"Really bud? You have to go potty?" I groaned, hearing the rain pelting on the roof while Sturgill whined pitifully and scratched on the door. He then ran to the window, scratched on it, then began barking.

"Okay. Maybe you should go now before it gets too bad." I sighed, my storm phobia beginning to kick in.

I opened the door and stepped onto the porch, and in just those few moments the rain picked up even more and the wind was howling and kicking, sending the rain sideways from the force of it. However, through the downpour, I saw what I believe was the real source of Sturgill's restlessness: the puppy we had seen yesterday was back, now pressed tightly against the shed, using the small overhang to seek some kind of shelter.

The sight tugged at my heartstrings. There was no way I could leave it out there to fend for itself. It was so small and defenseless, poor thing wouldn't stand a chance if the storm got as bad as predicted. With another sigh, I grabbed my shoes from next to the door and slipped them on, then stepped out in the downpour, immediately getting soaked to the bone.

I approached the puppy slowly, not wanting to scare it off, however, the puppy made a beeline for my car, crawling beneath it. There were already deep puddles developing around the car. Soon, those puddles would spread underneath the car and this poor puppy would drown in them. Muttering and cursing under my breath, I lowered myself onto the ground, right in a puddle.

Small, dark eyes stared fearfully back at me, but I couldn't reach it. From beneath the car, I saw headlights approaching, and wondered what kind of fool was out on the road with this weather. The lights got closer then shut off and I heard a car door shut. I stood up, and watched in disbelief as a figure approached.

"Ryan?" What the hell was he doing here? He was supposed to be in New York.

"What are you doing out here Bree? It's storming" Sturgill immediately ran over excitedly to greet his dad, unconcerned with the heavy rain. I had a million questions, but they could wait.

"There's a puppy under my car. I think it's a stray, but I can't leave it out here." I quickly explained, becoming more frantic.

Ryan didn't say a word, he just lowered himself onto the ground. "I can't reach him. Try on your side." He finally said a few moments later.

I got back down on the ground and reached as far as I could. I could feel the ends of the wet fur, but I couldn't get a hold of him. "I can't reach either. Damn. I'm so close."

"I'm going to come around to your side, and see if I can reach." Ryan said.

"No. If you get up, he may see that as an opening and run off. Just give me a minute." There wasn't much time though. The water pooling under the car was getting closer and closer to the terrified puppy.

I wedged myself as much as I could beneath the car, but it still wasn't enough. "Come on little guy, just work with me here. I know you don't want to be out here anymore than I do. I promise I won't hurt you. Come with me and I'll take you inside where it's nice and warm and dry. I'll get you some food. Please sweetie. Let me help you." I pleaded, wanting to cry in frustration.

A loud crack of thunder boomed from the sky, scaring the absolute shit out of me, but it also scared the puppy enough that he moved closer to me. Close enough that I was able to wrap my hand around his back foot. "Sorry little guy. I don't want to hurt you, but we have to get inside now." The puppy yelped when I tugged his back leg, but soon enough I had the little soaked, shivering body against mine.

"I got him. Let's get in the house." I hollered to Ryan and we ran to the door, Sturgill following close behind.

Both Ryan and I were soaked to the bone, dripping puddles of water onto the floor. I held the puppy out to him. "Hold him for a minute, I'll go and get us some towels."

I went into the laundry room and grabbed several towels that I had washed earlier from the dryer. As an afterthought, I turned the dryer back on to warm the towels in case the dogs got too chilled. I then realized my soaked white t-shirt was completely transparent and you could see nearly everything. I wrapped a towel around myself and tucked the end into place to hold it up.

I handed a couple of towels to Ryan, one of which he used to try and dry off the puppy as much as he could, while I rubbed Sturgill down as he shook himself off.

"I uh...I'm going to go change into some dry clothes. I think I still have some clothes for you here." I said to Ryan.

I went into my bedroom and removed the towel, taking a moment to squeeze the water out of my hair and towel dry it. I then stripped off my wet clothes and put on another bra, t-shirt and some joggers. I found a Whiskey Myers t-shirt of Ryan's, as well as a pair of grey athletic shorts and black joggers. Knowing Ryan, he was probably freezing. I grabbed my wet clothes off of the floor and tossed them into the washing machine before going back to the living room.

"I was wondering what happened to that shirt." Ryan chuckled when he saw it in my hand. I didn't tell him that this was my favorite sleep shirt. It was so soft and worn, and no matter how many times I washed it, it still smelled like him.

"I'll take the little guy while you go change. You can toss your wet clothes in the washing machine."

"About that...uh...this little guy is actually a little girl." He chuckled again.

"Good. I was starting to feel outnumbered." I laughed.

While Ryan was changing, I sat down on the couch with the puppy and wrapped her in a towel. She was still shaking. I didn't know if it was because she was cold or scared. Probably both. I finally got a good look at her. She was ridiculously cute, with soft, cottony white fur that had small patches of grey, like one of the millions of poodle mixes I've seen. She was small, maybe about seven or eight pounds. She was in that gangly puppy stage where their legs almost seemed too long for their bodies. If I had to guess, I would say she was probably less than six months old. Her fur was also very matted, which led me to believe that she had been on her own for a while. She kind of reminded me of Bubba and Amanda's dog Asher, just smaller.

"Feeling better now little girl?" I cooed softly to her while trying to dry her off more. She then began licking my hand, and that made my heart happy, almost as if she was thanking me for rescuing her.

"How's she doing?" Ryan asked, entering the room in his dry t-shirt and joggers.

"She's still shaking a lot, but she's coming around. She's a sweet little thing." I replied.

"You amaze me, you know that?" Ryan said.

"No. What did I do that was so amazing?" I asked.

"You just faced your biggest fear head on to save a dog that isn't even yours. That's pretty damn amazing to me."Ryan replied.

"I just did what any decent human being would do." I shrugged it off, feeling my cheeks begin to heat up.

After shaking himself off again, Sturgill came over to me and began sniffing the puppy. She seemed to come to life in his presence, eagerly sniffing him back until they were nose to nose.

"And you..." I hugged Sturgill tightly. "You are such a good boy. The goodest of the good boys. You let me know that she was out there and she needed help. Great job buddy." I praised him as his tail wagged harder and harder with each word I spoke.

"The bestest boy." Ryan agreed, scratching Sturgill lovingly behind his ears. He then looked at the still shivering puppy in my lap. "She probably needs another towel."  He said, getting up.

"The ones in the dryer should be warm." I said.

He returned with a warm towel, which I wrapped the puppy in and cuddled her.

We had both become silent now, and it was really starting to feel awkward. I had so many questions.

"What are you doing here Ryan? You weren't supposed to be back until Thursday." I finally asked.

"I wanted to check on you. I know how you are with storms, and this is supposed to be a bad one." He shrugged.

"While I appreciate that, Ryan, don't you realize how dangerous it is to have been on the streets tonight? And I'm sure Laken really appreciated you leaving her behind to come and check on me." I was honestly perplexed.

"Laken's still in New York, where she belongs. She and I are over." He replied.

Now I was beyond perplexed. "But...what about the baby?" I asked.

"There is no baby."

What?

"She lost it? I'm so sorry Ry, but shouldn't you be there with...."

"There never was a baby Bree. She lied about being pregnant." He interrupted me.

"I'm really sorry Ryan. I feel terrible for you."

"Don't Bree. Yeah, it sucks she lied, but everything worked out the way it was supposed to I guess."

"What do you mean you guess? You think you're going to be a father and suddenly find out you're not? I would be raising hell." I huffed.

"It worked out for the best because I would have been having a baby with the wrong woman." He said softly.

I jumped out of my seat. I was not ready for this conversation just yet. "I'm going to see if this little one is hungry."

"Bree..." He called out to me.

"You shouldn't have come tonight Ryan. It was really dangerous and really stupid for you to be out on the road tonight.

Before either of us could say anymore, both of us received an ear splitting alert on our phones.

"Looks like we are stuck together. They just closed the bridge for high water." He said, looking at his phone. "And Davidson county is under a flash flood warning."

"It wasn't like I was going to make you leave Ryan. I'm not that cruel." I said, turning my attention back to getting the puppy some food and water.

More awkward silence followed, until we both heard the loud boom of what sounded like a transformer blowing. The house went pitch black for a moment, but then the emergency generator kicked on, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"I bet you're glad I talked you into getting that back up generator installed." He chuckled.

"Very glad." I chuckled back, especially as it seemed the tension had been relieved just a bit.

I turned back to the puppy, who was showing a good appetite and had finally stopped shaking. "What do you think, Stormy? Aren't you glad we aren't in complete darkness?"

"Stormy?" Ryan asked.

I shrugged. "It seems appropriate."

"So since you named her, does that mean you are going to keep her."

"I...yeah. I think so. I mean I guess. Unless she actually has an owner. I don't think she does, but I have to know for sure. I can't just go stealing puppies. But if she needs a home, she has one here."

"Well, she picked the right house to get saved." Ryan said.

Then, just like that, the awkward silence returned once again. This was going to be a long night.

But then, Ryan finally spoke. "Why'd you do it Bree? Why did you leave me? I want the truth this time. I know you weren't seeing anyone else. I know you didn't travel like you said you would. Tell me why. What did I do wrong? Dammit I was ready to marry you. I had a ring, I had a plan. I had a fucking speech planned, but all of a sudden, right out of the blue, I had no girl for any of it."

I knew it was coming. Finally the million dollar question, and I seemed to have lost the ability to speak. He sounded so angry right now. I honestly didn't expect it. Not that he didn't have a good reason, it just seemed to come from nowhere based on the events of tonight.

"Answer me Bree. I deserve to know why you broke my heart. I loved you so fucking much. I still love you even though you crushed me. Tell me why." He demanded.

"Because I had cancer." I blurted out.