“Sugar!” The dog was at his heels, as she usually was, but he needed her to back off for a minute. He had boxes in his arms and was trying to fish his keys from his jeans pocket while walking and the last thing he needed at that moment was his dog trying to weave between his legs like a cat.  “Sugar, chill for like, ten seconds. Then you can check it out, okay?” The dog didn’t answer, her ears moving and head turning while she stopped and Conor barely managed to avoid stepping on or accidentally kicking her. Then she was dashing off to investigate the new person and Conor gave a whistle that brought her back to heeling at his side.

They’d been having a nice day out. Hand holding, shopping, even having a mini argument if they could Christmas shop for Sugar when she was right there with them. But all it took was a single face in the crowd for Conor to completely stop and start pulling Peter to go somewhere else. He didn’t stop in pulling Peter away until they’d gotten to their building and into the stairwell. And even then, he waited a moment and looked around to make sure they hadn’t been followed. 

Thank God.