“Following up about your plans for Thanksgiving dinner. Aretha’s working on the menu. Needs a final guest count.”
Baz found it amusing that his father made Thanksgiving dinner sound like a plate dinner with the president. The funny thing was, the old man didn’t see it that way at all, it just came across that way. Their Thanksgiving’s were casual affairs, always had been, always would be.
“I’ll be there,” he assured him.
“Will you have a plus-one?”
“A plus-one? Hmm.” Turning in his chair, Baz leaned back, studied JJ’s profile. “It’s possible I will.”
“I like the sound of that. She must be someone special.”
“Oh, she’s special, all right.” Too bad she didn’t realize how special to him she was becoming.
JJ’s gaze cut to him briefly. He knew she couldn’t help herself, listening in because she was curious.
“Well, I’ll let Aretha know.”
“Is Mom comin’?”
“She is,” Wesley said, sounding pleased. “The husband’ll be out of town. Told her to join us.”
Of course he had. Because that was exactly the sort of weird, nontraditional family he had.
“I look forward to it, Dad.”
They ended the call with goodbyes, and no sooner had Baz set his phone on his desk than JJ asked, “I didn’t realize you were datin’ anyone.”
“Is that curiosity I hear, JJ? Or are you merely makin’ a statement?”
Her left eye twitched, something he noticed happened when she was irritated.
“I take that as a yes.”
He gave a noncommittal sound, turning his attention back to his computer.
Baz wondered how long it would take before she interrogated him again.
And he looked forward to when she did.Chapter FiveBrantley had known the moment he looked out the back window of the house and saw that poor, pathetic animal that they would be getting a dog. Not necessarily because he’d felt the need to race to the rescue, but rather because Reese had seen it, too, and his entire demeanor had changed afterward.
Of course, he probably could’ve convinced Reese to get it the medical attention it needed and to find a home for it, but why bother? The look in Reese’s eyes—fury mixed with a need to rescue—was one of the many things he loved about the man. He honestly couldn’t say he would’ve been quite so calm had Reese not been there. While the Wrights showed blatant disregard for their kid, they were downright abusive to the dog.
And to think, it was highly possible their son was out there somewhere, tied up in some crazy fucker’s garage, and they couldn’t be bothered to look for him. Those two had no business having anything that required love and attention. Or food and water for that matter.
Since it was lunchtime and they needed to get their plan nailed down, the first order of business was to find food for the three of them, so Brantley pulled into a shopping center that was equipped with both a pet store and a couple of fast-food joints.
“You want the pet store or the food?”
“Pet store.”
He’d known Reese would say that.
“While I’m in there, if you get a chance, send JJ the information on that thumb drive.”
“And how do you propose I do that?” he asked, steering through the parking lot.
“She said to plug it into the laptop.”
Seemed easy enough provided that really was all he had to do.
He pulled up to the front of the building. “I’ll drop you off. Me and the runt’ll run through the drive thru and come back for you. Cool?”
Reese nodded, then hopped out of the SUV.
“Dude, you might not feel lucky right now, but I think your life’s about to change drastically,” he told the mutt as he steered through the lot one more time. “McDonald’s or Whataburger?”
The dog didn’t answer, but it wasn’t necessary. It was a no-brainer. Whataburger was the winner.
He probably went a little overboard ordering three extra burgers, plain and dry, but he was hoping the dog would give the meat a chance. After he paid, they waited patiently for the food to be prepared. While he did, he pulled out Reese’s laptop, shoved the thumb drive in the slot, watched as it downloaded the information. When it showed complete, he shot a text to JJ, told her to start going through it.
His phone rang a second later, JJ’s name coming up on the screen.
“Yeah?”
“Turn on your hotspot,” she instructed.
“My what?”
JJ chuckled. “On your phone. So the laptop’ll connect to the internet.”
Thankfully, she walked him through the process with only minimal razzing. Once it was done, he put the laptop away and turned his attention back to the window while he waited for his food. Once it was passed over, he noticed the dog’s little black nose perked right up, his knobby head lifting as though he could possibly see into the orange and white bags sitting in the passenger seat.
“While Reese is loadin’ you down with presents—because I’m tellin’ you that’s exactly what he’s doin’—why don’t we get started on the grub,” he suggested, backing into a parking spot near the pet store so he could keep an eye on the door
