SHE ONLY STOLE THE DOG

The night my boyfriend proposed to me, his ex suddenly punched in the door code, burst into the house, and grabbed his dog to run off with it. "I only steal dogs, not men," she tossed out, and told us to carry on.

Oliver launched himself off the bed anyway, yanking his pants on as he chased her, and forgot his shoes entirely. Only the dog still remembered I existed.

In all the chaos, it turned around and bit me. Chapter 1 "Crazy woman!

Breaking into a house in the middle of the night to steal — I'm getting you locked up tonight!" Oliver chased her into the living room. His pants were only halfway on.

He tackled his exgirlfriend, Georgia. In an instant they were a tangle of arms and legs. Grappling on the floor.

Georgia kept swinging at Oliver's face while she yelled: "You're getting married and you still won't give me my son?" "You know what they always say — once a stepmom walks in the door, the kid loses his dad too!

A child has to stay with his real mother, that's the only way he grows up healthy in body and mind!" The son she meant was an Akita.

Just then he was circling the room in a panic, teeth bared. I straightened my clothes and got out of bed. The Akita tipped his head and met my eyes for a hundredth of a second.

Then he lunged and clamped down on my calf. The pain punched a grunt out of me and I dropped to the floor.

The way I always did when he'd done something wrong, I barked his name, cold and hard. "Churro!" But he clamped down and wouldn't let go. The bedroom door stood open.

Out in the living room, Oliver and Georgia were still rolling around. Rose petals from the proposal were scattered everywhere. Beautiful and absurd.

Except for the dog, nobody in that house remembered there was still a me in it. As if I were the one who'd broken in. I gritted my teeth and reached down to pry his jaws apart.

He only bit down harder. The points of his teeth went through skin and flesh, and my vision went black. "Oliver…" I shouted it.

At the same moment, Georgia flipped him over and pinned him. "Let go. I am taking my son today." Oliver was six foot one and in the gym yearround. And he let her hold him down.

But his arms and legs stayed locked around her. "Why should I? It's not like you're short one dog.

And Churro has always lived with me." I felt for the water glass on the nightstand and threw it at the wall as hard as I could. The crash of it. The whole world went quiet.

The dog let go and shot over to Georgia's feet with his tail tucked. Oliver leaned half his body in from the living room. Fumbling his pants the rest of the way on.

He saw my calf running with blood. His face, marked with a few scratches, filled with worry.

He was across the room and down on one knee beside me. "What happened?" The pain put a shake in my voice. "Your son bit me. Yours and hers." Before I'd finished, the room swung.

Oliver had already picked me up and set me on the bed. "We stop the bleeding first. Then soap and running water, a full fifteen minutes, by the book.

Then the ER for the shot." "Georgia. Get the gauze." I knew it was the right sequence. Something in my chest closed up anyway. I didn't want one more second in that house.

Didn't want to look at the three of them, that whole little family! I knocked his hand away and jumped off the bed. "I don't need your help!

I'll take care of it at home—" My foot had barely touched the floor before the blood came again. Oliver pushed me straight back down. "Sit.

This isn't the time to be difficult." Georgia pulled her collar closed over a wide stretch of bare white skin.

And went straight to the storage cabinet for the first aid kit, no hunting for it.

She dug out the gauze and put it in Oliver's hand. "My son has never bitten anyone before…" A vein jumped in Oliver's forehead. He snatched the gauze.

He pulled my leg across his lap and pressed down on the wound. And without lifting his head, he snapped, low: Chapter 2 "Georgia. Out. Of my house.

Now." The dog growled at me from beside Georgia's legs. Nothing but hostility, trying to run me off. Georgia patted his head. "You saw it yourself, Oliver.

Our son won't accept this stepmother. Just let him come with me." "Nod once and I'm gone." "I promise I'll never bother you and Rachel Delaney again." Oliver took a deep breath.

He checked the wound, which had stopped bleeding, and lifted me up. He stopped when he passed Georgia. "You're not getting Churro.

Stay or go, I don't care." Then he carried me into the bathroom. And set me carefully on the counter.

He soaped the wound, and the apology was all through his voice. "Akitas bond hard — it's built into the breed. She and I bought Churro together.

He was probably stressed out just now…" "I'm apologizing to you on Churro's behalf!" The soap worked up a lot of bubbles on my leg. The water washed them away.

Like Georgia showing up. Making the dog I'd fed for over three years turn and bite me. And showing me that my golden retriever boyfriend had a Jack Russell side.

My three years were like the bubbles too. Pretty. Easy to break.

When I didn't say anything, Oliver thought for a moment and tried again. "When I broke up with her five years ago I made it very clear.

As far as we were concerned, the other one was dead." "It honestly never occurred to me she'd come.

That's the only reason I never changed the code." I looked at the wound on my leg. It hurt. It hurt enough that my heart cramped with it.

I couldn't help asking: "Is that really all it is?" Georgia cut Oliver a sideways look and snorted. "Who breaks up with someone five years ago and still uses his ex's birthday for the door code?" "The first aid kit isn't even in a different place." "Tsk.

That lazy. Only someone with a screw loose would say yes to marrying you." Oliver's hand pressed down harder.

Head down, he asked, low: "Georgia, is there something wrong with you?" She covered her mouth and looked at me. Like she was catching up to herself and patching it over. "Ms.

Delaney, don't get the wrong idea!" "I wasn't taking a shot at you.

I just wanted to trash him." "In all fairness, he really does have plenty of good qualities…" "Like, he's a total softie!

I keep working on him and he'll hand our son over for sure." Oliver ground it out through his teeth. "Get out." Georgia lifted her chin. "No." I saw the edges of the wound going pale.

I pulled my leg in and dropped off the counter. "I'm the one who should go. I'll stop intruding on the two of you." Oliver caught me. "Don't move around.

Your leg's bleeding again." He was right. It welled up every time I moved. Not a leg for walking on. It was two in the morning, and I didn't want to call anyone for help.

And I wanted even less to run out of there like a thief. Oliver lifted me back onto the counter and kept rinsing. He pressed a kiss to my forehead.

And said, gently: "Don't listen to a crazy person. She's just trying to force me into giving her Churro." "You know I'm a little OCD.

Everything has its place and it stays there." "Once we're married we move into the new house and sell this one.

Then no code here matters." "When the new house is finished, the code will be our anniversary." The new house. Another ache went through me.

He'd worked so hard these last two years.

Every time I complained that he never had time for me, that I even had to walk his dog for him, he'd say: Chapter 3 "I'm working to make enough money to marry you." Earlier tonight, when he proposed, he'd produced a deed — paid in full, no mortgage.

He said he was putting the house in my name. And the address was the place I'd casually said I liked two years ago.

Remembering that, I nodded and gave him his answer. "Yes!" But Georgia stuck her head into the bathroom again and asked: "The new house? Stillwater Cove?" Oliver's hand stopped.

Georgia suddenly started laughing. "You actually bought in Stillwater Cove?" "Back when they were developing it, I was the one who told you to buy there…" I heard her. And froze.

So even the part that had moved me had been for nothing. Oliver threw the soap at the wall.

He turned and glared at her. "That house is where Rachel Delaney and I are starting our marriage. She likes it.

That's enough." "What does one cent of it have to do with you?" "Where the hell did you even come from?

Five years dead and you claw your way out of the grave just to make my life miserable?" When he was done shouting he picked me up again, and his voice went soft. "Ignore her.

We've rinsed it long enough. We're going to the ER." I understood that he was drawing a line between himself and Georgia on purpose. My heart started going cold anyway.

Because I couldn't tell how much of the happiness I thought I had was Georgia's shadow. Georgia twisted her mouth.

She followed him out, still arguing. "Somebody posted pictures of your proposal in our old class group chat. I bought a plane ticket and flew out to pick up my son.

What's wrong with that?" "If you'd agreed to let me take him in the first place, none of this would be happening." Oliver's face stayed cold.

On his way out the door, he threw back one line: "Georgia.

If you're still here when I get back, or if that dog is gone, I will actually call the police." Georgia shut the front door behind us from the inside.

Oliver's lips stayed pressed together.

He didn't speak until he'd set me in the car. "Rachel, I really never thought she'd show up." "You know I've been completely faithful to you." He buckled my seat belt with careful hands.

He adjusted the air vent, careful about that too. My throat felt like there was a boulder in it. I couldn't give him anything back.

After the shot, they made me sit in the ER a full thirty minutes before they'd let me go.

Oliver handed me a container of hot soup he'd just gone out and bought. "It's the caldo from your favorite place. Eat a little." I didn't take it. He moved the container closer.

And started picking the cilantro out with a fork, one sprig at a time. I watched his hands. Until there was not a piece of cilantro left in the bowl. Then his head came up fast.

He said my name, at a loss. "Rachel…" My nose stung and my eyes went hot. But the corner of my mouth curved up. "Oliver.

I like cilantro." "The one who needs it picked out is Georgia. Right?" An ex only has to stand in front of him. She doesn't have to do a thing.

And it's enough to send a storm across the still lake of his heart. Because habit runs deep. The past never wipes all the way clean. "Rachel, I was just worried you'd take it wrong.

I blanked out for a second. I didn't know what I was doing." He threw the container in the trash. He crouched in front of me and took my hands, nervous. I didn't pull away.

I only looked into his eyes. "Mm. I know you blanked out." Which is how your subconscious got to decide for you. Picking out the cilantro Georgia won't eat.

Oliver's eyes snapped wide, and he rushed to his verdict. "There is no possible future with Georgia. None." "We broke up five years ago because we'd both had it with each other.

We were tired of fighting. We couldn't keep going." "Don't read into it, okay?" Tired of fighting. Broken up. That isn't the same as not loving her.

Chapter 4 Maybe he hadn't even noticed it himself. While he was wrestling with Georgia, the words coming out of his mouth were vicious. But he couldn't stand to actually hurt her.

Not by one hair. I took my hands back, and my voice came out thin and far away. "Oliver, I don't have to read into anything.

I have eyes." "Nobody can lay their whole heart out in the sun.

I saw a side of yours I didn't want to know about…" "There's a splinter in me now, and it won't come out." "Let's end it here." Oliver stood up and put both hands on my shoulders