Scream and be Free (Zac Hanson)

Chapter Fifteen

Puppy!!

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"So, Luke brought Nutterbutter with him." Jenna casually slipped in, handing Zac a bowl of soup and setting down a plate with a sandwich on it.

"Nutterbutter?" Junia perked up at the mention of the dog's name. "Can I see him?"

Jenna chuckled, handing the little girl a napkin to wipe her chin. "Sure, we'll go visit him at some point."

"I know what the next question is going to be and my answer is no." Zac replied taking a bite of his sandwich. Jenna pouted, so much for this going her way. "No, Jenna."

"I know it is a lot to ask, but Luke can't keep him and I don't want to send him to the pound. He's my buddy, c'mon Zac. Have a heart." Jenna pleaded batting her eyelashes at her cousin's husband.

"We don't have time for a dog." Zac firmly answered.

"A dog!" Junia exclaimed, bouncing up and down on her chair. "Please daddy, can we please have a dog?"

"See what you've started." Zac motioned to his daughter. "I'm gone all the time and Brielle doesn't need that added to her list of things."

"I know." Jenna replied confidently. "Which is why Nutterbutter, my dog, is my responsibility. You and Brielle won't have to do a thing. He is mine, I am responsible."

Zac really didn't see the need to have a dog, but it was Jenna's dog and to be fair she had owned him since he was eight weeks old. This was the longest they had ever been apart.

"If, I'm not saying yes, but if he comes here then you are fully responsible." Zac spoke. Jenna nodded. "You clean up after him, you feed him, you walk him." he listed off the rules. "And if he ever gets into the music room again, you and the dog are gone."

"I promise that will never happen again." Jenna nodded.

The last time the shaggy tan coloured dog had came to visit, he had somehow managed to slip his way into the music room alone. When Zac had found him, Nutterbutter was happily munching away at a pair of drum sticks and had already more or less destroyed a custom acoustic guitar. Luke had promptly paid to have the guitar replaced and Jenna gave Zac a new set of sticks for his birthday, but the principal was the dog was a menace at least Zac thought he was.

"Daddy, can we please have Aunt Jenna's doggie? Please." Junia whined and whimpered, holding her hands together and begging. "Please daddy, please."

"Please, Zac." Jenna begged in the same manner as the little girl sitting next to her. "Please, Zac, please."

Watching Jenna and Junia put on their show, Zac shook his head, this was insanity at its finest. This was his family. Shaking his head, he pushed his hair out of his eyes and held up his hands in defeat. If he had to listen to them for another second he was going to lose his mind, knowing that neither of them would give up until he have the answer they wanted, Zac sighed and laughed.

"Fine!" he shouted over their voices. "Call Luke and tell him we'll take Nutterbutter."

"YAY!" Junia cheered throwing her arms up in the air. Giving Jenna a high-five, the little girl squealed in delight, before bounding off to tell her step-mother the news.

Settling into her seat, Jenna smiled at Zac. "Thank you."

"Smooth, I especially love how you enlisted my daughter to help you." Zac commented with a smirk. "I'm serious about what I said though."

"And I am serious about keeping to your rules." Jenna agreed with a firm nod. "You know, Zaccy, I think a dog is just what you lot need."

It was Zac who insisted that he clean up the mess from lunch, telling Jenna to go call Luke and tell him she was coming to get her dog. Not bothering to question him, Jenna left Zac to fill the dishwasher and clean up around the kitchen. He was wiping down the counter, saying something about having to go to the studio to meet Taylor and Isaac, when Jenna passed back through after her phone call. Telling her that Brielle already knew about the meeting, Zac asked Jenna to tell his wife he'd be back sometime in the evening.