“What is going on between you two?” Castle frowns. “This is not the energy I expected from either of you on—”
“Sir?” Ian is standing at the sliding screen door—the only access point into the house from the backyard—and motioning Castle forward with an agitated wave. “Can you come here, please? Now?”
Castle frowns, then glances between myself and Sam. “There will be plenty of time to discuss unpleasant matters later, do you understand? Today is a day of celebration. For all of us.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Sam says to Castle. “Everything will be fine—right, Warner?”
“Perhaps,” I say, holding her gaze.
Sam and I say nothing else, and Castle shakes his head before stalking off, leaving the two of us alone to enjoy an uncomfortable moment of silence.
Sam takes a sudden deep breath.
“Anyway,” she says loudly, looking around now for an exit. “Exciting day. Best wishes and everything.”
My jaw clenches. I’m saved the need to respond to this limp performance of civility by the abrupt, sharp bark of a dog, accompanied by the timid admonishment of a human.
Sam and I both spin around toward the sounds.
An animal I hardly recognize is scratching wildly at the screen door, yapping—at me, specifically—from several feet away. Its once mangy, matted fur is now a healthy brown, with an unexpected smattering of white; this accomplishment is undermined by its bright red collar and ridiculous, matching headband, the undignified accessory crowned with a large crimson bow, which sits atop the animal’s head. The perpetrator of this crime is standing just beyond the dog, a tall, redheaded young woman desperately begging the pup to be calm.
Kenji had said her name was Yara.
She struggles in vain; the creature pays her no mind as he barks over and over, all the while pawing anxiously at the screen door—my screen door—which he will no doubt destroy if he does not soon desist.
“Let him out,” I say to her, my voice carrying.
The young woman startles at that, quickly fumbling now to unlatch the screen door. When she finally manages to slide the panel open, the animal all but lunges through the doorway, yanking her along with him.
Beside me, Sam makes a poorly muffled sound of disgust.
“I didn’t realize you hated animals,” I say without looking at her.
“Oh, I love animals. Animals are better at being human than people are.”
“I don’t disagree.”
“Shocking.”
I turn to face her, surprised. “Why are you so angry?”
Sam sighs and nods discreetly at Yara, who waves enthusiastically even as she’s dragged along in our direction.
I raise my eyebrows at Sam.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that,” she says, irritated. “You have no idea what Nouria and I have had to deal with since you arrived. It got a hundred times worse after everyone decided you were some kind of a hero. It was a really low moment for us, realizing that so many people we respected were shockingly shallow.”
“If it makes you feel any better,” I say, taking a breath as I lift a hand in Yara’s direction, “I don’t like it, either.”
“Bullshit,” Sam says automatically, but I sense her flicker of uncertainty.
I lower my voice as Yara closes in on us. “Would you enjoy being reduced to nothing but your physical footprint, forced all the while to absorb the weight of strangers’ indecent emotions as they assess and undress you?”
Sam stiffens beside me. She turns to look at me, her feelings scattered and confused. I feel her reexamining me.
“Hi!” Yara says, coming to a stop in front of us.
She is an objectively kind young woman; I recognize this even as I fight back a wave of revulsion. Yara has done the animal—and me, by extension—a great courtesy, which she needn’t have done for a stranger on such short notice. Still, her feelings are both generous and disconcerting, some of them loud enough to make me physically uncomfortable.
The dog is wise enough to halt at my feet.
He lifts a tentative paw as if to touch me, and I give him a sharp look, after which the paw retreats. In the intervening silence, the dog stares up at me with big, dark eyes, his tail wagging furiously.
“It was kind of you to wash the animal,” I say to Yara, still staring at the dog. “He looks much better now.”
“Oh, it was my pleasure,” she says, hesitating before adding: “You look—you look really, really nice today.”