Page 56 of Ruined: Tobias

“A beer sounds good. You expecting company then?”

He turned to her, his gaze moving over her. “Eric is coming to borrow a four wheeler. He may have already come and gone and didn’t stop by here.”

Tori shrugged. “I didn’t see him on the way here.”

He went inside and Tori lowered to a chair. She picked up a puppy and kissed its face and then did the same to the other one. They were both females, tan with white spots. She wondered if Tobias had already named them.

Male voices sounded from inside. It seemed Eric had arrived. Tobias brought her the beer. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”

“Ok.” She slumped. The last thing she needed was more time to think. Her nerves were already strung tighter than a guitar string.

Thankfully, the dogs distracted her for the next few minutes and she found herself laughing almost as hard as Tobias had been.

“Remembering the sound of your laughter was the one thing that always made me smile when I was away from here.” She’d been so engrossed in playing with the dogs that she hadn’t heard him return.

She turned to find him, beer in hand, leaning against the doorjamb studying her. “Every time you mention being overseas, I feel like crap for what I did.”

“You shouldn’t. I was heartbroken, but not to the point that I’d do something stupid. Besides, after a couple months, I got an assignment away from the battlefield. I got lucky, I gue…” He didn’t finish the sentence, his gaze going toward where Luke lived. Unlike him, his brother had been in the midst of battle, not just assigned once, but several times.

“You did your part,” Tori said, lifting a puppy and pointing it to him. “You’re definitely this little one’s hero.”

He looked at her for a long time before his gaze moved to the little dog and his lips curved. “She’s a cutie.”

“She is. Have you named them yet?”

Tobias walked out to the patio. “Not yet. Help me with that.”

“Sure.” Tori wasn’t sure how to start the conversation. “I always wanted to name a daughter Piper. How about if we name her Piper?”

Something about his countenance changed when he lowered to sit. He leaned forward. “What if you have a daughter? You won’t want to name her after my dog.”

“True,” she replied noncommittally. Although she’d not planned to have children, the possibility did come to mind every once in a while. However, at the moment, she didn’t want to think about children. Overseas assignments and children were two subjects that were touchy between them.

“She looks like a rascal. So she needs a name that’s fitting.” Tori put the puppy down and immediately it took off running after the other one. The bundles of fur kept their attention for a bit.

“I was thinking Catsup and Mustard,” Tobias said, his gaze still on the little dogs.

“That’s stupid.”