Heron Lake Plateau Mistakes have been made, run

Her ears slid backward as he pointed out that she should be pregnant. Rye couldn't know that he was touching a nerve, though she wasn't really sure what he wanted from her. She'd already told him there were no pups. And the more she thought about his phrasing, the more her ire grew.

"Maybe you guys were shooting blanks," she shot back. It was much more likely that she was the one with fertility issues, rather than the three males she'd coupled with, but Towhee didn't like how he immediately seemed to place the blame on her. It rankled her because it was too close to the sensitive truth.

Sucking in a loud breath, Towhee told herself to cool her heels. Rye didn't mean any harm. "There're no pups, dude," she said, going for casually reassuring but probably not succeeding. "We should both just be grateful," she muttered, something she'd been telling herself since finding out she hadn't conceived.