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She laughed "Liked? Don’t you hter fell away as she asked, "You’re not going to give her back, are you?"

He gave the other side of the chew toy to Atlas so he could take over "She’s not "

Heather made a face "I know your niece-to-be will probably be disappointed, but she only had her a couple of days It’s incredible the way the two of you have bonded" She pinned hi, Zach"

As he washed his hands at the kitchen sink, he reflected on the fact that teeks ago he’d been a bachelor with nothing bigger to worry about than where he was going to drink his next beer

"Teeks I was going to watch her, keep her fed, take her on a fealks, and then hand her back" He figured he should have felt grumpier about it, and made himself say, "This wasn’t hoas supposed to work out"

"Things don’t alork out the way they’re supposed to"

He knew that firsthand His father dying so young shouldn’t have been in the cards for his family But it had happened anyway

Heather looked really serious The saht she was regretting loving him

"There’s sout twisted She wasn’t going to leave, was she? She hadn’t decided it was a big mistake after all?

But when she held out a hand for hi to tell hied her mind about the two of them, she would have kept her distance

He pulled her closer before threading his hands into her hair and leaning his forehead against hers "You can tellher eyes to et the scars on my arms in an accident I ht of anything hurting Heather tore up Zach’s insides But knowing she’d done it herself? "Why would you hurt yourself like that?"

"After I found out about ether in school, pretending with my mother, but every time he came home from a trip I foundto bleed out the pain Trying to control soer"

Zach had to reach for her hands, had to press kisses to the soft skin of her pulse, along the tendons andthemselves, but he’d never known anyone who did it

At least, he’d thought he didn’t