Torn [SHAWN MENDES]

~5~

Taryn pulled up in front of her mom and stepdad's house and put the car in park. She'd dropped Julian at home since he had a night shift at the hospital, which was for the best because now she could stay for a short visit. Earl opened the door and Hendrix came bounding down the porch steps to greet her in the driveway.

"Hello, baby!" she gushed as she squatted down to embrace her dog in a hug. "Were you a good boy?"

"He's always the best," Patricia said as she approached her daughter.

Hen had a doggy grin on his furry face, and his tail was wagging a mile a minute because he knew he was being talked about positively.

They went inside and Taryn sat down in the comfortable living room, exhausted after the long weekend away. It had been nice, but there was something taxing about putting on a smiling face day after day for Jules's friends. She wasn't a particularly social person, which was strange considering she had an extremely people-centric job.

Most of her fiancé's friends seemed to like her, and if any didn't, that was their problem, not hers. This was something she'd worked on a lot in therapy; you can't control how others perceive you, only what you put out there for them to see. There'd been a point in her marriage when she'd felt horribly judged and criticized, which eventually added to everything falling apart. It wasn't like they'd always been unhappy, though. As she looked at Hendrix, who was currently curled up at Earl's feet, she recalled the day they'd brought him home.

"He's so fluffy!" Shawn exclaimed as he craddled the puppy in his arms on the ride home.

Taryn was driving, but she reached over and rubbed the pup's soft fur. "I wonder if he'll stay this soft."

"He definitely won't stay this small. Did you see how big his mother is?"

"It will be fun to watch him grow."

They arrived at their beautiful house in Bridle Path. The puppy had fallen asleep, but his charcoal eyes opened as Shawn unbuckled the seat belt. "Hey little guy, let's try to make a pee on the grass before going inside."

He hooked the tiny leash on the even tinier collar and led Hendrix to the back yard. The pup sniffed around for a bit, and then peed and pooped.

"Good boy!" Taryn said excitedly. "I think house-training will be a breeze!"

The excitement wore off that night when the couple was kept up by the sound of the puppy wailing.

"How can he not be tired?" Shawn moaned. "He's been crying for three hours."

They could hear every bark and whimper even though he was in his crate in the kitchen and they were up in the master bedroom. The home was old and any noise carried through the ventilation system. Shawn would go down to the semi-finished basement to work on music, and the sound of his voice and guitar would make it up to the top level. Neither of them minded this fact at all, and they often talked about how convenient it would be once their family expanded. Who needed a baby monitor when you had paper thin walls and old ducts?

She sat up in bed. "Maybe we should bring him up with us, just for the first night."

"That goes against everything the puppy book says to do. We're supposed to help him acclimate by establishing a routine."

"But he's miserable! I'm going down to see if he needs to go outside and then I'll sit with him until he falls asleep. He'll still be in his crate, so it won't mess up the routine." She climbed out of bed and threw on some clothes since she and Shawn always slept naked. "I'll be back once he's sleeping."