Page 8 of Not Mine to Rescue

Lemon snapped her fingers. “Oh, duh. Why didn’t I think of that earlier? We’re broke because you’re an asshole.”

You’d think I’d be used to her smart-ass mouth after twenty-three years. But the first two years she hadn’t been verbal yet. That’s when she was cute. Now she was a⁠—

A car I didn’t recognize crawled up the gravel road.

“Oh good, there she is. Play nice, idiot.”

My sister worried too much about stupid shit.

The BMW rolled to a stop in front of the house. Lemon snapped her fingers and four out of the five dogs sat at attention.

Dumb Ass did what he normally did. Stand by the newcomer’s door with his tail wagging, waiting for a good crotch sniff.

How else was he going to find out if the human was nice or not?

I changed my mind about his intelligence as soon as one long leg stuck out the door. Dumb Ass was a savant getting his nose right up under that skirt and into that crotch. My dick hardened, making it a mental struggle to swing my leg over my bike or let the dog get a whiff of heaven before I put a stop to it.

A beautiful Rough Collie crawled into the front seat and poor Honoria Ryder was sandwiched between a doggie drool machine and a fur factory.

That wouldn’t do. I quickly adjusted so walking wouldn’t be painful. Then I whistled. “Dumb Ass! Butt on gravel.”

DA put his balls to the dirt. His tail wagged so hard that little rocks flew into the air. His front paws pranced as Honoria wrangled her dog’s leash.

“Sorry, Molly is excited.”

She was apologizing for her dog being a dog? I held out my hand for the leash. “Let me.”

Her eyes met mine. I knew when the recognition hit. “Random.”

Yeah, that was my name.

“I prefer Wombat, remember?”

She sighed, then rallied. “Apologies. Here.” She gave me the loop of the leash, then quickly introduced Molly to the situation.

That was good dog parenting.

Molly hopped out, and Dumb Ass forgot his manners. I warned him again, “Dumb Ass?”

His butt went down, and he stared at me like I owed him. “I know. She’s pretty, but at least buy her dinner before you go horn dog on her.”

He wouldn’t understand, but his tongue flopped out as if I had the best ideas in the world. Poor Molly, though.

No sooner than she got a load of the trees and the open sky above her, she started shaking. “Oh, sweetie, it’s okay. You got friends here. I know you don’t know that right now, but you will. I promise.”

I never made promises I couldn’t keep. Especially not to frightened animals.

Honoria got out of the car. Her suit was wrinkled and covered in Molly’s fur. Her hair had fallen loose from its tight bun, and her makeup was smeared.

“Rough day?”

“Are you Lemon’s brother?”

I nodded.

Her eyes went from my little, but not littlest, sister to me and back. There was a strong family resemblance, both of us having straw-colored hair with red undertones and freckled skin. Lemon’s round face made her look cute. Mine made me look like a baby. I’d gotten shit about it my entire life. Once they got over the name thing.

The name, Random Blessing, wasn’t normal.