“You hit the fake parked car three times on Wednesday.”
“It moved on me.”
“It was literally four orange cones in a rectangle.”
“Orange cones are sneaky.”
I grinned and laid a palm on his chest, feeling the rise and fall of his breaths. “You’ll get the better of them soon.”
He pressed my hand against his skin. “Thanks for being patient with me.”
“Hey, remember when we first met? I was the raving nutcase smashing mirrors. You were the rock that made me see solid ground. You’ve had to wait for me to get my shit together too.”
“You did it faster.”
“I’m still not together. Look at Papa tonight—” The reminder made my breath hitch.
“Hey.” Shane gripped my hand. “You got totally blindsided by your sperm donor, shook it off, won your case, came home, and we fucked in ways I’m going to remember on my deathbed. Sounds pretty together to me.”
“You know what?” I let those words sink in where I needed them, warm against my heart. “You’re right. I’m awesome.”
Shane laughed and shoved me to the edge of the bed.
I untangled myself from the sheet and stood. “You do what you need to. Just remember, I’ll be waiting as long as you need and I love you.” He looked sad, so I added, “And in the meantime, we’ll have fun. Right? More barebacking, working on the shelter, checking out the town, training six puppies.House-trainingsix puppies. Well, maybe not all fun.”
Shane’s grin was one of my favorite things about him. “I’m thinking I won’t move in till you’re done with that.”
“Uh-huh.”
I’d reached the door to the bathroom before he said, “Theo?”
“Yeah?”
“You think we can build a big cat tree in the living room for Mimsy? So when I do move in, she’ll have a lot of high places to get away from the dog?”
I met his gaze. His eyes shone in the low light. I knew a declaration of intent when I heard it. “Yeah,” I promised him. “We’ll absolutely do that. I’ll get supplies tomorrow.”
EPILOGUE
SHANE
THREE MONTHS LATER
“That went well,” Arthur said. “Don’t you think?”
I glanced around the now-closed lobby of the newSafe Haven Animal Rescue of Gaynor Beach.A few napkins still littered the floor from the cupcakes donated by Nice Buns. I’d planned to sneak the leftovers up to my apartment for breakfast, but there were no leftovers. Empty paper cups lined the reception counter, and the trashcan at the end brimmed to the top.
“We had a good crowd. How’d the fundraising go? Did we make money?” I’d done facility tours, showing people what we’d accomplished and pointing out all the areas, like the meet-and-greet rooms, that still could use some TLC. Nudge-nudge, wink-wink. Plus, we’d had Mimsy charm their wallets open for donations, till she got bored and headed off into the back lot.
Arthur rubbed his jaw, smoothing down his beard. “Pretty well, I think. I haven’t tried to add the money up yet.”
“The face-painting was a hit.” A young woman had messaged on our fundraising page and offered to do dog and cat faces on the kids for donations. I’d seen a lot of little pink noses and whiskered cheeks on my tours.
“So was your show.”
“Yeah, well, that’s all Mimsy.”
“Like you didn’t have to teach her or anything.” Arthur bent and wiped a smear of icing off the marble tile.
