Page 19

Noah threw the sock again, but instead of retrieving it, Denala walked to the door and whined.Uh-oh. Puppy time. Momma just remembered she had responsibilities other than sock retrieving and tug-of-war-ing.
Noah’s voice sounded different. His face looked different, as if he’d slipped away right in front of Zach’s eyes. It didn’t appear to be a panic attack, more like a total shutdown. Denala whined again, dragging Zach’s attention back to her. He had to handle her, but he wasn’t leaving until he and Noah were back on the right track.
“Let me take care of Denala, and I’ll be right back, okay? It must be feeding time for the puppies.”
“Sure. No problem.” Noah popped up and walked over to Zach’s dog. He fluffed her ears and said, “Thanks for the visit, noble protector. I don’t give a damn what the police academy said. My vote says you’re a total badass.”
“I’ll be right back,” Zach promised as he opened the door. Denala shot across the hall and waited for him to punch in his code. He stood inside Noah’s apartment, holding the door open and wishing he knew what to say to fix what he’d screwed up. Since he wasn’t sure what he’d done, he didn’t have a clue what to say.
“I’ll be right here,” Noah said with another one of his sad smiles.
“Okay. I shouldn’t be longer than five minutes.”
“Take your time,” Noah said as he wandered over to the food basket and started exploring what was inside.
Shit, everything felt wrong. “Five minutes,” Zach promised as he stepped outside into the hallway. Noah’s door closed quietly, but to Zach, the noise echoed through his head.
“Come on, Denala,” he said as he punched in his code. “I’ll get you settled and then Daddy needs to take care of your new friend. I messed something up back there, and I’m not quitting until I know what it was.” Zach got her settled onto her dog bed with all the puppies surrounding her, made sure she had fresh food and water, and then headed back to Noah’s apartment. He was nervous—terrified he wouldn’t be able to fix what he’d broken. It would be easy to blame Noah’s shutdown on his phobia, but blaming him would be total bullshit. He’d done something wrong and he needed to make it right.
Zach felt both determined and optimistic when he opened the door of his apartment and stepped out into the hallway. That, of course, came crashing down when he noticed the basket of food sitting right outside Noah’s door.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he muttered in frustration as he crossed the hallway, digging into his pocket for Noah’s house key as he walked. “Double fuck!” He’d laid the key on Noah’s kitchen counter next to the food basket.
A smart person would take the hint and leave things alone; Noah had made it crystal clear their night was over. Hell, probably more than their night. Zach didn’t feel very smart at the moment, though, so he pounded on Noah’s apartment door. “Open the door, Noah.”
Silence.
“Come on, Noah,” he urged through the door. “Let me in.” He knocked again. More silence. “Noah! Please, open the door.”
Silence.