Page 12 of Shallow Remains

Rufus tried to tug bone free. Nice Man did not give it.

Nice Lady came in and crouched down to look at him under the chair. “Rufus, you can’t have that. You’ll hurt your teeth and your tummy.” She took the end of the bone from Nice Man. “Out,” she told Rufus.

Rufus curled one of his chops. Just a tiny bit, because he loved Nice Lady.

“Ah-ah,” she scolded sharply.

Rufus dipped his but did not let go. He did not like it when Nice Lady used that tone with him.

“Rufus. Out.” She pulled and twisted on meats bone.

No!

Rufus gave her the puppy eyes and looked up at her with his peepers. Puppy eyes always work on lady humans.

“No. Out.” She yanked the meats bone from his teefs.

Rufus grumbled and laid his chin on the floor with a huff as Nice Lady got up and walked away with his prize and Nice Man. He heaved a sad sigh.

Bye bye, meats bone. Probly best bone ever.

No fair. Nice Lady never let Rufus keep the bones he found. Not here. Not at beach. Dis meats bone juicy and delishus. One at beach had no meats, was dry and cronchy.

Rufus would still have eaten it if Nice Lady had let him though.

He stayed under the chair and pouted while human feets went back and forth in the doorway.

“Don’t mind the boots, I gave them a good wipe before I came back in,” a voice Rufus recognized said.

He lifted his head and thumped the end of his sweeper on the floor as two feets walked by wearing colors Rufus could see.

Rufus knew those feets.

They belonged to the person who had knocked Bad Man down on the road and left him there.

FIVE

Maddy rubbed her thumb up and down the stem of her wineglass and concentrated on not fidgeting while she listened to Willow, Bronwyn, and Xanthe talk. The room was crowded and noisy and set off all her social triggers.

Over the years, she’d learned how to mask her agitation for the most part so that it wasn’t obvious to most people, but this kind of situation was still uncomfortable. A clock on the far wall said she’d been here for more than an hour already. Another twenty or thirty minutes, and she could leave without feeling rude.

She couldn’t wait to get back to her cozy room, crawl into bed in her jammies, and watch a favorite movie for the fiftieth time.

Her attention kept wandering from the conversation happening around her. Because at some point over the past hour her body had turned into a Lachlan radar.

She was acutely conscious of his location at all times, and her gaze was drawn to him against her will. There was something compelling about him, and all the logical, scientific explanations she came up with didn’t change the reality of it.

She was attracted to him.

And she really should leave.

As soon as the thought formed, she rebuked herself and forced her attention back to the ladies in front of her. She couldn’t just retreat into her old habits when things got uncomfortable. That would negate all the work she’d put into overcoming her challenges since she was a child. She needed to push herself out of this shell she’d climbed into before it was too late.

“I’ve been thinking of joining some local classes,” she blurted out.

The other three all stopped talking to stare at her.

“If any of you have some suggestions, I’d love to hear them,” she added, and glanced down when something poked the side of her thigh.