The bride and groom rushed past him, and the rest of the wedding party followed. Craig’s role as usher was essentially overdressed direction giver and clean-up crew. He waited until everyone hit the reception line before making meandering to the front of rows of chairs. He picked up discarded wedding bulletins and other bits of whatever people had dropped while they watched the ceremony.
An elaborately dressed woman wearing too much perfume thanked him profusely and wasn’t it great that they had family in the area who could step in at such short notice? Craig didn’t have a clue who she was. She seemed confused and thought he was someone’s biological brother, and not a fraternity brother. Oh well, he smiled at her, said it was his pleasure, happy to help. He planned his escape with a smile pasted on his face.
Craig wanted to get out of this suit, get home, and get started on his future, his family.
***
She shouldn’t be nervous. This was Craig, not some unknown client. But he was her client, and this was her first proposal. If he changed his mind, she was back to filling out ridiculously long online applications asking if she would punch her coworkers. Lysia breathed out, leaned forward, and rang the doorbell.
The door burst open with a whoosh. Craig’s hair stuck up in crazy angles, and his tie was askew. “I just walked in the back . You must have pulled in seconds behind me.”
She nodded to the packages piled up next to the door. “You already starting to order furniture without me, or are you getting ready for a full Christmas?”
Lysia stepped back as Craig surged towards her.
“Ah, wow. It was all delivered at once. Let me just get this inside.” He fumbled with boxes as he pulled them in and dumped them in the middle of the living room.
Lysia carried in a small box thinking it wouldn’t be particularly heavy. Craig saw the box in her hands and snatched it away from her.
Was he hiding something? She smiled. His nerves brought his awkward out. Something was endearing about him being awkward around her, especially after their incredible third-date sex that had lasted all freaking night long. The man had stamina. A shiver ran up her spine.
“Bad timing?” she asked as he continued to shuffle boxes inside.
“Not at all. I hadn’t expected all of this at once, ya know.” He stopped moving, looked up at her from his kneeling position, and smiled. “Hi. I’ve missed you.” He leaned across a box and gave her a quick kiss. “I have a bit of a surprise.”
As if on cue, a loud squealing and a baby bark came from the kitchen.
“You got a puppy?” Lysia skipped into the kitchen. Not one puppy but two were scrambling around in a messy cardboard box. The smell was horrible. No wonder Craig looked overwhelmed. She stared at them, not touching them even though the dogs clamored for her attention. “They’re a mess! This box isn’t big enough. Didn’t you take them out to potty?”
Questions spilled from her mouth.
“I came home during lunch and took them outside then. I thought that would be enough time. I guess not.”
“Well, they need to be bathed. And a clean place to play. And—”
“And they need dinner, and maybe this was a mistake.” Craig slumped into a chair next to the boxes.
“Go change. You don’t want to handle poopy puppies in your school clothes. I’ll feed them. I can do that without touching them.” She glanced down at her clothes. She had dressed professionally, meaning she wore her good clothes from working at Josie’s a black blouse and skirt, to make a presentation, a proposal showing what she expected what her role as Craig’s decorator would entail. She was not dressed to give puppies baths.
“There’s a can of puppy food in the fridge. I’ll be right back.” He disappeared up the stairs.
Wet food, okay, shouldn’t they also get some kibble? She opened the fridge, pulled the open can out, and began searching for a food bowl. Nothing. Looked like they got to use the fine china.
She placed two plates down in front of the puppies and watched them eat with enthusiasm. Craig leaned against her to watch when he returned to the kitchen. Her heart skipped at the warm contact. He was finally making this place a home.
“As soon as they’re done, take them outside to potty. I’m going to see if you have anything I can borrow so I can help you with bath time.” She kissed him on the cheek and headed upstairs.
His T-shirts fit snugly, and his gym shorts reached well past her knees. It wasn’t fashion, but it would keep her good clothes for getting covered in dog crap.
Downstairs she opened and examined the packages that had been waiting on the porch. Play gates, puppy training pads, food, and a box of toys. Back in the kitchen, She collapsed the soiled box that had been used as puppy pen and carted it outside. She laughed at Craig who was directing the animals to go pee and to stop attacking what little grass he had. Back inside she mopped the kitchen floor and pulled out the play gate to set it up, lining the floor with the absorbent padding. Good, now the puppies had a clean place to play.
She stepped back outside and approached the puppies and Craig. “Okay, which one of these fierce beasts has done his business?”
Craig pointed to the smaller one with a brown and black brindled saddle. “That one has gone puppy potty.”
Lysia grabbed the squirmy beast by its middle. “Okay, big guy, what’s your name?” She cringed as the puppy began washing her face with frenetic licks.
“That one is Cobol. This one is Fortran.” Craig pointed to the puppy with more white on its face, and paler tan markings.
Lysia chuckled.
“Computer languages? You really are a geek.”
“Hey, I’m staying true to my roots.”
“Well, hacker boy, I’m taking this one inside for a bath. Bring Fortran after he takes a puppy dump.”
“She. Fortran is a girl.”
Lysia lifted Cobol up and checked its plumbing. Two girls.
She heard Craig call after her as she stepped into the house. “I’m not a hacker!“
The puppies were clean and happy and Lysia was soaking wet. Craig appeared less harried too, and the kitchen no longer smelled of puppy potty.
“So boss-man, I was supposed to present my proposal for what you were hiring me to do. Do you think you can take me seriously dressed like this?” She handed a squirmy, damp puppy to Craig who wrapped the little beast in a towel.
Craig slowly nodded his head. “Lysia, I can take you seriously no matter how you’re dressed. You had a plan for this afternoon, and I ambushed you.” He sank into one of the kitchen chairs, Cobol snuggled in his arms. He gazed down at the floppy ears and big dark eyes. She wiggled and extended her snout to lick his face. “I don’t think I can do this. I don’t want to, but I’m going to have to take them back. They’re just too little.” He scratched the puppy’s ears and let her wrap her jaws around his fingers.
Lysia scooped up the other one and sat next to Craig. “Nonsense. Look at this face.” She held Fortran up to him. “Look at her. Now tell her you are taking her back. You can’t do it, and I won’t let you. If it’s okay with you, I can swing by during the day and make sure they go potty outside.”
Craig stared at her, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly. “I have a better idea. But first you need to make this presentation.”
“Alrighty then, here.” She handed him the puppy. “I’ll be right back.”
Returning to the kitchen with her binder in hand, Lysia rescued one of the puppies from Craig’s full lap. She placed her hand on the puppy’s chest and held her in one arm. The dog frantically licked at Lysia’s face.
She placed her hand over Cobol’s snout. “Yes, I love you too, but knock it off it with the kisses.”
The dog squirmed forward and attacked with a slobbery tongue and a deluge of licks. “Puppy breath, stop!”
As if following orders, Cobol stopped licking Lysia’s face. Instead the dog worried at something in its mouth. Lysia stuck her fingers in to grab whatever the dog had gotten hold o
f. “Give me that. What did you get?”
She pulled out a small bandage. “Gross. You’re trying to eat my Band-aid.” She wagged her finger at the dog. “No eating Band-aids.”
A moment of panic set in as Lysia realized this meant that Bob was exposed to the world, that Craig could see the disfiguring eruption of doom on her chin. Cobol began licking Lysia’s chin again.
“Stop it, gross, don’t lick that, you little weirdo.”
“You want me to hold her?” Craig asked. He must be hiding his repulsion to Bob very well. He didn’t flinch or even stare at the repulsive blemish.
“No, I’m good.” Lysia balanced the puppy lower on her lap so that she could move about more easily with the other arm. She proceeded with her expectations and thoughts regarding the job.
“This is all fantastic, Lysia. Have you put any thought into what you want to be paid?”
“I have.” She wrote a number on a piece of paper and slid it over the table top to him.
“We’re playing this game?” He picked up the paper and unfolded it. “No, this is barely above minimum wage. How about—”
“Write it down,” Lysia interrupted.
Craig pushed the paper back to her.
“You can’t do this, Craig. That’s more than what teachers get paid.”
“You’re providing a specialized professional service.”
“I’m untrained. Maybe I can be considered a professional when this is done. Maybe I’ll just be insane. But no.” She wrote another number down.
Craig sighed. “Will you please let me pay you more than five dollars an hour above what you made at the shop?”
“You are a high school teacher. You cannot afford to pay me half of your income. You need to be able to pay your bills.”
Craig stood and made shushing noises. The puppy in his arms had fallen asleep. He carried her into the kitchen. He returned empty-handed and claimed the puppy Lysia was holding. When he came back, he pulled Lysia out of her chair and into his embrace. “Honey, I won’t be paying you from what I earn as a teacher. I’ve done very well with computers, and what I did still generates income. I appreciate that you don’t want to rip me off, but you don’t need to worry about my finances.” He glanced down at all the scribbles negotiating her pay rate and tapped the last figure he’d written. “I’m paying you this, all right?”
“Fine.” Lysia smiled. It was above and beyond what she expected. This negotiation had been backward, with her writing in the lower mounts and Craig raising them. “You said you had an idea?”
Lysia slid from his embrace and sat in front of her mess of displayed papers.
“I want to add puppy sitter to your job description. You can work here. You’ll have access to my computer. You can take over the formal dining room as your planning and staging area. You’re going to need access to the house anyway, so…”
“I would love to set up here. It’s much better than working at the library. I can take care of the puppies so you won’t feel guilty. No charge. But can I ask a favor? Can I get an advance for expenses?”
“Absolutely. Do you need a laptop? I’ll get you a laptop.”
“If I need a computer, I should be able to afford one in a couple of months. I’d much rather have one of those tablets.”
“Tell me what you want, and I’ll order it for you.”
“I’ll buy my own.”
“Lysia, I want you to be able to do the work for me. As your employer, I should supply items such as computers or tablets. I have the money, and I know how to get the best deals. Think of it as a hiring bonus.”
***
Lysia cut out another image and glued it down to the vision board she was creating for the formal dining room, currently her office space. This new gig was going well. Lysia was being paid to play with puppies and look through fancy home decorator magazines. Every night over dinner she quizzed Craig to find out his likes and dislikes in home décor. He insisted that he would like anything she did, but she knew that wasn’t fair. He had to like it enough not to want to immediately paint over everything if they ever broke up.
Fourteen poster boards lined the dining room, one for every room of the house, including the bathrooms. This needed to be his home. Not the place he let his girlfriend decorate any way she wanted. Each time she learned something new about him, she would add another image to one of the boards. So far she had a vision board created for each room of the house. The master bedroom and the living room posters were filling up, while his sister’s bedroom poster was left blank. Craig had even asked her to decorate a nursery, which was concerning. Wasn’t decorating a nursery something his future wife should control? The rooms earmarked as ’Child room 1’ and ’Child room 2’ would get a fresh coat of white paint and nothing more.
The girlfriend gig was pretty incredible, too. Craig was sexy as hell and quickly learned which of her buttons pushed her into overdrive. A few well-played kisses, a tweak of a finger over the right bit of flesh, and she was a writhing mound of hot, wet want in his bed. Of course two could play at that game. She wasn’t as quick of a learner as Craig, but she could rev his engine from zero to sixty pretty damned fast. She didn’t care if she never slept on her lumpy old mattress again.
The puppies were passed out after an afternoon of busy puppy business, which Lysia made sure happened outside. She thought about training them to use a specific corner of the yard, it would be a big help for when it came time to clean up after them. She decided they would start that next week. Right now they were tiny little things, but when they were full grown, they would be pushing the sixty-pound mark or higher. They wouldn’t be overly large dogs, but as Staffordshire Terrier mixes, they would be solid. Bigger dogs meant bigger messes.
Yeah, next week she would start training them—and Craig. If you want puppies to develop consistent habits, their humans had to be constant as well.
Lysia flipped through the rest of the magazine in front of her. She ripped out a section of advertisements with couches. Tonight’s quiz for Craig would be about what he liked to sit on. Was he a formal sitter or a lounger? He’d need something long enough so he could stretch out on it and improve the quality of making out. And he made out so well.
None of the couches in the next magazine inspired her. But a picture of a fancy roast chicken with sliced lemon and capers did.
She ripped the page out and headed to the kitchen to see if Craig had any of the ingredients. If not, there was plenty of time to head over to Pickers Produce, Meats and More to get what she needed.
***
Craig came home through the back door. He crossed over to where Lysia was sautéing sauce to pour over the chicken before she roasted it.
She caught his movements from the corner of her eye, her attention on the pan and instructions in front of her. Lysia typically didn’t consider herself a cook, maybe that had something to do with dating an asshole chef for seven weeks, but she was having fun cooking from the recipes that she found in the home décor magazines. The recipes were always complicated, always took longer than the instructions claimed, and usually tasted delicious.
“That smells wonderful.” Craig leaned in over Lysia’s shoulder to take a whiff of tonight’s dinner. He was right; it did. Garlic, lemon, and lots of butter. He kissed her on her cheek and disappeared from her field of view.
For a moment Lysia felt like she finally knew what ‘home” meant. Her heart skipped a beat. She sighed. No use getting ahead of herself. They had only been dating for slightly over a week.
“You’re spoiling me, Lysia. I come home to a house that smells amazing, and there’s a beautiful woman here willing to kiss me until I’m stupid, and…” A puppy barked for his attention. “And the girls are happy and clean.”
“You’re paying me to work from here, and I’m enjoying myself.”
“I should hire you to cook for me, too.”
Lysia turned to face him. He scratched the puppy on her ears and placed her back in the pen.
<
br /> “Seriously, Craig, now you want to hire me to cook for you? I’m already taking care of the puppies and decorating your house. And then let’s toss in the dating part, where I hang out here to watch TV with you, and this week I’ve slept here more than I have at home. You should just hire me to be your wife.”
Craig’s happy expression fell. “You sound mad. That’s not what I meant. I…” He walked out of the kitchen.
“Well, crap.” Lysia turned the stove off and followed after him.
“Craig.” She said his name with a tome more harsh than she meant.
“Don’t be mad.”
“I’m not mad, Craig.” She trailed him into his office.
“I like you here.” He sat twisting back and forth in his chair.
“I like me here, too, but at some point, the puppies won’t need me, and the house will be finished. Are you going to still want me to come over and cook for you? My cooking isn’t that good.” She leaned against the door frame, her finger tracing the graining in the dark wood.
Lysia sighed. “You don’t have to pay me to cook for you. I do it because I’m already here, and I like you. And it feels right.”
Craig stood. “I want to do something for you when you do all this stuff for me. He slid an arm around her waist and pulled her close. He smelled like whiteboard eraser and high school hallway. She wrapped a hand around his skinny tie and tugged him down.
“Kiss me. I’m not mad.”
Craig slid his lips across hers, and for a moment Lysia didn’t think about a thing. She should let him hire her to be his professional wife, take care of his house and his puppies. Feed him. Sleep with him. Well, she would do that for free. Hell. She would be his wife for free. Her eyes popped open mid-kiss. She let them float closed. Yes, she wanted to be his wife. He just needed to ask.
St. Helena Vineyard Series Page 7
