Cougar stares at Jake, the pained look on his face a glimmer of what he's going through internally. "I told you," is his heavily accented reminder, "that I will not be good for you. And if we do that, it will only be a reminder of what we shouldn't do,' he says, feeling like dull knives are assaulting him in many ways.

He reaches down to get his boots back on firmly, tongue working his lower lip as he thinks about what that might be like (as if he hasn't already thought of this, many nights). He gestures for the dog, offering to take him.