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

by Lisa Mondello

  “Get down.”

  From the other side of the door, she heard Jett say, “Don’t worry. If she sneaks out, I’ll catch her.”

  Dragging in a deep breath, Tana opened the door and took one look at a freshly showered and shaved Jett Billings in all his handsomeness and realized her fatal flaw. She should have shaved her legs.

  ♥ ♥ ♥

  The door had opened with a rush of cool air coming from Tana’s condo, but the real rush was seeing Tana standing there on the other side. Her red lips stretched into a beautiful smile that reached her eyes and made her whole face light up. But then it changed as Cupid tried to slip past her to the porch. Even though he’d offered to catch Cupid, Tana bent down quickly and grabbed the dog’s collar.

  “Stay!” she said, struggling with Cupid, who was elated to see him.

  When she tilted her face up to look at him, her cheeks were flush. He wasn’t quite sure if it was from bending over too quickly or if she was embarrassed.

  “Come on in,” she said, pulling Cupid into the apartment so Jett could come through the door. “I figured if you had food in your hand, you wouldn’t be able to catch her if she darted.”

  “She wouldn’t have gone too far before turning back. I have food.”

  Tana chuckled, letting go of the dog as soon as Jett closed the door behind him. “I hadn’t thought of that. She does like to eat.”

  “Don’t we all.”

  “What’s for dinner? It smells great.”

  “Hold on a second.”

  Jett didn’t take too much time to look around her condo. He spotted a coffee table across from the fireplace and set the bags of food down. Then he turned to her. His pulse was pounding and his head was filled with fantasies that had been distracting him all day.

  “I need to get this out of the way before I do anything else,” he said. He cupped her face with his hands and bent his head until her face was just inches from his. He hadn’t wanted to startle her. He had so much pent up need driving him crazy that he had to make sure he hadn’t misread the signals she’d been giving him. When she didn’t pull away, he went the distance and lowered his head to kiss her waiting lips. As his lips pressed against hers, he tasted the mint of toothpaste and her lipstick mixed together. He allowed himself to linger and enjoy being close to her finally after the few days they’d been apart.

  When he pulled away, he peered down at her face and saw her eyes were still closed and her mouth was slightly parted. He took that as an invitation and kissed her again, this time deeply, slipping his tongue in her mouth and tasting her fully.

  Cupid barked, then whined and Tana pulled away.

  “Well, hello,” she said, gazing up at him.

  “Hello.”

  He still had Tana close, but he didn’t have his arms around her as he wanted. If that kiss had affected her half as much as it did him, she’d be pulling him toward the bedroom and ditching dinner to satisfy a hunger greater than for the food he’d brought.

  “Get away from that bag, Cupid,” she said, turning away from him and bringing her attention to the dog.

  A smile pulled at his lips. There were times she seemed annoyed with Cupid, but deep down, he knew Tana really loved that beagle.

  “I’ll put Cupid in the other room while we eat,” Tana said.

  “No, she’ll only bark and want to be in here with us. She needs to learn not to beg or fuss while people are eating.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He nodded.

  “Okay. I’ll go get a blanket.”

  Cupid stayed behind and began sniffing the bag on the coffee table. Jett held out his hand and said, “Stay.”

  Cupid wagged her tail with delight and whined.

  Tana disappeared into the other room, which Jett presumed was the bedroom. The layout of this condo was very similar to his sister’s condo with a few differences. His sister’s living room was a little smaller because she had a two-bedroom unit instead of a one-bedroom unit like Tana’s. He pushed the coffee table over against the sofa just as Tana appeared in the living room holding a plaid blanket.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “I thought the blanket was for a picnic on the floor. Did you have other plans?”

  Her mouth was slightly parted and her brows pulled together. Then she shrugged. “The blanket was for Cupid. But I can get another one. Actually, this works out because I have all my paperwork spread out on the dining room table and now I don’t have to disturb it. If you want to grab the glasses I left on the counter, and a bottle of white wine from the fridge while I get a blanket, I’ll be back in a minute.”

  “Sure.”

  Cupid followed Jett into the kitchen instead of staying back by the bag of food he’d left in the other room. Bending down, he whispered, “Good girl. I’ll reward you later with a treat.” Cupid sat down and wagged her tail back and forth.

  He opened the fridge and grabbed the bottle of wine on the door, placing it in the crook of his arm to secure it while he grabbed the wine glasses and corkscrew in the other hand. When he returned to the living room, Tana already had a blanket set up in front of the fireplace and was taking the Chinese food containers out of the bag.

  “Chinese! I love it! Make sure you watch Cupid while I get some plates and silverware. She’ll sneak,” Tana said, breezing by him and giving him a heady whiff of her perfume. He turned his attention to the bottle of wine and struggled just a bit with the cork before it pulled free. He was just pouring wine into the glasses when Tana came back into the room.

  “Blanket, Cupid,” she said, pointing to the blanket she’d laid out for the dog by the fireplace.

  He handed her a glass of wine.

  “I hope you weren’t thinking of lighting a fire in this heat,” she said, taking a sip of wine.

  “Another time.”

  She chuckled, “Not for a long time. It’s too hot outside.”

  “We can pretend.”

  They sat on the blanket and ate Chinese food and drank wine, talking of little things and what they did that day. He’d promised Cupid a treat, so against his better judgment, he gave a piece of chicken to Cupid while Tana was turned away.

  “How bad was the emergency at the clinic? Can you talk about it or is that against the HIPAA regulations?”

  “I don’t’ think the dog would mind. They only called in a panic because he swallowed a sock right before her eyes before she could stop him.”

  “A sock? The dog ate a whole sock?”

  “It ended up being socks,” Jett said, shaking his head. “I think that German shepherd, a puppy, had half the laundry basket in his intestines.”

  “Oh, no!”

  “He’ll be fine. It was an expensive load of laundry for his owner. But the surgery went easy and I think he’ll heal well.”

  She laughed. “Oh, the poor baby!”

  “The dog or his owner? She was a wreck. She almost fainted in my office when I told her how many socks the dog actually ate.”

  Tana threw her head back and giggled. He loved the sound of it and how uninhibited she was when she was amused.

  “Oh, no. Now I’m going to have to count my socks?”

  “Just don’t assume they were lost in the laundry.”

  He reached for her and started to kiss her, but she retracted with surprise. He wondered just what he’d done to receive that kind of reaction after that kiss they’d shared earlier.

  ♥ ♥ ♥

  “There’s no need to hold back, is there?” Jett asked, his voice deep and full of desire that set Tana on fire just as it had when Jett kissed her when he’d first arrived. She’d been taken by surprise earlier. But as time went on, she began to feel a bit like a fraud.

  “I don’t know what you mean?” Sure she did. She had been reminded of this very thing by…just about every guy she’d been involved with.

  Something inside her shifted. Maybe the wine had gone to her head, but she pictured Jett running for the door, turnin
g back and grabbing Cupid before he made a quick getaway. Of course, her ex had made the getaway without the dog, but Jett was the dog-lover that her ex wasn’t. And what was she? Her intention was to eventually return the dog to the shelter. Legally, it wasn’t her dog. They’d already established that. It was Art’s dog and he had signed a contract with the shelter that he had no intention of fulfilling.

  “You’re drifting.”

  “I’m still here,” she said, getting up off the floor and walking the few paces to the coffee table where she’d left the bottle of wine in the ice bucket. The ice was nearly all melted but the bottle was wet and cold as she grabbed it and pulled at the cork. Condensation from the bottle and water from the melted ice dripped all over the glass top of her coffee table, but she didn’t bother wiping it up. Instead, she padded over to her spot on the blanket next to the fireplace and extended the bottle. “More?”

  “I want more of you.”

  She smiled but didn’t feel it. He knew. She could tell by the fallen expression on his face and his questioning gaze.

  She shrugged. “I’m really no good at this. I think we should get that out of the way before we go any further.”

  “This?”

  “You know, committing.”

  His eyebrows stretched on his forehead.

  She quickly amended, “Not that there is a commitment to anything beyond, you know, dinner.”

  “Okay. I’m glad you cleared that up. I was beginning to think wontons were the new diamond ring.”

  As his lips stretched into a wide smile, she could tell he wasn’t making fun of her. It was his way. He immediately put her at ease, so she filled his glass with more wine, and then filled her glass that she’d left on the fireplace hearth. She placed the empty bottle next to her glass before sitting cross-legged on the blanket, nudging Cupid just a bit after the dog stretched out on their blanket and hogged space.

  “I’ve moved a few times,” she started to explain.

  He frowned. “There is nothing earth-shattering about moving. People do that. What does that have to do with me kissing you?”

  She cocked her head to one side. “I’ve moved around eight times in the last fourteen years. I counted. It’s usually after a breakup. I get uncomfortable staying in my space and need new surroundings. So I get a new apartment or a new job. I don’t do relationships well.”

  “Are you telling me you’re moving?”

  “No. It’s just, I like you. I want to be honest.”

  “I feel the same.”

  She drew in a deep breath. “I have not had a whole lot of success with relationships.”

  “Maybe you haven’t found the right person to have a relationship with.”

  She lifted her glass and thrust it a bit toward him, sloshing the liquid, and said, “See, that is what Trudy says! I’m just not sure I believe her.”

  “Who is Trudy?”

  She took a sip of wine and considered how much to tell him. “A college friend. Well, more like a college sister.”

  “Sorority?”

  “Oh, no. We lived in the same dorm. Then we all rented a house together. But it wasn’t a sorority.” The Goddess Circle was much more than that. In some ways, she still felt unsure like those old days in the house. But she wasn’t that young girl anymore.

  “Trudy is the romantic of us all. She loves romance. And when she talks about it…”

  “What?”

  “I believe it. I’ve just never actually experienced it.”

  He frowned. “Never?”

  “Well, not the way she talks about it.”

  He chuckled. “Life isn’t a Hollywood movie, Tana.”

  “No.”

  And something about that realization made her sad.

  “I think Trudy is right,” he said.

  Her stomach sank as she lifted the glass of wine to her lips. She pulled the glass away. “What? About me not doing relationships well?”

  “It doesn’t have to be a Hollywood movie to be wonderful.”

  “Is that experience talking? I may have to be jealous.”

  He chuckled again. “Maybe. I used to be a cynic. I’m too busy. I’ve broken dates, like today.”

  “This isn’t a date.”

  “It’s a date. It doesn’t have to be more than dinner, but it’s a date.”

  She should have shaved her legs.

  “I still can be a bit skeptical.”

  “You sure don’t sound it.”

  “Maybe tonight because sometimes you just know.”

  “Really? Want to share the secret signs so I’ll know when I see it coming?”

  “Do I really need to?”

  She drained her glass, then licked her lips before glancing at him again. “I’m afraid so,” she said quietly. “I’m not very good at this.”

  “You keep saying that. But I don’t believe you. You’re a smart woman, Tana. Are you telling me you felt nothing when I kissed you earlier.”

  Her cheeks flamed with the memory of the way Jett had greeted her earlier.

  She glanced over at Cupid, who was now sprawled out on her back with her legs parted as she lay on her favorite plaid blanket. When Cupid caught Tana looking at her, her tail went wild with excitement.

  “If I was good at this, I would have already thought of a way to deal with Cupid. I would have moved on from Art so I could…so I could move forward with you. I would have dealt with Cupid long before we met.”

  “Is that what you’re doing? What we’re doing? Dealing with the dog?”

  She shrugged. She was using Cupid as an excuse. It wasn’t the dog. It was her. It was just easier to deflect. Most of the time, no one called her on it. But Jett seemed to catch her off guard every time. The irony of it was that if it weren’t for Cupid, she never would have met Jett.

  “You guilted me, Jett, and it worked.”

  “I see. So now it’s my fault.”

  “No.” The tilt of his lips let her know he found her argument amusing. “I don’t do complicated. I like things…”

  “Easy?”

  “I guess. Oh, God, that sounds really awful.”

  “That’s non-committal, Tana.”

  “You see? That’s me. It’s me. I don’t commit to jobs or apartments or…” She looked at him and became mesmerized by the way he was gazing at her.

  He chuckled so low it was almost imperceptible. “Life isn’t like that.”

  “Don’t I know it.”

  “You committed to this condo. I’m sure you had to sign a mortgage.”

  “I’m renting. That’s why it’s easier for them to kick me out if my neighbors keep complaining about Cupid.”

  “You committed to training Cupid. You committed to this dinner.”

  “That’s food. That’s different. Do you want more wine? I have another bottle in the fridge, but it’s red.”

  He shook his head and she went to the fridge to get the other bottle of wine.

  “You don’t commit to wine though? I noticed you got red and white?”

  She cocked her head to one side and shook it slightly. She stopped short of throwing her crumpled up napkin at him. “I didn’t know what you were bringing for dinner. Besides, I like variety. Is that a crime?”

  “No, it’s interesting.”

  Her eyebrows stretched on her forehead. “Really? I’m interesting?”

  “You doubt me, Tana?”

  She did, but she found her shoulder lifting up indecisively. “You get told something enough times and it’s hard to believe anything different.”

  Jett sat up straight. His eyebrows drawn together in confusion. “Someone actually said that to you?”

  “A few someones. ‘You’re too driven, Tana.’ ‘I need a free spirit, Tana.’ ‘I need someone who puts me first, Tana.’ As I said, I dated a bit.”

  “Idiots. All of them.” He leaned back down on the blanket propping himself up on his elbow again. She couldn’t help but laugh at the expression on his face. “What?”r />
  “Just like that, they’re idiots?”

  “ I don’t need a long time to see bad character.”

  “Oh, really? You had some pretty…distinct opinions about my character when we first met.”

  “I was right.”

  His words hurt much more than they should have, even though she knew there was a kernel of truth to them.

  Jett must have read her expression. “I knew you loved Cupid.”

  “Loved? That’s a strong word.”

  “Okay, liked. Were infatuated with. Taken by.”

  She chuckled as she shook her head. “Taken by?”

  “You would have gotten rid of her right from the start if she hadn’t gotten under your skin. Animals have a way of getting under our skin when we don’t realize it.”

  “Well, maybe. She is a cute dog. Just loud. And she doesn’t listen to me.”

  “Do you listen to her?”

  Tana frowned as she poured a glass of the red wine. He was using that Jett logic on her again. She offered the bottle to him and he hesitated.

  “You’re not driving. Your sister’s condo is a few buildings over from mine. I’m sure you can make it safely back to the next building.”

  He drew in a deep breath and reluctantly conceded, extending his glass for her to fill. “I had hoped to stop by the camper to let Duke out.”

  She pulled back the bottle quickly and spilled some wine on the blanket. “Oh, no.”

  “I’ll call one of the rideshare companies to bring me. I’m sure they’ll wait so I can let him out and back into the camper. Duke will hate me for not staying with him tonight, but at least he won’t take a dump inside.”

  “You hope.”

  He chuckled. “I hope. He may just be angry enough at me for leaving him there after the day we had. I didn’t have a whole lot of time to spend with him.” He turned to Cupid, who was snoring on her blanket. “And this girl gets to have us all to herself.”

  “If only he knew.” She took a sip of wine. “You love animals. I don’t know that I’ve ever met anyone who loves animals as you do.”

  Jett sat up and ran his hand over his head, much as he had that day when he was sweaty from his walk in the woods with Duke. She recalled just how tempted she’d been afterward when Jett had gone behind the camper to take an outdoor shower while she was playing ball with Duke and Cupid in the field. She’d wanted to sneak a peek and see just how firm and beautiful his toned body was naked. Oh, to be that brave and uninhibited to take a shower outside during the day and not worry or care that someone might see! Tana didn’t think she’d ever be that brave. And yet there was something so erotic about it.