“In the truck.”
I blinked. “What?”
“She’s in the truck. Right now. She fell asleep on the ride here, and I parked in the garage so she’ll be warm and…fuck.” He drained the rest of his beer. “And I don’t know where to keep her until Christmas morning. Should I just give her to the girls early?” He shook his head. “No, I can’t do that. This is supposed to be the ‘Santa’ present, right? Marnie was saying something about that. Santa doesn’t come early. Shit.”
It would be funny if Hal wasn’t actually panicking over this. “Maybe…maybe Dominic could take her for the overnights?” I winced as soon as I said it—it wasn’t my place to volunteer Dominic for anything, much less something as big as taking care of a dog, especially when I knew he had to work during the day. Hal latched onto my answer like Kate Winslet hanging onto a floating door.
“Yeah! I’ll ask him—this is a no-brainer. Nicky loves dogs. You mind asking him in here and distracting the girls for a few minutes?”
“Sure.” I headed back into the living room and motioned to Dominic, who raised one eyebrow. “Hal wants to talk to you for a sec.”
“O…kay.” He got up and joined Hal.
I settled in next to the girls for the finale of Max and Ruby—a weird fifties-ish cartoon where all little girl bunnies loved dolls and tea parties and all little boy bunnies loved mud pies and robots.
Ten minutes later, we were all sitting down to eat. Hal was more relaxed, at least, joking with the girls and asking a lot of questions about their day. Dominic was a little more subdued than he had been, though. It wasn’t especially obvious, not when Hal was taking the lead on keeping Marnie and Steph occupied, but it was noticeable to me.
After dinner, once we’d finished ice cream and the girls were headed to bed, we went out to retrieve the puppy from the truck and head to Max’s place.
Part of me had been expecting the worst—chewed seats, pee everywhere, a howling, whirling dervish of a dog. Instead, I got a white, fluffy little thing no bigger than a bowling ball—no wonder the guy had almost hit her; she must have been almost impossible to see against the white of the snow. She was sitting up and wagging her tail, not barking. There was a crate full of supplies for her in the back of the truck, which I pulled out while Dominic handled the puppy.
Once he had his hands on her, he seemed reluctant to let her go.
“Do you want me to drive?” I asked.
“Sure,” he said quietly and handed over the keys. He held the dog in his lap all the way back to his house then clipped a leash on her new collar and walked her around in front until she did her business. Once we were both inside, he brought her straight back to the bedroom with us.
“I don’t want to risk her getting into the construction supplies,” he said apologetically. I didn’t care about having the dog in the room with us, but I was concerned about why he was kind of shutting down.
He sat down on the bed with the puppy, and I sat down beside him. I didn’t say anything, just scratched behind the little girl’s ears, and after a moment, he started to talk. “My unit in Iraq had a dog,” he said. “We actually had two in the time I was over there. The first one got an infection in one of his paws, the whole leg ended up needing to be amputated. He got sent home to live with his handler’s family. The second one…”
His hands stopped petting the puppy, went completely limp. The little dog looked up at him curiously.
“The second one was a bomb sniffer. She did a good job, a real good job, but in the end…” His eyes looked a little glassy. “The IED was buried pretty deep. She didn’t detect it. She couldn’t set it off on her own. It took people to do that.”
I could read between the lines well enough to figure out that things hadn’t gone well for the dog or the people. “I’m sorry.”
He shrugged, or tried to. “It’s all right. I talked with a lot of people about it, before I got out. It’s kind of nice to not talk about it so much anymore, although it comes up pretty often in group at the VA.” He closed his eyes for a moment. “I don’t miss being back there. I don’t miss the danger or the heat or most of my unit. I was never a very outgoing guy. I do miss the dogs…I could never keep one on my own, though, not with my hours.”
“Well.” My brain scanned at lightspeed for something to say. “It’s nice that we’ve got this one for tonight, then.”
That terrible line actually got a chuckle. “Yeah, I guess it is. We’ll have it tomorrow night, too. Hal can take her with him in the morning when I go to work, but he won’t make it through Christmas Eve with the puppy around. He’d give in and get her out of the garage and give her to the girls before they even went to bed.”
“You’re probably right.” Hal, at his heart, was a big sap when it came to dogs. It looked like Dominic was, too. I’d be lucky if I could convince him to leave the puppy in the crate tonight.
As sweet as the puppy was, tonight was for cuddling, and I wanted Dominic all to myself.
Chapter Ten
Dominic
Waking up to Max the next morning felt wonderful, dangerous, and strange all at the same time. It was wonderful because, honestly, who wouldn’t want to wake up to someone like Max lying next to them? He was good in bed—not just in-in bed, but as a person to sleep next to. He didn’t snore, he didn’t kick, and he wasn’t an octopus. In fact, I was surprised to find that I was the one who’d stealthed up to him during the night, cuddling against his back and waking up to find my forehead pressed between his shoulder blades.
I’d never had the chance to learn that I was a stealth cuddler before, since nobody had ever stayed long enough to actually sleep, but I liked the warmth of being next to Max and the sound of his soft, steady breathing. I liked it so much my heart skipped a beat. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to ignore the part of me that was clamoring about how dangerous all this tenderness was and how I shouldn’t give in.
This was all going to come to an end, after all.
Today was Christmas Eve—one more day of this and Max would head back to New York City, where I didn’t have the time, money, or inclination to go myself. All the crowds, the noise, the dirt…I hadn’t been a city boy before my time in the military, and now I really could not handle city life. I’d visit if it was the only way I got to see Max, but that begged the question of whether or not he’d even want to see me after he left. If I was just a fling, then it was better that I stay out of the way and not hope for more.
The strangest thing of all was that I was letting myself feel these things, letting myself have fear and doubt and affection and happiness from someone who wasn’t family. I’d done such a good job of compartmentalizing over the years, ever since I first realized that I was a lot different from Hal. I was shy, I liked to be alone, and I was gay. Going into the army had been a split-second decision for me, and in the end, it was one I was vaguely glad I’d done but knew I wouldn’t do again if I could go back. I’d shoved the army and everything that had happened overseas into a box, like I did with a lot of things, and left it there.