Lex shifted the backpack off his shoulders and placed it gently in the back seat. “Some do. But not Frost. She’s practically a dog. She plays fetch. She loves going on walks and hikes. She even loves meeting other dogs and cats.”
“Wow.” Maybe I could be a pet person… if all pets were as cool as Frost. Even Penny hadn’t been so bad last night. She chilled with me in my little house, curled up beside me while I watched Netflix. And even though she snuck up into the bed during the night… I had to admit, it was kind of nice sleeping beside another living, breathing creature.
Lex opened the front passenger door for me, and I felt my muscles go rigid when he did it. I haven’t had a man open a door for me in years. Not since Brandon. I wasn’t sure if I just omitted a stay away vibe or what, but men did. They stayed far away.
And his moment of kindness… of chivalry struck me hard, right in the chest. A swallow stuck to the back of my throat as I hoarsely said, “Thank you,” and slid in, turned around and put my finger to the globe. “Hey, Frost,” I said. She meowed and rubbed her face against where my finger was.
Turning to face the front, I buckled myself in. “I live just outside of downtown. If you follow Main Street south, I’m at the bottom of the hill.” I was less than a mile from downtown Maple Grove and that’s just how I liked it. I wanted to be able to walk into town and not have to drive everywhere, especially in the warmer, summer months. Unfortunately for my windshield, yesterday had been one of the rare days that I had driven to work, solely because I had promised to give Callie a ride in.
“That’s a great area,” Lex said. “I wanted to open my shop there, but the only available properties were listed for sale, not for rent.”
That statement caught me off guard. Most of the business owners in Maple Grove owned their buildings and property, too. There wasn’t a huge commercial rental market in town. Then again, maybe my privilege was showing. Not everyone had a carpenter brother who could transform a shell of a building into something incredible like my gym. “I didn’t realize you rented Latte Da.”
Lex sighed in a heavy way as he slowed to a stop at the four-way intersection. “Yeah. I rent the apartment above it, too, so it’s a great deal. And my landlord is amazing. He truly is. Couldn’t ask for someone better or more understanding.”
“It’s one of Nate’s buildings, right?”
“Yep. He seems to own most of the real estate in town.”
I shrugged. “Yeah, we don’t have too many real estate moguls. If it’s a rental property, it likely belongs to one of five people.”
“Well, Nate’s selling the building,” Lex said. “I have enough saved for a down payment. So, I could buy it… as long as I could get a loan for the rest.”
Well, that was news to me. My brother keeps on top of all the buildings going up for sale in our town, solely because of his contractor business that he inherited from my dad. He likes to be on top of putting bids in. “I didn’t realize Nate was selling any of his properties. James didn’t mention it.” And James usually told me those things.
Lex shrugged, and even though the movement was noncommittal, there was a tightness to the movement. “He’s giving me a right of first offer before he lists it. If I want to buy it, I can. He even offered to split his broker commission savings with me and to hook me up with a banker friend who could probably get my loan approved.”
“That sounds like a great deal,” I said. “Nate must like you.”
We drove the rest of the way in silence. And not the comfortable kind, either. The kind of silence that has you itching and antsy, wishing to be anywhere but here. I shifted in my seat, thanking God my house was only a mile from my gym.
But if Lex was uncomfortable? He didn’t show it at all. Oh God. We still had to drive to the mountain for the hike. This day would never end.
“This is my house on the left,” I said, pointing at my little home.
He didn’t hesitate and turned into my driveway. Which was empty, thanks to Lex’s kettlebell swinging abilities.
“It’s lovely,” he said, looking up through his windshield.
I smiled. It was lovely. I was proud of my little house. Three bedrooms and a basement that could be converted into more living space should I ever need it. Which was more than enough size for little ol’ me. But when I was looking to buy, two homes had come on the market. One was a few doors down and was a one-and-a-half-bedroom ranch style home that was move-in ready. Or this one, which was larger, but needed work. Cam convinced me to buy bigger, promising me that I wouldn’t regret it.
He was right… I don’t. But every time I pass by the two empty bedrooms, I can’t help but feel a little more hollow inside. I had asked Callie to move in with me at one point, but she said she didn’t want to “intrude.”
Intrude. My ego didn’t allow me to tell her the truth. That I wanted her there. That I was lonely. That ever since Brandon left me for his ex-wife, I hated being in that house all alone. She’d be helping me out as much as I’d be helping her out if she moved in.
“Well,” I unclicked my seatbelt and hopped out of the car. “I’ll be right back with Penny.”
I unlocked my door and before I even stepped both feet inside, I knew something was wrong.
My feet crunched on an empty can of seltzer water. I shut the door behind me and bent down, inspecting it closer. Teeth marks. The damn can was chewed.
That’s when I looked up and saw a trail of garbage and recycling strewn throughout my foyer and living room and kitchen. “What the hell?” I shouted. “Penny!”
Nothing. Not even a bark. “Penny! Come here!” I called again, then remembered that wasn’t really his name. Yvonne had told me to mash his old name with his new name until he learned it, but frankly, that didn’t seem fair to him since our situation was only temporary. And let’s face it, his new family probably didn’t want a boy dog named Penny. Not everyone was as obsessed with Johnny Cash as I was.
“Copper!” I called. “Come here, Copper!”
Upstairs, I heard the patter of paws above me and then the distinct, ungraceful sound of heavy paws running down the flight of stairs. Like someone had tossed a bowling ball down it.
Copper came bounding down the stairs and I was fully prepared to scold him for this mess, until it hit me. How the hell did he even get out? I had shut him into one of the bedrooms.
I looked up to find him standing at the bottom step, something in his mouth. What the hell was that?
Oh no.
“Knock, knock,” Lex said behind me. “Everything okay? I thought I heard… yelling.” His words drifted off as he stepped into the room beside me. “Oh, dear. What happened in here?”
“Penny, no. Drop it. Drop. It. Now.”
I could not let Lex see us like this. No, no, no. Because there, hanging out of Penny’s mouth was my favorite pair of black, lacy thongs.
“No! No! Bad dog!” I took one step toward Copper… er, Penny, and that was all it took before he launched off his hind legs and ran back upstairs, my panties still firmly gripped in his jaw.
“Oh, no you don’t!” I shouted, chasing after him. I caught up to him upstairs and winced at the sight of my master bedroom, the clean laundry basket knocked over and my clothes scattered everywhere. Looks like Penny had a freaking field day while I was gone.
Lex ran up the stairs after me, but I ignored him. “Oh, no. Ronnie—”
I waved away his concerned tone. “It’s fine, Lex. I’ve got this.”
“No, Ronnie, really—”
“I said I’ve got this.”
I crept forward toward Penny, tip-toeing like I was on the world’s biggest heist.
Penny bowed, front legs down, butt in the air with his tail wagging. No… it wasn’t just his tail wagging. His whole ass was wiggling in excitement. Like taking my most expensive pair of panties—quite literally the only expensive pair I had—was the best game in the world.
Why in the hell did I let Yvonne talk me into this? I sh
ould have just come clean to Lex. I should have just told him the truth. I freaked out when you asked me for a drink and I made up a dog. I cringed even as I thought it. Who does that? Who makes up a freaking pet and then goes out and gets said fake pet just to hold up the ridiculous lie?
It legitimately made me look like a lunatic.
I lunged at Penny, tugging on my panties, but he didn’t let go. In fact, this was probably the worst thing I could have done. Because to an over-energetic dog, it seemed like an epic game of tug. He growled and tugged harder, bracing his back feet on the carpet as I heard the delicate fabric tear against his teeth.
“Fine!” I let go and he propelled backwards, then danced around me like he was taking a victory lap around his incapable opponent.
“Ronnie, really. I think you should look at this,” Lex said again.
I sighed, stood, and gasped. The door to my guest bedroom was completely demolished. A Penny-sized hole was chewed threw the bottom corner. “Oh my God.” I glanced down at the dog who had now taken a seat beside my legs. As I glared at him, his ears went back and he cowered, as though he finally knew he’d done something wrong. But I was speechless. Too speechless to yell or scold him. Or even put him in a time out. Hell, where would I even put him in a time out? Apparently, an oak door wasn’t enough to hold this creature, this thirty pounds of pure evil.
“Oh, buddy,” Lex said with a sigh and bent to go nose to nose with Penny. “What did you do?”
He cowered even more. “What breed is he?”
I grunted. “Half-Terrier, half-Satan, apparently.”
“I thought Pennies were supposed to be lucky?” Lex ran his palm over Penny’s ear, scratching it.
“Guess I got the dirty penny, huh?”
With that, Penny dropped my panties into Lex’s open palm.
I could have died right there. Yep, definitely the dirty penny.
8
Lex
I held out my hand toward Ronnie. Draped over my palm was a lacy scrap of cloth, damp with dog drool. There’ve been many times since I met Ronnie that I’d imagined touching her wet panties… but this wasn’t what I had in mind at all. “Um… I presume these are yours?”
She snatched the panties out of my hand, her cheeks turning an adorable shade of pink, and ran to her bedroom, tossing them in there and slamming the door shut, shielding me from whatever mess Penny had created inside.
The dog’s tail thumped rapidly against the plush carpet and he immediately rolled onto his back, offering me his belly in submission. “Oh, boy. You are in some trouble, little man.”
Ronnie sighed as she glanced at the destroyed bedroom door behind me. “Can we take a raincheck on the hike?” Pulling her cell phone out of her pocket, she tapped away at the screen.
I nodded. “Of course.”
She gave me a weak smile. “Thanks.”
“Let me go get Frost out of the car and I’ll help you clean up downstairs.”
“You really don’t have to do that.”
I was halfway down the stairs when I turned and said, “I know. I’ll take care of the garbage.” The truth was, I’d take whatever time with Ronnie I could get. Even if it meant picking up garbage in her kitchen. And, I was desperately trying to avoid being home. Last night, I had called the mortgage broker Nate had given me and the lawyer Lana had suggested. Both of them told me they would have some answers by tonight.
Which meant that if I left, I’d just be sitting at home, staring at the picture of my daughter, wondering when and if I’d ever get to meet her.
“Is it such a good idea to bring Frost in? You’ve seen what Penny can do…” she gestured to her dog who was following me down the stairs.
I really wasn’t concerned about it. Frost was safe in her backpack. And Penny didn’t strike me as aggressive—this display was likely pent up energy or separation anxiety. “I’ll be cautious,” I said. “Where’s his leash? I’ll take Penny for a quick walk and be right back.”
She pointed at a small table beside the front door. The moment I reached for that leash, Penny leapt up, prancing around and scratching at the door. “Okay, okay. Hold on.”
It only took a few minutes for him to do his business and for me to grab Frost out of the backseat of my car. Penny barely batted an eyelash when he saw the cat in my bag. He sniffed her briefly through the dome and then tugged on the leash back toward the front door.
Meow.
“I know, Frost. Seemed too easy to me, too.”
I came back in and found Ronnie with a new garbage bag in hand, her phone pressed between her ear and shoulder. “Yvonne, he freaking busted the door down. Like, literally there is a hole in my bedroom door where he got out. And yet, you think a crate can hold this dog? He is thirty pounds of pure energy and muscle! And Cam said he doesn’t have time to fix the door for a week. In the meantime, where am I supposed to keep him when I’m out?”
I set Frost’s bag on top of the coffee table and unzipped it carefully, being sure to step onto Penny’s leash so that if he did decide to lunge, I could control him. Frost stepped out of her bag, stretching and looking down at Penny. The two went nose to nose and after a short moment Frost rubbed her forehead against his snout and Penny stood ramrod still, letting my cat pet against him.
Ronnie turned, nearly dropping the phone as she stared at Penny and Frost, pointing with the hand holding the garbage bag. “How… how is he so good with the cat? When he’s so bad with the dang door?”
I leaned over and took the garbage bag from her hands and took over cleaning up so she could talk to Yvonne. “The garbage and the door—that was separation anxiety. These two met through the bag outside and he seemed fine, so I figured I’d take a gamble once we got inside. Frost is a dog whisperer. Even the toughest dogs love her.”
I bent to pick up a crumpled ball of foil and dropped it into the garbage bag.
“Yes, yes, Yvonne. I know you told me he was good with cats.” Ronnie rolled her eyes. “Okay, call me if you have any ideas.”
She hung up and dropped the phone onto the couch.
“Is this his first time acting out?” I asked, grabbing a few paper towel shreds that were spread around.
“For me, yeah.”
“That’s so weird. He was home alone yesterday when you went to work and then out to dinner, right? Separation anxiety usually is pretty consistent.”
She swallowed, looking down at her hands. “Yeah. About that. Penny isn’t actually my dog.”
“What? What do you mean?” I’d had an inkling when she first mentioned a dog yesterday that it was a lie to get out of grabbing a drink with me. In the moment, yesterday, the lie hadn’t felt like too big a deal. But now… it would be weird. Like, she kept a lie going, rather than fess up to a fib that just slipped out of her mouth in panic. I felt like my throat was tied into a knot.
Meow. I glanced to the right where Frost was now walking in figure eights between Penny’s legs.
No. No one would go to this much trouble to keep a lie going. Adopting a dog just to make good on an excuse not to have a drink? That was crazy. Legitimately crazy.
Ronnie sighed, dropped to her knees beside Frost and Penny and he immediately went onto his back, offering her his belly. “I’m just fostering him,” she said, scratching his barrel chest.
I exhaled in relief. “Oh, that makes more sense. And it explains his separation anxiety.” I picked up the last of the garbage and stuffed it in the bag, tying it off. “For a second I thought you meant you’d lied about having a dog at all. I’m going to be honest, it seemed like a lie when you first said it. It just seemed ridiculous. You’ve never had a dog before, you always seemed uncomfortable around your siblings’ dogs. And the second I invite you for a drink, you claim to have a dog—a boy named Penny.”
She bit her lip, not looking at me as I tossed the garbage bag by the front door, planning to take it with me when I left.
“What if it had been a lie?” she asked.
“H
onestly, it wouldn’t have been a big deal yesterday. I mean, we all say stupid stuff in the moment when we’re put on the spot.” I shrugged. “And if you didn’t want to have a drink with me, I understand.”
She exhaled. “Well, that’s good to hear.”
“Not that it matters,” I walked back over and fell back into the couch, reaching to pet Frost as she hopped up onto the armrest beside me. “You didn’t lie. Only a psycho would adopt a pet to keep up a lie like that.”
Then her chuckle morphed, choking in her throat. “Right. A psycho,” she said. “A pathetic psycho.”
“But you’re just fostering him… for Yvonne, I take it?”
She nodded. “Yeah. For Yvonne. But I might send him back. He’s too much… everything. He’s too much energy. Too much work. I think I’m just not meant to have a pet. I’m used to being alone… and maybe it should just stay that way.”
Something hollowed in my chest at her words. They were so sad. So empty. “You don’t really mean that, do you?”
She nodded, but continued petting Penny in slow, steady strokes on his belly.
“Huh,” I said, leaning back. “I never took you as someone to run from a challenge.”
Her eyes snapped to me. “Excuse me?”
I shrugged. “I’m just surprised, that’s all. You seem like the kind of person who doesn’t mind a little work. A challenge. I thought you’d be the type who would enjoy the victory of training a dog like Penny.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “I see what you’re doing,” she said. “You’re so transparent, I might as well call you Mr. Cellophane.”
“And you’ll never even know I’m there?” I said, joking, quoting the song from Chicago.
Her brows jumped at that. “Did you really just quote Broadway to me?”
I shrugged again. “What can I say? I’m worldly.”
She made a thoughtful hmm sound.
Sweet on You Page 6
