Resilience Read Online Free Page A

thought you were one of the girls.” Oh shit, ‘the girls’ would skin him if they heard him call them that! But he was trying to get some breasts involved somehow, and…and he was a fucking idiot. Adam sighed. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”
    “Sure.”
    He jumped and sloshed coffee all over the floor. “Shit!” Adam set the pot down and
    tried not to glare over his shoulder at the… Oh, God damn it, the handsome dark-haired man with the bright green eyes. Holding an adorable puppy, who looked at Adam with a world of misery in its woeful expression.
    Adam’s irritation fled, as did his awareness of the man holding the puppy, except in the most basic of ways. “What’s a matter, little—guy? Girl?” He put a hand on the pup’s head and looked expectantly at the man holding it.
    The man blushed and stuttered and Adam’s inner vanity slut did a “Woot! I still got it, baby!” cheer. “Uh, yeah. Girl. Um, this is Babs, and she’s been lethargic since last night, but the rest of her litter is fine.”
    Adam took the puppy from the guy, forgetting about the coffee or manners or anything else. He peered into her eyes, then lifted her lip to check her gums. They were pale and his gut clenched just as it did any time he saw an animal suffering. “Has she and the rest of her litter been wormed?”
    The man nodded. “I bought this worming paste from Pets R Us—”
    Adam shook his head and tried not to melt the guy with a scathing look. “Do you know what kind, and for what internal parasites? Has she or the others had a fecal? And what about their boosters?”
    Those green eyes snapped with temper as the man planted his hands on his hips. “Wait just a fucking minute! Don’t get all snappy with me! You don’t know a thing about me, or these puppies or the dogs I rescue—”
    And that, Adam would reflect years later, was the inauspicious beginning of a friendship he’d never wanted but he treasured greatly.

Chapter Four
    “I kinda think he’s a douche.” Gabe shrugged and flapped one hand as if shooing away a fly. “Cute as fuck, but still. Then again, it’s not like I’ve never jumped to a wrong conclusion before. I have been known to have almost fatal cases of foot-in-mouth disease. Probably I shouldn’t be so judgemental.”
    Todd grunted as Babs nipped his thumb. Puppy teeth had to be made out of freakin’
    razor blades—“He seemed okay to me. Maybe it’s just that he actually cares about animals, you know. Like you do. So he’s protective…like…”
    Gabe rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. He’s almost as awesome as I am.” He laughed and picked Babs up, planting a noisy kiss on her head. “He fixed this beautiful little girl, so he can’t be a total monster. I still think he has douche tendencies, but eh, who doesn’t? Push our hot button and we go off.”
    “Some people have more buttons than tact,” Todd murmured, not really paying
    attention to what he was saying. He really wanted to know if Gabe thought Adam was gay or not, but there was the whole issue about Todd never admitting to being gay, and Gabe never asking him, and him not being able to act on it anyways so what’d it matter what parts Adam liked?
    Gabe thwacked him on the arm and glared as if he was the one who’d just been hit.
    “What kind of comeback was that?” He glared harder and pitched his voice to an annoying—
    more annoying—whine. “‘Some people have more buttons than tact.’ Really, Todd? You can do better than that!”
    “Not really.” He wasn’t the brightest bulb in the flower garden, but he wasn’t going to say that because Gabe had already lectured him several times about calling himself stupid.
    Todd wasn’t to even joke about his lagging IQ, at least not around Gabe. “Mind’s on work, I guess. Kaufman’s been a jerk—well, more of one. Found out he’s been giving my parents reports on who he sees me talkin’ to and whether he thinks I’m doing my job. Crap like