Page 110 of Hatchet & The Hellcat
“Are you guys coming?” Jessa shouted from the back deck. “We have to leave now.”
I sighed. “I guess we’re taking the puppy? We can stop by the vet to have them scan her for a microchip on our way home.”
Hatchet smirked. “If we’re taking the puppy, we’ll have to take Chaos. She’ll get jealous.”
I shook my head incredulously. “Why not? Let’s fill the van with kids and animals. That won’t be overwhelming at all.” Sarcasm wore at the edges of my humor. And my sanity.
Hatchet kissed my head. “Don’t worry. I’ll wrangle it all for you.”
“Come on!” Jessa yelled again.
“Grab the puppy,” Hatchet said to Charlotte. “We’re not keeping him, but we can’t leave him alone.”
Hatchet clicked his tongue for Chaos to follow. I picked up Isabella and trailed behind them.
Once everyone was loaded up and buckled in, we hit the road. I sat in the back beside Kolter and let Jessa take shotgun.
“You’ll call every day, right?” Hatchet asked from behind the wheel.
His sister rolled her eyes. “If I have time.”
Jessa had been accepted to a summer writing institute in Edinburgh and would be spending the next two months exploring Scotland and Ireland with a group of students before her senior year.
“If not for us, call for the girls. They’ll miss you,” I said, pressing back my tears.
We said our goodbyes to Jessa at the airport and headed straight for the vet’s office.
“A stray, eh?” the vet asked. “Nice looking dog. Probably a border collie, by my guess.”
He ran the scanner over the pup’s back. No beep. No chip.
“You can call the shelter and maybe check the local Facebook groups, but someone probably dumped him nearby, and he wandered into your yard because he smelled your dog. Shelter’s full, as always.”
I glanced at Isabella and Charlotte, their eyes begging. I shifted my gaze to Hatchet.
“Up to you, babe.”
Hatchet shook his head. “What, a little more havoc in the Morris-Perry household? If no one steps up to claim him, we’ll keep him.”
The girls jumped and cheered.
“Havoc? Sounds like the perfect name.”
And it was. Because even with all the havoc and chaos in our lives, we’d built something real. Our life would never be quiet or simple. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be.
Somewhere in all the noise and madness, I realized love wasn’t quiet. It was loud, messy, and unbreakable.
