After several nights of having a perpetually hyper puppy in his house, the silence as Scottie stripped out of his clothes and fell into bed was completely unnerving.
It had been late that evening when Lane Brooks, the veterinarian, had come out of surgery to tell Scottie that Sasha had pulled through and was going to be okay, but that they would be keeping her there for a couple of days for observation and he should go home and get some sleep.
He’d been so relieved at the news and so exhausted from worry and guilt that he hadn’t even considered how hard it might be to actually fall asleep once he was in bed.
But there he was, eyes wide open in his dark bedroom, covers pulled up tightly around him, wishing there was an easy way to shut out his thoughts and put this horrible day behind him.
All day long, Scottie had lurched from one low point to another, from the surprise visit by the health inspector, to the horrible accident with Sasha, to the hours of anxiety and uncertainty and worry while he sat with his friends, hoping like hell that he wouldn’t have to hear the news that he’d been dreading.
Thank God the news had finally been good.
Scottie shuddered as he considered the alternative and how devastated he would have been to come home alone afterward.
Yeah, no.
This was hard enough. Anything worse would have been just…
He reached up and dashed at his tearstained cheeks, determined to put that particular thought out of his mind for good.
And then there was Trenton.
Scottie still couldn’t wrap his head around the role Trenton had played in every single one of the day’s events. He’d been reluctant to let himself believe that Trenton could have been behind the sudden health inspection when Gage had brought up the possibility, but somewhere in the back of his mind, Scottie had sort of guessed it himself.
If that had been the worst thing that had happened that day, Scottie probably would have been rightfully pissed off about the act of sabotage, but it really paled in comparison to the emotional roller coaster that he had been on for the rest of the afternoon and night.
Still, he hadn’t expected Trenton to actually admit that he’d made that call, let alone to apologize for it. In the whole time they’d been neighbors—or technically, competitors—Scottie hadn’t heard a nice or even pleasant word come out of Trenton’s mouth.
But tonight?
Those had been real, raw emotions in Trenton’s eyes. Emotions that had mirrored the ones Scottie had been feeling. It had been a powerful moment, and the apology hadn’t come with any qualifiers. It hadn’t come with any excuses or pride.
How in the world could Scottie have done anything else but accept those words graciously and completely?
And that was what he’d done. As soon as the apology had left Trenton’s lips, Scottie had accepted it.
It had seemed almost trivial, like an afterthought at the time. But now, with the benefit of hindsight and the whole day behind him, Scottie could see that it really had been a big moment—not just for him, but for Trenton, too.
Scottie yawned. He still wasn’t quite relaxed, or anywhere near being ready for sleep, but the exhaustion was catching up with him whether he was ready or not.
He welcomed it, though. He knew he needed to rest, even as his mind still raced.
Even if every thought and every memory of that afternoon kept circling back to Trenton.
Yes, Trenton had called the health inspector, but he had also called the veterinarian’s office when Sasha and Scottie had needed help the most.
And while Trenton could have very well stayed inside his shop and watched the drama unfold from a distance, he chose to be there in the middle of the chaos, calm and sensible, as he made sure Scottie and Sasha were taken care of.
That fact alone counted for a lot in his favor, no matter what else he might have done earlier in the day.
Trenton hadn’t stopped there, though.
Most people wouldn’t have even gone to the clinic to check on someone else’s dog, but Trenton had. And he had stayed there in the waiting room with Scottie until the vet had come out and given the good news that Sasha was going to be okay.
Scottie wouldn’t have even expected that from his friends, let alone a business rival.
That counted in Trenton’s favor, too.
And that was why, as Scottie finally felt himself drifting off to sleep, he couldn’t think of Trenton as a rival. Just like he couldn’t have stayed upset about the health inspection.
Sure, they might not be friends… but now they weren’t rivals anymore, either.
They had some sort of new understanding. Some sort of new dynamic.
It made Scottie happy. It made him remember when he’d first moved to Silver Lake and opened the coffee shop, how he’d been filled with hope and possibility—before the realities of business and competition and small-town politics had set in.
He never thought he’d feel that kind of hope and possibility with Trenton, but here he was.
Thankful.
Happy.
Hopeful.
Scottie had barely been at work for half an hour when he heard footsteps coming down the hallway from the front of the coffee shop to his back office.
“Good morning,” Calvin’s sympathetic smile was the first thing Scottie saw when his friend appeared in the doorway. “How are you holding up today?”
Scottie looked up at the clock on the wall, incredulous. “You know it’s barely even five in the morning, right? The sun won’t even be up for almost another hour.”
“I know.” Calvin shrugged, as if it wasn’t completely out of character for him to be out and about this early. He and Jack might do a good job of getting to the bookstore well before the doors were scheduled to open for the day, but there was a world of difference between four-thirty in the morning and eight or nine. “I just wanted to stop in and check on you. I know yesterday was rough. Have you heard anything else about how Sasha is doing yet?”
“Not so far this morning,” Scottie answered. “But Lane told me last night he’d call first thing when he got to the office today, so I shouldn’t have to wait too much longer for an update.” He returned his friend’s smile. “Thank you for thinking of me today, though. I really appreciate that—and for staying with me at the clinic last night.”
“That’s what friends do,” Calvin said. “Friends and… Trenton, apparently.”
Scottie laughed. “I have to admit that I was kind of surprised he stayed, too.”
Which was a complete understatement, of course. Under normal circumstances, Scottie would have been absolutely shocked that Trenton had willingly even stepped into the same room as Calvin, Jack, Gage, and Scottie. He was definitely the odd man out as far as any of them were concerned.
But then, nothing about yesterday had been normal.
And when Trenton had said in no uncertain terms that he was going to stay with Scottie at the clinic, Scottie hadn’t had the energy or the presence of mind to argue.
“I was surprised he had the nerve to show up,” Calvin said. “Gage told me what Trenton did. He should be ashamed of himself—calling the health inspector, of all people.”
Calvin rolled his eyes as he spoke, but Scottie could only sigh.
“He was ashamed of himself,” Scottie said, his voice suddenly quiet as he thought back to the night before when Trenton had confessed to what he’d done. “He apologized to me when it was just the two of us there, and… I believe he was sincere, Calvin. I really do.”
Even now, even after he’d slept on it and thought about it some more, Scottie didn’t know what to make of his conflicted emotions regarding Trenton.
Calvin opened his mouth like he was going to speak, but then closed it again without saying a word. His skeptical look gave away his thoughts, though.
“You don’t think he meant it when he said he was sorry?” Scottie asked, wanting his friend to say it out loud if he doubted Trenton’s sincerity.
“I’ve never known Trenton Lewis to apologize for anything in his whole life,” Calvin said, finally. “But I wasn’t there when he said he was sorry. I want to believe that he was sincere, Scottie.”
“Did you know that Trenton was the one who called in the emergency when it happened?” Scottie’s voice was barely above a whisper now. It hurt to talk about it—actually physically hurt—but he wanted Calvin to see what he had seen, wanted Calvin to know there might, just might, be another side to Trenton that they had never realized was there before. “He rushed over when it happened. He got to Sasha even before Gage and I did. And then…” Scottie swallowed hard as his voice trailed off. “Then he jumped in and helped, Calvin. He made sure Sasha was okay. Then, later, he made sure I was okay, too.”
For several long seconds, the silence stretched out between them as Scottie went silent and Calvin still hadn’t responded.
When Calvin finally did speak again, his tone was still measured and maybe even still a little skeptical, but his expression had softened. “If he was good to you, that’s good enough for me. In this case, I’d say his actions should speak just as loudly as his words, and his actions were…”
“Good,” Scottie finished. “His actions were good. He really surprised me, Calvin.”
“Well, I won’t lie.” A smile spread across Calvin’s lips. “It shocks the hell out of me that he was actually nice to you. That he actually helped you.”
“He did, though,” Scottie insisted. “As surprising as it was—still is, to be honest—he was there for Sasha and he was there for me. I can’t pretend that he wasn’t.”
“There’s no reason to pretend he wasn’t.” Calvin paused, as if searching for the right words. “For all the ridiculous shit Trenton has pulled, he honestly did a lot of good yesterday. None of us should try to deny that.”
For as much as Calvin understandably disliked Trenton, Scottie had expected a little more resistance to the idea that Trenton might actually be a nice guy somewhere deep down. Or that he might at least be capable of doing nice things.
But even though Calvin was clearly having a hard time reconciling this new, improved version of Trenton in his own mind, he wasn’t trying to argue. He wasn’t trying to get Scottie to take sides.
And in Scottie’s opinion, that said a lot about their friendship, too. That Calvin was willing to set his own past and his own experiences aside in order to be supportive, was nice.
Really nice.
“I want to thank him,” Scottie said. “I mean, I told him thank you last night, of course… Or I think I did, anyway. It was all sort of a blur, if I’m being honest. But now that I can actually stop and think about everything that happened, I really do want to sincerely thank him.”
“And you should,” Calvin nodded. “I think that only good things can come from being kind and being thankful. I think you’re doing the right thing.”
Scottie had always heard that it was in times of crisis or tragedy that a person’s real friends would make themselves known, but he had never fully understood that saying until this moment.
Calvin was proof that it was true.
And surprisingly, so was Trenton.