He shuddered slightly, then fixed Scott with wide, pleading eyes. “I wouldn’t choose to put these things up in my house, Mr Sanderson, but my parents do and right now I don’t have enough money to move out and…yeah.”
“I understand what you’re saying. My father and I…” Scott struggled to find words to describe their relationship and gave it up as a bad job. “You can lock the door. We don’t have to talk about it.”
“Thanks.” Toby shoved the key into the door and Scott wondered how people with such a blatant interest in Jesus could be contemplating shooting six puppies for not making them any money. Truly he did not understand Christianity. Though he suspected he now knew what made Toby unusual for a boy of his size and handsomeness. He had that nervous ‘is this a sin? What about this? Is this a sin? Am I sinning? Am I a sinner?’ look of the few truly religious boys he met at school.
Toby was just pulling the key from the door when a silver Yaris rounded the corner. He didn’t have to see their faces to know it was Samantha, the ache in his belly told him everything he needed to know. He waved, realised the girls hadn’t seen him and jammed his hands inside his pockets.
“That’s them,” he told Toby. “The younger sister, Tabitha, has blue hair.”
“And the one you like has the black hair?”
“I…”
“We don’t have to talk about it,” Toby said quickly.
They watched as Sam drew the Yaris up to the curb. She looked so fucking pretty, Scott could hardly stand it.
“Tattoos,” Toby whispered, staring at the girls.
“What’s wrong? You don’t like tattoos?”
“I don’t mind them.” He checked his watch again. “My parents hate tattoos.”
Scott wanted to ask if his parents liked anything except huge, decaying statues of Jesus but Tabby was bursting from the passenger seat with her turquoise hair and even more colorful tattoos. “Greetings, Nova Scotia! Who’s your mate?”
“This is my assistant, Toby. His parents breed spaniels and he’ll be showing us the puppies.”
“Hey, Toby!”
Toby gave her an awkward wave. He was hunching slightly and Scott fought the urge to tell him to stand up straight and smile properly.
Sam got out of the car, sweeping her long black hair over her shoulder. When she smiled at him, Scott felt like he was levitating off the ground. “Hello.”
“Hey.”
“It’s great to see you, again.”
“It’s good to see you too.”
“Yeah, yeah, blah blah, can you feel the love tonight?” Tabby interrupted. “Where are these puppies at?”
Toby pointed to his back gate. “They’re, uh, right this way.”
He led them into a medium backyard where three full-grown Cocker Spaniels came snuffling up. Tabby immediately bent to pet them. “Are these the parents?”
“No, Mopsy, the mother is in the shed. We, uh, don’t know who the father is.”
“Bastards,” Tabby said, looking impressed.
“Um, yeah kind of.” Toby walked over to the plastic and corrugated iron structure and pulled the deadbolt back. “Uh, Scott, did you want to…?”
With a trepidation he couldn’t place, Scott walked up and stuck his head in the door. There were six pups in total. They were bigger than they’d been in the video, their coats thicker and their dark eyes bright as beads. Their mother was there, a golden Cocker Spaniel reclining on her side. She seemed to smile at him in welcome. Scott watched as the puppies struggled to their feet and made their way toward him, ambling so sweetly he was almost embarrassed. They were just so…gorgeous.
Someone poked him hard in the shoulder.
“Okay, mate,” Tabby said. “Time to move aside.”
He stepped aside and Tabby rushed in. “Is it okay for me to lie down and have them jump on me, Tobes?”