Freaks Under Fire - Excerpt Only

Freaks Under Fire (Excerpt Only) - Chapter Five

Hmmm. Perhaps scheduling regular reminders on his mobile phone would assist his memory?

Perfect. That was exactly the kind of action a human girlfriend might take—the kind of thing that a young male might complain about to his friends, while being secretly pleased his girlfriend cared whether or not he ate regularly.

Then again.... Perhaps such reminders would simply irritate him.

The shower in the ensuite started up—Tyler was taking a break from the song he was currently working on. Disappointment stabbed her. He wouldn't perform the song until he was satisfied with it and she had hoped to hear it tonight, before she had to leave.

She abandoned that thought-thread for now and resumed a previous one revolving around her continued fascination with sibling dynamics. Her visit with the Davidsons had not disappointed in this respect. There had been the usual bickering and banter to analyze, plus the rivalry over who got to do what, and when, with the newest member of the family. Jay'd had no idea that walking a slumbering infant in an overly complex piece of machinery called a "stroller" was considered such a desirable activity. Add an untrained, spoiled puppy to the mix, and she had plenty of data about sibling interactions to replay and analyze.

On the subject of the newest addition to Jay's household: When she had announced to Tyler that she had chosen a suitable name for the pup, he had asked her not to reveal it to anyone, including himself. He'd claimed it would be "amusing as hell to watch Caro turn herself inside out" to extract the pup's name from Jay.

Jay had agreed, and been duly treated to lengthy bouts of Caro pleading, pouting, wheedling, threatening, and finally resorting to increasingly outrageous attempts at bribery. Inevitably, Caro had given up on Jay and turned her efforts to extracting the information from her brother, who'd predictably taken great delight in informing Caro he hadn't a clue what name Jay had chosen.

Marissa had not been at all fazed by the carryings on, but Michael hadn't been so sanguine. He'd taken Jay aside and begged her to come clean for the sake of his sanity.

Jay, taking pity on both Mike and Caro, had announced that "Brum", a diminutive form of Brummer, was a good strong name for the adult dog the pup would eventually become. However, after enduring seventeen minutes of the pup's yipping, and its attempts to crawl into her lap and chew the steering wheel during the car trip home, Jay had informed Tyler that she might yet change the pup's name to Bello, which meant "barker". Brum must have preferred his original name, for he had subsequently settled down in the backseat and behaved himself the rest of the trip.

Jay glanced toward the second doggie bed she'd bought to encourage Brum to nap somewhere other than her lap while she worked.

Excellent. The pup was still sprawled in his bed, tired out from their walk. Her lips curved at the memory of him careening around the park, startling at anything at everything, until he'd flopped down atop Jay's feet and crashed into sleep.

Another memory imposed, this one carrying with it the sheer wash of pleasure she'd felt upon unlocking the front door of number sixty-four Parkway. It was illogical to have become so attached to an arrangement of walls, furniture and belongings, but she couldn't deny the physiological and mental shifts that had resulted in the brownstone coming to represent an elusive human concept labeled "home." Along with pleasure, ushering Tyler and the pup inside and shutting the door behind them, had provoked the release of tension in smaller muscles, deepened breathing, a slowed pulse rate, and a number of other subtle physiological changes.

Or perhaps it was not the building. Perhaps it was the knowledge that only when she was alone with Tyler, could she truly be herself. Perhaps home was not a place but a person, and for Jay, Tyler had become synonymous with "home".