: Chapter 49

“I’ll need the figures from the last twelve months, Kristin,” I tell the new PR manager for Genevieve magazine. She’s already better than the last one. We should have strung him up by his balls and left him for the rats after he lied to us about Lily. I had to physically stop Zeke from doing exactly that, but we can’t go around killing our own employees. That would be bad for business.

I’m on the phone with Kristin, listening to her run through our new marketing strategy when my door bursts open and slams into the wall with such force that the window behind me rattles in its frame.

“I’ll call you back.” I end the call and give Lily my undivided attention.

“Are you out of your goddamn mind?” she shrieks.

Well, that wasn’t what I expected, but now that she mentions it … I am out of my mind. Out of my mind wondering what she’s doing without me every second of every fucking day. I’m still trying to figure out how to respond when she gestures wildly, and I bite back a laugh at the makeshift leash in her hands.

“Is this some kind of sick joke? Sending me a goddamn puppy?”

The puppy flops onto his butt and grins at me, his tongue hanging out of his mouth, and I can’t help but grin back.

“Xander!”

“What? I saw him and he sounded exactly like the dog you said you’d always wanted. So I got him for you.”

She plants her hands on my desk, her body shaking with rage. Her perfect juicy tits strain against her T-shirt with each heaving breath. “Don’t pretend like you did this to be sweet.”

I frown. “I thought you’d like him.”

“There is no way in hell that you’re so far removed from the real world up here in your ivory tower that you didn’t realize that having a puppy costs money. A lot of money. Money I don’t freaking have.” She tosses the leash at me. “How the hell do I keep a puppy when I don’t even have a goddamn apartment, Xander?”

I rub a hand over my jaw. “I didn’t think—”

“Yes, you did think.” She sneers. “You wanted to show me something else that I couldn’t have. Is that it? Twist the knife a little more?”

“Lily, please.” The fact she could believe me to be so cruel cuts me to the bone.

“And then I had to spend forty bucks that I couldn’t afford on a cab so I could bring him back to you.”

I didn’t think of that either. “I swear—”

“I don’t want to hear it. Just leave me the hell alone, Xander.”

She spins around and marches toward the door, but before she walks out, she turns and fixes me with her fiercest glare, pointing a finger in my direction. “And if anything bad happens to this dog, if you don’t find him a true loving home where he’ll be cared for every day of his life, I’ll report you to the police, the humane society, the FBI, the CIA, Congress, NASA, and any other organization I can think of.” Her pretty face incandescent with rage, she storms out of my office.

“Well, that definitely didn’t go to plan, Snowflake.”

He lifts his leg and pisses on my desk. Yep, that’s exactly what I deserve.

A second later, West walks in. “Was that—?”

“Yep.”

“What the fuck happened?”

I look down at Snowflake. “I sent her a dog.”

Irritation darkens his handsome features. “Jesus Christ, Xander. What the fuck were you thinking?”

My body shakes with pent-up rage. “Don’t you Jesus Christ me, West. At least I fucking tried something, asshole. What the fuck have you done? This is all your goddamn fault anyway. You and Zeke believed that fuckbucket, Bree. You wouldn’t listen to me when I told you we should just sit down and talk to Lily like normal fucking people would. You and Zeke treat me like I’m a fucking child, but I was the only one of us who wanted to act like a man, and I was stupid enough to let you talk me out of it. I was stupid enough to—fuck!” The last word is ripped from my chest. Closing my eyes, I take several deep breaths. “We lost her, West. We fucking lost her.”

West drops his head to his chest and sighs. “I know, Fitch,” he says, his voice full of despair. I hate that I blame him. The truth is that I could have spoken to Lily myself. I’m a grown-ass fucking man.

Snowflake rubs his head against my leg, and I smile down at him. “I know I shouldn’t have sent her the puppy. I wasn’t thinking straight. I hoped he would be a cute surprise and didn’t stop to consider it.”

He stares at the adorable bundle of black and tan fur at my feet and arches an eyebrow. “Is that leash made from—”

“Panty hose? Yeah.” Reaching down, I untie them from the dog’s neck and wrap them around my fist, then lift my hand to my face and inhale, desperate for her scent.

They smell of dog and laundry detergent, but I hold onto them anyway.

“Um, Lily doesn’t wear panty hose. Those are probably Jen’s.”

“Ugh!” I fling them away, and West laughs. I have no idea how he can laugh when I’m as miserable as Scrooge before the ghosts’ visits.

I rest my forehead on my desk, and a second later, I feel West’s fingers running through my hair. “We’ll get her back, Fitch. I’ll fix it. I promise.” I wish I shared his optimism. “What are you doing with the pup?”

“His name is Snowflake.” I sit up and lift him into my lap.

“Xander, no. We already have one dog.”

I shrug. “Now we have two.”