“I’ve noticed,” Ethan said dryly. “Also, the eloquence of your language.” He eased into the nearest chair, and Shaggy immediately rested her chin on his thigh. He scratched her head, and her tail thumped. When Ethan looked up, he found Sawyer watching intently. “Want to pet her?”
Sawyer shook his head. “Not really. But seriously, man, I’m happy for you.”
Guilt smacked into Ethan with unrelenting force. Sawyer didn’t know the truth—that he had no reason to be happy for him. No one did. Ethan couldn’t completely undo what he’d started, but he could at least keep it in check. “She’s leaving,” he said quietly.
Sawyer froze in the middle of pouring himself a refill of coffee, nearly overflowing his cup. He leaned down to take a sip off the top. When he straightened, Shaggy was right in front of him, sniffing his knees. “Is this thing going to eat me?” Sawyer asked.
“No, she probably smells your dog.” Sawyer’s fiancée had a Chihuahua, and much to the amusement of everyone but Sawyer, he was the only person in the world the dog didn’t like.
“That little rat is not my dog.” As he spoke, he tentatively patted Shaggy on the head. After a couple of seconds, he withdrew and stared at his fingertips. Presumably finding them intact, he knelt and scratched Shaggy behind the ears.
The dog leaned into him. Sawyer took a step back.
“Maybe if you learned Kelsie’s dog’s name,” Ethan said, hiding a smile, “he wouldn’t gnaw on your ankles.”
“Don’t change the subject. What do you mean, Rue is leaving?”
Ethan shrugged. “She’s up for an internship that starts in a couple of weeks. They’d be crazy not to accept her.”
“And just like that, she’ll be gone?”
Ethan nodded. “Just like that. Hell, you heard her. She doesn’t need an internship to go off grid. She does it because she loves it.”
“Well, fuck.”
Ethan agreed. And that was dangerous. Even if he thought he could fall in love again, it would never be with someone who took Rue’s kind of risks. There were too many good-byes in that. Too much worrying if one might be tragically final. “It’s not like I’ll never see her again, but…just don’t let Mom get any ideas about things getting serious.”
Sawyer picked up his coffee. “If it’s not serious—and by the way, knowing you, it almost has to be—then how do you know you’re going to see her again?”
Ethan glanced down at Shaggy and shook his head. “Because I have her goddamned dog.”
…
The day after Rue had dinner at Ethan’s, most of her happy haze was obliterated. She clutched her phone so hard, she thought she’d break it. The grip was to keep her from throwing it, but she had a feeling throwing it would be a lot more satisfying than having it crack in her hand. “This is not up for discussion,” she told her mother. “I’m not going with Boyd. I don’t care how rich he is or where his connections lead. It’s his grandmother’s charity. He doesn’t need me to network.”
“But honey, your father and I do. One of your father’s business associates—”
“I don’t want to hear it. The associate in question can’t be much of a businessman if he bases his decisions on who I attend the gala with.” And could the stupid thing just be over with already? It was a perfectly gorgeous Saturday afternoon, and she was stuck listening to this same crap, only now instead of dreading it, she was just mad.
“Sweetheart, this is important to your father.”
“Boyd is an arrogant asshole who tried to railroad me into going to that stupid gala.”
“Stupid?” Horror raised her mother’s tone an octave. “They’ll receive millions in donations.”
“And the board will pat themselves on the back and pass around nice big bonuses that won’t ever get around to actually helping the animals.” Rue practically spat the words, knowing she was being unfair. In reality, according to an independent watchdog, over eighty-five percent of the Von Adler funds went directly to the cause, but that wouldn’t exactly translate into a reason not to listen to her mother. “Boyd has absolutely no respect for me. He doesn’t hear me. Is that what you want? For me to be miserable so dad can bank another million?” These people, her own family, were unbelievable. No wonder she wanted to get away from them. Far away.