The Marine's Pet Read Online Free Page B

set quite that hard.
    “Good news,” she said, hanging up the phone. “My friend just called. She took Nunu home by mistake.”
    “Good,” Austin said. “Let’s go get him.”
    “You’re sure?”
    “I’m sure I don’t want you driving in your current state,” he said. “Come on, we’ll take my car.”
    Sarah’s relief at having found Nunu was severely dampened by sitting next to Austin as they drove over to Matilda’s house. It was only twenty minutes away, but it felt like an eternity. He was stony-faced next to her, his eyes firmly on the road. For her part, she didn’t know what to say. She’d fucked up massively and he’d seen her in a way she had never wanted him to see her.
    Matilda was glassy-eyed, but thoroughly amused at her mistake. She had Nunu wearing a little sweater, God only knew where she’d gotten that from, but he was wearing the pink and orange garment with some serious aplomb.
    “Nunu!” Sarah called him and he came running, bounding and bouncing, tail wagging as he hurled himself into her arms. “I was so worried.”
    “Sorry,” Matilda said. “I really did think he was my handbag.” She included both Austin and Sarah in her next comment. “You know how it is.”
    Austin’s jaw tightened. “I can’t say I do, ma’am,” he said politely. “We need to be getting on, thank you for looking after Nunu.”
    Sarah wrapped Nunu in her arms and picked him up. “I am never going to let you out of my sight again,” she promised the little dog, who rewarded her for her promise of vigilance with a lick to her nose. It was the first and last good thing that happened that day.
     
    * * *
     
    After driving them all home, Austin stopped the car outside her gate.
    “Thank you,” Sarah said. “And I’m sorry. For everything.”
    He nodded, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel as if he was thinking about something. “I’m sorry too,” he said. “Why don’t you go and get some rest. You need it.”
    “Yeah,” Sarah said. “I’ll do that. Thanks again.”
    She slunk inside, her nonexistent tail between her legs. After making sure Nunu was secured inside, she set to cleaning the place up. Her head was still pounding and she couldn’t stop the tears flowing as she pushed general debris into an oversized garbage bag. Though her body was aching, she didn’t stop cleaning until the floor was clear and vacuumed, every surface wiped down, her home brought to an order she hadn’t experienced in years.
    Only then did she drop down on the couch, pull her favorite crocheted blanket down over her, and collapse into sleep with Nunu at her feet.
     
    * * *
     
    She didn’t hear from Austin for the rest of the day, or the next day, or the day after that and she was far too ashamed of herself to make contact with him herself. Things were over. The best, most intense relationship she’d ever been in was over.
    Sarah went into a strange decline. It was a very dry decline. She made sure not to do any drugs or drink anything; in fact, she cleared her house of anything that might remotely resemble an intoxicant. She would not allow those substances to destroy anything else. Even if she never painted another damn thing again.
    Nunu was sympathetic to her plight. He spent most every moment with her, lying on the couch in their strangely tidy home, his head on her chest as she watched the ceiling and wished things had been different.
    On the third day after the party that had ruined her relationship, a knock at the door roused her from her misery. She opened it to find Austin standing there, even more handsome than she had remembered.
    “What are you doing here?”
    “I’ve been thinking,” he said. “I’m sorry it’s taken so long for me to come back to you.”
    “It’s okay,” she said. “I get it.”
    “No, you don’t.”
    She looked at him, feeling completely hopeless. “You’re done with me, aren’t you?”
    He reached out, took her chin between his thumb and forefinger