Page 103 of To Belong Together
“Hurt.”
The door swished, and John twisted to see if Tim had reached a new low. Nope. Just Trigger and Camo. Tails wagging, they trotted over.
“I’m sorry.” Stacy’s annoyance contradicted her words. “Is that what you want to hear?”
He scratched Trigger’s head, and Camo nudged his arm in protest. “That’s a start.”
“A start.” Her flat tone signified an eye roll he was better off not seeing.
“I also want to hear you say you understand that I care about you.”
The line rustled, but her tone came through steady and serious. “I’m not sure I do understand.”
“Can I change that?”
“I don’t know, John.” Annoyance clipped her words. “Maybe you do care. Why does this matter all of a sudden?”
“It’s always mattered.” But, then again, watching Erin lose her father had made repairing the rifts in his own family more urgent. He gave Camo a scrub behind the ears, then sat back, and both dogs slouched to the floor. “We’re family, and life is short.”
“Are you sick or something?”
“Do I have to be to say I care?”
“As a man in our family? Yeah. Only Mom gets mushy.”
“The men ought to step up more.” The women, too, from where he was sitting.
“Okay. Sure. I have a meeting to get to.”
“All right. Love you.”
“You’re crazy.” Yet, her tone sounded almost kind.
They ended the call, and he chalked it up as a win, even if he hadn’t learned what Kate had said to Erin.
He stood to exit the Tim-free sanctuary. Trigger huffed as he rose to follow, but he and his dog hadn’t taken three steps before his phone sounded in his hand. A turn of his wrist allowed him to check the display.
Erin.
He returned to the chair, his breath quick. Nervous. He was nervous to talk to her.
After surviving the call with Stacy, surely he could do this without putting his foot in his mouth. Hopefully.
He picked up the call. “Hey, Erin.”
“Does your offer to help me take my mind off everything still stand? I guarantee there’ll be tears, but a change of pace would be nice.”
He didn’t mind tears. He minded that he’d only be able to offer comfort as a friend. Still, that was better than allowing her to cry alone. “My dogs could use a hike. We like the trails along Superior.”
“Okay. I’m in Lakeshore for an appointment, so I can meet you at a trailhead. Do you have a place in mind?”
He described how to find his favorite starting point, and once they got off the phone, he sent her a screenshot of a map, since trails extended long portions of the Lake Superior shoreline. They already had too great of a chance of losing each other relationally. He didn’t need to add the danger of them missing each other geographically.
Erin cringedat the thought of the dogs’ claws digging into the butter-soft leather seats when John parked his sports car beside her rust bucket.
She popped open her door and stepped out, and the gravel of the lot crunched underfoot. Hopefully, her old sneakers would cut it. What she saw of the trail was a mix of ice, puddles, and mud.
Which the dogs would track into the car.
