Cupid to the Rescue: A Tail-Wagging Valentine's Day Anthology

by Lisa Mondello

  Koti had tried to talk her out of calling Art, saying that it was better to just cut and run. Art had already run, so it was up to Tana to cut him out of her life. Koti was insistent that Tana not make the same mistake she’d made with Braden’s father and hang on to something that was always going to end in disappointment.

  She was right of course. But that still left Cupid at her condo. Koti and the others all agreed that she was on her own when it came to the dog. She totally got it. None of them wanted the guilt Tana was feeling now.

  Cupid pawed at her arm and whined. Tana finally gave up, put her hands on the steering wheel and Cupid jumped into the front seat, clawing Tana’s arms with her efforts. “Ouch! Fine, you won. But if I get a ticket, I’ll…”

  She was arguing with a dog. What was her triumph? Her win? She was already taking Cupid back to the shelter per the instructions they’d given Art when he’d picked her up two months ago. Tana took her eyes off the road for a second to glance at Cupid and saw the sweet pleasure at finally being able to sit in the front seat with Tana.

  She ground her teeth and dragged her gaze back to the road. She couldn’t look at the beagle. This was her life. She took steps forward and ended up falling behind because she always fell for puppy dog eyes and a sweet smile. Cupid may be a dog but she was definitely smiling at having won this one against Tana. Just as Art had. It had become increasingly clear last night that Art had gotten Cupid in the first place because he’d known he wasn’t coming back from Milwaukee. Cupid was a way to take the guilt off him for dumping Tana and moving on. That’s when she decided Cupid had to go back to the shelter.

  “Bastard. You’re so pathetic, Tana,” she muttered. “You can’t even win with a dog.”

  Cupid barked. The dog looked so happy sitting next to Tana that as she took the left-hand turn that led to the shelter, tears stung Tana’s eyes and made it hard to see.

  “See what you’re doing to me? I’m going to crash and we’ll both die and then the problem will be solved.”

  Cupid whined and sat like a good girl in the bucket seat.

  “I was only kidding. We’re not going to die. You’re going to be fine. You’ll find a nice home where you can howl and run and chase…what do hound dogs chase?”

  She glanced at her as if she really expected Cupid to give her an answer. And when she barked, she genuinely appeared to understand.

  “Rabbits. You’ll chase rabbits. But don’t eat any. That would be gross. And don’t howl and piss off your new family.”

  “The bastard,” Tana said, sniffing back a tear. “Jade was right. If I don’t take charge of my life, I’m going to get played. Again. You are truly pathetic, Montana Reeves. From this moment on, no one takes advantage of you anymore!”

  Chasing Cupid: Chapter 3

  Some days were harder than others at the clinic. After giving upsetting news to an owner about her cat, Jett left the clinic needing to decompress. He went back to his sister’s condo and headed to the pool. This time of day the pool area was usually quiet. He’d gone to the pool on the day his sister had moved into the condo after they’d moved all her furniture in and one of the residents had been having a party for one of their kids. Another time when he’d left work early after a slow day, the pool was too crowded to do laps. But he finally figured if he came during dinner, the pool would be virtually empty and he could get in a good swim.

  Today was no different. When he reached the pool area, a man and his kids were just packing up their towels and floaties and heading back up the path toward the condos. He was chattering to them about eating whatever their mother cooked for dinner instead of going to a fast-food restaurant for hamburgers. The only person left at the pool was a woman sitting under an umbrella reading a book on her eReader. The pool was empty.

  He made his way over to one of the lounge chairs and dropped his towel over the back. Then he pulled off his shirt and dropped it in a ball on the lounge chair before slipping out of his beach shoes. When he turned around, he found Tana standing by the gate.

  Unlike the other day when she’d been dressed for the office, she was wearing an orange T-shirt and a pair of faded cutoff shorts that were frayed at the hem. Having her brown hair pulled up in a ponytail away from her face made it easy to see the dangling earrings with a stone that matched her shirt. On her feet were flip flop sandals that were a recipe for disaster when walking with a dog.

  But she wasn’t with Cupid today.

  His stomach clenched. He didn’t know why. Cupid wasn’t his dog. But then she smiled and waved at him, and Jett had a hard time ignoring the sudden rush that flowed through his body. He couldn’t exactly ignore her, but he’d wanted a swim after the day he’d had.

  “Hey,” she said.

  He waved. “Nice to see you.”

  “Do you have a minute?”

  He glanced at the glistening water in the pool. He always loved that first dive into the water when his skin was hot and slick with sweat and the water shocked his senses. But as Tana walked slowly toward him wearing those shorts and revealing long creamy legs, his senses were shocked into overdrive.

  “I usually like to swim while the pool area is empty.”

  She hesitated a moment. “You’re angry with me.”

  He shook his head quickly and tried to find the right words for the unsettled feeling that had come over him. “I’m just busy. I’d like to get back to Duke.”

  “Is that all?”

  “Yeah.” He turned intending to go to the deep end of the pool so he could perform his usual dive to cool off, but her sigh stopped him.

  “Cupid is back at the condo,” she said. “I didn’t want to risk her jumping into the pool again while I came to talk to you.”

  “You…didn’t bring her to the shelter?”

  “You thought I’d go through with returning her. Didn’t you?”

  His heart lifted just a bit. When had he invested his emotions in that little dog? “I did.”

  “Well, you underestimated me.”

  “You don’t say. She’ll grow on you.”

  “I doubt that. I’m still planning on returning her because that was the agreement Art made with the shelter. But I thought about what you said. I may not want a dog right now but that doesn’t mean I want her to stay lonely in a shelter for a long time and be someone else’s problem. She really is a sweet dog.”

  “Just not for you.”

  “Right. I was hoping you could help me train her.”

  The sun pounded down on them even though it was later in the day and the sun’s intensity had waned. The sweat on Tana’s forehead had settled at her temples, making her hair wet and stick to her face. Jett’s fingers itched to wipe away the moisture. But it would be a bad move to touch her, especially since they had company and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to stop at touching Tana’s face. He wasn’t sure if the woman sitting under the umbrella reading her book had even noticed them.

  He cleared his throat when it was clear she was waiting for an answer. “Train her? Me?”

  “You are a vet, I figured you would know how to do that.”

  “I know how to fix broken bones. I know how to diagnose illnesses and how to keep an animal healthy.”

  “That’s it?”

  His smile was so wide that he felt his dry lips protest. She knew he was playing with her when she rolled her eyes.

  “I’m serious.”

  “I know a little about training dogs,” he said. “But it’s not a specialty. I know the basics.”

  “So will you help me? I mean, I don’t need Cupid to win any awards. I just need her to be able to be a good dog so that she can go to a forever home quickly.”

  “I thought the home she had already was pretty good.”

  She sputtered, “Don’t start. You’re the one who told me I didn’t know what I was doing and needed training.”

  “You do. Most everyone with a new dog does.”

  Her face turned serious. “I don’t want her to s
pend any more time in a shelter than is necessary. I heard some of those dogs can be there for months.”

  “Years.”

  Her shoulders sagged. “Are you serious?”

  “In a no-kill shelter, yes. The other kind is not very hopeful at all for dogs like Duke.”

  “Duke. You mentioned Duke before.”

  “He’s my dog. He’d spent about a year in the shelter before he came to me.”

  It was as if she were melting in the sun right in front of him just saying he had a dog. How could she not want her dog but react this way to his?

  “Well then, Duke is one lucky dog. How many do you have?”

  “Just the one.”

  She cocked her head to one side and frowned as if what he’d said was strange.

  “I’ve had a lot of dogs throughout the years.”

  “Certainly, a man who loves animals and the way you seem to would have more than just one dog.”

  “The reason I usually have one dog at a time is because they’re usually older dogs. I don’t have to spend a whole lot of time training them except for little bad habits because they’re already trained. But they like my attention in a different way. Plus, it’s hard on animals when their dog friends pass away just as it is for humans. I usually only have them for a few years. One time I was blessed with six long years with a golden retriever.”

  “Why just the older dogs? Why not get one that you’ll have longer?”

  “Because no one ever seems to choose the older ones. Those are the ones that stay the longest at the shelters and sometimes die there. They’re usually heartbroken because an owner either passed away and no one can care for them, or someone had a life change and decided the dog no longer fit in their plan. There is always a sad story with them. But those are the pets that are most appreciative of the love you give them.”

  ♥ ♥ ♥

  She was dying. Tana couldn’t imagine words like that coming out of her ex’s mouth. Or any other man’s mouth for that matter. Was this guy for real? He couldn’t be. He’d guilted her into feeling bad about giving up Cupid. Now she knew why. He wasn’t one of those smooth talkers who preyed on women who are easily taken. Like Art. He was a genuinely nice guy.

  A little trickle of irritation for responding so strongly to his words ran up the back of her neck and made her cheeks flame.

  “What was that?” he asked, looking at her with curious interest.

  “What?”

  “Did you just ask me if I was for real?”

  Tana’s face burned hot as humiliation washed over her whole body. Had she actually said those words aloud? Of course, she did. Why else would Jett have asked her to repeat them?

  She struggled to find words that didn’t make her look like the utter fool she’d already made of herself. “I just think that it’s a really nice thing you do taking in older dogs like that.”

  His eyes grew darker but never got that intense gaze she had seen the first day when he had been angry about her returning the dog.

  “So when do you want to start?”

  ♥ ♥ ♥

  If only she were as brave as Jade was. Jade never had a problem walking up to any man that she had been interested in during the nearly twenty years that Tana had known her. And even now that she’d been married for like forever, Jade was fearless. Of course, Jade would argue that her strong partnership with her husband made her fearless. But Tana had known Jade long before she’d met Andre.

  Tana on the other hand had to swallow back bile three times and then go brush her teeth before she’d gone over to Jett’s condo to ask him for help. It had taken some doing to even find which condo his sister owned, but she’d finally managed it. And then he hadn’t been there at all. She’d taken a chance he’d gone to the pool again and she’d been right.

  He had told her that he had the day off from work and someone was covering him for emergency calls and asked if she minded going out to his property near the clinic so he could spend some time with his dog while helping her train Cupid. She didn’t see a problem with that. Beagles had lots of energy and Jett said he had lots of land for Cupid to run around and work off some of that energy. He’s also said Duke was an older dog who was probably quiet and would sleep a lot. Aside from all the shedding, Cupid was doing in her car, what was the harm?

  “Honestly, Cupid,” she said as she drove. “You really don’t want to live with me. I don’t make my bed half the time, not that you care because I know when I’m gone you sleep in it. You think I don’t notice but I feel your dog hair on my sheets every time I climb under the blanket. And I never end up remembering everything I need at the grocery store when I go. How are you going to feel about me if I forget dog food?”

  Cupid wagged her tail and then barked. She actually looked like she was smiling. Tana knew the truth. Cupid would forgive her. Animals were like that or so she had been told. She’d never had animals growing up because they’d lived in an apartment in the city, and her parents didn’t want to have to deal with pee on the floor when they got home from work or having to take the dog out for a walk at the end of a long day. The only pet Tana had was a goldfish she got after winning it at a school fair. She’d named the fish Felix and convinced her parents to bring her to the pet store so she could use her allowance money to buy an aquarium habitat for her room. But the goldfish died three days later. The memory of how she’d come home from school and found Felix still gutted her.

  “I don’t want you to end up like Felix, Cupid. Okay? Oh God, I hope I’m a better temporary mother to you than I was to my goldfish.”

  Cupid barked right as the GPS gave her the next direction.

  “Quiet, Cupid. I can’t hear.”

  Tana took her eyes off the road for just a second to look at the digital roadmap. She saw a sharp left turn coming up soon and abruptly slammed on her brakes putting her hand in front of Cupid to keep him from flying forward.

  “Phew. Are you okay, sweetie? We’ll have to get you one of those car harnesses or doggy seatbelt or whatever they are that Trudy was talking about the other night. We don’t wanna hurt you.”

  We meant her because she was responsible for Cupid and was already proving to be less than the greatest of doggy mommies. But it was best to keep herself at least a little separated from Cupid so she wouldn’t get too attached.

  “Where are we even going?” she said as she turned down what looked like a short dirt road that eventually opened up to a clearing that looked like a big grassy pasture. Trees had been cleared on the other side of the property and a concrete foundation had been poured. A few meters away from the concrete foundation was a small camper with a solar panel on the roof. The ground was dug up and choppy from big tractors having rolled over the earth. She had to roll up her window when the odor of wet earth hit her nostrils.

  “He said it was next to his animal clinic. I don’t see a clinic. This can’t be it,” she said. She was just about to turn the car around when she saw Jett emerge from the wooded area out back with a large dog that looked five times the size of Cupid.

  Cupid caught sight of the dog, which was bounding toward her car at rapid speed, and started barking and howling.

  “Cupid, shush! Get down.”

  Jett walked slowly toward the car with a grin on his face so wide it was like sunshine lighting the sky. His dark hair was slicked back much as it had been when she’d first met him at the pool at her condo. But this time it was from sweat. His shirt had a thick line of moisture down the front and in the underarm area. Beads of sweat were still bubbled on his forehead. It wasn’t until she killed the motor and then climbed out of her air-conditioned car that she realized just how hot it was outside in the sun.

  “Where are we?” she asked.

  He frowned and then laughed, spreading his arms out wide and looking at the pasture. “I told you. This is my place.”

  “You said you were building a house. All that you have here is a foundation.”

  “It’s a start. The fra
mers are coming next week. Things should move quickly after that. The clinic is right there, down the path through the trees. I was just letting Duke have a good run in the fenced area so he could run free with two of the dogs that are being kenneled for the weekend.”

  The big dog sat obediently next to Jett despite Cupid’s barking inside the car. The dog was as sweaty as Jett was.

  “You can’t train Cupid in the car,” Jett said.

  “I know. But it’s cool in there for now. I don’t want to let her out with…with…this…”

  “Dog?”

  She drew in a deep breath that was filled with her own fear now that the dog was looking directly at her with interest. A few seconds later, the dog began walking slowly toward her.

  “Jett?”

  “Duke,” Jett said in a low voice that she could barely hear over Cupid’s barking but was obviously heard by the dog. Duke stopped walking toward Tana and sat down.

  “He’s big,” Tana said, stating the obvious.

  “He’s a Great Dane. They’re big. But I’m told he was the runt of the litter, if you can believe that.”

  “He’s the smallest of the litter? I can’t imagine any of them being bigger than him.”

  Jett laughed as he slicked back his sweaty hair away from his face. “He’s a beauty.”

  “He was a rescue?”

  “Yes. He’s a good boy with a good temperament. Despite his size and the way he can be intimidating, he’s really just a big softy.”

  And she recalled the conversation at the pool, she asked, “How old is Duke?”

  “He’s going to be nine. He’s been with me for just about a year.” Jett reached out to pet Duke behind his ears. “I had a Great Dane who was a patient who lived to be just over twelve years. I’m hoping Duke will stay healthy like that and I’ll get a few more years with him. His story is a sad one.”