Yolo (Carter Brothers #7)

Chapter 8

I hope one day I marry a kind, tall, bearded man who is nice and tells me yes anytime I ask for something.

— Bindi’s secret thoughts

BINDI

“ That’s Dad ,” Oakley explained. “ Can you believe he put exhaust tips on that? My mom hates it.”

“ What’s so funny about exhaust tips being on a vehicle?” I questioned.

“ It’s a Sprinter Van ,” Gee explained. “ One of those long-ass passenger vans that looks like it should be dropping snooty people off at resorts.”

My mouth turned up at the edges. “ That’s actually pretty cool. My mom hated the idea of a van herself, and Dad got her one of those old Ford ones then jacked it up. He also had it powder coated Barbie doll pink.”

It was Oakley who let out an amused giggle. “ Don’t tell Dad , or that’ll be next.”

“ Don’t tell me what?” the man that was likely Trance called out.

I crossed my arms over my chest and said, “ Hey , Gee ?”

“ Yeah ?” He leaned in.

“ Not that I mind being here, because it’s good to get out of the house, but why am I here?” I questioned.

He paused for so long that I started to reach out to find him, to see if he was paying attention to me, when he said, “ You get that Trance has dogs, right?”

“ Yeah …” I agreed.

“ Well , what you don’t know is that Trance trains dogs for multiple purposes,” he started, but it was Oakley who took it over.

“ Dad used to train just police dogs. Then he met my mom, and she had issues with seeing, herself—still does sometimes, as a matter of fact. Anyway , Dad’s dog, Radar , was retiring from police work, and started helping her when she needed help navigating life. Radar was a badass dog. And slowly over the course of years and years, Mom convinced Dad to start training different kinds of dogs. The ones that flunked out of his police program are then reconsidered for medical dogs. Some get to be seeing-eye dogs. Others get to be diabetic dogs. It all just depends on how we think the dog will best fit. Dad actually has a dog that we think will be perfect for you,” Oakley explained.

My mouth fell open.

He’d brought me to get a dog.

If that wasn’t the sweetest thing that had ever been done for me…

I didn’t know what to say, to be honest.

I was flabbergasted.

Garrett didn’t even know me all that well, and the man had already done more for me in the short amount of time we’d known each other than Joseph had the entire time we’d been together.

The sound of cursing in German had my head picking up despite the overwhelming need to throw myself into his arms.

If I could even find him to throw myself into his arms…

“ Dad , you have visitors!” Oakley called out. “ How about you stop cursing and get over here.” She lowered her voice. “ That’s German , right?”

She said it in such a way that I felt like she wasn’t expecting anyone to answer, but I did anyway.

“ German ,” I confirmed. “ Who’s he speaking to in German ?”

“ That’s my dad, Trance . He’s speaking to his new dog. He’s from Germany and he’s grumpy and annoyed all the time. We’re hoping by bringing him here, he’ll become more settled. He’s not too sure about the United States yet.” She giggled.

“ At least when your dad was cursing he did it in a gentle way,” I admitted. “ I doubt the dog would’ve taken it for a punishment or anything.”

“ Oh , no.” She snorted. “ My dad is a big softy when it comes to the dogs. Now , if it’d been his kids being obstinate, he’d have no issues calling us out on our shit.”

“ What’s the dog’s name?” Gee asked from my side.

“ Mister ,” a harried-sounding man said as he got closer. “ Not that he responds to it at all.”

I smiled at the annoyance in the man’s voice.

“ Mister ,” I mused. “ Is that the dog’s original name?”

“ No ,” the male who’d done the speaking in German said. “ His name is Panzer .”

Trance said the name in German , making me smile. “ German for Tank .”

“ It is,” Trance confirmed. “ That much I was able to figure out on my own. I now know a whole twenty-nine words in German , thanks to adding his name to the list.”

I dropped down to my haunches and held out my hand and said, “ Hallo sü?es Ding .”

“ Dog liked that,” Gee said. “ You speak German ?”

Did I speak German ?

That was funny.

“ I do,” I confirmed. “ I also speak Russian , Arabic , Swedish , Spanish , Latin , and I’m currently learning Japanese and Hindi .”

I could tell that I’d stunned him because he said, “ Umm …wow.”

I smiled. “ I found out I had the knack for languages when I took Spanish in high school. I whizzed through all the languages like it was my first language. Then I moved onto all the others.” I paused. “ I stopped learning them when I met Joseph because he said it made him look dumb when I couldn’t help but to learn languages.”

“ Sounds like a real winner,” Trance murmured. “ Can you get him to sit?”

I called out for him to sit, and he did—at least I thought.

“ Good ,” Trance said. “ What about walk with you?”

I shrugged and held out my hand for the leash, which was placed in my hand.

“ Tell me where to go?” I asked.

“ The yard is large. As long as you don’t go sprinting for a solid minute in one direction, you should be able to stay in it just fine.” Oakley giggled.

I started walking around the yard with the leash in my hand, talking in German to the big guy. Every once in a while, I would stop to talk to him, and a few times I dropped down to my haunches to speak with him as I pet him.

“ Wow ,” I heard Trance say from afar. “ I’d about given up on that one because of his refusal to work. I got him from Germany from a friend who said that he couldn’t get him to work, either.”

“ Looks like he’s doing just fine under the right supervision,” Oakley mused.

A motorcycle sounded from somewhere in the distance and came closer and closer until it sounded like they stopped right beside me.

“ Hello ,” I heard another male voice say.

“ Hello ,” I replied.

“ This is my husband, Pace ,” Oakley called. “ Pace , this is the woman I was telling you about that was coming over here today to meet with Rooster .”

“ I thought Rooster was black?” Pace asked. “ This one is definitely white.”

“ White ?” I smiled. “ That’s cool.”

Pace paused. “ You’re blind?”

“ Yeah ,” I said. “ I’m blind as a bat.”

Pace chuckled. “ Guess since you can’t use echo-location, you could use a dog.”

I felt more than heard Pace wander off toward the other three that were still behind me somewhere and kept walking, talking to Mister / Panzer as I did.

“ So who is this Rooster guy?” I asked Mister / Panzer .

The dog beside me growled a cute little grumble.

I started to make my way back toward the voices.

Only when I sensed I was close did I say, “ I think you should probably keep the commands in German like you were doing. Start calling him Panzer , too, so he knows who you’re talking to. Another suggestion…you could also play a German show or two on television. It sounds like he’s just homesick and likes to hear my voice and German words.”

“ I’ll do that.” The man named Trance smiled. “ Come meet Rooster .”

“ I’d love to,” I said.

“ He speaks only English , though.” Trance chuckled as Gee grabbed my hand to do the guiding again. “ You could probably teach him a different language, though. He’s a smart boy. Just hates to sit in a car all day—which is what he’d be doing if he was a police K -9.”

“ Boring ,” I teased.

“ Very .” Trance chuckled as we walked. “ I’m going to put Panzer up because he hates Rooster .”

“ Really ?” I asked.

“ I think he’s jealous,” Trance admitted. “ Rooster gets to goof off and have fun all day while Panzer has to work. That is, if he cooperates.”

I giggled as I heard them disappear.

Seconds later I heard the click of nails.

I held out my hand and said, “ Rooster ?”

A wet nose met my hand.

“ This is Rooster ,” Trance confirmed my suspicions. “ He’s a big softy.”

I reached out and down, only to find myself touching the silky fur of a dog’s shoulder where I expected a head to be.

“ Oh , you’re big,” I said. “ Short hair. Coarse .”

“ Cane Corso ,” Trance said. “ Originally , Rooster was purchased by a police station in southern Georgia that wanted a Cane Corso in their lineup. But this particular Cane Corso is quite the people pleaser, at least most of the time. He was so smart that he made up stuff—like hitting on drugs—when in fact there were none to be had. I tried to break him of this habit, but he’s having none of it.”

“ He sounds charming,” I admitted.

“ He’s a charmer, for sure,” Trance confirmed. “ Walk with us. Here’s his leash.”

He placed the leash into my hand, and then he said, “ Tell him you’re ready to go. He’ll guide you down the pathway.”

“ I’m ready to go, Rooster ,” I said to the sweet boy.

I felt him shuffle a little, then gently turned and faced a direction that was opposite of where I was standing.

Gently , he caught the slack up and started tugging lightly.

Trusting him to guide me, I fell into step. He kept the leash taut and led me down the walkway.

“ From here…”

Trance guided me through the entire process.

From start to finish, it took me a little over a couple of hours to figure out all the commands as well as be able to figure out all of the cues the dog was giving me.

For instance, if I was coming to a step, he’d gently stop in front of me and wait for me to catch his collar. Once I was latched on, he walked in front of me, stepping lightly to the side until I could find the curb with my toes.

Stairs were even easier, and we worked well through it all.

By the time we were finished, I was so damn excited.

It felt like I got a piece of my eyesight back.

I’d been holed up in my apartment for the last month, terrified to leave it because everything was just too overwhelming. Not only could I not see, but I was in a city that I’d only ever visited once, and that was being generous because we’d come with Joseph’s family. And Joseph’s family was in the most prestigious hotel that Dallas had to offer.

They’d have died if they’d visited the part of Dallas that I lived.

Needless to say, maybe having a seeing-eye dog could give me back my freedom.

I’d , of course, had the dog thing recommended to me. Multiple times. By both my mom, dad, doctors, and the therapist I saw once a month to deal with the trauma of my injury.

However , I’d dismissed it because I couldn’t see how having a seeing-eye dog would/could help that much.

But here I was, humbled.

“ Come on,” I said to Rooster . “ Let’s go back to the people.”

Rooster led the way, almost as if he knew which people I wanted to go to when I could clearly hear that there were two sets of groups now.

I could hear Gee’s voice off by himself, likely talking on the phone, and Trance and his daughter’s voice talking toward where I assumed was the front porch of the house.

It was when I was about halfway there that I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, causing me to sigh.

Instead of continuing to walk, I made a detour back to Gee’s truck as I told Rooster where I was headed. Once there, I stopped to lean against the vehicle, and felt Rooster do the same, but against me.

I was pretty much pinned between him and the truck, which made me smile.

The vibration came again, reminding me of the message from Joseph .

I’d set specific vibrations to specific people.

Mom’s vibration was a heartbeat.

Dad’s , a constant tapping.

Joseph’s vibration was an SOS vibration.

Therefore , when it did the SOS vibration, I didn’t ask Siri to read the messages to me—at least not usually. But today I was in a good mood, therefore I figured the best time to listen to whatever horse shit he came up with that day would be now.

“ Siri ,” I said into what I thought was the quiet afternoon where I stood leaning against Gee’s truck.

“ First message is from Joseph ,” Siri read. “ Why are you like this?”

I laughed.

I couldn’t help it.

At some point this morning Joseph had called me, then texted me when I didn’t answer his calls. In the call, he suggested that we try the relationship thing again.

I’d explained that I wasn’t really interested in trying anything ever again with him, and he’d then bombarded me with texts.

I’d let Siri read through all of them when I sent out:

Phew , that was a really hard escape room.

His reply had come not moments later. Siri had read in the most robotic voice ever:

That was our relationship.

The texts from him had continued—once Joseph set his mind on something, he didn’t stop.

Yet , I’d ignored them.

Siri then read the second text that he’d sent moments earlier:

I’ll get you back one way or another. You might as well make it the easier of the two ways and just agree.

“ Siri ,” a dark, angry voice said. “ Reply to text.”

“ What would you like it to say?” Siri asked.

“ Go fuck yourself. I have someone that treats me better than you did, that is better in bed than you were, and actually knows how to treat a woman. Why would I ever go back to something so subpar?” Gee’s liquid smoke voice drawled.

“ Sending ,” Siri replied.

My mouth was agape. “ You know, that’ll only make him try harder. He doesn’t like to lose.”

He curled his hand around my hip and said, “ The fucker literally changed your entire life when he left you on the mountain. But another thing he did was put you under my protection. And though we may not be seeing each other like I want us to, it doesn’t mean that I won’t protect you from afar.”

That made my belly burst into butterflies.

“ You don’t have to watch out for me, Gee ,” I admitted, looking at what I thought was his face. “ I …” He took my face and rotated it a few degrees so that I was facing him. “ Can take care of myself.”

“ Is that why you haven’t left your house in a month?” he questioned.

I snapped my mouth shut.

“ Your mom told me in the hospital that you’re terrified of being alone,” Gee said.

I sighed. “ I was…am. Was .”

I didn’t know what I was anymore.

“ Resigned , maybe. But you still don’t like to be alone,” he said. “ And since it literally breaks something inside of me when I know you’re up there, afraid to leave, I brought you here to get a dog.”

I clenched my fists to keep myself from reaching out to touch him. “ Do you like him?”

I found my fist unclenching and moving down to the dog’s head that was at the same level as Garrett’s hand on my hip. “ Yes .”

“ Then we’re getting him,” he said. He caught my hand and said, “ Let’s go talk numbers with Trance .”

Too stunned to come up with an excuse to keep the conversation going, I allowed him to guide me all the way up to the porch where the rest of them were sitting, talking quietly.

“ There’s a chair right here,” he said as he placed my hand on it.

But Rooster took over, guiding me to the chair with practiced ease.

Everyone was quiet until I was fully seated.

It was Pace , Oakley’s husband, that said, “ Looks like you found a match.”

I placed my hand on Rooster’s soft head and scratched him behind the ears as I said, “ Yep . Now , let’s talk numbers.”