“You would have had claim on Luke by blood, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes. But he needed his mother, too. And she needed help. And—”
He cut himself off. This was insane. He wasn’t going to explain to this near-stranger why he’d done what he’d done. Let him think whatever he was going to think. He was regretting already that Foxworth knew as much as he did.
When did you start running off at the mouth? he asked himself sourly.
He should get Luke and Alyssa, and they should just go home. The fight was over, and Luke had scared them enough that he thought they might be able to avoid the heated exchanges in the future. It would be hard to pry the boy away from the dog he was having so much fun with, but—
Almost on the thought, the dog stopped mid-romp. He spun around on his hindquarters and stared at Drew. And then he bolted, straight toward them.
Cutter sat, not as Drew would have expected, at Quinn’s feet, but at his own. The animal stared up at him intently. No, more than intently. That gaze was intense, and seemingly impossible to look away from. Drew thought of tales he’d read as a boy, of sheepdogs who controlled their flock with just the power of their eyes, and cattle dogs who did the same. He’d always thought it a bit fanciful. Now he wasn’t so sure.
“Uh-oh.” Quinn’s voice was wry, almost wary sounding.
Drew lifted a brow at him. “Your dog trying to tell me something?”
“He’s expressing an opinion, yes.” Quinn crouched down beside the animal, who only flicked a glance at him. “We can’t, boy. We don’t do domestic. It’s not our place.”
Drew shifted his gaze from the dog back to the man, who had seemed perfectly sane moments ago. Yet now here he was, talking to a dog as if the animal could comprehend every word. We don’t do domestic... What the hell did that mean?
Cutter let out a low sound, not a growl but a sort of whuffing bark. It sounded oddly insistent.
“No, Cutter,” Quinn said.
The insistent bark came again just as Luke, clearly curious at the departure of his delightful companion, came up to them.
“Do you have to leave?” the boy asked, looking crestfallen.
“We should,” Quinn said, “but I’m not sure he’s going to let us.”
“Okay, this is crazy. He’s a dog,” Drew said.
“Sometimes,” Quinn said. “Sometimes I’m not sure what he is.”
“Quinn?”
Hayley’s voice came from behind him, and Drew turned to see the woman and Alyssa approaching. Lyss was smiling, and he was thankful to Hayley for that if nothing else.
“Do we have a...situation?” Hayley asked as they came to a halt. She was looking at the dog.
“It seems we do.”
Hayley frowned. “Did you tell him this was personal, not really our business?”
“I did. He’s not listening.”
“I think,” Drew muttered, “I’ve lost my mind. We need to get out of here.”
“And away from the crazy people who talk to a dog like he’s a person who can understand?” Hayley said.
Drew blinked. “I....”
“It’s okay,” Hayley said with a smile that was impossible to ignore. “We understand, believe me. It took us a long time to accept that...he really does understand. Not the words, perhaps, but he knows what’s going on.”
“Well, I don’t,” Alyssa said, watching this all with much more amusement on her face than anything else.
“He knows there’s a problem,” Hayley explained. “And it’s in his nature to want to fix it.”
“You mean to want us to fix it,” Quinn amended drily.
“Well, yes,” Hayley agreed with a laugh. “It is our function to figure out what he wants and try to do it.”
This time Drew and Alyssa were united. They both looked from the dog to his people in wary disbelief.
“You’re saying he wants to fix our problem?” Alyssa asked.
“He wants it fixed, yes,” Hayley said. “He likes people. He loves some. And he doesn’t tolerate fixable problems well.”
Drew looked back at the dog, who was still staring at him in that way that made him faintly uncomfortable. “Fixable?”
“Yes. But he thinks everything’s fixable. At least, he has so far.”
“I don’t think so,” Alyssa said. “Not this time. I’ve been trying for years.”
Drew’s gaze snapped to his wife. “What are you talking—”
“Let him try, Dad!” Luke said, sounding anxious, as if he thought a fight was about to start. “Please? Mom? Maybe he can help. He’s really smart.”
“This,” Drew muttered, “is ridiculous. We’re down the rabbit hole.”
“Luke, honey, why don’t you and Cutter go play a little more, because we will have to leave soon,” Alyssa said. “Let us talk to Quinn and Hayley.”
Luke hesitated as Cutter didn’t move. Hayley stroked the dog’s head. “Go ahead, boy. We’ll talk.”
The woof that came this time was much more pleased sounding. And Drew shook his head sharply at how willing even he seemed to be to assign human emotion to the dog. But the pair raced off to continue whatever boy-dog game they’d made up.
Alyssa watched her son go, then looked at Quinn. “Hayley told me what you do. What Foxworth does, I mean. And it sounds good, and noble, and all that. But there’s nothing you can do to fix us.”
Drew winced inwardly. She sounded so certain. Not that he thought this Foxworth outfit could fix them, but Lyss sounded so sure they couldn’t be fixed at all.
And she was probably right.
“Drew told me about his brother,” Quinn began.
“Oh, I’m sure he did,” Alyssa said, her voice fairly dripping with resentment.
“I only told him the truth,” Drew said.
Hayley stepped in before things escalated, saying calmly, “And Alyssa told me her side of things. Which I’m sure is very different.”
Drew stayed silent this time, reminding himself of his determination to never fight over this again.
“You each have your opinions, your interpretations of what happened, then,” Hayley said.
“I
