Page 22 of Approved (The Dapper Duck #1)

Chapter twenty-two

TYLER

Yogi and I stood near ticketing, obviously forlorn because I dreaded leaving for another two months.

This time, we would be in a different facility, as I worked with Yogi and taught him how to best facilitate my needs.

When I found out how much money West had spent to secure Yogi for me I had nearly passed out, but instead of losing my shit thinking he was trying to trick me by doing nice things I accepted he did it out of love.

Yogi circled on his lead, sensing something was wrong, but not yet trained how to handle it.

I squatted down and pet his head, “You are right, Yogi, it will be okay, he isn’t sending me to a bad place. I am choosing to go somewhere to make myself better.”

When I left my loved ones, it would always be triggering, but I felt I could do it this one last time.

I hoped that when I traveled in the future, I would do so with my partner.

When I stood up, I slipped into West’s arms where he held me tight against him, then kissed me soundly.

“You will be home before you know it. Everything will be ready for you to unpack, and you won’t ever have to leave alone again, but you and Yogi need this.”

I tried not to cry and curled into his chest again, as I nodded.

“I know.”

West had asked me to move in with him right after Christmas.

We agreed to move all my stuff, but officially, my first day would be when I got home.

My house would be rented out since it was a good investment, and for the moment, I didn’t need the money from the sale, since I took West at his word, we were okay financially.

We had discussed buying a house together, but agreed that the house he had was wonderful.

There were a few remodeling bits, but it was perfect, especially with East and Allison next door.

A massive gate had been installed in the fence between the two houses so Yogi could come and go when he wasn’t working.

There was talk of creating a tunnel for the cats to pass through, but at the moment, Larry and Charlie were happy in our house.

The knowledge that it was our home calmed me.

It was time to go, and I knew it, but it would be difficult to leave.

Earl was on West’s shoulder, and looked around blissfully unaware that I was about to leave him for two months.

We could bring him to the clinic if it got too difficult for him, but we thought this might be best.

Earl loved West and the rest of the family, and because of that, I hoped the separation wouldn’t be too traumatic.

We would allow him to see me on video calls, so maybe this would be okay.

After one more kiss, West pulled back.

“I love you, now go.”

“I love you, too.” Then I turned and walked away.

At least I wasn’t being threatened and dragged, but this was still hard.

I could hear ‘chrp chrp’ repeatedly while I walked away.

Earl had figured out I was leaving and didn’t like it.

Before rounding the corner, I turned and waved.

The entire time I was at the clinic, I could feel myself change for the better.

I started to trust, and when I wanted to hide, Yogi reminded me to change my thinking.

I was glad to head home, but it had been totally worth leaving.

As Yogi and I entered the baggage claim area, my heart skipped a few beats.

I saw West standing there with a bouquet and balloons that said welcome home.

West hadn’t brought Earl because he was afraid that the airport would be tough for him to reunite, plus there was apparently a surprise for me.

We got in the limo, unable to keep our hands to ourselves.

I straddled his lap and kissed him hard.

He was amazing at keeping in contact with me while I was away, but I missed the physical.

Having forgotten to take off Yogi’s work vest, he pushed his paw against my thigh because my emotions were clearly off the charts.

West and I chuckled.

“It is so good to have you home, Baby.” He said while he kissed down my neck.

I reached over and pulled Yogi’s vest off.

He knew now that he was free to play or nap because, without his vest, he was officially off duty.

“I missed you. I missed sex.” He laughed, and I reached for his zipper.

“God, I want that more than anything, but we are almost at our first stop.” I looked out the window, and we were downtown, about thirty minutes from home.

I could easily get us both off in that amount of time.

“We have all kinds of time. I will blow your mind in the next thirty minutes.” The limo pulled into Flower Power’s parking lot.

“You brought me to my shop?”

“Kind of?” West was being a little cagey, which made my heart skip.

I started to worry about what he was hiding.

Even off duty, Yogi put his foot on my thigh, which made me aware I was thinking things I shouldn’t.

I needed to trust.

West wouldn’t hurt me, and whatever was about to happen would be okay.

“Can I blindfold you?” The question caught me off guard.

I’d had fantasies about him blindfolding me during sex, but this didn’t seem the appropriate place.

“Yes?!”

“It will only be a few minutes, but I want to show you something.”

“Um. Okay. You’re not going to kill me, are you?”

He laughed.

“Not tonight, love.”

“That was terrifying. Where’s my attack dog?” I reached out for Yogi while West covered my eyes with a scarf as soon as I stepped out of the limo.

“You know he isn’t that kind of doggo, right?”

I chuckled.

“You don’t know what we learned.”

He handed me Yogi’s leash, then took the other hand and walked me away from Flower Power toward the other end of the strip mall.

It made me question what he was up to.

“Okay. Stay here. Your attack dog is right with you. I need two minutes. Standing in the middle of a parking lot with my eyes covered was a bit disconcerting, but I trusted West completely, even if my brain tried to test that sometimes. I heard the rattle of keys in a door, then even through the blindfold, I could tell it got brighter, like there was a flashlight in my face or some other light.

I heard footsteps come back toward me, and I hoped it was West or I was actually about to get murdered. “Okay, Baby.

I got our family something.

” He untied the blindfold.

It took me a second to register what I was looking at.

The strip mall had six shops.

Flower Power was on the corner, followed by the gift shop run by Mrs.

Bea, who had to be eighty, the sandwich shop with the great coffee, and the last three shops were the furniture store.

However, the furniture store wasn’t there any longer, the windows all had brown paper covering them, but there was a huge colorful sign that read:

CHARLIE’S PLACE

I blinked, still unsure what I was looking at, until West handed me a folder.

Inside was a proposal for a foundation that helps with legislation around conversion therapy and helps those who are victims.

Since they often fall under church rules, they got away with crimes they shouldn’t, and it needed to stop.

The paperwork covered information about being a sanctuary for teens who had been sent, more like kidnapped, into these camps.

Charlie’s place would give them the mental health care needed after the abuse these ‘camps’ inflicted.

There were many pages of resources that would support teens who needed a place to stay, which included a couple of small rooms at Charlie’s place.

There was a long list of doctors who had volunteered for office hours when we opened, meaning mental health professionals would be on site.

“You started a foundation to help teens that …” I couldn’t find words.

Sinking to my knees, I couldn’t hold back the sobs.

I wondered how things would have differed had I had a place that would guide me to resources and help me with my trauma.

It didn’t matter because we would help as many kids as possible, and change the laws so these places would be shut down.

Strong arms wrapped around me, and I cried harder while Yogi whined, his foot on my thigh, clearly unsure of what to do with my current emotional state.

That paw told me to calm my thoughts—he was right, but Yogi had to learn the difference between how I smelled and reacted to positive versus negative stimuli.

This was so much, and my brain tried telling me this was a trick.

I knew I had to let go of the past insecurities and embrace the future.

When we stood back up, I looked at my partner, the love of my life, and smiled.

“Thank you.” They were simple words, but they were hard for me to say.

However, once I said those words, the burden I always carried when someone was nice slipped away.

He did this out of love, not because he was trying to convince me everything was okay when it wasn’t.

“Anything for you, baby.” I could see in his smile that he knew how hard it was for me to accept this gift from him, and then I looked at the sign again, which was named after our cat.

He took my hand and led me inside the building.

There was still a lot of work to be done, but the drywall had been started.

It was framed so he could show me where our office was.

There were three therapists’ or private meeting rooms, a conference room, a common area, a reception, three small bedrooms with private bathrooms, and a small shared kitchenette.

Then there was a large open office where legislation would be handled.

It was a fantastic setup, and I knew we couldn’t help all the kids who were abused, but we could make changes in our community and our state.

And offer a safe place and resources for some of them.

“This is amazing, West.” I wrapped my hand around his waist and pulled him close to me.

“I had to do something, the thought that other kids would go through what you did haunts me. We can only try our best.”

I curled myself into my boyfriend, whom I loved more than anything.

Yogi barked and wagged his tail, which was acceptable since he didn’t have his work vest on.

His help was beyond anything I had ever hoped for.

I thumbed through the paperwork again and noticed the list of trustees.

It included me, West, Jamie, East, Spark, Angus, and my therapist.

All these people wanted to help save these kids who were abused—it was overwhelming in the best possible way.

At the front door, he handed me a set of keys.

I looked at them and smiled.

There were keys to Charlie’s Place and to our home.

“Let’s go home.” He said while smiling.

“I think that’s a great idea.” The three of us walked back to the limo.

It felt good to step forward with my life and not think about it as a lie.

This was the life I deserved, and I planned to embrace it with my best friend, who was also my partner.