I opened the back door of the BMW and Crowbar took his sweet time crawling in. He was the most chill dog on Earth. Hayley and I found him on the beach three years ago. He didn’t have a collar or a chip. After a month of passing out flyers with no results, I decided he belonged with me, knowing full well I didn’t have the lifestyle for a dog. The vet thought he was about two years old when we found him so he was about five even though he lumbered through life as though he was already a senior dog. Unless a squirrel was in the picture.

I made sure he was secured in his harness before driving home. I called Hayley even though she was probably elbow deep in baths and getting the boys ready for Friday movie night.

“Is everything okay?” She sounded panicked.

“Yeah, why?”

“Because it’s early and your first game is Sunday and you never call me at this time.”

“We decided to knock off early because tomorrow is going to be a bitch of a day. I swear I know more about the Browns than they do.”

“I’ll be watching.”

“Guess who showed up today to visit me?”

There was a pause before she answered. “Shut up. No, she did not.” Hayley emphasized every word.

“Yep. I was on my lunch hour going over the playbook and she plopped down a cup of coffee, saying she knew that I would never call her, so she decided to stop by.”

Hayley huffed into the phone. “That’s so rude.”

It had been a week since I told her about the charity event and how Parker had given me her number. “It wasn’t too awkward. It was a nice conversation given our past.”

“Just be careful. You never got closure with her and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

I instantly frowned. I couldn’t decide if I was upset because she didn’t think I was emotionally ready to have a friendship with Parker, or because there was some truth to her words. I took a deep breath. “I’ll be careful.” Crowbar interrupted our serious conversation by sneezing twice.

“How’s the doggo doing?” Hayley asked.

“If we weren’t the Cheetahs, we’d be called the Crowbars because this dog has won over every single heart in the place, including the owner.”

“I can’t believe you picked that name.” She chuckled.

“Hey, the dog chose the name. You know that.”

“Well, you tried to call him Melvin. Nobody likes that name. Not even a dog,” she said.