AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He'd spent the last twenty-four hours cleaning up and checking out the little dog who had been hanging around the Hart Family Youth Center for over a week. He had staff who did deliveries nowadays, or he would have heard about the dog earlier.
As it was, he'd popped over to put in an appearance at the annual Christmas party and spotted Millie on his way out. The minute he saw her little black face peeking around the dumpster, hoping the kids would toss some food her way, he'd decided she was his.
He'd never had a dog before, but he had horses galore on the ranch, so he figured it would work fine.
Millie had been trickier than he'd expected: scared, scrawny, and she had no idea how to live in a house. Stairs? Beds? Enough food that she didn't have to scarf it down frantically for fear it would disappear before she could eat it? Housebreaking? All new.
Kinda reminded him of himself, back in the day.
Waiting for his next question, Millie panted at him, not used to living in a building that wasn't sub-zero temps.
Another thing he could relate to from his teenage years.
Twenty-four hours was all the time he'd had to get Millie acclimated before he'd had to get back to work. He'd stumbled across her the day after Brody had told him about Sascha, and he'd latched onto the chance to distract himself from memories by saving the dog.
She'd definitely distracted him, but she hadn't yet helped him figure out the Christmas recipe that was eluding him.
"What do you think it needs? Maybe I'll toss some spinach in there? Or grapefruit?" Hell, he might as well. Nothing he'd tried so far had worked.
She wagged her little tail and offered no guidance.
Keegan leaned his head back against the polished cabinet and bumped it gently. "I gotta warn you, Millie, I'm not in a great place right now. Feel free to bite me if I start to drag you down."
Millie jumped off the chair, then bounded over to him and hopped in his lap. He laughed softly as she put her paws on his chest and licked his cheek, wagging her little body.
He grinned and put his hand on her side, frowning when he felt her ribs sticking out.
He knew about that, too. Being homeless had been rough as hell, until he'd found Brody and the others. "Look," he said. "I don't know how you ended up on the street, but in this family, we take care of each other. Even if something happens to me, one of my brothers or sisters will step in." Millie pulled back and stared up at him, her huge brown eyes fixed on his. "You're safe now, Millie. I promise."
Just as how Brody had made that promise to Keegan when he'd found him shivering in that alley so long ago. You're safe now. "You are," he said as he ruffled her head. "I promise."
She licked his chin, making him grin. "Less than twenty-four hours, and you're turning me into a dog person. Never thought that I'd go for anything other than horses, but you win."
It was amazing how a little shaggy creature could make his huge house feel so much fuller so quickly.
"Keegan? Where are you? Who are you talking to?" His sister Bella's voice drifted in from the front hall.
Millie bolted off his lap and dove under the armchair, disappearing out of sight behind the flap on the bottom.
Right. Life on the streets had made her not trust people. He got that, too. Sascha was the only person he'd trusted, until she'd—
No. He wasn't going there again. "Down here." He stretched out his legs, and then stood up as Bella walked into the kitchen.
His sister was wearing jeans, a red Santa hat, and a sweatshirt with the grinch on it. She frowned. "Why were you on the floor?"
"It's a nice floor."
She put her hands on her hips. "Dammit. I knew you weren't doing well, but I didn't think you were to the point of laying on the floor in the middle of baking. Keegan, what's going on with you? Seriously." She tossed her bag on the table and sat down on one of the bar stools. "I'm not helping you bake until you talk to me."
He turned off the oven, giving up for now. "Aren't you going to ask me why there's an armchair in the kitchen?"
Bella glanced around, then her eyes widened. "You've lost your mind, I'm guessing. It happens with a traumatic childhood, you know. I mean, we all thought you were the one who was going to be okay, but—"
At that moment, Millie poked her nose out from under the chair and wiggled it, clearly trying to catch a whiff of Bella.
His sister's mouth dropped open. "You got a dog?"
"Yeah. She was homeless, hanging around the Youth Center."
