Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 120631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 603(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 402(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 603(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 402(@300wpm)
Cordelia pranced happily, whining faster as she excitedly anticipated Jocelyn’s return to reality.
“Give me a second.” She stretched and— “What the hell do you have?”
She reached down to Cordelia’s mouth and immediately pulled her hand away when she touched slobber and bone.
“What did you get into? Did you murder something?”
Cordelia raced to the front of the house in a whoosh of jangling clicks, her nails clacking away as the bell on her collar rattled violently.
Was someone at the door? The camera alert hadn’t made a sound. Or maybe it did, but she was so engrossed in writing she missed it.
Crossing the foyer, Jocelyn briefly jolted at her reflection. Banshee was an understatement.
Cordelia scratched at the front door, yipping and clamoring to get to the other side.
“We’re not going anywhere.”
Cordelia knew they only used the front door when they left the house. The dog used the back door whenever she needed to make a tinky-poo-poo, so it was strange that she was scratching to get out front.
“Do you have to go out?”
The dog ignored her and continued scratching at the front door, as if she expected to go on a walk.
It could be dawn or dusk. Finding her bearings, Jocelyn checked the time on her phone. It was late afternoon, and the sky would be dark soon.
“We’re not going anywhere, Deelie.” She peeked out the peephole, wondering why she was so worked up. “No one’s out there.”
Cordelia continued to paw at the wood, frantic and insistent that she open the door before she stripped the paint and dug right through the wood Shawshank-style.
“Alright, hold on.” Jocelyn pulled her leash off the hook.
Cordelia’s excitement multiplied to the point she could barely hold herself still enough to get into her harness.
“You should be embarrassed, going out in your pajamas at this time of day.”
It didn’t escape Jocelyn that she was also in her robe with nothing underneath and a rat’s nest of hair that hadn’t been brushed in days.
“We’re not leaving the yard.”
The second she hooked the leash to the harness, Cordelia nearly pulled Jocelyn’s arm out of the socket.
“Hey, take it easy.”
She flicked the lock and Cordelia darted onto the porch.
The sudden baritone bark scared the crap out of Jocelyn. She staggered back as giant paws landed on her shoulders.
“King, what…” She searched the yard, her heart kicking into overdrive. “How did you get here?”
The gentle giant only licked her face and panted as Cordelia danced around him, as if her long-lost lover had just returned from war. There was no way he made it here alone.
Paranoid and not in the mood for games, she scanned the shadows. “Soren?”
Crickets.
She pinched her nose. This was not how she planned to spend her evening.
“Both of you, in the house.”
Cordelia proudly marched inside with her head high. King tromped after her like an obedient Clydesdale. If this was some elaborate prank to get her to call him, he was getting an earful when she got a hold of him.
Irritated, she picked up her phone and went through the prompts to unblock his number.
King pranced over to Cordelia’s tiny food water bowl and drank, flipped it onto the floor, trying to get his oversized snout inside.
“Hey! King, get out of there!”
The rhino swallowed a whole bowl of Cordelia’s food in one bite.
The call went to voicemail. “Soren, your dog is here. I know you did this on purpose and I really don’t appreciate it. Call me back, or better yet, come get your moose of a dog.”
She ended the call and paced, waiting for him to call back. Then she realized she just invited him over.
“Shit.”
She didn’t want him here. This was her space, her sanctuary. Plus, she was currently rocking zombie-glam and not really giving the impression she wanted to leave him with.
With a huff, she marched upstairs to change. After throwing on a pair of jeans and a sweater, she faced her reflection in defeat. She was too far gone and would need a firehose to fix her appearance at this point.
Deciding it was better if she looked scary—safer—she called the dogs, “Come on, you two, we’re going for a car ride.”
The moment the dogs heard the magic words, they went ballistic. Getting King into her tiny hatchback was an exercise of determination and a lesson in ergonomics. Honestly, there was more of him out of the car than in the car when she pulled away.
Navigating the back road at a crawl, she thought through all the things he might try to say to her, mentally drafting rebuttals to shut him up.
Cordelia sat like a princess, safely latched into her car seat, while King sat in a tangle of limbs, with his chest and head hanging out the passenger window.
Not once did her phone ring on the drive to Soren’s, which only proved this was some elaborate setup to get her to talk to him.