Even if she wasn’t Alpha, he shouldn’t go around her to his dad. He’d never heard his parents disagree on something to do with him and Kate. Either they never disagreed or they just didn’t do it in front of the kids. He shouldn’t pit them against each other. Which meant he had to ask them together. That did not, however, mean he couldn’t work on Dad first.
The next problem was getting Dad away from Mom. Like Kate and Logan, they weren’t always together, but it seemed like it. Luckily, this was Christmas, which meant routines had changed. Last night, they’d all gone out to cut down a tree. Tonight, they’d trim it. After dinner, Dad’s job was getting the decorations out of the attic while Mom and the twins made cookies.
“I don’t think three of us need to do this anymore,” Logan said as Kate stirred chopped chocolate into the dough.
Mom got out the cookie sheets. “Someone needs to make sure all that chocolate goes into the pan.”
“I’m not five, Mom,” Kate said … and tossed a chunk of chocolate his way before eating a piece herself.
“I thought I’d help Dad this year,” Logan said.
“Why?” Kate said. “You liked the smell of deer poop on your clothes so much that you want to see if mouse poop smells just as good?”
He flicked the back of her head and dodged as she kicked backward.
“Go on,” Mom said. “Just ignore the cursing.”
Dad was definitely cursing. He was snarling, too, as he stomped around in the dark attic.
“Where the hell did she move everything?” he was muttering to himself as Logan climbed up. “Goddamn it.”
“Language, Dad.”
His father only looked over and snorted. Logan got the feeling the “no swearing” rule came from Mom. Logan understood it, though—if they were allowed to curse at home, then they’d slip up at school, and Mom didn’t need more calls from the teacher.
“Mom didn’t move the decorations. You just toss them up here after the holidays and then forget where you put them.”
A grunt, but no argument. Logan picked up a flashlight and scanned the boxes, saying as casually as he could, “I meant what I said earlier about wanting to do more chores … taking on more responsibility.”
Another grunt.
“We’re old enough, and I think it’s a good idea.”
Dad walked deeper into the attic. “I asked Jeremy for more responsibility when I was about your age.” He shone the light on a box and heaved it up, placing it by the ladder. “Because I wanted something.”
“What? No, I don’t—”
“I wanted to go camping with the Sorrentinos. Jeremy said no.”
Logan picked up a box marked Xmas and moved it to the ladder. “Why?”
“Something about me being responsible once for us getting asked to leave a campground.”
“You got kicked out?”
“Asked to leave. It’s different.”
“Uh-huh.” Logan plunked down on a box as his dad kept hunting.
“I just wanted to sleep,” Dad said. “That’s the idea of camping, right? You hike and swim and go for a run, and then you sleep at night. Except we couldn’t, because the people next to us sat around the campfire all night talking. Loudly. So I decided, if we were going to have a quiet night, I needed to move their beer.”
“Steal it?”
“Move it.”
“But how would that help? They could still have a fire and talk.”
“Not without the beer.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
Dad shrugged. “Some people …” His gaze went distant. Then he shook it off. “That’s how it works with some people. The point of the campfire is the beer. Now, do I get to finish the story?”
“About how you stole their beer and got kicked out of the campground?”
“Moved. Asked to leave.”
“Because there’s a difference.”
“There is.” Dad caught Logan’s grin and gave him a mock glare. “I moved the beer to another site, where there happened to be a bunch of teenagers. If those kids chose not to track down the rightful owners, that wasn’t my fault.”
“Did you get to sleep?”
“We did. It was very quiet … until the next day, when the people next door saw the kids with their empties. One of the girls had seen me with the case and ratted me out. Then we were asked to leave. So the moral of the story is …”
“Don’t let anyone catch you when you move the beer?”
“Exactly. But the point is that I decided I’d show Jeremy I could go camping again by proving I was more responsible. I did more chores, and he let me go.”
“It worked, then.”
“Sure. After I broke a bunch of dishes, threw a red shirt in the white laundry, and doubled the salt in the stew, Jeremy was just happy to get rid of me for the weekend.”
“You’re not really making your case here, Dad.”
His father laid down the last of the boxes. “I’m kidding. Well, not entirely. I tried, though, and that was the main thing. The problem here, Logan, is that this isn’t the same. I wasn’t allowed to go camping because I messed up. You not being allowed to get a puppy has nothing to do with you messing up.”
“Whoa. What? Puppy? No, I didn’t say anything about—”
“You don’t need to. It’s the only thing you and your sister really want that we aren’t giving you. Therefore, it’s the only reason you’d suddenly decide you needed to show more responsibility. In this case, though, lack of responsibility has nothing to do with why we’re saying no. I’m sure if you get a puppy, you’ll look after it. Even Kate will. She may have laughed when her mom asked her to help Jeremy with dinner, but you know what? She went in and helped him. Irresponsibility with her is all about image.”
Logan would have smiled at that, but his heart was pounding too hard, seeing his puppy plan dissolve.
“It’s not about responsibility, Logan. It’s about timing.”
“I know.” His voice was so soft even he barely heard it, because he did know that, and yet he’d told himself otherwise. Responsibility was something he could fix. Timing was not.
Dad sighed and lowered himself onto a crate opposite Logan. “Sometimes, when your mom says we’ll talk about something later, what she really means …”
“Is that she doesn’t want to talk about it, and she’s hoping we’ll forget.”
“But that’s not what she means this time. It isn’t no. It’s not now.”
Logan nodded.
“What if we laid out a timetable?” Dad said. “Figured out when we might be able to make this happen?”
That was exactly what Logan had been hoping for. Before the puppy.
“Maybe the end of the school year,” Dad said. “We’d need to discuss it with your mom, but she was already talking about that. Spring’s a good time for puppies. She says we can put in our name with a breeder and then pick out the puppy as soon as it’s born.” Dad smiled. “Apparently, she’s done her research.”
Logan forced a return smile.
“And that’s not what you wanted,” Dad said slowly.
“It’s just …” Logan squirmed.
“Did you see puppies for sale? Is that where this is coming from?”
No, Logan wanted to say. I already have one. It’s out back, and if you come and see it, you’ll know it’s perfect for Kate, and it would be the best Christmas present, and it would make her so happy, and I really want to give it to her.