“Good,” Trip said. “More scratch in our pockets.”
“And a good way to dispose of any evidence,” Sig said under his breath.
“Let’s hope to fuck we don’t need it for that. Anything else?” Trip’s head swiveled around the table. When no one else said a word, he slammed the gavel against the table. “Meetin’ a-fuckin-djourned.”
As the dogs pushed past him and rushed into the house, he heard an ear-splitting squeal, a thunder of feet both four-legged and two-legged as they bum-rushed each other from two different directions.
“Yo!” he yelled as he hurried inside and dropped the shit he was carrying at his feet, worried the two big dogs would plow right through and over Daisy, scaring or hurting her.
As he quickly made his way into the living room with Cassie on his heels, he saw that did happen. But Daisy was rolling around on the carpet, maniacally laughing her little ass off as the dogs licked her face.
“Momma!” she laugh-screamed. “Are these my new dogs?”
“No,” Cassie said. “Judge asked if we could watch them while he goes away.”
Daisy’s blonde head popped up between two blocky bulldog heads. “Where ya goin’, Judge?”
“Got some business to attend to, kid.” He clapped his hands. “Jury, Justice, settle.”
Both dogs flopped to their bellies next to the five-year-old, their tongues hanging out and both wearing “smiles.”
“Guess they like kids?” Cassie asked with eyebrows raised.
“Haven’t eaten one yet.”
“That’s reassuring.”
He peered down into her face. “You worried?”
“I’m a vet tech, remember? American Bulldogs are not a breed I’d worry about around her. And they both seem well-adjusted and well-trained.”
“Best dogs ever,” he assured her.
“Maybe when she’s older I’ll get her a dog.”
“Want one noooooow, Momma!” demanded the little hellion.
“Well, you have two right now to deal with. Let’s see how well you do taking care of them for Judge. Then we’ll see.”
“How long are they stayin’, Judge?” Daisy asked as she laid flat on her back, one hand on each dog, petting them.
“’Til your aunt and uncle get back.”
Daisy’s smile got so big it practically lit up the whole room. “When you leavin’?”
“In the mornin’.”
“So, you’re gonna make me breakfast?” came the high-pitched question.
Judge smiled down into Cassie’s face. “Depends if your momma lets me.”
Another ear-piercing squeal filled the room as she sat up. “Pleeeease, Momma! Judge can make me French toast since you won’t.”
“I make you French toast,” her mother exclaimed.
“His is better.”
“Doubt that, kid.”
“It is,” Daisy insisted.
“Maybe we’ll have your momma make us both French toast and we can see whose is better.”
Cassie narrowed her eyes up at him. “Wow,” she mouthed.
He grinned at her and she shook her head.
“Time for you to get ready for bed.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Judge said under his breath just loud enough for Cassie to hear.
She whacked his stomach with the back of her hand and he smothered his laugh.
“Can they sleep in my room?” Daisy asked, climbing to her feet.
“No,” her mother answered at the same time Judge said, “Yeah.”
Cassie frowned. “You don’t want them with you?”
“Them bein’ a couple doors down ain’t gonna be a problem,” he murmured. “Won’t be room in your bed for ‘em, anyway.”
Color exploded in Cassie’s cheeks and she quickly glanced at her daughter, who was now having the dogs chase her around the living room in a circle.
“I wasn’t planning on having them in my bed, anyway. I’ve never slept with a dog of the four-legged variety and I wasn’t planning on starting.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Slept with one of the two-legged variety?”
She returned that cocked eyebrow. “You tell me.”
“Get your girl ready for bed. Will put the dog beds in her room. Though, doubt they’ll use them. Where you want their food and stuff?”
She sighed. “Kitchen, I guess.” She turned to her daughter. “C’mon, Daze. Time to get ready for bed.”
“But I wanna play with them,” Daisy whined as she and the dogs continued their endless circles around the living room like a NASCAR race. Judge was waiting for the twenty-car pile-up.
“You can do that tomorrow out in the backyard where you have lots of room and won’t break anything.”
“It fenced?” Judge asked Cassie.
She nodded. “Yes.”
“Good.” That relieved the worry of Cassie having to walk the dogs. They were strong, and though well-trained, preferred their freedom to do their business, which was why being out on the farm was perfect for them.
Judge hauled the dogs’ stuff to the kitchen, then the beds upstairs and, once Daisy and both dogs were settled in her small bed, he gave them a last thorough head scratch and left Cassie alone with her daughter to read her a story.
He grabbed his duffel from the hallway where he had dropped it at the top of the steps and went into the master bedroom to wait.
And wait.
He was beginning to lose his patience when the door finally opened and she slipped inside the room. “Well, having the dogs here is the same as giving her a two-liter bottle of Mountain Dew. She’s so hyped, I didn’t think she’d ever close her eyes. I put the dogs to sleep with my story-telling long before her.”
“They in bed with her?”
“I’ll give you one guess.”
“You care?”
“She’s pretty active in her sleep. I worry more about them than her.”
“They don’t like it, they’ll move.”
Her gaze dropped from where he was sitting on her bed, leaning against the headboard in just his jeans and a black wife-beater, to the foot of her bed where he’d piled his duffel, his cut, and his boots.
“I guess you were planning on spending the night?”
“Didn’t realize that was in question.”
She glanced over her shoulder at the closed door. “Well...”
“Think she cares that I’m in your room?”
“I care.”
“Don’t want me here?”
“I worry about what she’ll think about it.”
“Not for nothin’ but did you plan on stayin’ celibate ‘til she’s eighteen?”
“I just don’t...”
He surged from the bed and stalked toward her, not stopping until they were toe to toe.
“Want a revolving door,” she finished softly, staring up at him.
“You plannin’ on another man comin’ through that door,” he jerked his chin toward the closed one behind her, “tomorrow night?”
“No.”
“The next night?”