The Hours We Have

chapter nineteen

"I need to get a few things for Finley," I announced, "I was hoping you'd let us take your car?" 

"It's a family car," Mikeal corrected me, "But, I don't see why not." 

"Sweet!" Julian scrambled out of the kitchen to grab his shoes. 

Mikeal rose an eyebrow, "Someone's excited." 

"You should see them together," I commented. I didn't even have to specify who I was talking about. Mikeal looked at me, and he knew. I grinned at him before he tossed the car keys across the counter, I caught them easily, "Thanks! We'll make it quick." 

"Alright, I'll start dinner then?" 

"Okay," I nodded, "Is it alright if we leave Finley here with you?" 

Mikeal glanced down at Finley, then he sighed, "I suppose." 

"Great!" I went to grab a sweatshirt and my shoes, "Be back soon!" 

Julian opened the front door and I trailed after him. Roman closed the door behind us and then, without a word, we broke into a sprint across the yard to the car. It was a sibling thing, we always needed the front seat, and we wrestled on our way there to achieve it. Julian stole the passenger seat and I leaped into the driver seat. Roman scowled at us as he crossed the front of the car and opened the door behind me. 

"Ha ha, can't slam the door in my face anymore can you?" I laughed, turning in my seat to stick my tongue out at him. When we were little, I was always competing with Ezra and Roman for the front seat, and they often won. Now, since I was driving, I liked to rub it in. 

Roman rolled his eyes, "Yeah, whatever." 

ꕥ 

I slapped Julian's hand, "No, put it back." 

He whined, "Aw, come on! Look at it, Finley would love this!" He held up the chew toy, it was identical to a pizza but so much uglier, and I thought it was ridiculous. "Just in case he gets hungry, you know?" 

"You're a dork." 

"Oh, look at this!" He picked up the next chew toy from the shelf and held it up. I didn't even know how to explain this one, it almost looked like an octopus... but it wasn't. 

"No. Okay, we have enough stuff," I looked down at the items in the cart. We had picked out a bed, to which Roman laughed at because Finley slept on my bed, and then we had a small handful of toys. I had made sure to get things on sale or lower in price, we really couldn't afford a lot. "We need dog food, a collar, and leash." 

"I think that's in the next section," Roman said, pushing the nose of the cart around the corner. I almost gawked at the huge selection of dog collars, how would we ever choose? My eyes roamed over a bunch of colorful leashes. 

"Hey, look at this!" Julian grabbed the first collar he saw. 

"Dude, that's pink," Roman said, "Last time I checked, Finely is a guy." 

"Right," Julian put it back, and then he exclaimed again, "Oh, I like this one!" 

I was ready to roll my eyes but when I actually looked at what Julian was holding, I slowly smiled. It was a plain leather collar and leash, shiny golden snaps and buckles showed us our reflections, and I could instantly picture it on Finley. "I actually like this one," I said, "How much is it?"