“Yeah.”
“What are you gonna do now?”
Sabrina sighed. “I don’t know. Sleep on the couch.”
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”
Yeah, she did know it. She just didn’t have an answer.
“She’s clearly not done with you,” Teagan went on. “I mean, she has too much to drink and instead of bitching with her friends, she goes right to your house? Alone?”
That had crossed her mind as well. Adley wasn’t out drinking with Scottie or with her sister—if she had been, Sabrina was reasonably sure neither of them would’ve let her come to her house—but she was alone, and the first place her intoxicated brain took her was right to Sabrina.
“That says something, don’t you think?” Teagan asked, their voice a bit less edgy than when they’d started.
“I don’t know what to do with any of it, T. I’m only here temporarily. What happens after I’m done?”
“Well, that’s really up to you, isn’t it?”
Goddamn it. She hated when Teagan got all philosophical and threw things out there that made Sabrina think. “I hate when you give me non-answers, you know.”
“I do know.” There was a grin in Teagan’s voice. She could hear it on the fringes. “But this is something you need to figure out.”
Sabrina groaned. “Justtell mewhat to do.”
“Oh no. This is all you, babe.”
“I hate you.”
“Lies.”
They stayed on the phone in silence for a moment before Sabrina growled quietly.
“Maybe sleep on it,” Teagan suggested before they hung up.
Sleep. Sabrina laughed through her nose because it was funny. Sleep. She didn’t sleep well in general, but now? Yeah, she wasn’t gonna sleep at all, and she knew it already. With resignation, she tiptoed into the bedroom and got her pajamas, then scooped up Sprinkles to take him outside one more time. He did his business like a good boy, and when they were back in the house, instead of heading to his crate where he usually slept, he went right back to the bedroom and put his front paws up on the bed where Adley snored quietly.
Sabrina shook her head but boosted him up anyway, then whispered, “If you pee on my bed, we’re gonna have a problem, sir.”
Sprinkles ignored her and curled himself up in a ball next to Adley’s head, then laid his chin across her throat.
“Traitor,” Sabrina whispered again, then took her pajamas and phone charger out to the living room. Grabbing an extra pillow and blanket from the hall linen closet, she made herself a cozy little bed on the couch, refilled her wineglass, and clicked on the television, hoping she could find something to watch, the whole time painfully aware of Adley’s adorable little snuffles coming from her bed and wishing she was lying next to her in there, curled up with her, their puppy in between them.
“What the actual fuck?” she said to the empty living room.
Chapter Fifteen
Where the hell was she?
That was the first question that popped into Adley’s head when she opened her eyes. That was not her ceiling. This was not her bedding. That wasn’t her dresser across the room. And where was the hot breath on her neck coming from?
Slowly, a little at a time, facts became clear, like a fog was lifting and making the world it had obscured visible again. She turned her head—ow—and there on the nightstand was a half-full glass of water and a clock that said it was six fifteen. The hot breath on her neck smelled good. Smelled familiar. She turned her head and saw big brown eyes, a furry brown and white head, and then a pink tongue unfurled like a New Year’s Eve party horn as Sprinkles yawned, a soft squeak coming from his throat.
Sprinkles.
Oh God.
She knew exactly where she was, and as she concentrated, little bits and pieces of the previous night came floating into her mind. She was at Sabrina’s house. She’d walked here. Oh, dear sweet Lord, she’d had too much wine and she’d walked here to Sabrina’s house to give her a talking-to.
