Page 53 of The Chad Next Door
I growl. “I never took you as naive, but—”
“Hold up.” She literally holds her hand up, glaring at me now. “Will you just let me tell you what I found out?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Doesn’t matter,” she repeats. Whatever she thinks she learned, she doesn’t seem to realize how much danger she might have put herself in today, and that is the hardest part. How am I supposed to protect her if she’s going to walk right into the line of fire?
“Let me handle this,” I beg, trying to convey in my voice how much I need her to keep her head down and let me do my job. Let me take care of her. I can’t stand the thought of something going wrong and losing her.
Hope folds her arms, narrowing her eyes at me like she’s trying to find something. “What if there was nothing to handle?”
If only she knew. “Hope, this is more than you can—”
“I’m going to stop you right there.” She’s never looked this angry, even when I’ve been grumpy or after I yelled at Link. It’s like she’s seeing me for the first time and has decided she doesn’t like what she sees, and I’ve never felt so gutted by a look before. “You’re not going to budge on this, are you?”
“How can I? I need to keep you safe.”
“Even when there’s nothing threatening me?”
“If only you knew what—”
“You could tell me.”
“Hope. You don’t know what’s going on. This is just like the badger, and you can’t see—”
She moves in closer, rising up on her toes to try to meet my height even though she’s nowhere close. “The badger? You mean thewolverine? I may be younger than you, Chad, but that doesn’t make you wiser. Not by a longshot. A relationship should be a partnership. Give and take. Equal sides. Yeah, things may shift from one side to the other sometimes, but they have to balance again unless you want everything to fall apart. Iknowyou know that. And I know you’re not stupid enough to think you’re right all the time.”
I don’t know what she wants me to say. I’m trying to keep her safe and be everything she needs me to be. Can’t she see that? “I need to—”
“Youdon’tneed. But clearly you aren’t willing to see that.”
“I don’t understand,” I admit. My foot is aching, my head is throbbing, and it’s like there’s something I’m missing that’s right out of reach. “I’ll tell you everything I know if you just listen to me, but—”
“But you’re not going to give me the same courtesy. I know you’re not.” She scoffs, shaking her head as she takes a step back that feels like it puts a mile between us. “I’m going to take the kids and go stay with my aunt in Furley for a bit.”
I have no idea where that is, but I already know it’s too far away. “Until when?”
Tears sprout in her eyes, and that’s the moment I know I’ve really messed up. Hope doesn’t cry unless the feelings are too big for her to deal with them. “I don’t know, Chad,” she says just as a dark SUV pulls up to the curb in front of her house.
I tense, but the man who opens the door and looks over at us as he stands on the step is unfamiliar and smiling warmly. “Hi, I think I might have found your dog.”
My heart seems to leap into my throat, choking me as I gasp, “Duke?”
The answering bark from inside the car hits me so hard that I stumble backward a step, and then a pile of golden fur scurries out through the driver’s door and dashes across the lawn, leaping into my arms. Duke mauls me with kisses, his voice equal parts barks and whines, and I have never held on to anything so tight. He’s too light, ribs more pronounced, and a few bandages wrap around his legs, but he’s alive and happy andhere.
“Where did you find him?” Hope asks.
I sink to the ground because I’m too overwhelmed to keep on my feet, and Duke practically hugs me as he soaks my face in slobber.
“I’ve been doing wildlife research a few miles from here,” the man says lightly. “After the storm blew through, I was following some unfamiliar tracks when I came across him hanging out with a wolverine, of all things.”
My head snaps up. “What?”
The man shrugs. “I’ve never seen anything like it. He was a bit mangled and pretty hungry, but it was almost like they were looking out for each other. I figured I’d better see if I could catch him and figure out where he belonged. Lost track of the wolvie, though. Shame, that.”
I glance at Hope, who either looks relieved that Duke is back or angry that I couldn’t bring myself to accept that a child might know more than me. It’s probably both.
“You might want to check my closet,” Hope mutters, folding her arms. “We’ve had a wolverine in and out for a couple of weeks now.”
