, though.

“I guess dinner tonight was a fairly obvious lead-in for asking what you were thinking about us and this relationship, wasn’t it?” Cory was leaning one hip on the kitchen counter and chuckling, still shaking his head about Louise, when she looked over her shoulder at him.

“You’ve been thinking about that, too?” Jay asked, locking the door out of habit before walking over to hug him.

“Not really,” he admitted. “Doc Vern brought it up in the session today, and it got me wondering about some of the questions you’d been asking lately. Didn’t make the connection until he flat-out pointed at it, and I figured I should talk to you before talking to him because, well, there wasn’t much to talk to him about until I talked to you.”

“So… you’re happy with just this casual thing we’ve got?” she asked, her tone obviously disappointed although she was trying to cover that part.

“It’s really good, so yeah,” he replied. She squeezed tighter and he felt her smiling against his chest.

“It is really good,” she agreed. “Besides, we have a few months before I’d need to relocate, so maybe we can talk about this sometime next week and not spoil a perfectly good celebration.” He chuckled in reply as her hands tucked into the back pockets of his jeans.

Chapter 15

Jay woke up from a good sleep and smiled up at the ceiling in her bedroom. It was easy to ignore the boxes lining the wall if she just didn’t turn her head that way. Cory and Austin were coming by today to help her load up the truck, which Austin would be driving back to Miami for her so that she only had to pay the truck rental (and he got a couple days break from his Super Dad duties). It was harder to ignore having broken off the casual relationship with Cory because they couldn’t figure out a way that was healthy for both of them to stay in it.

She was still sad about that, but so was he. He’d been one hundred percent honest that she was still one of his top safe people, though, and in the past couple of weeks since the hard conversation where they’d agreed to end the relationship, she’d seen him and talked to him on the phone almost as often as before they’d broken up. They should probably stop having break-up sex, too, but… she smiled at the happenings over the past two weeks and, well, she wasn’t actually leaving until three days from now, and friends with benefits was a good transition from their casual relationship over to single. Cory had chuckled when she’d said that to him, but he’d been doing more important things with his tongue so hadn’t bothered to form a verbal reply.

She checked her email from her phone and stayed snuggled up with Trench. The confirmation email from her mom was in her inbox this morning, so everything was lined up for having a place to stay and someone to watch Trench for when her ex’s trial started in a few months. Rick and Barb were professionally confident that it would be a short trial, but Jay didn’t want to plan on just their opinions, and she wanted Trench nearby for when she was subpoenaed to be present in the courtroom. Staying with her folks had been an easy question to ask.

She’d thought it would be harder to explain that Cory wasn’t coming, and her mom had definitely been gearing up for a barrage of happy news during the phone call, but her dad had cut off the gush of positive vibes by simply stating that living in high density population would probably always be too much for someone with Cory’s history. Then he’d asked if Jay was still going to keep in touch with Cory, being as she was one of his safe people, and suddenly the breakup was way less important than continuing a great friendship and the whole awkward conversation evaporated.

Jayler’s phone dinged a notification and broke her thoughts away from the down side of moving south. Three grinning selfies of Kev beamed up at her from the screen with the caption “A little bit of me to get you smiling in the morning. GET OUT OF BED! Hug Cory and Austin for me!” The words were sprinkled with heart and smile emojis, and she was laughing as she snapped a quick in-bed-pup-snuggling selfie with Trench to send back. Kev was in love with all dogs, and severely allergic, so he demanded all her selfies have at least Trench in them. He still talked about a picture Cory had texted him four months ago where Jay had been napping in the middle of a pup-pile of Trench, Tank, Penny, and the three puppies that Tank had been fostering at the time. (In her defense, Jay had only fallen asleep with Trench. The rest of the dogs had piled on and around her after she was already sleeping.)

She rolled out of bed and got ready for the day, Trench only getting up to meet her at the door once he heard the squeak of the lid on her travel mug screwing closed and he knew it was time to go for his morning walk. They followed their normal route, smiling at the usual people they met every day, and were back at the apartment in under an hour. Jayler smiled a little bit proudly at the clock. She’d never taken to exercise before, but she’d become faster over the months of walking Trench twice a day, and her body liked the workouts enough to tone up a bit. She did the stretches Cory and Lou had showed her as she made and ate breakfast, really noticing how much more flexible she’d gotten over the months of doing this as part of the walking routine, and this time smiled proudly at the toes she was touching in a proper stretch pose for the first time since she was a kid. She put on enough extra coffee that Cory and Austin would each be able to refill whatever travel mugs they brought, and then ground up enough fresh beans for making a second pot quickly in case Louise or Tony came by.

∞

“Did you need me screaming or flailing or something while you’re attempting to do this?” Cory smirked at his best friend and mimed waving his hands around. Austin cocked half a grin at him and didn’t even bother to pause as he started backing up the cube truck into the apartment building’s loading area.

“I’d have to take off my leg to kick you in the balls for your voice to get high enough so you match the kids,” Austin replied, knocking on the prosthetic with his knuckles while watching the mirrors.

“Is it still kicking if you’re holding your leg?”

“It’s a foot making contact,” Austin shrugged.

“I can just flail if you need the distraction.”

“Too late, we’re done.” Austin set the brake and then turned off the truck. “You missed the opportunity to be more of an immature jerk than usual.”

“Or I’m just waiting on a better opportunity,” Cory’s grin widened into the same shit-disturbing smile that John got when he thought of something to do in future.

“Look, we’re going to be here for a while and you need to be on good behavior. Don’t be embarrassing or you’ll have to wait in the truck by yourself,” Austin pulled out his Dad Voice and reprimanded his brother-in-law before they even opened the doors to get out.

Cory was laughing as he unclicked Penny and climbed down. He texted Jay to let her know they were in the parking lot as Austin got the back of the truck open and took out the furniture trolleys that the rental company had supplied.

“You can help, you know,” Austin stated as he was figuring out the straps for one trolley and getting the other one unfolded and locked open.

“I’m just here to lift heavy things. Think-work is your bag, Desk Jockey,” Cory replied, not looking up from his phone screen.

“You can’t still be talking to Jay?” Austin asked, straightening up now that the trolleys were ready to use.

“Louise,” Cory answered.

“Is she still berating me for not bringing the kids?”

“Yup.”

“You can tell her that –”

“Hi, Cory! Hi, Austin!” Carlos and Shield bounded out the double doors together, closely followed by Carlos’s dad.

“Hey, Cadet,” Cory smiled and looked up at the kid, making sure to interrupt before Carlos’s dad had a chance to reprimand his son about proper titles for talking to adults. “Penny brought this for Shield,” he added, taking the training harness out of the big pocket on Penny’s working vest.

“Cool!” Carlos joined in with the exuberant greeting between the dogs and then Cory showed him how to get all the buckles clicked in properly around Shield.

“Hey, Muscles One and Two,” Austin called from the front doors, looking at the dogs, Carlos’s dad beside him and ready to help with packing out boxes. “Bring your people and let’s get this truck packed up.”

∞

Shield was a natural for helping pull the trolleys down the hallway within moments of seeing Penny do it, and Trench simply stretched out in the sun on the sidewalk between the truck and the apartment building, only moving the one time a neighbor got too nosy about what was in the truck. Jay had – of course – apologized profusely for startling the neighbor, but was scratching Trench’s neck roughly the whole time she was talking. As Austin had been hoping, all of Jay’s stuff fit tidily into less than half the truck box and he could tie it all up securely.

“You should’ve rented a smaller truck,” Lou frowned at the empty space as Austin was folding up the trolleys.

“Actually, this is perfect,” Austin replied. “I’m getting to drive right past some of my dad’s long-distance suppliers for the shop, so I’ve got a shopping list and can take advantage of savings on shipping.” He locked the trolleys into the side wall of the truck and closed up the rolling door as he was climbing down. “And it means that half the trip is a company write-off.”

“You passing on those savings,” she stared up at him over the top rim of her reading glasses, the accusation clear that he better be saving Jayler a few dollars as well.

“How big of a jerk do you think I am?”

“You showed up without your kids, and you’re not even staying long enough for a good visit, so pretty big,” she replied quickly, looking over his whole frame from top to bottom and back up.

“She’s got you figured out pretty good,” Cory stated.

“He’s a bigger jerk,” Austin hooked a thumb at his slightly taller friend.

“Truth,” Cory agreed, his arm dropping over Jay’s shoulders by habit when she leaned into his side.

“Let’s get going,” Jay invited. “You two can argue about which of you is worse over a late lunch. Carlos and I need to eat.”

“Where are we going?” Carlos asked, not having been told that helping someone move also meant getting fed, and suddenly excited at the prospect.

“Where do you want to go?” Louise asked Carlos, leaving the decision to the person she felt was most qualified to make it.

Chapter 16

Jayler stared at her hands and tried to see the phone that she was holding. She had to make this call. This was an important call and she had to make it. She dropped the phone on her parents’ kitchen table and burst into tears again. Trench wiggled his head and whined a bit as a reminder that he’d kept it right there on her lap and he wasn’t planning to go anywhere. His big eyes stared up at her, full of uncomprehending concern, and she cried harder as she dropped off the chair to sob onto his fuzzy shoulder.

Her parents’ dogs circled around uneasily, knocking into chair legs as they weaved around under the table, wanting to help but not being her dogs so not knowing how to. Thankfully her folks were still at work, she had two days to pull herself together before she had to be at the courtroom, and maybe she could talk herself into waiting a few days – or months – before needing to make the call that she had to make. The thought of simply not making the call and disappearing flitted through her mind, but it didn’t stick at all.

Her phone dinged a notification and she ignored it, choosing to just lie down with Trench for a couple minutes and let herself panic.

She hadn’t been feeling well for weeks, but was coming to stay with her folks so just booked an appointment with the family doctor she’d grown up with and who had all her medical history rather than going to a clinic. Tests she would’ve had to wait days or weeks for in the city had been rushed through the small-town system in a matter of hours, and she had picture proof of the little life that had been making her feel sick from the ultrasound an hour ago. She was almost at the end of the first trimester. Her doctor had squealed excitedly and hugged her. She’d known that Jay had wanted kids before and that the tubal pregnancy and infection and scar tissue had been devastating a few years ago. Somehow, in spite of all the statistical impossibilities, one of her tubes had healed enough for an egg to get through and the one, tiny spot in her womb that was safe to attach to now had an umbilical attached to it. The pregnancy looked healthy, but was classed high risk because of the scar tissue that could become a big problem.

Trench squished against her and whimper-grumbled his version of verbal comfort, the heavy weight of him pressing close and acting like a full-body soother. Jay’s crying sniffled to a stop as she tried to figure out what to do now.

Her phone interrupted with a call and Cory’s profile photo was on the screen when she reached up to the top of the table to grab it. The message notification that blocked out part of the photo was also from him, and just asked “Got a minute for a people question?” She answered the call and put the phone to her ear.

“Hey,” she said.

“I think this is an easy one,” he jumped right into it. “Lou said it’s just flirting, but Karen – that new waitress at The Brew – she keeps asking to come up to the house to meet Sir and then giggling. It’s weird.”

“She wants to have sex,” Jay shrugged.

“I figured that. Why does she keep talking about the dogs, though?”

“Probably because that’s all she knows about you,” Jay offered. “Do you like her?” she asked carefully, trying to keep any emotions out of her voice.

“No. She’s weird.” Jay heard the jeep start on Cory’s end of the call. “You sound like you’ve been crying. You okay?”

“I… um, I guess… no. I’m not,” she admitted, her voice hitching as soon as she admitted it. The jeep turned off again and Penny yipped in the background.

“What’s wrong?”

“I, uh… I found out why I’ve been feeling sick.” Jay tried to keep from crying over the phone, and Cory getting quiet made it harder to fight the urge to start sobbing again. He only got quiet when he was listening close and waiting for bad news. He was quiet enough now that she could hear Penny whining, the dog’s concern coming over the connection loudly and making Trench look at her phone. “It’s not… I guess not terrible, but…”

“Did you need money for treatments or something? I know you’re at your folks’ place, but I could come down if you need me…? Davey and Kev are just one state over right now, if you need someone to get there quick for –”

“I’m pregnant,” she interrupted, blurting out the news as the first of the next round of sobs started.

“What?” his voice was as shocked as she felt saying it out loud for the first time.

“I’m almost finished the first trimester, Cory,” she managed to say.

“But that’s –”

“Statistically impossible, yeah,” she scoffed, finishing the sentence the way her thoughts were running. “That’s what I got told and that’s what I knew and that’s what all my check-ups always confirmed.”

“I was going to say that’s timing for when you were still living up here,” he finished the sentence completely different than she was expecting. She stifled the next couple of sobs, wishing that he could hear her nodding. “Shit. That’s… I can’t…”

“I just found out this morning. I didn’t mean to drop it on you like that.”

“Like what?”

“While I’m still bawling about it. I wanted to tell you when I was doing better,” she offered, a few sobs leaking into her voice.

“Oh, that. Whatever. Cry if you need to, Jay.”

“I need a hug and my folks are at work,” she stated. “Trench is taking care of me, though,” she said, before Cory could start a worried line of questioning about friends and neighbors she could call.

“You know I can’t… Jay, I …” he sighed heavily. “I can’t be trusted around –”

“I know, Cory. It’s okay. That part sucks, but it’ll be okay because we know you’re not ever going to be good with the full-time family stuff. That’s why I’m here and you’re there,” she sighed. “I’m freaking out so much because I know I’m on my own for this and I just… I don’t know if I can do anything like this without –”

“You’re not alone,” he interrupted.

“I… what?”

“You’re not alone, Jayler. It’s my kid, right? It’s not like we were an open relationship, and we’re both still single, so I know it’s mine.”

“Yeah,” she choked out, wishing again that he was standing here so he could see her nodding.

“So you’re not alone, okay? Jenny and Austin live forty-five minutes from your apartment, you’ve got your folks, and your friends. Shit, Davey and Kev will probably try to camp in your living room as much as they crash at Jenny’s because they’re still on the adoption waiting list and want as much time around kids as they can get. And I can help. I can’t be there full time, but I can help as much as I can… if you want me to?” he added the last question quietly, as if only realizing that she might choose for him not to be there as much as he was able. She sighed at the sudden burst of relief that he wanted to be involved, and then laughed a bit between hitching sobs that she’d even been worried he would just hang up on her.

“I want you to,” she confirmed, his relieved sigh mirroring hers. “Actually, I want you here because I’m scared. The pregnancy is healthy right now, but high risk because of the scar tissue. And I have to start going to the trial in a couple days but I can’t take Trench into the courtroom. And I don’t have a doctor in Miami when I go back home. And –”

“I’ll call Davey. He or Kev can probably help this week because they only have a couple days work at a shoot and then were planning a driving tour over to visit Jenny and Austin and the kids. And Jenny has a good doctor, so we can ask her to recommend you. I… I need to talk to Doc Vern and –”

“Do you think I can teleconference when you do call him?” she interrupted the planning with a half-hearted joke.

“Probably,” he replied, perfectly serious.

“I was kidding.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Honestly, can I just call you whenever for the next couple days?”

“Well, yeah, of course. Why would you think you couldn’t?” he asked. She pictured the expression on his face, slightly confused and his perfect blue eyes squinting a bit while he was trying to figure out why she thought she needed to ask something which was – to him – completely obvious. “I’ll talk to Doc Vern. He can help me figure out a safe travel plan. I’ve never been there before, though, and…”

“You don’t have to, Cory. Me wanting you here doesn’t mean you have to come,” she informed him of what – to her – was obvious.

“But you said you were scared,” he stated. “Besides, Penny can come with me everywhere that you can’t take Trench so you’d have both of us for the days you have to be in the courtroom once I do get there. I did all my statements written, and I’m supposed to be available for additional questioning at the station here with a lawyer and everything, so being there might actually be good for speeding up the trial.”

“I should argue with you about this,” she said. He chuckled and she heard Penny’s tags clinking as the dog got some heavy scratches.

“You say that whenever you agree with me and you don’t want to, you know that?”

“Yeah,” she giggled. “Based on the ultrasound, that’s probably the same thing I said right before we ended up in this situation.”

“Really? I don’t recall any arguing,” he replied, making her giggle because she could hear a smile in his voice. “I’ll figure out how to get there. It’s easier with Penny, and you’re already there.”

“Trench is already here, too,” she reminded him.

“Davey or Kev could be there within a couple days at most. You’re all safe people for me, so it’s actually not freaking me out thinking of being there. Getting there… that’s something I’ll get Doc Vern to help me with.”

“Okay,” she agreed.

“Are you going to be okay for right now? Your folks should be home in a couple hours, right?”

“No, I’ve still got more panicked crying to do before I’m okay. And yes, my folks will be home in a couple hours. At least my mom will. She booked vacation hours at the ends of her days while I’m here so we have more time to visit.”

“Okay. I’ll call Davey first, and then Doc Vern,” he stated. “You’re not alone, Jayler,” he added, the affirmation bringing back the urge to cry.

“Okay,” she managed to choke out.

“I’ll call back in a bit. Oh, and thanks for the answer on that people question about Karen. I’ll just tell her to fuck off. That should work.”

Jay burst out laughing. Only Cory would remember why he’d called her after the conversation they’d just had.

“Stay safe,” she said.

“Always,” he replied, Penny’s tags jingling in the moment of quiet before he disconnected the call.

Jay held onto her phone and tried to convince herself that she really was going to be okay and that more crying would help her feel not so fucked up and that things would start looking less terrifying when her mom got home and saw the ultrasound photos on the kitchen table. She nodded to herself and snuggled with Trench a bit longer. Then she dragged herself up to her feet and walked out to the living room to curl up on the sofa and start crying again. She’d just gotten herself arranged between Trench as a pillow and the fuzzy blanket from the back of the sofa when her phone started ringing. Knowing who to expect on the other end of the call, she answered without even looking.

“Hey,” she said, not even bothering to keep the tears out of her voice.

“So, Cory called at the prefect time. We were just renting a car after we’d wrapped up the shoot this morning. We were going to stay at Jenny and Austin’s, but we’re coming to you now so I need your parents’ address,” Kev ordered.

“I’ll send you the info for a good hotel,” she assured him.

“Hotel?” he sounded appalled.

“The dogs, Kev,” she reminded him.

“Mm-hmm. Okay. I know you lived up in Alaska for a while, but down here in the main states we have these things calls pharmacies, and people can just walk right in and buy antihistamines. For real. I’m not even lying.”

Jayler replied in the worst possible way: bursting into tears.

“Is that still Jenny?” She heard him asking, but not to her.

“Yes, why?” Davey replied at a bit of a distance.

“Get Jay’s parents’ address from her because Jay’s crying too hard. I know Cory would’ve given it to her in case something went bad at the trial, so don’t let her lie to you about how crazy and paranoid Cory is,” he instructed. “And I have a racing license and a rental, Jay-bird, so don’t you worry because we’re coming right away,” Kev said, talking to her again.

“No more speeding tickets!” Davey ordered from nearby wherever Kev was. “For all the… I need a husband who likes jewelry, it would honestly be cheaper.”

Jay didn’t know if Davey was talking to her or Jenny, but she smiled anyway.

“Ignore him,” Kev demanded. “Anyway, we’re going to be there tonight.”

“Okay,” Jay agreed, trying to be worried about how her small town would react to these two rolling in and realizing that she didn’t care because – in an excuse from Cory’s book – anyone who had a problem with it was someone she never had to talk to again. (If she took an excuse from her dad’s book, then anyone who had a problem with it gave her someone to yell at.)

Chapter 17

Cory glanced up at the monitor and checked that his flight was still running on time. The airport made him less nervous the second time through, in spite of having to go through a different route than when he’d arrived, but he was glad that Penny stayed so close. He glanced down as her tags jingled and confirmed it was only Jayler giving the dog some extra attention. Penny soaked up the praise and scratches, leaning into the hug Jay gave her and grumbling happily.

“You two need to get through security soon,” Jay reminded him, still cuddling with Penny. Jayler hadn’t stopped smiling since he’d bought the tickets for his next flight at the counter, and that had been ten minutes ago. It made up for Louise pretending to be mad at him for buying her tickets at the same time without talking to her about it first. She’d volun-told Cory that she was his Doc-Vern-ordered and newly-designated Travel Buddy for all things concerning Jayler, though, so it wasn’t like he was going to make her pay for tickets to help him like this.

“That means I get another hug if you’re kicking us out for real this time,” Louise replied, throwing her arms wide and wiggling her fingers in invitation. Jay beamed up at her and gave Penny one more scrub, and then straightened and stepped into the embrace. “You call me when you need anything,” Lou murmured into the mass of red curls that covered Jay’s ear.

“I will,” Jay promised, surprising herself that she meant it. Lou squeezed tighter before she let go and stepped back, smiling big as she swiped tears out of her eyes.

“I’ll be seeing you again in a few months so I don’t know what’s going on that my waterworks are running,” she chuckled as she picked up her luggage.

“I’ll get that, Lou, you don’t –”

“You have your own hug to get!” Lou swatted Cory back with her free hand and started walking toward the line for getting through security.

“Okay but, Lou? Don’t get too far ahead,” he called after her, holding up his hands as if framing her ass for a photograph. She laughed like warm honey and slowed down to a saunter. Cory chuckled and then wrapped up Jay in the hug he’d been told to provide. She squeezed back tightly, leaning in, as if he was important enough to matter to her. Penny yipped and pushed against the sides of both their legs, wanting to join in on any further affection.

“I really wish you weren’t broken so I could keep you,” Jay whispered. Cory chuckled.

“If I’d lived through everything I’ve lived through without getting broken, I don’t think I’d have been someone worth keeping to start with,” he admitted. She laughed a bit and nodded along in agreement.

“Yeah, well, I’m allowed to be a little selfish right now. I’m pregnant. Besides, Kev said that right now I can be as selfish as I want to be, which means it must be true,” she argued.

“Kev might not be your best source for pregnancy advice,” he cautioned.

“I like his advice, though. Being a queen and having everyone else do everything for me for another five months sounds really good,” she giggled.

“So… no change from normal for Miss Big-shot Corporate Manager?” he chided.

“Exactly,” she agreed. He laughed for real and kissed the top of her head.

“You’re here for a couple more days with your folks, and then back to work the day after you land in Miami?” he asked, confirming her plans.

“I emailed you my flight schedule and my shift schedule while you were helping Lou with the coffee machine a couple minutes ago,” she smiled against his chest as she felt some of the tension come out of his body. “I still can’t believe you tried to argue with her about coming with you.”

“Yeah, well, it didn’t work.”

“You say that as if you thought you had a chance of winning the argument,” Jay shook her head, mocking disbelief. Cory shrugged and chuckled again, the tone of it sounding deeper through his chest. “This sucks less than I expected, saying goodbye again. I’d figured that this time would be just as bad, or worse, than when I moved. But this actually feels okay. Is that bad?”

“I think it’s all right. I like how this feels, actually,” Cory tightened his grip a bit. “This feels like going away for a while and coming back. Like visiting with Jenny and Austin. I know that’s less than you want, but…”

“It’s more than I expected,” she finished when he didn’t, but completely different from how he’d expected her to. “And… are you okay with… with what we talked about last night?”

Cory sighed as he recalled the details of the conversation. He knew he didn’t have any right for controlling Jay, or even having an opinion on the things she did outside of the kid they were going to have. Although she’d offered some really generous custody options, and the lawyer they’d talked to had explained joint custody really well – including how his and Jay’s relationship had worked out and the way things should be documented – but none of that made the last heavy conversation they’d had during this visit any easier to be on the receiving end of.

“Right now, no, I’m not,” he admitted. “Give it some time and make sure I know about it and, yeah, I’ll get to a point where I’m okay with it.”

“Okay. I’m not planning anything. At all,” she chuckled. “But,” she sighed heavily and decided to ask the one question that she just couldn’t get out last night, and really needed to know the answer to before he got on the plane today. “Just so I know for my own peace of mind, you will research the shit out of anyone I even think about dating, right? Like, I can give you a name and address and you can research everything so I don’t have worry about skeletons in closets or hidden criminal records or –”

“Oh, yeah, for sure,” Cory interrupted. “I was going to anyway, but it’ll be way easier if you know about it or even help out. By the time you get to a first date I’ll know everything down to how many nose hairs he’s plucked in his lifetime. No worries.”

“I shouldn’t be this comforted by that admission, but I really am,” she chuckled, suddenly feeling so much better about dating.

“You’re my baby’s mamma,” he said, leaning back a bit and catching her chin so that she looked up. “I got your back. And, if I really don’t like something I find in a background check, Austin knows how to hide a body,” he grinned.

Jay burst out laughing and hugged him tighter before letting go so he could grab his luggage. He and Louise both smiled and waved from the other side of security, before turning away and disappearing toward their gate.

∞

Cory listened in on the side of the conversation he could hear as Lou talked to Tony over the phone while they were waiting for their flight to be called. They were a truly adorable couple, and the check-in calls like this that they did at minimum once every day for the four weeks she’d been here with Cory were quickly becoming his favorite part of knowing Lou and Tony. Both her sons usually called her two or three times a week, too, making the reality of a really good family look easy. Jenny had already proclaimed if she and Austin couldn’t be as great as Austin’s parents once their kids grew up, she’d picked Lou and Tony to emulate instead.

As she talked, Cory watched the people milling around in the waiting area outside their gate, noting positions and behaviors. He couldn’t turn off the observing part of his thoughts, so he simply let it work for him and ignored any returned stares that he got from people being offended about him watching them. Later, at home, he’d think about Jay and the baby and his next visit with her hopefully lining up with when she’d be giving birth so that he could be there. Right now, he noted the differences between now and memories and used those differences to keep himself rooted in reality.

Penny pushed her nose under his hand so he shifted his arm and scratched her ears. She was the biggest difference, and his thoughts settled down from being so jittery with her soft fur under his palm. Lou giggled, her presence another big difference, and then she bumped her shoulder into his arm and told Tony that Cory was nervous but doing better than when they’d flown in. He smiled when the surety in her voice dipped to being chiding and she added that him being nervous kept her feeling safe and snug, catching a hint of her perfume when he looked down at her and then chuckling at the wink she gave him.

There were a lot of big differences since the last trip when he’d flown down to visit with Austin and Jenny, when Austin had flown up to get him because that was the only person Cory could think of traveling with at the time. Cory didn’t have the ability to lie to himself that he was comfortable, but – he dropped an arm over Lou’s shoulders and she leaned into his chest as she was starting to say her goodbyes to Tony – he wasn’t dangerously uncomfortable.

Progress.

After

Cory waited on the front steps for Leonard to park the SUV on the street. Rocks was sitting patiently, leaning on Cory’s leg, and panting in the heat in spite of being in the shade. Penny hadn’t bothered to leave the air conditioning inside. The realtor came out and set a bowl of cold water nearby, which Rocks drank a bit from and then spilled the rest so he could lie with his belly stretched out into the puddle. Lucas was laughing at the antics of Cory’s new dog – still in training – as he cascaded out of the back seat of the SUV in an avalanche of seven-year-old energy.

“Hi, Missing Carlington!” Lucas mispronounced the realtor’s title and name badly enough in his excitement that everyone laughed before trying to correct him, and then didn’t have a chance to because he was already babbling about the house and which room was his if his folks bought it and how Leonard was going to finish the basement with a playroom and a movie room…

Cory grinned and engaged completely with his son for a hug and some intense listening, only greeting Jayler and Leonard with quick hugs once everyone had piled inside the house’s front entryway and Lucas switched his attention from the adults to being in the middle of a dog pile with Penny and Rocks. This visit south, Cory had spent a couple weeks with Jay, Leonard and Lucas, then gone over to stay with Jenny and Austin and the kids for a week, and now was back here for a week before flying home. His flight this morning had lined up perfectly to pick up a rental car and meet here for their third viewing of the house they’d fallen in love with.

At least, he’d told them that this was how his flights had lined up. They’d admitted before he went to stay with Jenny and Austin that the mortgage for this place would mean both of them working and still giving up owning vehicles and buying groceries, but they kept coming back while it was on the market because it was – for them – a dream home.

“I know exactly what living room set you need for this space,” Louise called out from just around the corner.

“Granny Lou!” Lucas leapt up from the dogs and dove around the corner for the hug and expected spoiling Louise showered on him. In three seconds he had her phone and was looking through her gallery for photos of her granddaughter so that he could see if she was pretty yet or still looked like – in his words – a raisin-baby. By the time Cory and the rest of the adults came into the living room, Lucas had gotten bored with the photos and was scrolling through the few screens to see if there were any new game apps.

“The sofa goes here, and the loveseat over there, with a table and reading chair in the corner by that skinny window,” Louise stated, pointing to each place as she spoke and working her arm around the bundle of kid in her lap on the floor.

“Except we only have a sofa,” Jay rolled her eyes.

“It’s called a house warming, Jay-bird. I even knew where to go to pick it up,” Louise winked up at the younger woman. Leonard and Jay both chuckled at the seemingly impossible prospect, and both sighed as they pictured exactly what this room would look like with that exact furniture in place.

“You have to come and see my room first, Dad,” Lucas stated, handing Lou her phone back after confirming one more time that her granddaughter was still a raisin-baby.

Cory followed his boy up the wide stairs to the second floor and obligingly tailed after him on a tour of the whole upstairs. Louise and Missus Teal Carinson, the realtor, did a perfect job of keeping Jay and Leonard in the living room while Cory was otherwise busy, and they all went around into the kitchen together… where the paperwork was laid out to be signed.

“What is this?” Leonard asked, his tone way more worried than excited.

“We may have actually been on the flight that landed yesterday,” Louise admitted with a small grin.

“And I might have been making a few calls with Teal and then visited a bank or two while I was out at Jenny and Austin’s,” Cory smiled at Leonard, waiting for the implications of the two sentences he and Lou had said to sink in.

“You…?” Jay’s voice failed as her shocked gaze jumped from Cory to Lou and back again.

“Don’t look at me,” Lou held up her hands when Leonard kept staring at her.

“You didn’t,” Leonard caved first, as Cory expected, and his hand darted out to scoop up the paperwork off the counter. He read quickly and then flipped a page. “Holy shit, you did! Cory, I can’t… we can’t…” he was shaking his head and looking gut-punched as Jay snatched the sale contract out of his hand and skimmed the same two pages.

“It’s just a down payment to get the mortgage into the range you two can afford,” Lou explained.

“Afford?” Jayler nearly yelled. “Cory! I can pay for everything just on my salary after this down payment!”

“Which helps out since you guys relocated a few months ago and the transition has been easier for Luc with Leonard looking for work and home most of the time,” Cory shrugged. “You got that new promotion and you’ll be staying in this city for a while, and now Leonard can stay home. Makes sense to have a more permanent place to live that’s close to work and the school Luc goes to now, don’t you think?”

“Jayler, Leonard,” Louise got between them and pulled their attention to her before they could argue more. “If I couldn’t talk him out of it, do you really think you two can?” she asked.

Jay burst out laughing through a deluge of sudden tears, slammed the contract back onto the kitchen counter, and started signing and initialing in all the places where Teal had put the little sticky-note arrows.

“Pop? What happened? Why is mom crying?” Lucas asked, tucking under Leonard’s arm. Leonard tried to reply but his voiced hitched too hard as a few tears escaped.

“How about we do move again, but into this house?” he asked, shoving the wetness off his cheeks.

“For real?” Lucas stared up at him, needing confirmation.

“For really real,” Leonard verified, nodding as he said it and blinking against more tears. “I’ll even stay home a bit longer so I can keep taking you to and from school,” he added, a smile breaking out on his face. Lucas whooped and danced around the kitchen, the dogs barking and jumping around with him as they caught on to the excitement. He hugged everyone – multiple times – and then ran through the whole house yelling that he was home as Rocks bounded along behind him.

“That’s a really amazing thing you just did,” Teal said quietly as she packed up the completed paperwork she needed to take. Jay and Louise were already going through the house room by room and planning furniture and decorations.

“Beyond amazing, actually,” Leonard admitted. He opened his arms and Cory stepped into the hug and returned it just as tightly.

“You’re my family,” Cory stated the obvious, which was the same thing he’d said three years ago when Leonard had married Jayler. Just like then, Leonard squeezed harder to make sure that Cory knew he was family. It had just been Leonard and his mom for most of his life and he loved the changes – and extended family – the past five years had gifted to him. He kept a warm hand on Cory’s arm after stepping out of the embrace.

“Pop! Dad! Come and imagine with us! Granny Lou is going to get me a model plane to hang up in my room! I’m going to be a pilot!” Lucas yelled down the stairs.

“I’ll see myself out. Sounds like you have a lot of planning to do,” Teal smiled at the two dads still in the kitchen, congratulated Leonard on his new home, and left quietly as laughter fell from upstairs to fill the whole house.