Thom Baron has been struggling with social anxiety his entire life. He's taken the medications, gone to the therapists, followed the programs, and concluded his best life is a solitary one. When he comes across a dog in obvious need at his local market, it rekindles the desire to have some company around. It may come with a dishevelled coat, a notched ear, and a refusal to respond to anything but its given name "Ugly," but it could still be a friend.<br><br>However, Thom's new fur buddy has no such need to keep to itself and immediately befriends the man Thom has secretly coveted since he moved in -- Justin, Thom's gorgeous, bright-eyed neighbour. No matter how Thom tries to evade the man, the dog keeps drawing them back into each other's lives, and it doesn't take Thom long to recognize it's simply pursuing the demands of Thom's own heart. With the dog giving him the courage to try, Thom reaches out to return the love being offered.<br><br>Until a stranger shows up insisting the dog is his and demanding its immediate return ... a loss Thom knows will take all of his efforts and newfound confidence with it.

But by the Grace of Dog

Except, maybe it wasn’t. Maybe they needed to start doing more to make sure they got a chance to see each other even if it was hard or uncomfortable. They might surprise themselves by getting to the point where Thom was right now: enjoying the planning, looking forward to being together, and trying to relate the anxious drops of his stomach and the pains in his chest to something bigger and broader than unmanageable fear. Being anxious didn’t necessarily mean unmanageable orfear and he just had to keep reminding himself of that. When he forgot, Dog and Justin were more than happy to remind him.


“It’s nice out here,” Justin said, taking a deep breath.


Thom didn’t bother to argue, although he didn’t believe cloudy, gray skies or Celsius levels approaching single digits were nice in the least. He helped Dog into the back seat of Justin’s Rogue and got in as well, then spent the short drive going over the list they’d put together


Chapter 33