Nova Grace

28

Chapter 28| Grampas and move outs

"Take my mind
And take my pain"

— Heal , Tom Odell

𑁍Nova𑁍

It takes us a full hour driving around to find the damned antique store Abue — as I'm calling him now — ran off to

To say dad is pissed is an understatement, he's apologized about a thousand times already, but the boys think it's hilarious and honestly, I do too. I never imagined my first day back to be this eventful, it's been great

I'd rather be chasing an old man around than watching the guys tiptoe around me, still not used to the new healing, work in progress version of myself

They're doing better than I expected though, there's been no staring or awkwardness

"Why are you so prickly? I even bought you a mermaid" the old man grumbles as soon as we step into the living room

Dad stands with his back to us and his hands on his hips, clearly trying to regulate his emotions and not snap at his Papa. Or maybe he's trying to convince himself not to murder him, you never know with these guys

Abue takes said mermaid out of the bag, a hideous, 8-inch mermaid older than the pyramids themselves that must've cost him like either half a dollar or a few thousand bucks at that antique store

They, of course, start arguing about where to put the damn thing. Dad says the garage and Abue the living room, right beside the TV so everyone can see it

I tune them out when Luc comes over with our new cat in his arms, poor thing looks scared as hell in his arms so I take her from him. She instantly relaxes against my chest like the cute (not so little) baby she is

"Wanna help me bathe her? I think she'll have a heart attack if I do it myself" he says wincing, I smile and nod

Lucas leads us upstairs and into his room, I look around as he gathers the supplies. His room is messy, with no particular theme. The furniture doesn't match at all and there's a small couch in the corner full of fluffy pillows and blankets next to a guitar and a bookshelf

There's no TV, but the white sheet-like thing on the bare wall in front of his bed tells me he must use some kind of projector, Milo's bed is on another corner with a basket filled to the brim with different kinds of toys

Something about the place is so warm and welcoming I kind of want to stay here forever

"Got it, I always keep shampoos and supplies in stock at the shed since I always had at least couple of rescues a week coming and going but it was mostly doggies. I still have cat hypoallergenic shampoo up here though, gotta be prepared" he says as we go downstairs again

I guess he doesn't use cheap 2 in 1 shit, since the label looks like it's something expensive and probably better than what he showers himself with

"Why don't you rescue as much anymore?" I ask, a little confused as he takes us to the shed

He sighs "I still do my best to get them out of shelters and find them suitable homes before they're euthanized or when they've been there too long. Sometimes shelters are overcrowded and can't give sick pets the help they need and stuff like that so I intervene. I have social media accounts that have helped find homes internationally too, I once found a two-legged, wheelchair user puppy a home in Portugal. The guy was loaded and had five other dogs that nobody usually wants to adopt for different reasons, he was awesome"