Page 27 of Run to Ground
Despite her long-suffering tone, she was smiling, and Theo found it hard to pull his gaze from her face. Tense and serious, Jules was beautiful. Happy, she was…more than beautiful. Theo forced himself to turn toward Sam, who’d made an amused sound that wasn’t quite a laugh. Both were watching their younger siblings with the same expression, a look that Theo had a hard time interpreting. There was love and worry and a ferocious protectiveness and so much more written on their faces, their emotions so naked and raw that Theo felt like a voyeur. He cleared his throat and glanced at the kids playing with the Malinois.
Viggy really was acting like a different dog. No, that wasn’t right. He was acting like the dog he used to be. The usual grief and guilt started to twist in his gut again, and Theo turned abruptly toward his SUV.
Only after he raised the back hatch did he turn back to the family. “Viggy.” His voice was too harsh. Theo knew that, even before Viggy’s tail dropped from its happy carriage and tucked between his legs. “Load.”
As the dog cowered, the kids went silent. Regret flooded Theo, filling him with a caustic burn that was all too familiar. Theo clenched his fists and took a breath, and then another. It was one thing for Hugh or Otto to see the mess Theo and Viggy had become. For whatever reason, Theo didn’t want these kids to have to witness the wreck Don had left. He especially didn’t want Jules to know. Why he cared what she thought was beyond him, but he couldn’t help sending her a sideways glance to see how she was reacting.
Although her smile had disappeared, Jules didn’t look scared or upset. Instead, she was looking back and forth between Theo and the dog with a thoughtful expression.
“He doesn’t want the fun to end,” she said lightly to her siblings. “Why don’t y’all help get him into the car?”
Once again, she was savinghim.
The kids immediately dove into the game, running toward Theo’s Blazer while calling Viggy to follow. After a few seconds, he perked up slightly and trotted after the children. When he got closer to the SUV, he slowed, his whole body seeming to shrink in on itself.
Theo moved away from the open hatch and watched as the kids crowded around the back of the SUV, urging Viggy to jump inside.
“Load.” The word came out too loudly, making the kids and the dog jump and look at him anxiously. Theo gritted his teeth, sucking in a breath through his nose before trying to moderate his tone. “The command is ‘load.’”
The three kids relaxed and returned to their efforts. “Viggy, load!”
Reluctantly, as if Viggy was just as loath to return to the reality of grief and loss as Theo was, the dog jumped into the rear compartment. One of the twins—Tyson, Theo was fairly certain—lowered the hatch door. The ease with which these children had gotten Viggy to relax and play made Theo envious. At the same time it raised a flicker of hope that the dog would someday be the happy, confident Viggy he used to be.
“Thank you.” His words were stiff, but they were lucky he’d managed to say anything at all. Theo felt his lungs tighten. This family—the hot waitress and dog-whispering children and their not-quite-hidden flinches—was starting to wake something inside of him. His emotions were bleeding through the armor he’d built to contain them, and it was making it hard to breathe. He needed to leave.
After a single step toward the driver’s door, he paused. “The stove fire is under control?”
Jules grimaced. “Yes. All that’s left is the cleaning.”
“Have it checked before you try to use it again.” The suggestion came out more as an order, but Jules didn’t look offended. She did appear tired and a little sad as she gave him a forced smile that could have meant anything. Theo was pretty sure it wasn’t the response he wanted. “Something could’ve been damaged by the fire, and that thing is ancient. You don’t want to mess around with gas. Have your landlord get it checked.”
“Okay!” Jules held up her hands, palms out in a gesture of surrender. “I’ll have someone look at it.”
Her promise was too vague to satisfy Theo, but there was nothing he could do except call the stove repairman himself. As much as he wanted to do exactly that, he barely knew this family. They’d never accept his help. With a stiff incline of his head to Jules and her siblings, Theo got into the driver’s seat and started the SUV.
As he eased down the driveway, Theo glanced in the rearview mirror at the family watching him leave. He’d expected to feel relief at being away from their agitating presence, but he didn’t.
All he felt was hollow.
* * *
“I like that dog,” Dee said, watching the SUV disappear around the first curve in the driveway.
So had Jules. The dog’s partner was a different story. It wasn’t that shedidn’tlike him, but “like” was such an inadequate word for what she’d felt. His continued visits to the diner and their unexpected alliance at the grocery store had made most of her initial cop-sighting panic fade.
Despite that, she’d been shocked to see him in her house, all her fears returning in a crashing wave, and she’d had to shove back the instinctual urge to tackle him and yell at her siblings to run. He’d just been concerned about their oven fire, though. And he’d been worried about her. Contented warmth flowed through her at the thought.
“Jules.” The impatient note in Tio’s voice told her it wasn’t the first time he’d said her name.
She tore her gaze from the spot where she’d last seen the cop who was a little too fascinating—and around a little too often—for her peace of mind. “Sorry, T. What’s up?”
“Can we go to the library?” he asked. “I’d like to see if someone scanned in an owner’s manual for our stove.”
She nibbled on the inside of her lip as she studied him, her mind working.
“Don’t you want me to go to the library?” Tio finally prompted when her silence went on too long.
“No.” She shook off her distracted thoughts. “I mean, I’ll take you. I’m just wondering if it’s irresponsible of me to let you work on the stove. Shouldn’t we have a professional…um, oven person look at it? Like Theo said, gas is nothing to fool around with.”
