Page 70 of Courting Danger

They lay down reluctantly, eying them the whole time. Outside, Pope paused to stare at the angry cloud looming on the horizon now, closer than when they’d brought the dogs in. The rain hadn’t started yet, not in full force anyway, though the sky occasionally spit water at them as they carried the grill down the wooden staircase leading from the deck to the ground. As soon as they positioned it as far beneath the house as they could, they made short work of finding the buckets, filling them, and tying the grill down.

The last thing Pope expected to see when they reached the sliding glass doors was both dogs peering out, watching for them.

“I wonder if their owner died,” Ocean said as he slid the door open so they could step inside.

Tails wagging, the dogs greeted them, only going back to their spot in front of the fire when Ocean did. Glancing around, Pope decided that the best way to keep them from stressing out further was to pull a few cushions off the couch and make a spot on the floor for him and Ocean to join them.

“Nothing left to do now but hunker down and relax,” Pope declared once Led Zeppelin hummed from the speakers.

He’d brought the weather alert radio over too, since it was analog and would work even after their digital devices lost internet connection.

“My pops had one of those,” Ocean said as Pope lay it on the coffee table before sprawling on the cushions beside him. “He had a CB radio too, like the ones the truckers use.”

“Both are good things to have in an emergency,” Pope said, draping an arm over him so he could pet the dogs. “Which is why there is still a landline in the kitchen, the same as we’ve got in the office at Joker’s Wild.”

“I thought it was just for nostalgia,” Ocean admitted. “I’ve never seen a phone that looked like that.”

“I’ll admit, I indulged a little when I decided to go for a vintage phone, but I wanted something heavy that wasn’t going to crack if I slammed the damn thing,” Pope replied.

“Broke a few plastic phones, haven’t you?”

“More than a few.”

“It’s cool that it works. I’ve never seen a real rotary phone before.”

“And I never thought I’d go out of my way to add one to the house when I had it built,” Pope admitted, “since I used to cuss those damn things out whenever I had to make a call on one.”

“Why?”

“I hated having to start all over again if I fucked the number up. It wasn’t until I mashed the button in so far on one of those plastic ones that it wouldn’t pop back out again without help that I realized what a benefit the older ones were. It took a paper clip and a great deal of cussing to get that damned thing unwedged again.”

“Bet you turned the air around you blue.”

“Every damned shade of it.”

Between the music, their conversations, and the gentle caress of their hands along the dog’s bodies, they were finally at ease and beginning to drift off for some much-needed rest. Poor things had probably been in survival mode for so long that they hadn’t gotten proper sleep either.

“I always wanted a dog,” Ocean admitted. “My friend Garrett had a French Bulldog he taught to ride a boogie board. I thought it would be so cool to do that, but mom was allergic, which sucked, because she loved animals. We tried to go horseback riding once, but before we made it out of the stable, she was wheezing so bad we had to go home.”

“If you’d still like to go, I know a guy who runs a trail riding outfit further inland,” Pope offered. “I can look into it for you.”

“That would be awesome,” Ocean replied. “I always wished she could have a cat at least, so she wouldn’t be alone while I was off on some surfing adventure, but she was allergic to them too. I thought, maybe she’d start dating when I was a teenager. I even told her I’d be okay with it as long as the person treated her right, but she said dad was the love of her life and that she couldn’t imagine being with anyone else, so I never brought it up again. I didn’t want to push, even when I was worried about her.”

“Sometimes you just have to let people live the path they choose,” Pope said. “it would have been worse for her to try when her heart wasn’t in it.”

“Yeah,” Ocean said, slipping into silence. “Ya know, even when I worried, I always thought that she was lucky to have found love like that. I used to see guys on the circuit hopping from one person to the next, and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was because they were searching for something specific in each of them that they never found.”

“Probably, at least in some instances,” Pope said. “I’m sure in others they were just after a good time. Nothing wrong with that either, especially when you’re young and still sortingyourself out. It’s hard to accept substitutes when you know what it is you’re after.”

“Is that why you’ve been alone for so long?” Ocean asked. “I-I asked around a little, and everyone I talked to said that you hadn’t had a pup or a boy of your own since you and Danger split up?”

Sighing, Pope pressed a kiss to the side of Ocean’s head before answering. “He’s always been mine. I’ve just been waiting for him to get his head out of his ass and remember that. Doesn’t mean I want you and Roan any less. Back before things fell apart between us, we’d talked about finding the perfect boy to suit our desires. Someone we could care for and protect, but also nurture, so we could watch him thrive and follow his dreams as far as they’d take him. Now we have that in you and Roan. The wait might have pissed me off at times, but I’ve always believed that the universe had a plan for each of us and that the fates always had a hand in whatever unexpected twists and roadblocks that cropped up.”

“I wouldn’t mind being part of your forever.”

“Good, because I’m not a fan of letting go,” Pope said. “I do have a question for you, though.”

“Sure,” Ocean replied, still lovingly stroking the dog’s fur, even now that they’d fallen asleep.