Groomed For Love: A Steamy Standalone Instalove Romance, Flora Ferrari [macos ebook reader .TXT] 📗

sleep as much as the empty space in the bed where he spent the night with me.

My hand stretches out to find him, but he’s gone, just his warmth remaining.

It forces me awake and as I rub the sleep from my eyes I can hear his voice getting louder, angrier.

I groan to myself, wondering if we might make it through a whole day without any drama, but remember what he told me last night about quitting the force, I kinda figure there’s gonna be some backlash.

He’s downstairs but his voice carries all the way up here and once I get myself out of bed and make my way to the landing I can understand why he’s yelling the way he is.

“Well Moose is hurt and so am I, so the way I see it is I’ve had enough… Not requesting leave, requesting acceptance of my resignation, effective immediately. Not coming in today or any other day, got it? I don’t give a shit about your roster.”

I figure he’s on the phone with his boss, getting a grilling for driving off in someone else’s patrol car as well as refusing medical treatment and not even trying to submit any paperwork for what happened last night.

He growls something personal and obscene about where he can stick his badge and gun before slamming the hallway phone down.

It rings again almost straight away, but despite his cursing, the vet is patient enough to explain it’s someone else calling.

I make my way down the stairs once I hear it’s the vet calling.

Fingers crossed for Moose.

“Ah, sorry about that doc. Just had someone else on the line… My boss… Yeah, it’s a can of worms. How is Moose though? Oh wow, great!” Parker explains, looking more cheerful by the second once he perceives Moose is doing better.

“Well, I’d prefer if he was here at home but-”

Then his brow darkens, taken aback.

“What D’you mean?” he asks, and I slip over to him, grateful to feel his body relax into mine as he sits me on his lap on the couch while he speaks on the phone.

“He what? Really?” Parker gasps and then chuckles.

This doesn’t sound like the typical phone call the morning after your dog’s been injured on the job. Or does it? I wouldn’t know. New to the whole cop K9 thing.

I would never have thought Parker would quit over everything either.

Quitting what he does just for me.

I lean in closer so I can hear, and Parker moves the phone so I can hear what the vet’s saying.

“It’s the darndest thing, but every time we go to get that stray out of her cage, Moose starts barking and growling. Like there’s hell to pay if we touch her… Let alone do what we have to do next.”

I gasp, remembering the other dog at the vet from last night.

I feel myself frown, shaking my head. I had no idea they were going to put the dog to sleep.

Parker seems to agree, and without saying a word to me he grips my hand and squeezes it.

“Doc? I think you should hold everything until we can get down there, can you do that?” he asks.

I hear a loud sigh from the other end of the phone and then the vet agrees.

“Okay then, I thought you might like to know what was happening. Apart from that, Moose is doing fine. He should stay here another day even two but I know how you feel about it.”

Parker lets out a low sound of his own, his jaw flexing too. I just know it’s time to get ready and head back down to the vet’s clinic.

“Gimme an hour will ya?” he asks the vet. “We’ll head down as soon as we’re ready.”

Parker’s eyes meet mine as he says ‘we’, and I feel my heart flutter. He grins and raises a brow when he says it, and it makes me feel more special to hear that than when he runs his hands over me.

Okay, maybe not more special, but it sure is nice to hear him say that.

He hangs up. Smiling.

“Sounds like Moose is better already. Already giving the staff down there hell when they try to mess with his girlfriend,” Parker says, grinning like a proud father.

“Girlfriend?” I exclaim, recalling the sick dog we saw last night, but not making a connection with Moose.

“Aww, c’mon,” Parker teases me. “You saw how he was looking at her. He was smitten,” he says, a matter of fact.

“Uh, he was unconscious,” I counter, making us both grin.

Parker and Moose are up to something, I can feel it.

Two partners in crime who up until yesterday fought crime. And I’m not gonna get between the special bond they have, not for a second.

“So we’re heading back to the vet’s?” I ask, readying myself to fix breakfast and hopefully grab a shower too.

“We can grab something on the way,” Parker muses, pressing his fingers together in a pyramid as he smiles to himself.

“Dishes can wait too,” he adds, reading my mind. “I think we should look at getting a maid anyway…” he adds, making me wonder if he got a bump on the head last night as well as a ‘scratch’ on his huge arm.

I feel my face screw up at the mention of a maid. Not feeling at all comfortable with anyone else but us being in our own house.

Listen to me, I think I’m picking this up already.

“No maid,” I bargain with him. “But maybe a dishwasher that doesn’t have two arms and legs?” I suggest.

“Deal,” he agrees instantly, clapping his huge hand over my thigh and hurrying me up into the shower so we can go.

“We could shower together,” I suggest, biting my lip and wondering just how long it all might take before he shakes his head in the negative.

“This is the one time I’ll pass on that idea, Naomi,” he says seriously. “Moose is waiting and I want to get down there and see just what the hell he’s been up to all