by Amira Rain
“Or anger. Dogs can be just like people, and people can literally shake with rage, you know.”
Again, I burst into laughter. “Really? You really believe that’s what Jake is doing right now? He’s ‘shaking with rage?’ Look me in the eyes and tell me you really believe that.”
Decidedly avoiding my eyes, Ryan raked a hand through his hair for the third time. “Look. Jake isn’t a sissy. He’s tough because he’s been through a lot. He was out on his own in the wild for a long time, maybe even years. When I found him, he was nothing but skin, fur, and bones. Now that he’s healthy, he’s a guard dog. He helps protect this home.”
Finding Ryan’s assertion of Jake being a “guard dog” a bit absurd, but his defense of Jake unexpectedly sweet, I withheld a burst of laughter this time, although I struggled mightily to suppress a smile. “I think I read an article once that said golden retrievers are the absolute worst choice of dog to be guard dogs, to the point that a person owning one for use as a guard dog is comical.”
“Well, that article was wrong. A breed doesn’t have to be outwardly fierce and aggressive to be a guard dog.”
“I think the article said that a golden retriever is far more likely to approach home intruders for cuddles and pets than to do anything to try to turn them away.”
“Well, again, that article was wrong. And also again, a breed doesn’t have to be outwardly fierce and aggressive to be a guard dog. Jake is loyal, and he has the heart of a protector. That’s all that’s needed to be a good guard dog.”
I looked from Ryan to Jake, who’d trembled himself a foot or two out of the crawl space and was now looking around for any sign of the cats, panting as if he’d just made it through an incredible ordeal. “If you say so.”
Sighing and wearing a deep frown, Ryan took a few steps closer to me. “I do say so because I know my own dog well. And you’ve just taken us off-track from the real issue, which is your cats in this home.”
Instantly bristling again, I folded my arms across my chest. “Well, what would you have me do? Find the town well and chuck them down it?”
“Of course not.”
“Take them outside and just toss them into the woods to starve to death?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
I snorted. “What’s ridiculous is you disliking my cats. Like I tried to explain to you, they hardly ever hiss, and they’re actually very sweet usually. It’s ridiculous that you’d judge them for just a few moments of bad behavior.”
Now it was Ryan’s turn to snort, taking a few more steps closer to me. “Speaking of ridiculous, what kind of names are ‘Plum’ and ‘Quiet,’ anyway?”
I made a faint gasp, outraged. Outraged and mesmerized, actually, which I had to admit was an odd combination. Ryan’s dark gray eyes were doing the mesmerizing, pulling me into them. At the same time, I felt as if I were being pulled into him, period, as if his incredibly handsome face and long muscular physique were somehow enchanted, forcing me to be aware of their potent, masculine power, whether I liked it or not.
The simple fact was that it had been far too long since I’d been in close proximity to an attractive man, let alone a man as off-the-charts attractive as Ryan. It had also been far too long since I’d enjoyed physical intimacy with a man. It was this, I told myself, that was making me somewhat irrational—allowing myself to feel mesmerized by the physicality and looks of a man who was basically currently insulting me.
After my faint gasp of outrage in response to what Ryan had asked me about what kind of “ridiculous” names Plum and Quiet were, I tightened my arms across my chest and spoke in an icy tone. “I named Plum Plum because when I first brought her home as a little kitten, I lost track of her in my apartment, and I eventually found her curled up in a basket of plums that my neighbor had picked from her tree and brought over to me. Plum looked so cute and precious curled up and half-covered by all the plums that I wanted to always keep the image in my mind forever, so I named her Plum. I got Quiet around the same time, and he was a loud, little kitten, always meowing. Morning, noon, and night, even when fully fed and happy. I kept saying ‘Quiet’ to him over and over, especially in the middle of the night when I was trying to sleep. At the end of a few days, I happened to say ‘Quiet’ to Plum, and Quiet immediately came sauntering over, so I got the idea that he probably thought Quiet was his name by then. Because I’d been debating about what to name him anyway, I just went with Quiet. So, that’s how Plum and Quiet got their ‘ridiculous’ names.”
Towering over me because he was a good foot taller than me, Ryan heaved a sigh. “Look. I’m sorry I implied the cats’ names are ridiculous.”
“Thank you. Because if anyone should talk about ‘ridiculous,’ it’s you.”
“What do you mean?”
I wasn’t exactly sure.
Wishing I hadn’t just said what I had, I shrugged. “I don’t know. Never mind.”
“No, let’s follow your line of thinking, Julia. What’s ridiculous about me?”
“I said never mind. None of your business.”
I didn’t like being metaphorically backed into a corner, although I wasn’t sure why it should make my face warm like it was currently doing. Ryan, however, was standing just a foot away from me, if that, and was looking completely comfortable, gray eyes twinkling in the warm light of the dining room.
“Well, I think you thinking I’m ridiculous in some unspecified way is my business, so please tell me. What’s ridiculous about me?”
I snorted, angry and embarrassed at once. “Your eyes. Your whole face, really. And everything else about you. It’s all just…it’s all just the height of ridiculousness. You should feel ashamed about just how ridiculous you are, although I doubt you do.”
I hadn’t really even meant to say exactly what I had, but in my anger and embarrassment, it had all just come tumbling out.
With the corners of his mouth possibly twitching, Ryan just looked at me for a moment before responding. “Well, that’s funny that you think I’m so ‘ridiculous’ because when I first saw you, I thought you were maybe the most ‘ridiculous’ woman I’ve ever seen in my life.”
I didn’t answer right away. “And is that why your eyes widened just a fraction? Not because I wasn’t what you were expecting and you were horrified?”
Ryan frowned, snorting faintly. “No. Are you kidding me? Have you looked in a mirror lately?”
I didn’t know how to respond to this, so I said nothing.
Frown fading, Ryan continued. “I hadn’t even seen a picture of you, so I was a little blindsided. Jill offered to show me a picture a while back, but I didn’t care to see it.”
“Why not?”
He lifted his broad shoulders in a shrug. “At this point in my life, I’ve moved beyond fairy tales. My goal in all this was to be matched with a woman who’d give me children and be a good mother. No more, no less. Any kind of a deep attraction, or any other kind of a connection, was secondary. So Jill offered to show me the picture, and I thought, ‘Why bother? I don’t care how the woman looks as long as she’s healthy and ready to have a family.’ But then I saw you when you came into the kitchen, and I almost wished I’d had some kind of warning.”
Surveying his face, I didn’t answer right away. “Well, what specifically did you find so ‘ridiculous’ about me?”
With his expression neutral, Ryan swallowed before responding. “The first thing I found ‘ridiculous’ was your eyes. I’m still not sure what color they are because they looked green in the kitchen, hazel over dinner, and now they almost look blue, but I think they’re the most ‘ridiculous’ eyes I’ve ever seen in my life. Your whole face is ‘ridiculous’ in and of itself, and your figure is….” Ryan paused, swallowing again. “Your figure is so ‘ridiculous’ that it’s…well, I’ll just say that the longer I spend with you, everything about you, from your eyes to your personality, is becoming more and more ‘ridiculous’ to me.”
I couldn’t deny that I was fin
ding Ryan more and more “ridiculous” by the minute as well, from his eyes to his sculpted chest to his masculine, woodsy scent, which I was getting just the faintest hint of, standing so close to him. All of this was making me think that I might not be opposed to him trying to kiss me right then, and I said nothing in response to what he’d said, possibly so that he could bring his mouth to mine if he happened to be thinking the same thing I was.
But then, a quiet, little meow made me turn my head, and I saw Quiet, a big, white ball of fluff, in the dimly-lit hallway. He was sitting off to one side, lazily swishing his tail, as if he was wanting to make sure I saw him.
Now, recalling that Ryan didn’t like Plum and Quiet, I turned back to Ryan, sure I was wearing a little glare. “No. No, don’t you dare call my eyes and my face and my figure and whatever all else ‘ridiculous’ in the way that you are right now. I don’t want anyone who dislikes my cats to look at me in that way.”
“I never said I dislike-“
“You didn’t need to. Your reaction to them said it all.”
“But-“
“It’s like this. I don’t mind if a person is neutral about cats. I could never be that way, personally, but I get it. Not everyone is a cat person. But people who outright dislike beautiful, innocent creatures….” I gave my head a little shake, fighting to keep a handle on my anger. “You know what? I’m not saying that Jill isn’t good at matchmaking, but with us, I’m starting to think she seriously missed the mark.”
“Look. The cats can stay.”
“Oh, how utterly benevolent of you.”
Ryan scoffed, his eyes widening. “You know…I’m now starting to think Jill seriously missed the mark.”
Feeling strangely wounded, I scoffed in return. “She probably did. In fact, we should both probably think all this over. I’ll just grab the cats, their litterbox, their food, and their water dishes right now. I’ll take it all up to the guest room with me so that the cats don’t make Jake ‘shake with rage’ and so that their mere presence doesn’t further irritate you. Tomorrow morning, we can have a discussion about whether or not I should just go back home.”
Frowning, Ryan sighed. “You don’t need to take the cats and all their stuff upstairs with you. After I let Jake out in a minute, I’ll take him upstairs to my room. The cats can have the ground floor all to themselves.”
I waited for Ryan to say something else, realizing that maybe some small part of me had wanted him to insist that I stay, no discussion about it needed. He didn’t say anything else, though, and after a moment or two, I began walking away from him, heading in the direction of the stairs with my arms still folded across my chest.
“Goodnight.”
After a long moment, when I was almost near the stairs, he said goodnight in return.
The second story of the house was just as vast as the ground floor, with no fewer than five bedrooms, and it took me opening three doors before I found the room with my duffel bag and all of my moving boxes in it. The room was spacious and, like the rest of the house, had hardwood floors, which I liked. I also liked that it had a master bathroom. That made it so that I wouldn’t have to leave my room for the rest of the night, thereby avoiding a run-in with Ryan, who, at present, I was in no mood to see again.
The master bathroom in my room was part country comfort, with wood-paneled walls and three vases of wildflowers on a shelf, and part total luxury, with a sunken marble bathtub with gilded fixtures and whirlpool jets. It was this luxurious tub that decided me on taking a bath, which I’d been thinking about doing anyway, wanting to relax my muscles from the long day of driving.
Soon after undressing and helping myself to a few capfuls of vanilla-scented bubble bath in a plastic jug sitting on the side of the tub, I slid into the warm, bubbly water and tried to will all of my cares away. Of course, this was much easier said than done. I knew that I needed to have a talk with Ryan in the morning, then decide whether to go through with marrying him or to drive back home, surely with my tail between my legs considering that I’d told all my friends and everyone I worked with why I was leaving town. My friends and family would understand, though; I was sure of that. It was more my mom’s gloating reaction that I was worried about. I knew she’d say something to the effect of she’d been sure my “little leap” to “the boonies” wouldn’t work out. Probably along with many other infuriating comments.
However, when it really came down to it, I really wasn’t even worried about her reaction, at least not that much. I’d been living my own life, despite her negativity, for so long that I was pretty used to it by this point. What I was more afraid of than her smug comments was letting myself down by retreating from my leap. By going back to my same old, safe life, all the while wondering if I’d given Ryan and me enough of a chance. If I’d given our possible life together enough of a chance. After all, even though I felt almost nothing but irritation toward him currently, I was definitely in love with the fields of wildflowers surrounding his house, and I was definitely in love with his sweet “guard dog” Jake, and I had a feeling I might be able to fall in love with Briarwood, too. Especially if all of the other women living in the village were anything like Jill and Hillary, both of whom I already liked very much. Despite the fact that I’d become dubious about Jill’s matchmaking abilities.
I just wished that Ryan didn’t dislike cats, and specifically, my cats. This seemed like such a stupid deal-breaker, and I was sure it really was, but Plum and Quiet had become my “fur children” over the years, and I loved them so much. However, while I sank lower in the warm, bubbly bathwater, with the whirlpool jets massaging the muscles in my legs, I had to wonder if I loved Plum and Quiet enough to give up a chance to have an actual human child of my own. All of a sudden, my tiff with Ryan about the cats started to seem really silly. It wasn’t like I thought he’d mistreat them or anything if I continued living in the house with them. I supposed the worst he’d do would just be continue to dislike them and maybe silently resent them, which I was pretty sure they could bear. At the same time, though, something about marrying and having a baby with someone who wasn’t just neutral about cats but who actively disliked them just didn’t sit well with me. And again, I questioned Jill’s matchmaking abilities.
I just didn’t know what to do. Maybe, I hoped, when we spoke in the morning, Ryan would agree to at least try to like cats. It wouldn’t be disappointing for me to go home only because I’d be letting myself down and missing out on having a child; if I was being perfectly honest with myself, I knew I’d be disappointed to go home without having had the experience of getting to sleep with Ryan. Something just told me that with as ‘ridiculous’ as we found each other physically, we might be quite compatible in that department.
After fifteen minutes or so, I got out of the tub, dried off, and wrapped myself in a bright white, plush robe that had been sitting folded on a shelf adjacent to the sink. I could only assume that Jill and Hillary had left it for me, and I appreciated it. I normally didn’t wear robes, and I liked the feeling of being wrapped in one while I went out to the bedroom and began rifling through my duffle bag for a pair of pajamas. Before I could find a pair, though, a knock sounded on the door, and I went over to it warily, wondering if Ryan was going to complain about the cats “angering” Jake or something.
“Yes?”
After a moment or two, Ryan spoke through the closed door. “Can you please open up, Julia? I’d like to talk to you. It’s important.”
Suddenly wondering if one or both of the cats had gotten out while Ryan was taking Jake outside, I yanked open the door, realizing too late that I’d only very loosely closed the upper front of my robe, and my full breasts were practically spilling out the front, on full display for Ryan to see.
CHAPTER FIVE
It was Ryan dropping his gaze, his eyes widening, that alerted me to the fact that the upper front of my robe wasn’t even remotely fully closed.
Not knowing exactly what kind of a “show” he was
getting—if my nipples were on full display or not—and not wanting to take even a second to find out by looking down, I closed the open upper front of my robe with a jerk, my face warming. “I did not mean to answer the door like that. You caught me just getting out of the bath, and then I was worried that maybe something had happened with the cats, and…well, whatever you just saw, that was an accident.”
Ryan stood with a hand to the back of his neck, massaging it. “I didn’t mind.”
Now I wasn’t embarrassed anymore, just slightly bristly. “I’m sure you didn’t. Now, please tell me…are the cats all right?”
Taking his hand from his neck and bracing it and his forearm against the doorframe, he nodded. “Yes, they’re just fine, and not that you asked, but Jake is, too, despite the fact that the gray cat cornered him in the kitchen and made him shake like a leaf.”
“With rage?”
“Nice. Now you’re making fun of Jake.”
“No. I think if anyone, I’m making fun of you because of what you said earlier about the cats ‘angering’ him. It’s okay if you admit your dog isn’t exactly a guard dog, Ryan. He’s a golden retriever. The breed isn’t typically fierce and aggressive. There’s no shame in it.”
Ryan had actually clenched his teeth while I’d been speaking, and now he unclenched them to speak. “Jake is a protector. I know his heart. He just doesn’t like cats, apparently. Especially not ones as poorly behaved as yours.”
Now it was my turn to unclench my teeth just long enough to speak. “Why did you knock on my door? Just to rub my cats’ misbehavior in my face?”
“Actually, no. Jill texted me a few minutes ago. Said she forgot to get your number and wanted me to tell you that she and Hillary will stop by to pick you up around eleven tomorrow morning to take you to the town hall and help you do your hair and all that for the wedding, if you’d like. Jill also forgot to get your flower order to call in to the owner of the florist in the FDS, and she needs to call it in very soon. I told her I’d ask you what kind of flowers you want and text her back. Though, of course, all of this is irrelevant if you’re planning on going home tomorrow morning. Are you?”
