Page 82 of Operation Rescue
“I know,” Ethan said, sounding chastened. “I’m still…learning.”
“If I can, you can,” Erin said quietly. And when the boy looked at her and nodded, totally without the antipathy Rafe had seen before, he knew they were going to be all right. In fact, he’d known it when he’d seen Ethan taping the photo he’d cut in half back together again.
“Good. Then I’ll turn this over to Marcus,” Rafe said, and leaned back to let the attorney take over.
“I’m going to lay this out, then you tell me if you agree with what we’ve arranged. Ethan, in the video from the convenience store you’re simply in a fight with another boy, correct?”
“Yeah,” Ethan said, but with a glance at his father he sat up straight and said, “but it was a distraction so Isaac could rip them off.”
“I appreciate the honesty. But no proof of you being involved in the actual attempted theft is in the video, thankfully, so the owners have agreed to press charges only against Isaac. But you are on video stealing from the pet store near the mission. And you were the only one committing a crime in that instance.”
Ethan lowered his gaze and said, “I know. Stupid.”
“Rafe and I, and Cutter,” Marcus added with a nod at the dog now parked at Ethan’s side again, “had a talk with the owner of that pet store. And he has agreed he will not press charges if, and only if, you come and work for him every weekend for the next ten weeks.”
Ethan’s head shot up. “Work? In the pet store?”
“Is that a problem?” the attorney asked.
“No!” The boy actually looked excited at the idea.
“So you’ll do it,” Blaine said, “even knowing you’ll still have to get your schoolwork done and any chores at home?”
He glanced at both his parents. “I’ll even walk if I have to. It’s not that far.”
“And you’re looking at summer school next session, too, to make up the time you lost,” Erin said.
Ethan grimaced, but it was a normal kid look, not angry, not hostile or hateful. “I know. I’ll do it. All of it.”
Once it was all worked out and agreed to, Ethan went outside with Cutter for a last round of tennis ball catch. Marcus gave them his card, but said this should do it and he’d let them know if there was any problem. Rafe walked him to the door, thanked him, then turned back to look at the two who were once more a couple. If he had to guess, he’d say unbreakable this time.
They walked to the door themselves, and watched Ethan and Cutter playing. When the boy saw them he came over, Cutter at his heels.
“Mom says once Dad’s all settled in and everything, we can get a dog,” he told Rafe.
Cutter barked, happily, as if in agreement with the idea.
“Yeah, I know, mutt,” Rafe said. “Everybody’s happier with a dog.”
“And Dad says when he’s out of the Marines he’s going to work here.”
“That he is,” Rafe agreed.
“I’d say that big debt you thought you owed Blaine is more than paid up now,” Erin said to him with a wide smile.
“Nope,” Rafe said. “It’s just changed. Now it goes both ways.”
Blaine smiled. “You got it, bro.”
Cutter’s bark this time sounded exactly like the sharp rap of a gavel, and Rafe grinned. “That’s his ‘case closed’ bark.”
Erin grinned back. “We’ll never find a dog that smart, but that may be for the best.”
“For sure,” Blaine agreed. “Keeping up with this one must be a full-time job in itself.”
“That it is,” Rafe said as Cutter came to stand by his side and look at the others. He reached down to stroke that dark head. “But it’s worth it.”
And later, at the private side of the airport awaiting Wilbur’s touchdown with Quinn at the controls, Rafe sat on the small couch with Cutter beside him, the dog’s head resting on the injured leg that likely would have ended up a death warrant if not for Blaine Everett.
“Thanks, buddy,” he whispered to the dog.
Cutter lifted his head and swiped his tongue over Rafe’s cheek.
And if anyone had pointed out that his eyes got a little wet, Rafe would have denied it.
Maybe.
* * * * *