13. Rebecca

13

REBECCA

I couldn't remember a time when a day crawled by so slowly. On the upside, my chapter I'd posted was a raging success and I was on cloud nine as I unlocked the front door and stepped into my apartment.

Ethan had avoided even looking at me during class, and I'd felt the same kind of dismissal from Cole and David. It stung. I wouldn't dismiss my emotions and say it didn't, but I tried not to linger on the pain. I had a book to write.

My steps slowed when I crossed the threshold. The soft lavender scent from the blanket thrown across the back of the couch beckoned me over for a nap. I could give in, lie down and rest for a few hours, then write.

"But then you'll lose all motivation." I tapped my phone screen and checked my story again. Another hundred reads since I left campus. All the comments were about when I planned on uploading the next chapter.

My textbooks and laptop hit the end of the couch with a thump. I eyed the bag and chewed my inner cheek. I should study. Cole had given us a heads up about an upcoming test that I didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of passing without some serious cracking down on the books. I waved it off. Later. I'd gotten an idea for the next chapter while driving home. "Hope you're not too mad at me, Fitz. I'll fix your dinner in a little while."

Two hours later, I'd finished the chapter, had Lily give it a proofread, and uploaded it to the site. I hovered over the button, and this time when I clicked, I kept my eyes wide open. "Welcome to the world, little baby book." My grin stretched my cheeks, and I clapped both hands over my heart. "Come on, Fitz. Let's eat." Setting the laptop aside and stretching my arms over my head, I stood and waited. "Fitz?"

No answering bark. No sounds at all. Unease tightened in my middle. I'd seen him this morning on my way out. "Come on, boy. Don't do this to me." I scoured the room, tossing aside pillows and peeking under every piece of furniture, going room by room. There were only a handful of places a dog could hide in my one-bedroom apartment. "Fitz!" My voice turned frantic as I prowled through my closet. "Where are you?"

Still nothing but silence. After opening every cabinet door and even checking the bathtub, I finally admitted that Fitz was not in the house. He'd escaped. Again.

A gasp caught in my throat. David. David found Fitz last time, and Fitz liked David, which meant my fuzzy little terror might head the same way again in hopes of finding his new friend. It wasn't much to go on, but I snatched up my phone and keys and took off down the sidewalk toward the coffee shop. I'd looked up David's address after he told me he lived nearby. Three blocks away, to be exact. I'd tried to forget, but every time I stepped outside, I glanced that way. My apartment complex sat on the corner of a busy intersection. Across the street was a record store that shut down last month and an empty car lot.

Another apartment building butted up against mine, and then it changed to a housing development/suburb. Kids skated up and down the sidewalks. "Hey, have you seen a little dog today?" I held up my phone with the recent picture of Fitz on the screen. "One like this?"

"Nope." The teenager didn't even slow down, just glanced at my phone and kept going.

Fine. I asked the next kid, and the next one, making my way down the sidewalk and calling Fitz's name in between stops. The sidewalk ended at another intersection. I pressed the button and waited for the signal to change, tapping my foot and scanning every inch around me.

Two men sat in front of the house across the street, their backs to the wall and facing outward. The walk sign flashed and I ran toward them. "Excuse me, have you seen this dog? He got out sometime today while I was at school."

"Did he have on a little green collar?" The man on the left closed one eye and tilted his head. "I saw one with a green collar a few hours ago. Went that way." He pointed further down the road, toward David's house and the coffee shop.

"Thanks." I hurried away, dialing Lily.

"Damn, girl. Have you seen your stats? Your story is blowing people away."

"Fitz is missing," I wailed into the phone. Lily would understand. My book mattered, but Fitz was more important.

Lily let out a long exhale. "I'm at work. I'll keep an eye out here. He might try to follow your scent to the shop."

I rounded the corner into the subdivision and skidded to a stop.

David stood in front of me, still wearing his jacket from class. "What's wrong?" His gaze skimmed over my body in a flash. "Are you hurt?"

"Fitz is missing." I couldn't seem to say anything else.

"Who's that?" Lily demanded in my ear.

I couldn't look away from David. "It's David. I almost ran into him looking for Fitz."

"Is he going to help you look?"

David nodded. "I'll help."

"Good. I have a customer, but as soon as they're gone, I'll go outside and check around the building."

"Thanks, Lily." I hung up and walked around David, giving him a wide berth. "You don't have to help."

"I said I would." He fell in step beside me, hands in his pockets and staring straight ahead. "How long has he been missing?"

"I don't know." Knowing I'd spent two hours working on my book while Fitz suffered who knew what outside slapped me hard and fast, almost knocking the breath from my lungs. "He was gone when I got home, but I didn't realize it."

Calm as ever, David pulled out his phone. "I'll call the local shelter. Maybe someone found him and took him there. Have you called the closest vet?"

No, I hadn't. When my shoulders shook and I almost dropped my phone, David stopped and faced me.

His hand landed on my shoulder and stayed there, a single point of comfort in a storm of chaos. "We'll find him."

I kept my trembling lips under control and nodded, then sucked up my emotions and dialed the vet's office. Minutes later, we both hung up. "No luck?"

He tapped around on his phone. "Not yet. I'm not giving up, though. I'm calling Cole. He'll help, and he might have some ideas of places to look. He works at the shelter sometimes, so he'll know where dogs like to go around here."

"Stray dogs," I reminded him. "Fitz is a small, scared, inside dog who has no idea that he's nothing more than a meal for those big dogs. He thinks every person he meets is a friend and wouldn't hesitate to go home with anyone who offered him a scrap of food even though I feed him like a prince." The words tangled, strangling me.

"Don't give up on him." David pulled me into a completely innocent side hug. "He's a tough little guy. The night I found him, he was barking his head off at a cat sitting up on the fence. He's fearless, but I don't think he'll find much trouble in this neighborhood." He waved his free hand around us. "It's a pretty calm place."

He was right about that. Each house we passed had a small lot of grass in the front, along with a few trees scattered around. The sidewalks were smooth, and though the roads were busy, everyone drove carefully.

That would change the closer we got to the coffee shop. If Fitz made it out of the neighborhood and into the section of the city where I worked, I might never see him again. My overactive imagination took off, leading me down every possible scenario.

Cole pulled up alongside us, his taxi driver eyeing his surroundings cautiously. "Thanks." Cole paid and hopped out. "How far have you made it?"

"Just from my house to here." I pointed over my shoulder at the corner where my apartment building remained visible in the receding light. "He's never been outside all night before. We have to find him."

"There are a few places I can check." Cole stuffed a hand into his hair and turned sideways. "I'll check that way. Meet me at the corner."

"Sure. Call if you find him." David kept his hand on my shoulder.

If Cole noticed, he didn't say anything. Or maybe he didn't care.

Part of me pushed to ask, but after my confrontation with Ethan, I had no desire to further embarrass myself.

I still stopped and asked every person we came across if they'd seen Fitz. David scoured every inch of space, even knocking on a few front doors to ask about my dog. I loved him and Cole for helping me. In spite of everything that happened and the risks they'd already taken, they didn't hesitate to spend their afternoon walking the streets to help me.

As the sun slipped over the horizon and street lights popped on, my hopes spiraled into despair. If we'd not found him in the daytime, we had almost no hope in the dark. Shadows lengthened, darkening yards and sending everyone inside to prepare for the following day.

Cole and David stuck with me, even when we reached the coffee shop, confirmed with Lily that Fitz wasn't there, and kept going. Cole called every dog shelter and vet in his contacts, and even some he'd found in an internet search, all with the same results. No one had turned in a Pomeranian.

"Come on. Let's get you home." David steered me back the way we'd come.

Cole flagged down a taxi and held the door open.

"I can't go home. Not without Fitz." I stood my ground, peering up into David's face.

"Rebecca, you can't search all night. Let's go to your apartment and figure out what to do next. You can put posts up in the local pet groups online. Make flyers. We'll do whatever we have to, but you need to rest too."

"But… Fitz." I pleaded even as the soles of my feet ached and my head throbbed from holding back tears.

David nudged me into the cab and followed me in. Cole rounded to the other side, and they sandwiched me in the middle.

"He might have gone home." David sounded uncertain and looked past me to check with Cole.

Cole patted my knee. "David's right. Fitz might have gone back. Dogs have an uncanny knack for stuff like that. I had a dog once that took off while I was walking him. He was gone for three weeks. Then one day, he walked right up to the house and sat on the porch. No idea where he went, but he came home."

"You're just trying to make me feel better so I'll go home. If Fitz isn't there, I'm going back out." With or without them. My chin stuck out in a stubborn tilt Dad used to say I got from my mom.

They must have read the decision in my face because they moved at the same time to hug me. "We'll go with you." David spoke, but I felt Cole's acceptance in his warm embrace.

Cole's breath whispered over my ear, and I swore I heard him whisper, "We go where you go." I must be mistaken.

The taxi pulled up in front of my apartment, and David slid out while Cole paid. He held out his hand. I hesitated, but the desperate need to touch and be comforted forced my palm against his as he guided me to my feet.

"It will be okay." David's soothing cadence worked through me like some kind of magic.

The tightness in my chest eased and I took in a short, sharp breath. The light over my front stoop clicked on, the motion sensor picking up our movement on the sidewalk.

A bundle of brown fur lay on the rug. Fitz. He raised his head when I squealed and ran forward, then hopped to his paws and raced toward me, barking every time he touched the pavement. I crashed to my knees and scooped him up. "Where have you been?" Kissing the space between his ears, I cradled him to my chest and sobbed into his fur. "You silly dog. Don't you ever scare me like that again."

David and Cole stood on either side of me. With a hand beneath each of my arms, they helped me to my feet.

"My keys are in my pocket. Would you open the door?" I wasn't about to let Fitz go until we were inside with the door shut and locked. I might not go out ever again until I figured out how he kept sneaking out of the house like a rebellious teen.

Cole retrieved my keys, his hand delving deep into my jeans. The touch was completely non-sexual, but still. Having his hands on me at all ignited that spark of want. He unlocked the door and led the way inside, flipping on the living room light as he passed the table.

David closed the door and leaned against it.

Fitz yipped and squirmed until I gave in and lowered him to the floor. He ran for the kitchen, then zoomed back and circled around my feet. Tears clouded my vision, and a series of heaving gulps forced me down onto the couch.

My head hit my knees, and my entire body shook.

The couch dipped on either side and four strong arms locked around me. Cole and David rested their chins on my shoulders, whispering into my ears. David tipped my chin up with his knuckle and brushed away the tears. "It's okay, Princess. He's okay now."

Their quiet concern tore through me, and I flung myself into David's arms, my lips landing on his in a hard, feverish kiss.

Cole smoothed a hand down my spine, pulling my hair over my shoulder and kissing the curve of my neck. He muttered into my ear again, his voice too low and my heart too loud for me to make out the words. They didn't matter. David and Carrie having a thing years ago? Didn't matter. This mattered. Having them here, comforting me, holding me. That mattered.

And I needed more. "I need you. Both of you. Please." I hated the thought of giving up on Ethan, but with both Cole and David here and seemingly willing, I wanted to try something new. Something I'd only dreamed about.