Perfect Storm

Chapter 18

I cleared my throat loudly, causing Denny and Laken both to turn around and look at me. Neither bothered to look the least bit embarrassed.

"I'm ready to go. If you want to stay, you can call an Uber." I said to Laken, my words clipped.

"No babe. I'm ready. Just let me grab my bag." She replied.

"What the hell was that?" I asked her, as soon as we were in my truck heading home.

"What was what?" She asked, the picture of pure innocence.

"You and Denny." I replied.

She laughed. "Oh babe, you know Denny. Drunk and partying. He was a little flirty, and I played along for a minute because it was rather amusing, but I made it clear to him that I was not interested because I love you and only you. Everyone knows Denny is a man whore. It's no big deal baby. Nothing at all for you to be jealous about."

I caught her self satisfied smirk out of the corner of my eye, and knew her whole intent was to make me jealous. Too bad that didn't happen. Had she not been pregnant with my baby, I would have told Denny to have at her and wish them a nice life. They honestly deserved each other. It took everything I had not to speak that thought out loud.

"Anyway, it really means a lot to me that you will be coming to New York for the fashion show next week, considering this will probably be my last big show with the baby on the way and everything. Of course I'll continue modeling for as long as I can before I start showing." She rattled on.

Surprisingly, Laken went to bed when we got home, for once not bugging me to have sex with her. She either knew how exhausted I was or she gave up trying. Hopefully it was the latter.

********

Bree's POV

I stood shifting from one foot to the other uncomfortably after ringing the doorbell to Ryan's house. I have not been here since he and I looked at this place together and put in an offer on it. Oh what could have been, I sighed.

Usually, Ryan drops Sturgill off at my house when it was my turn to have him for a few days, but he was busy getting ready to leave town, and I was in the area so I offered to pick Sturgill up.

The door finally opened and it was Laken at the other side with the sickly sweet fake smile that I despised.

"Hello Audrey. Thank you for agreeing to keep Sturgill for us while we go out of town for a few days."

"Aubree. My name is Aubree." I muttered. How many times did I have to set this woman straight? My name was not that difficult to remember. She most likely did it on purpose just to get under my skin.

"Of course. I've heard of pregnancy brain fog and I guess it's a real thing." She giggled and placed her hand over her flat tummy. Never in my life have I wanted to slap someone so bad before, but how do you justify slapping a pregnant woman?

"Is Sturgill ready to go?" I asked, ignoring her comment.

"Oh, hey Bree." Ryan came into view and smiled at me. Why did he have to look so damn good? "Come on in."

I really didn't want to come in. I had no desire to see anything of her in our house. "Is Sturgill ready?" I asked again.

"Yeah. He's out back. I'll go grab him." He replied, then disappeared out of view.

Ugh this felt so awkward standing on the front porch checking out the pattern of the wood beneath my feet, but it was better than looking at Laken still standing there with her hand on her stomach, or even worse setting foot inside the house.

Luckily, Ryan came back a few moments later with a leashed and very excited Sturgill.

"We should be back Thursday evening. I can either pick him up then, or if you want, you can bring him with you to the track on Friday." Ryan said, handing me the leash.

"I'll just bring him with me. It'll give me an extra day with him." I offered.

"Thanks Bree." He said with a smile that irritated me a bit. I wasn't taking Sturgill to do him a favor.

"You don't have to thank me Ryan. He's still my dog too." I said curtly, and saw the smile leave his face. So what if I got a little short with him. Maybe it was better for both of us if I did. I needed to treat him as an ex-boyfriend, not a friend because we were not friends. I can't be friends with him.

Ryan and Laken gave Sturgill hugs and pats goodbye then I loaded him into my car.

"You're ready for your few days pardon aren't you buddy?" I said, then giggled when he licked my face. "I don't blame you. I couldn't live with her either."

When we arrived at my house, I took off Sturgill's leash so he could run around the yard for a while and we could enjoy the last bit of sunshine and slight breeze before going inside.

The weather was supposed to get bad tomorrow evening. They were predicting a pretty big storm, and I shivered a bit over the thought. Looking around now, you would never guess really bad weather was coming. I guess this was the calm before the storm. Luckily, I had my thunder buddy to lean on. Having Sturgill helped me a lot during storms.

"What is it buddy?" I asked, hearing Sturgill barking incessantly near the bushes next to the shed. Oh God, what if he found a snake.

"Sturgill, come here boy." I coaxed, but he continued bouncing around the bushes. I breathed a sigh of relief when I caught a glimpse of white fur amongst the leaves. Probably a cat or a rabbit.

I approached the bushes, a bit shocked to see an obviously frightened little white and grey puppy instead, shaking under a branch.

"Hey little guy. What are you doing hiding out there. You'd better get on home before your owner's start worrying about you." I said softly.

The puppy was fluffy, but I could clearly see it wasn't wearing a collar. It actually wouldn't surprise me if the poor little thing had been dumped here. This dead end road out in the middle of nowhere with nothing but pastures and the nearest neighbors at least a mile up the road had become a common dumping ground for unwanted pets. It really pissed me off.

"Are you hungry sweetie? Thirsty?" I tried coaxing the scared puppy out, but as soon as I got close enough to touch it, he bolted. Hopefully it did have a home, but it was starting to get dark. Maybe it would still be around in the morning, and I could actually catch it and make sure it was okay and check around for an owner. In the meantime, I would at least put some food out for it.