I feel like an asshole. “Connor and I are dealing with the attention as best we can.”
She squints at me now, confused and suspicious. “I thought you’d be more upset.”
“I was upset. Ten minutes ago. Now I’m trying to take care of business.” I snap my fingers at Lo, but he’s still reading page one.
Lily’s eyes flicker to his crotch, and she squirms a little.
He ends up grabbing a pillow and placing it on his lap. He flips the page, glaring at the legal jargon. As much as we grate on each other, I can admit that Lo isn’t dumb. He’s cautious with his businesses. He seeks help in aspects that he’s weak in which, according to my husband, makes a great leader.
I check their bedside clock. It’s almost eleven. “Why are you two just now having sex?” I ask. I’d think they would’ve started and finished hours ago.
“Because your demon baby kept our baby awake last night,” Lo retorts. “Which in turn meant we were too exhausted to have sex. And now you’re interrupting us. Like mother, like daughter.” He flashes a bitter smile.
I shouldn’t have asked. I cross my arms. “Sorry, Lily. Not sorry, Loren.” I’m about to wave him to continue reading when a white and furry thing bounds through the doorway and into the room. It pushes past me and bolts for the mattress.
“Goddammit,” Loren curses, trying to gently push the Siberian husky away from the bed. The dog nudges his bare legs, tail wagging, and then the animal jumps on the bed and lies next to Lily. I take a couple steps back. I do not fear dogs, but I prefer smaller pets. Ones that I can pick up. She’s only eight-months-old and she already weighs thirty-five pounds.
The husky nuzzles Lily’s arm until she responds. Then Lily scratches her thick white fur. My sister immediately smiles, the dog a professional at gaining this type of elated response from people.
She is the antithesis of Connor’s cat, and yet it’s made me miss Sadie even more. Now that a shedding, slobbering dog is roaming around our household, sacrificing our cat seems unnecessary.
Last week, Ryke bought the Siberian husky for Daisy’s twentieth birthday. Connor and Loren like to joke about how Ryke and Daisy are now parents too, their husky around the same age as our babies. But we’re all well aware of the underlying truth.
This is a certified service dog for Daisy’s PTSD and panic attacks. Frederick suggested one as part of a plan to help Daisy, and she talked to Ryke about it, expressing enough interest that he surprised her with one. I’d never seen my sister so happy.
“What’s the command we’re supposed to use?” Lily asks me while Lo tries to focus on the contract.
“Go see Daisy,” I say. As soon as the words leave my lips, the pure white husky springs off the bed, her bright blue eyes directed on the doorway.
“Oh my God! I’m so freaking sorry!” Daisy rushes into the room. “Coconut!” The dog circles Daisy’s feet. “She’s still trying to acclimate to the house.”
“Shit,” Lo swears, setting the papers back on the bed as he searches for his underwear. It’s somewhat interesting that he reacts differently between my intrusion and Daisy’s, actually feeling exposed, even with the pillow. What’s not okay is the contract he’s abandoned.
“Loren,” I snap.
“Give me a minute,” he says with edge, clearly flustered.
Daisy cringes and turns sideways to shield her eyes. “I’m really sorry, guys.” She sets a hand on her dog’s head who finally heels next to her. “Coconut, be chill.” That name is going to be shortened a million horrendous ways except for mine.
“Coco, don’t drag snow into the house again.” Then I shoo her off with my hand.
“Queen Rose, already giving the dog chores,” Lo quips. It wasn’t a chore. It was an order. You know what—if he has time to say things like that to me, then he has time to read a few pages and sign his name.
I’m about to say so when Ryke runs into the room, fast. He bumps my shoulder on his way to Daisy.
“Fuck,” he curses, slowing to a stop.
I wonder if his stitches… “You shouldn’t be running, Ryke,” I say.
He’s heard this phrase too many times since being home from the hospital that he just simply ignores it now. “You didn’t hurt me,” he says.
“Of course I didn’t, you ran into me.” That sounded so bitchy.
The concern in his face pumps guilt into my blood stream. “Did I hurt you?” he asks, eyes flitting across my body. He’s not his brother. It’s ten times easier saying mean things to Loren, and I forget to tone down my hostility for him.
“I’m fine,” I assure him, and then I turn to Loren. “Can you please hurry?”
He’s still trying to find his underwear by sliding his hand across the mattress, Lily nothing more than a lump under the blankets, hiding from Ryke.
This is a clusterfuck.
Loren lets out a frustrated noise, and I head to his dresser, opening the top drawer and tossing him the first pair of underwear I see.
He doesn’t even look slightly appreciative. Now clothed, he searches for Lily beneath the comforter instead of the contracts. He gets a pass. My sister ranks above all material things.
“What the fuck is going on?” Ryke asks, really confused.
Connor’s voice sounds beside the door frame. “You all interrupted Lo and Lily having sex, clearly.”
“I’m so sorry,” Daisy says for the fifteenth time, at least it seems like that many.
“Stop saying that,” Lo tells her.
Daisy is now kneeling next to Coco, the dog nuzzled against her body. The animal is trained for much more than just providing comfort. Hopefully she’ll help Daisy with her nightly troubles and panic.
“I thought the dog already earned her certificate,” Connor says. “Why is she running into rooms?”
“She still has to adjust to the house and the people in it,” Ryke explains. “Huskies like to explore. I didn’t buy a fucking lab because I thought Daisy would like this breed better.”
Daisy looks up at Ryke with the sincerest type of love in her eyes. He knows my sister well.
Ryke adds, “Two more weeks of training at the house and she’ll be used to everything.”
“You can’t train Nutcake here,” Loren says. “You’re supposed to be taking it easy.”
“Number one,” Ryke begins, “don’t confuse the fucking dog. We’ve been through this—it’s either Coconut or Nutty. Nothing else.”
I set my hands on my hips. “I put in a proposal for Coco, and I specifically remember gaining two votes.” I point at Daisy and my husband.
“Everyone could only vote once,” Daisy says with apologetic eyes. “They counted my vote with Lily’s for Coconut, and then Ryke and Loren went with Nutty.”
Did everyone fail second grand math? Hello? “I still have two votes. We are two people.” I gesture from my chest to Connor’s, who walks closer to me in the bedroom, his arm slipping around my waist.
“Your husband changed his vote,” Lo says with a dry smile.
Connor looks hardly scared by my withering glare. He should be scared. He sleeps with me.
“Tell me you sided with my sisters at least,” I say.
“If I told you that, it’d be a lie.”