Page 85 of Maid For Each Other

“He had a really great apartment, and I think my mom wascounting the days until we could move in with him. Doug was literally the answer to her prayers.”

I could still picture the clean, bright apartment that always smelled like dryer sheets and sunshine. He used to let me play with the yoga balls in the fitness room when he ran on the treadmill, and sometimes he’d even take me to the apartment pool and let me splash around with him.

IlovedDoug.

“Then he did something impulsive and sweet. He bought a puppy—a husky named Gaia. He said he’d always wanted one, and now I could play with her every time I came over.”

“Oh, shit,” Dex said.

“Oh, shit, indeed,” I said, shaking my head. “My mother, being my mother, thought that perhaps since Doug kept his apartment so clean and I’d never been around a husky before, maybe Gaia wouldn’t bother my asthma.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he muttered, sounding incredulous, and it made me smile in spite of the shitty recollection.

“So we’d go over to his place, I’d love all over that gorgeous dog, and we’d have to leave because my eyes would almost swell shut or I’d have to take my inhaler too much. My mom was sure I’d just grow a tolerance to it—she wanted to see Doug but she also couldn’t leave me at home alone. So, rinse and repeat until the time they had to call an ambulance because the inhaler just wouldn’t cut it anymore.”

“DearGod,” he said, stopping me with the jerk of my hand, in the middle of the crowded sidewalk. He looked down at me with sheer outrage on his face. “Obviously you were okay, but holy shit, Abi. It could’ve gone so much worse.”

My throat was tight and my eyes were scratchy as Dex raged for little Abigail. His reaction weakened my knees and made me feel kind of lightheaded, because even though he seemed angry, there was a softness in his eyes that told me he understood it was about so much more than a random allergic reaction.

It soothed something in me, the way he seemed togetit.

“It gets worse,” I said, tugging his hand to start walking again.

“Worse than near-death asthma attacks?”

I nodded and swallowed. “Yep. When I went to sleep at the hospital, Doug was there, holding my hand among the balloons and candy bouquets he’d bought for me in the gift shop, but when I woke up, it was just my mother bawling in the chair by the window.”

He stopped again, but this time he moved me closer to the building we were passing, out of foot traffic. “Why was she crying?”

I bit down on my lower lip, surprised this story still had the power to make me feel this sad. “Because Doug chose Gaia.”

Dex’s jaw moved back and forth, like he was grinding his teeth together. “What?”

“Apparently he’d just always wanted a husky since he was a little boy. He felt like he couldn’t give her away because it would be like giving away his child. Gaia was like a child to him, like his baby…,” I said, trailing off because I didn’t want to say the rest, that the man I’d wanted to call my father had chosen a puppy over me.

“IhateDoug.” Dex looked down at me and said with ferocity, “He would’ve been the shittiest father, Abi. You dodged a bullet. Doug was never going to be good enough for you, and Gaia is the best thing that ever could’ve happened to you.”

I blinked back tears and was surprised to feel myself smiling. “Gaia is the best thing that ever happened to me?”

Declan swallowed, bringing my eyes down to that strong neck, and then he said, “I’m sure of it.”

As someone who didn’t consider herself a hugger, it was shocking how natural it felt to wrap my arms around him and pull him into the tightest hug I had in me.

As if knowing another second of heartfelt emotion might break me, he murmured into my ear, “I cannot believe you’re hitting on me like this, Mariano.”

That made me laugh in spite of everything, so I pulled back and said, “You wish, Powell.”

When we finally got back to his apartment building, just after midnight, he turned onThe Godfatherbecause I’d never seen it and he thought that was criminal. I went into the bedroom and changed into pajamas, and when I came out, he’d changed into sweats.

He looked so good in casual wear that it was a little distracting.

But once we started watching the movie, I couldn’t stay awake. No matter how hard I tried, I kept falling asleep. I was exhausted from the day, and staying awake seemed nearly impossible.

But I refused to go to bed because too soon I’d wake up and it’d be time to go.

I didn’t fight him when he shifted my body so I was lying on the couch with my head resting on his shoulder. He seemed comfortable in the corner of the huge sectional, and I was too tired to deny myself the pillow that was his body.

Apparently I fell sound asleep, because the next thing I knew, Declan was quietly saying my name.

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