She playfully smacks my hand away but I feel her shudder under my touch.
“Parker.” She pretends to scold me, her eyes telling me what she wants this too, but we both know we need to eat and sleep more than anything else right now.
My shoulder’s sore as hell but I can manage a steak and cheese sandwich as much as I can handle Naomi too, so what more do I need?
Sitting up on the couch, we both eat in silence with just the sounds of people who need food and are enjoying it as much as each other’s company.
Once we’re done, I order her to forget about the dishes, and despite my arm, I carry her upstairs to the one place I wanted her since the moment I laid eyes on her.
Our bed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Naomi
Parker’s promise that everything from now on will be better holds true.
I’ve never slept so sound or so deep as when I’m playing little spoon and he’s the big spoon.
He favors his injured arm but despite my protests, he insists it’s the only way he can be comfortable is if he’s holding me.
It’s pointless trying to argue with Parker when he has his mind made up, and once I feel his hard body up against me, it’s a fair fight to lose.
As he holds me tight I dream about picking out furniture for the house.
I feel bigger in my dream, heavier but once I run my hand across my belly I know why.
And it’s a look Parker enjoys too.
But as sweet as this dream is, I feel the real world pressing against it from the outside.
Parker’s deep voice pulling me from sleep as much as the empty space in the bed where he spent the night with me.
My hand stretches out to find him, but he’s gone, just his warmth remaining.
It forces me awake and as I rub the sleep from my eyes I can hear his voice getting louder, angrier.
I groan to myself, wondering if we might make it through a whole day without any drama, but remember what he told me last night about quitting the force, I kinda figure there’s gonna be some backlash.
He’s downstairs but his voice carries all the way up here and once I get myself out of bed and make my way to the landing I can understand why he’s yelling the way he is.
“Well Moose is hurt and so am I, so the way I see it is I’ve had enough… Not requesting leave, requesting acceptance of my resignation, effective immediately. Not coming in today or any other day, got it? I don’t give a shit about your roster.”
I figure he’s on the phone with his boss, getting a grilling for driving off in someone else’s patrol car as well as refusing medical treatment and not even trying to submit any paperwork for what happened last night.
He growls something personal and obscene about where he can stick his badge and gun before slamming the hallway phone down.
It rings again almost straight away, but despite his cursing, the vet is patient enough to explain it’s someone else calling.
I make my way down the stairs once I hear it’s the vet calling.
Fingers crossed for Moose.
“Ah, sorry about that doc. Just had someone else on the line… My boss… Yeah, it’s a can of worms. How is Moose though? Oh wow, great!” Parker explains, looking more cheerful by the second once he perceives Moose is doing better.
“Well, I’d prefer if he was here at home but-”
Then his brow darkens, taken aback.
“What D’you mean?” he asks, and I slip over to him, grateful to feel his body relax into mine as he sits me on his lap on the couch while he speaks on the phone.
“He what? Really?” Parker gasps and then chuckles.
This doesn’t sound like the typical phone call the morning after your dog’s been injured on the job. Or does it? I wouldn’t know. New to the whole cop K9 thing.
I would never have thought Parker would quit over everything either.
Quitting what he does just for me.
I lean in closer so I can hear, and Parker moves the phone so I can hear what the vet’s saying.
“It’s the darndest thing, but every time we go to get that stray out of her cage, Moose starts barking and growling. Like there’s hell to pay if we touch her… Let alone do what we have to do next.”
I gasp, remembering the other dog at the vet from last night.
I feel myself frown, shaking my head. I had no idea they were going to put the dog to sleep.
Parker seems to agree, and without saying a word to me he grips my hand and squeezes it.
“Doc? I think you should hold everything until we can get down there, can you do that?” he asks.
I hear a loud sigh from the other end of the phone and then the vet agrees.
“Okay then, I thought you might like to know what was happening. Apart from that, Moose is doing fine. He should stay here another day even two but I know how you feel about it.”
Parker lets out a low sound of his own, his jaw flexing too. I just know it’s time to get ready and head back down to the vet’s clinic.
“Gimme an hour will ya?” he asks the vet. “We’ll head down as soon as we’re ready.”
Parker’s eyes meet mine as he says ‘we’, and I feel my heart flutter. He grins and raises a brow when he says it, and it makes me feel more special to hear that than when he runs his hands over me.
Okay, maybe not more special, but it sure is nice to hear him say that.
He hangs up. Smiling.
“Sounds like Moose is better already. Already giving the staff down there hell when they try to mess with his girlfriend,” Parker says, grinning like a proud father.
“Girlfriend?” I exclaim, recalling the sick dog we saw last night, but not making a connection with Moose.
“Aww, c’mon,” Parker teases me. “You saw how he was looking at her. He was smitten,” he says, a matter of fact.
“Uh, he was unconscious,” I counter, making us both grin.
Parker and Moose are up to something, I can feel it.
Two partners in crime who up until yesterday fought crime. And I’m not gonna get between the special bond they have, not for a second.
“So we’re heading back to the vet’s?” I ask, readying myself to fix breakfast and hopefully grab a shower too.
“We can grab something on the way,” Parker muses, pressing his fingers together in a pyramid as he smiles to himself.
“Dishes can wait too,” he adds, reading my mind. “I think we should look at getting a maid anyway…” he adds, making me wonder if he got a bump on the head last night as well as a ‘scratch’ on his huge arm.
I feel my face screw up at the mention of a maid. Not feeling at all comfortable with anyone else but us being in our own house.
Listen to me, I think I’m picking this up already.
“No maid,” I bargain with him. “But maybe a dishwasher that doesn’t have two arms and legs?” I suggest.
“Deal,” he agrees instantly, clapping his huge hand over my thigh and hurrying me up into the shower so we can go.
“We could shower together,” I suggest, biting my lip and wondering just how long it all might take before he shakes his head in the negative.
“This is the one time I’ll pass on that idea, Naomi,” he says seriously. “Moose is waiting and I want to get down there and see just what the hell he’s been up to all night.”
“I should never have left him there,” he adds, making me frown.
“Like the time you left him in the care of that nobody dog groomer?” I ask, feeling sorry for myself and wondering again just how Sasha could have cut me loose the way she did.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Parker says, pressing his lips to my forehead and breathing in deeply. Inhaling me before he tells me to get going unless he loses all control over himself.
He’s not kidding either, I can feel his arousal pressing into me, but I also know how important getting Moose home is to him, so I don’t push the issue.
“But we will get somethin
g on the way?” I have to ask, tracing my hand down his front, all the way to what I’d really prefer for breakfast.
“I’m starving,” I add for effect.
“Oh, we’ll get something,” Parker assures me. “And there’ll be plenty of everything else once we get Moose back home.” He promises.
“You aren’t sick of seeing me in gray sweats and T-shirts?” I have to ask once he hands me a towel as he watches me undress.
His curled lip tells me he doesn’t mind at all. His warm hands on my hips as he pulls me closer proves it.
“I prefer you without anything on,” he growls softly, teasing me with those same hands and making me shiver.
“If you want, we can go clothes shopping once Moose is settled,” he offers, making me blush.
“That’s not what I meant,” I tell him, vowing to start looking for work as soon as I can.
No way I’m gonna sit back and let Parker pay for everything. Plus I remind him I still have more stuff at my old apartment to collect at some point.
“I’ll earn my keep,” I promise him. “I’ll find something-”
But his wet lips are on mine in a second, his hands gripping me tighter as we both groan helplessly in each ether’s embrace.
“You’ll do nothing of the sort,” he cautions me.
“If you can live without your old things we’ll buy you everything you need brand new. A fresh start. We’re gonna be a busy household soon and I’m gonna need all the help I can get.”
I’m not sure what he means by that, but when his hand runs across my belly both of mine join his.
“What do you see, Detective Parker?” I ask in my best interrogator’s tone, which only makes him smile.
“I see… triple cheeseburgers, hot coffee, and curly fries for breakfast… And our Moose back home,” he says with confidence as he kisses me again, urging me to hurry up so we can get going.
“Is he really gonna be okay?” I ask innocently. Hopefully.
“He is, and so are we from now on, c’mon. There’s a surprise waiting at the vet’s by the sounds of it too,” Parker adds.
Seeing him so upbeat all of a sudden, happy considering everything that’s already happened makes me feel it too.
Things are gonna be just fine. I can feel it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Parker
It’s breakfast to go once we’re on the road. I haven’t had burgers for breakfast for years, not since the old days when shift work meant you ate what you could and whenever you could.
Telling Naomi I usually have a no food rule in the truck makes her face scrunch up before she laughs.
“You have a dog in here, Parker. Doesn’t that count?” she challenges me but once I explain how Moose needs fewer distractions like food smells when we’re on the job.
And there it is.
Moose isn’t on the job anymore, and neither am I. We’re both free.
Reminds me, at some point I should come by the station, make it official. I can do that once things have settled down.
She’s equally quick to agree with me but shares my thoughts.
“There’s no more of that though, right?” she asks tentatively.
I sigh with a grin. “I guess not. Maybe save Moose some of these fries,” I tell her, keeping some of my food separate for him as a small treat.
Like my own diet, a little cheat here and there is okay.
From now on, it feels like every day is gonna be a treat day for him.
God, Moose. I’ll never put you in any danger again, I swear.
Pulling into the same parking lot as last night feels like another world.
I’m still worried about him sure, but I can’t wait to see what the vet is talking about.
Once inside, all is revealed.
“Well, I gotta hand it to ya,” the vet explains. “You’ve got one healthy, resilient dog there.”
I’m looking at him while my face is a question as to why I haven’t seen Moose yet.
“Moose has responded to the IV antibiotics well and is already back to wanting to be active after the anesthetic,” he continues. “And there’s the slight matter of his little bitch,” he adds with finality.
And a serious face.
“Excuse me?” I hear myself growl. “What did you just say?”
The vet laughs and lets me in on his own private joke, inviting us both into the recovery area to see for ourselves.
Moose is there, sitting up in his cage with his tail pumping once he sees me and Naomi. He lets out a hoarse bark and points himself towards the dog in the cage next to his.
“I… had to put him right next to her,” the vet explains, “Otherwise he wouldn’t do anything he was supposed to. This dog…” he explains, pointing to the same one we saw being carried in last night, “…is or rather was due to be destroyed later this morning.”
I look at Naomi and she looks at me.
We both look at Moose who can hear everything as much as we can and he’s not happy about it either, he whines and then barks firmly again.
“Destroyed?” I ask the vet in disbelief. “Do you even do that here?” I have to ask, wondering what this dog did to deserve such an end.
Wondering if this is the place for Moose at all anymore.
“Afraid so, Parker. Lost or dumped. Sick or well. After a certain amount of time with no claim? You know the drill. We can’t save everyone. We can’t win ‘em all,” he tells me with surgical precision.
Cold but true. No kill shelters exist, but they all have their own capacity limits too.
No room means no room.
Life on the street is no different for most people. Animals have it far worse for a lot less time mostly.
“Then she’ll have to come home with us. With Moose,” Naomi pipes in, shrugging at me when I turn to face her like it’s a no-brainer.
“I guess she will,” I smile. Feeling like Moose deserves the love he’s found as much as any other guy or girl on the planet.
He’s making eyes at his new friend that make the looks I give Naomi seem tame.
Maybe.
He lets out a bark so loud we all jump and his new girl yelps with excitement, clawing at her own cage to get closer to Moose.
So, we three are four now and I implore the vet to let me know what needs to be done to make things right so we can all just go home.
“Moose still has a serious injury,” he cautions me. “He needs round the clock care, medications, and dressing changes,” he emphasizes with a serious frown.
“We can handle it,” I insist, with Naomi backing me up by going over to the cages and reaching in to stroke both dogs who lick both her hands like they’re pork chops.
The look Naomi gives me coupled with the same from Moose tells me everything I need to know.
Seeing her bent down with both her hands out, her smile, and that fine body of hers.
I know she’s got the natural mothering instinct like nobody else on earth.
“They’ll be quite a handful,” The vet reminds me, still frowning.
I hold out both my hands in front of his face, showing him how big they are.
“And we have Naomi’s to match these,” I tell him, smiling.
“Moose is retired as of today,” I add. “And so am I. We’ve got nothing but time, space, and a beautiful home for these guys to get to know each other in and recover.”
“This other dog, she’s had some problems,” the vet continues to warn me, but I hold my hand up.
“We all do.” I correct him.
“We’ve all been somewhere we don’t like. Our job now is to get all of us somewhere we do want to be.” I tell him as well as Naomi.
Reminding myself.
My past, along with hers is just that.
Passed.
No need to keep hanging on, waiting for something to correct it that never will. We make our own future from here on in.
“If you’re sure, then I’m sure,” he concedes, relieved that he
has two free cages in his surgical recovery unit and one less guy arguing about who makes it and doesn’t for one day.
I settle the bill at the front desk, overturning any responsibility from the police. Moose is mine now and so is anyone he wants as his friend.
None of us can agree what breed she is, but there’s a little bit of everything and more love from Moose than anything which is all that really counts.
“I’ll cite her as ‘domesticated’,” The vet says, grinning with pride like he’s pronouncing man and wife as he signs over Moose’s new best friend to us both.
“And thank you,” he adds. “I studied a lot for days like this… Don’t get to see ‘em much,” he smiles as we finally leave with our new and instant family.
Moose is sore and still, in a large carrier, his new queen isn’t, but butts right up against him once they’re in the back seat of my truck.
“You really need anything from that old place of yours?” I ask Naomi as I pull away, heading for home.
Naomi thinks.
Long and hard, I can tell. I’m not asking her to leave everything behind but I’m hoping and willing she decides to do just that.
Me too.
I’m done with the excuse of a life I’ve led for half my life before I met her.
Prepared now, willing and able to spend the rest of it with Naomi and our new family.
She shakes her head firmly, deciding once and for all that this right now is all she needs.
“I got everything that mattered when we left there,” she tells me.
I quiz her about things we all need, paperwork and ID. Things a cop would ask.
Her hand reaches over to mine and squeezes it as she smiles in the affirmative. “I got you didn’t I? That’s all that really matters. But yeah, I have everything I need from now on,” she adds.
“You and me both,” I tell her.
“You and me both.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Naomi
It feels like I can breathe again once we get Parker and his boy home. The latest addition hasn’t come with a name, and Parker wastes no time is making suggestions as we bundle both dogs inside.
The thought flashes across my mind not to let Parker be in charge of naming anything.
Groomed For Love: A Steamy Standalone Instalove Romance Page 11
