All Chapters of Cracking His Code: Chapter 181

OliverThe dog finds my socks again.It’s six in the morning and I’m on the back step of the kitchen with a cup of coffee in one hand and a half-shredded sock in the other, watching a fifteen-kilo brown idiot tear across the lawn toward the cedars with my other sock in his mouth and no intention of giving it back."Mishka!"He doesn't turn. He doesn't even slow."Mishka, you absolute bastard!"Nothing. The cedars are very interesting this morning, apparently. Our white cat, Anya, who Kir picked out at the shelter in February because she "looked like she was very discerning” is on the windowsill behind me watching this entire transaction with the dispassion of someone who decided long ago the dog is beneath her notice.I take a sip of the coffee. Still too hot. I burn my tongue. I swear, quietly, at the cedars, the dog, the sock, and the cat, in that order."You are losing this fight, lyubov."Kir is in the doorway behind me. Bare feet, wearing one of my t-shirts for some incomprehen