Haru’s Love (A Stepbrothers BL Harem) - Chapter 69

I had a good hour-long nap, and when I got up, I felt a lot better. With Aki in my arms, I went down the stairs into the living area. It was noisy with Isaac and his friends playing video games and joking around. Mason had returned from his morning outing with his friends, too, and they now occupied the dining table, just drinking beer, eating snacks, and chatting.

At the threshold of the door, Jess came up to me and asked, “You feeling better?”

Aiden must have told her I had a headache.

I nodded. “Yeah. Much better.” I flicked my gaze to the other side of the room where Noah was in the kitchen.

I noted him eyeing me and giving me a smile. He wasn’t glaring intensely like he had done before. His gaze was warm and gentle, and that smile of his, it felt genuine. Instantly, I felt my stomach flutter and my heart skipped a beat.

Shit! What the hell? Why did my heart just skip?

I glanced away, my cheeks flushing hot. My attention on Jess again, I said, “What do you want to do now?”

Jess said, “I was thinking of helping your brothers with preparing the food.”

“Okay. You do that.” I knew she wanted to be with Reo, which I thought was cute. “I’ll take Aki out for a walk then.”

She asked. “Will you be okay doing that?”

I waved her concern aside. “My headache is gone, and I’m better now,” I said. “I’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” she said. “But call us if you need anything, all right?”

I chuckled. “All right.”

In the hallway, I got Aki ready, and then I put on my sneakers. I was just about to leave when Aiden appeared. “Taking Aki out for a walk?”

I nodded.

“Feeling better enough to do that?”

“Yeah,” I said. Then before he asked, I took out my smartphone to show him I had it with me. “I’ll phone if anything happens. But seriously, I’m just taking him around our block.”

Aiden nodded. “All right.” He kissed me on the forehead. “Everything should be good now.”

I looked at him, wondering what he meant by that.

Aki was eager the moment we stepped out of the apartment building. I must admit, the air was nice this afternoon, and I inhaled deeply.

As usual, Aki was curious about anything and everything, and as he led me here and there, my mind was on Noah. I was so deep in my own thoughts, in fact, that I didn’t realize we were way out of our neighborhood and were now entering another.

I looked around, eyes wide, admiring the place. Wow! The buildings here looked damn fancy. I bet only millionaires and billionaires lived here.

Aki barked loudly and insistently, which drew my attention to him. The pup then trotted toward an alleyway, begging me to follow him.

“What is it?” I asked, curious.

Aki barked some more, and then, there it was. My heart ached the moment I saw a dog lying on the ground, whimpering as if in pain. I rushed over and then went down to my knees. “Hey,” I said. “You okay there, little one?”

It was a West Highland White Terrier, and its coat was pure white. It was damn cute.

I leaned in close and let it sniff me. When it licked my finger, I chuckled and then stroked its head. I picked it up gently in my arms and then checked for injury, noticing also that it was a male. I saw the two front paws were bright red. They looked tender, too, which meant the canine had wounded himself. He must have stepped on something hot and burned his paws.

“We need to get you fixed up,” I said, a big grin on my face. “Don’t you worry about a thing. Leave everything to us.”

Aki barked, as if to agree with me.

I took my smartphone out and did a search on the internet to see if there was a vet close by and open on a Saturday. I smiled in relief when I found one.

We headed down the road a couple of blocks down, with Aki on a leash leading the way, trotting a few feet in front of me. The pup acted like he was the leader of the pack or something, which was cute. He probably wanted to show off to this guy in my arms that he was cool for knowing his way around the block even though we had never been here before.

We arrived at the vet, and luckily, I saw that there weren’t any patients—meaning pets—waiting with their owners. I headed up to the counter and asked the woman who I assumed was either the vet assistant or the receptionist, “Hi, do you have a free appointment today? This little guy injured his paws.” I nodded to the terrier in my arms.

The woman smiled as she reached her hand out across the countertop and stroked the dog’s head. “Aww, you poor thing.” To me, she said, “No worries. It’s your lucky day; we just had an appointment cancel.”

“Really? Nice,” I said.

“What’s your dog’s name?”

“I don’t know. I picked him up from an alleyway a few blocks back,” I said.

“And you brought him here straightaway?” she asked.

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“I see,” she said as she reached out again and checked the dog’s collar.

Of course, why didn’t I think to do that? Check the dog’s collar for his tag, which would have his name on it.

“Toby,” she said.

“Toby,” I said. “That’s a nice name.”

“Yes, it is.” She chuckled. “Don’t worry, we’ll fix him right up. If Toby’s home is around here, then it’s very likely he’s in our system. Why don’t you take a seat? I’ll call when Sean is ready.”

I took a seat in the waiting area, Toby in my arms, and Aki came to sit by my feet. The pup wasn’t hyperactive like he usually was, and I wondered if he knew that this place was a vet and he was behaving himself.

“You all right there, Aki?” I asked.

Woof! The little guy barked in reply.

“Wow! He’s very polite, isn’t he?” a male voice said.

I raised my head to see a man in scrubs standing a few feet away from me. He looked to be in his late twenties, and I must admit, he was damn good-looking.

“Yeah,” I said, giving him a smile. “He’s not really like that when he’s at home though.”

“Holy fuck!” he said loudly as he stared at me.

Huh? Did he just swear?

The man chuckled, his eyes on me. “Sorry, I was just…stunned.”

Stunned? By what?

He took a step forward. “I’m Sean, the vet here.”

“Oh, hi,” I said, working on getting up.

He took another step forward and helped me with Toby by taking the dog from my arms. “Is this the one I’m going to be looking after?”

I nodded. “Yeah,” I said. “Found him on the street.”

“You’re a good kid,” he said, giving me a dashing smile. “You wait here, err…”

“Haru,” I said. “My name is Haru.”

He nodded. “You wait here, Haru. Fixing this little guy up won’t take long.” Then he turned on his heel and disappeared into the room around the corner.

I sat back down and then turned my attention to Aki. “You want to go in there and play?” I pointed to the recreation area designated for cats and dogs. It had a cute fence around it, with toys inside.

Aki barked excitedly and then stuck his tongue out, puffing.

“All right,” I said as I bent down to undo the leash. Then I picked him up and popped him inside. The pup went straight for the ball and started playing with it, gnawing at it like it was one of the best toys ever. I laughed, watching him. He was so damn cute and entertaining. I couldn’t help myself and took a few photos of him on my smartphone, again. My photo gallery was full of him now, doing silly and cute things.

Since Aki was so content with his new toy, I left him to it and started reading notes from classes I stored on my phone to kill time while I waited.

Fifteen minutes later, Sean said, “Looks like he’s having fun.”

I lifted my head. “Done already?”

Sean chuckled. “Toby is very sweet, so it was easy to fix him up.” He showed me Toby’s two front paws, which were now neatly bandaged.

I slid my phone into my back jeans pocket and then stood. “That’s great,” I said, moving forward and extending my hands, offering to take Toby.

Sean took a few steps back, away from me. He said, “Just wondering, how did you get here? Are you even old enough to drive?”