Page 21 of Home for Nathan
Zion didn’t answer, which was utterly air.
Nathan chose to believe that it was because his body was very busy and so was his focus, and not that he thought that Nathan was a giant dork.
“I’m going to need some blankets or some towels. I need you to go to the house. The code is one-one-one-one. Go straight up the stairs and to the second-floor bathroom. There’s a bunch of old towels. Can you do that?”
“One-one-one-one is a terrible password!”
Zion snorted. “I know, I just put it in. Can you go get towels? I’ll bring the dog up.”
“Okay, but we’re going to change your password.” Because really, that was just not natural.
One-one-one-one.
That was a lazy person’s password.
He jogged back up to the house, panting a little bit, because it was a steep hill—nice and grassy, but dangerous for little ones, for sure.
God, he’d become one of those people who thought about that.
When he got to the house, the door was open, so he didn’t have to use the code. The two-story house looked neat and clean, but not like Charlie’s house, which was like “oh my God, I’m gonna die if I drip on anything or get mud on the floors”, which he totally was doing because his feet were muddy, but he had to go up to the second floor.
Please God, don’t let there be any carpet because he didn’t really think that he had time to get his shoes off, find the towels, get his shoes back on, and go out there to help Zion and the dog.
In between worried thoughts, he found the stairs and ran up them, dodging any kind of construction stuff that was strewn about. He found exactly where the master or the second-floor bathroom was, where the towels were. It was kind of handy because they were in a box labeled Old Towels.
People packed old towels in a box?
A little weird, but good to know.
He ran back down as fast as he could, carrying about twelve of said old towels, and when he got over toward the Old Stone house, he found Zion just walking up toward him with a bedraggled, skinny, black-and-white pup in his hands.
“She doesn’t have a collar,” Zion informed him.
“Well, she’s obviously hungry and lost, but cold first, huh? For both of you.” He started wrapping dog and hot snowboarder with towels.
“Thanks. It’s cold water.” In fact, Zion’s teeth were chattering a little.
“I can tell.” He followed Zion back to the house, really panting now. Wow, he needed to get out and walk more. Just going from his apartment to the Sundrop wasn’t cutting it.
“Hey, shhh.” Zion soothed the dog, who was whining a little. “I got you.”
“Poor puppy. Um, what do you need me to do? Should I call the vet?”
Zion shook his head. “Let’s give her a minute. She doesn’t seem hurt. More just skinny and scared and cold.” Zion settled her on his lap, and Nathan set to drying her off a little bit more enthusiastically, since his hands weren’t shaking.
Maybe he needed to go to the gym. There was a gym right in the Merchante building. He could just go in, ask Ben how much it cost, and start working out. Be a stud.
Or he could just walk around this place for a while and…
Towel off dogs and feel like he was going to die. Either way, what bliss?
“I wonder how she got all the way up here. I mean, it’s not like this is on the road or on the trail. She seems in pretty good shape, really. Skinny, sure, but honestly, it could have been so much worse.” Zion shivered, but he was looking at the dog with a really sweet smile.
Nathan shrugged. “I’m not sure. I mean, who knows how long she’s been living off the land. She could have been lost from a campground, a rest stop, even, you know, if they just stopped here to eat. What if she jumped out of a boat in the river, and they couldn’t find her?”
Zion blinked up at him, then smiled. “I love how your mind works.”
His eyes went wide, and he swallowed hard. “What?”
