Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 43072 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43072 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
“No, sit.” I can’t even pull a treat out of my pocket to get his attention off the Hendrix and Jolene. Of course, that doesn’t help. I stand up, prepared for him to dart off. If need be, I’ll pick him up like I did on Friday.
“Cooper.” His name is called from the other direction by a vet tech. Thankfully, it moves his attention away from Jolene. We walk towards him, and once we’re close, he says, “I’ll take his leash. We need to get a weight on Cooper before anesthesia.”
“Okay. Be careful. He’s a hound dog and likes to run off.” I no sooner get the words out than the leash is handed off to the tech and Coop is dragging both of them towards Hendrix.
“Jesus, can I get one day of peace?” I lift my head to the ceiling, knowing I’m about to receive a ration of hell. I take a deep breath and make my way to help them, though I’m seriously contemplating leaving and letting the clinic deal with the fallout.
“Cooper, stop. Stop it right now.” Ten seconds, I swear that’s the amount of time I took my eyes off him, and when I look now, he’s literally body up in the air, front paws wrapped around Jolene, doing his absolute best to piss off Hendrix. “Stop raping my angel baby. Madden, do something. Someone do something!”
“I’m sorry, Hendrix. They’re locked together. We have to wait now.” Motherfucker.
“Hendrix.” I try to defuse the situation, but it doesn’t do any good. Her head whips towards me, fury written all over her face.
“Your dog is a damn menace to society. How difficult is it to control him? Now Jolene won’t be able to be fixed. With my luck, she’ll get pregnant, I’ll be kicked out of my place because it was a pain in the ass with a steep deposit to have Jolene in there in the first place, and her getting spayed will be a pipe dream. I hope you’re happy with ruining my life, Madden!” Hendrix drops Jolene’s leash, covers her hands with her face, and turns away from everyone we’ve garnered attention from.
“Miss Drake, that’s not going to happen. She’s not in heat. Take a deep breath. While this is an unfortunate event, it will subside, and as soon as they’re done, we’ll separate them so we can all go about our day,” the lady who checked us in tells Hendrix once she’s calmed down.
“Still, she’s going to need emotional support therapy after Cooper has his wicked way with my innocent Jolene.” I’m trying my hardest not to laugh. This girl is a trip, clearly in love with her dog more than I am with mine, probably because he’s always up to no good.
“Send me the bill.” I look at the vet tech who is standing beside us.
“I’m sure that won’t be necessary. Look, they’re all done now. This is the nature of things. In a perfect world, Cooper would already be neutered, but seeing as how he was rescued recently, he hasn’t been, and, well, as you know, Jolene had to go through her cycle beforehand.” That takes the wind out of Hendrix’s sails, realizing that Coop was rescued and I’m not an irresponsible asshole.
“I really am sorry about that. I’ve only had him for two months. I tried to get him acclimated to a better life before throwing him under the knife,” I tell Hendrix as I take the leash from the vet, holding the harness in the other hand as we take our leave. Something tells me Hendrix needs time to compose herself. I gotta admit, it was fun to see her all riled up. It has me thinking about how she’d be in bed, all that anger being fucked out of her. I bet it’d be fun, that’s for sure.
SEVEN
Hendrix
Today was supposed to be easy: drop Jolene off and go home to scrub the house, because as much as you’d think your house is clean, when your beloved dog isn’t there, you see all the hair in all the crevices, and honestly, it’s been too long since a deep cleaning commenced. That was thrown by the wayside when Jolene lost her virginity in the lobby of the vet’s office. I seriously can’t make this up. And yes, my heart became a bit more endearing after being schooled on how Madden decided to rescue Cooper. I still don’t like him. Honestly, I don’t. You ever just look at someone and decide, yep I seriously don’t like you? That’s Madden to me. Apparently, if you look up petty in the dictionary, you’d find a picture of Hendrix Drake there.
Instead of going home to sit and stew, staying pissed off, I figured I’d take my angry little self to the store, find a great romance read, then hit the coffee shop before finding a bench to sit on. Lured by the thrill of sitting outside, letting the warm sun touch my skin, with a book to get lost in, reality not soaking through. Not that my life is bad or anything, but the stress and worry from this morning are doing my head in. It doesn’t help that I didn’t find anything at the bookstore. It was one of those cases where it wasn’t them, it was me. I can’t settle my racing mind, so I figure caffeine won’t hurt. I mean, I already can’t sit still. Plus, it’s been hours since I’ve dropped Jolene off. There’s not been a word from the vet. Yes, for hours is how long I stayed in the same exact place, searching for the unsearchable. My life is an absolute mess right now, and the only person to blame is me.