by Candi Heart
As if on cue, Matt walked back outside, holding two boxes of beer in each hand. He glanced at our midair embrace for only a second, and a blink-and-you-missed-it shadow flickered across his face. In the next instant, he flashed us that easy smile that had been occupying my dreams for days. “In the ice tub, right?”
I kicked Nate hard in the shins, forcing him to drop me where he stood. “Yeah, that’d be great,” I said quickly, hurrying over to help. “Thanks so much, Matt. I really appreciate it.”
He shrugged it off like it was nothing, then glanced over his shoulder as Nate rushed inside to answer the door. “Sorry if I interrupted something there. I didn’t think, uh...” He trailed off, leaving the ball squarely in my court.
Unfortunately, it was such a bizarre remark that it actually took me a second to understand. “Huh?” I muttered, looking at him inquisitively ‘til it dawned on me. “Oh! Nate?” I followed his gaze, and a smile stretched across my face. “No way! I mean, Nate is, um... my best friend, like a brother. Has been since we were kids.” Then, like a lawyer presenting Exhibit C to the court, I quickly added, “He’s also gay.”
On the outside, nothing changed. Matt continued thoughtfully transferring the bottles from the boxes into the ice. Only someone looking very closely could see the way his lips curved up with the hint of a smile, a mirror image of the same smile that twinkled briefly in his eyes. “Well, he seems nice.”
I snorted sarcastically, pleased that we’d gotten through the moment and also tickled to death by his assessment. “He’s definitely not nice. He’s... snappy,” I countered, though I knew for a fact that Nate would have been quite nice to Matt, in all the naughtiest ways, if given the opportunity. “He loves me, like a friend, but everything else can be rationalized away.”
Much to my surprise, a rather cold burst of laughter escaped Matt’s lips. His face hardened, and I could have sworn his eyes flickered across the fence to his house. “I know exactly what you mean.”
Before I could make sense of that comeback, the door burst open, and we were accosted by a herd of euphoric dogs. They jumped, barked, rolled, howled, and licked, knocking us off our feet as they leapt up, looking for love, delighted out of their minds to be out in the sun. As they bathed us with their own warm, pink tongues, the poor, naïve critters were so happy they paid no mind to the fact that they were there for soapy baths of their own.
Chapter 18
TWO HOURS LATER, IT was impossible to say who was wetter, the humans or the dogs. The second the playful animals figured out what the pools were for, the tide turned against us, and the whole thing digressed to something out of a Rudyard Kipling novel.
The beer didn’t help; in no time, we’d all consumed at least three. While it wasn’t enough to get anyone technically drunk, it did bolster our courage enough to launch us into the fray, proverbial guns blazing. It still didn’t help much, if at all. That day, dog was definitely not man’s best friend, especially not at bath time.
At one point, Matt went home to fetch Sadie, as he thought it would be good for her to be in canine company. In no time, her fraternizing with the ornery ones led to her gleeful mutiny as well. Before we knew it, it was fifteen to three, and our lack of numbers was beginning to show.
“Just hold her steady!” Matt called, sprinting toward a disgruntled mastiff with a giant hose. His dark hair flew behind him, trailing streams of water, as he bypassed the rail entirely and leapt into the pool, like some sort of fairytale ship captain bravely throwing himself into the raging, foamy sea.
I was already in there, looking far less poetic, clinging to the dog with all my might. “I’m trying!” I called back, tightening my grip as my feet scrambled frantically in the suds. Lindsey, one of the three mastiffs I walked, was the unofficial queen of her breed, as well as the unofficial pain in my neck at every dog wash. “It’s a little difficult when she’s weighs as much as I do!”
My so-called cute ponytail had long since come undone, and little trails of bedraggled curls hung limply down my back. My sandals were floating somewhere in one of the other pools, and despite how many times I pulled it down, I couldn’t seem to stop my wet T-shirt from climbing up my chest.
Nate had long ago abandoned the mission. After receiving a rather nasty bite from a Pomeranian, he declared, “Let them all be filthy and starve!” then stormed off. Even my gorgeous new acquaintance, who made every day a beautiful day in the neighborhood, wasn’t enough to get him to stay.
As for Matt, he looked like he was having the time of his life, disheveled or not. “Mind over matter, Catson,” he declared, angling himself toward the dog.
“Don’t you mean mind over mutt?” I punned, but I couldn’t muster a grin in the melee.
He, on the other hand, laughed. “Just tell yourself you can hold on to her, and you will.”
“Ugh! You sound like one of my Post-Its,” I growled through clenched teeth, yanking my misbehaving shirt down once more.
The dog jerked in dismay, and I slipped on the slick plastic, and then tumbled to my knees as a wave of soapy water splashed into my mouth. Under normal circumstances, I would have made a mental note to die of mortification, but the beer and the general exhaustion softened some of the blow to my body and my ego. Thus, I instead chose to embrace the suckiness of the situation and spat the water out in a high arc, making a silly fountain out of myself.
Matt flashed a wide grin, revealing two rows of perfect teeth.
Every time I did something like that, his reaction was the same: when I raced forward to help him carry the beer, when I popped the top off my bottle and sucked it down just as quickly as the boys, and when I didn’t hesitate to dive into the kiddie pool headfirst, cheerfully resigned to the fact that it was going to spoil my carefully coordinated outfit. Each occasion was followed by the same look of momentary surprise, followed by a delighted smile that didn’t quite hide his simultaneous relief. Judging by those skittish instincts, I guessed that Steph wasn’t exactly the roll-up-her-designer-sleeves-and-get-dirty type.
“I meant to ask you about those Post-Its. I noticed them in the hall when I was getting the beer.” He picked up a sponge and started patting the dog down. “Are you on some kind of positivity kick, or do you just enjoy living your life by fortune-cookie slogans?”
He was the second person to refer to my Post-It wisdom as fortune-cookie nonsense in less than two days, and I began to think there might be something to that argument, but I wasn’t in the mood to ponder the meaning of the universe at that moment. “Um, we need to rinse her off,” I deflected, flipping my wet hair out of my face. “Please try to do something positive with that hose.”
Matt’s eyes twinkled, but he abstained from saying, “That’s what she said,” then tightened his grip. “My pleasure.” Then, without a word of warning, he opened fire, spraying not only Lindsey, the yowling mastiff, but also the unfortunate woman holding her.
“Hey!” I screeched, releasing the dog completely as I hastened to shield my face. It was no use, of course, because water was everywhere. I was standing in the middle of a pool, and there was no place to turn.
In that moment, though, I realized the whole thing was intentional. Not only was the dog long gone, but the second I surfaced long enough to make sense of things, I heard a burst of sparkling laughter. Matt, standing just out of reach, was still spraying me up and down, making teasing little circles with the hose. I shrieked, giggled, and ducked, but he showed no signs of stopping.
“Why, you little—”
“This is for trespassing in my yard!” he interrupted, grinning from ear to ear as he danced just out of reach.
Oh, so that’s what he thinks? What a monster!
Without stopping to second-guess myself, I barreled through the sudsy pool and jumped on top of him. I could have blamed it on the beer, but the truth was that the most beautiful man I’d ever seen in my life was dripping wet, just a few feet away, and I literally jumped on top of him.
Matt stumbled
back in surprise, one hand automatically rising to support me as my hair whipped into his face. His other hand shot up in a desperate attempt to hold the hose above his head, but I scrambled up to his back somehow, and both of us tumbled down into the sparkling water.
In the mad scramble that followed, it was impossible to determine what really happened or in what order. Hands grabbed, arms flailed and reached, and legs sprawled everywhere. The air around us exploded with shrieks, laughter, and the occasional gasping cough as we half-drowned each other in the frothy water.
All I knew was that by the time things finally settled down, Matt was leaning up against the plastic side of the little pool, and I was wrapped tightly in his arms. For a second, we just looked at each other, panting and gasping, unable to comprehend what had just happened. His hand moved up to my cheek, and, without thinking about it, he wiped a drip of soap from my eye. Even when it was gone, the hand lingered there all the same.
That was when my predicament really began to sink in: Something has changed here. A line has been crossed.
Our laughter died, and the smiles slowly faded from our faces. Although he made no move to release me, his arms stiffened, as if he, too, sensed that something was off. At the same time, I leaned back and slowly removed my hands from his chest. It didn’t help that during the watery battle, my shirt had slid all the way up my stomach and was now clinging precariously to my satin bra.
He squinted slightly as he noticed my wardrobe malfunction. For a second, he stared without restraint, but then he turned deliberately, and he seemed to shiver a little. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly, almost in a whisper. “I didn’t mean to... Steph!”
He didn’t mean to Steph? What the heck does that—
I whirled around to follow his gaze, only to see his breathtaking girlfriend staring back at me. Her eyebrows lifted slightly at the two of us lying in the pool, but honestly, it was hard to tell if she was more surprised by that or by the fifteen dogs racing around.
In a flash, the two of us shot apart; I scrambled back away from him, and he pushed swiftly to his feet. A torrent of water rushed off his body, and his white tank clung deliciously to his chest.
“Sorry,” I said. “We were just, uh... washing the pooches.”
“Babe, what are you doing here?” he said, and the edge in his voice was impossible to miss, as was the slight darkening of his eyes when they found her. “I thought you were—”
“I decided to come back early,” she interrupted, looking him up and down. “It looks as if you found some way to fill the time.”
A blush of embarrassment colored his cheeks as he glanced self-consciously down at the water. “Yeah, I was... I was just helping out.” He gestured to me but didn’t offer me his gorgeous eyes again. “This is our new neighbor, Alana Catson. She runs a dog-walking business, she offers free grooming and baths once a month. I was just—”
“Just helping out?” Steph said flatly. “Yeah, you said that.” Her eyes swept over him and onto to me. She stared for a moment, torturing me, before she gave me a bitchy smile. “It’s nice to meet you. I’d shake your hand, but...”
Matt gritted his teeth angrily, but I was quick to forgive.
“Oh no, of course!” I pulled down my blouse and climbed hastily out of the pool. “I’m actually thrilled you came by. I’ve been wanting to welcome you to the neighborhood.”
Her eyes hardened slightly before she flashed another tight smile, as if she was wondering just how welcoming I’d been to her boyfriend. A wave of panic sloshed in my stomach, but strangely enough, she didn’t really seem angry over Matt and I being in the pool together; it seemed to be more a case of her being jealous that he was having fun without her.
Just like that, my little bubble of panic tightened into a bitter knot. I should have known. A girl like that wouldn’t ever consider me a threat. It probably hasn’t even crossed her mind that the two of us could be doing anything inappropriate, which we weren’t... were we?
“I should go,” Matt said quickly, wringing out his shirt before he raked a hand through his dripping hair. As Steph looked on in disgust, he flashed me a quick smile. “Thanks for the invite.”
“Thanks for coming,” I answered just as fast. Then, in a noble effort to try to spare him some future grief, I added, “And thanks for the help. Nate and I really appreciate it.”
Steph’s reaction to that confirmed my suspicions: It didn’t even seem to register with the girlfriend that I’d mentioned the name of another man. For all she knew, Nate was my boyfriend. I was so far off the radar as far as being competition that she didn’t really care whether Matt and I were alone together or not.
Matt, however, seemed greatly amused. For a second, the tension fell away as his eyes warmed and he flashed me that twinkling smile, but a second later, he was gone.
Even under the heat of the flesh-melting sun, I remained frozen in place, watching as the couple vanished into my house and out onto the street. A door opened and shut, and just a minute later, they were back in their own home.
Probably gearing up for yet another bitter fight.
I stared after them for a second, lost in thought. Suddenly, something that felt like a giant wrecking ball smacked me right in the knees. I fell back into the pool, letting out a disgruntled, “Oomph!” only to look up and see Lindsey standing over me, her massive mastiff mouth dripping with ribbons of drool.
Well, that’s karma for you...
I squinted up at her in shock, shielding my eyes against the sun, before pushing to my feet with a little sigh. “C’mon, girl,” I said, picking up a towel. “I think we’ve both been in enough hot water today.”
Chapter 19
I BARELY GOT A WINK of sleep that night because I couldn’t stop mulling everything over in my head. What went wrong? I wondered time and time again. The second the lights went out, I opened my window, just far enough that I could hear faint voices next door, another argument breaking out. I shut the window, let out a frustrated little sigh, and sank beneath my covers, as if that could shield me from the wave of sudden guilt.
The dog wash was supposed to be a sunshiny way of spending time together, in a completely nonthreatening environment. We were surrounded by animals, wolfing down popsicles and beer, and Nate was there as a chaperone, even if he didn’t realize it. Somehow, though, things still managed to change between us.
Maybe it happened when you jumped on top of him, you idiot. You know what they say, you are what you wear. You should have never chosen that particular shade of lip gloss!
I pushed the distressing voice to the back of my head and stared up at the ceiling, at a total loss. It’s not just in my head, right? There really was a moment, one of those suspended, breathless moments after which nothing can ever really be the same?
I wanted to believe it, but at the same time, I didn’t. Something about it was beautiful, but at the same time, it was also sappy and stupid, like something out of one of those corny teen romance novels.
I had to honestly admit to myself that I was starting to really like Matt, really, in a way I never anticipated, for reasons that went far beyond his supernatural good looks. There was so much more than just his glorious face, so much more going on behind those hypnotic, sparkling eyes that I saw whenever I closed mine.
One thing was that he was crazy smart, impossibly intelligent, and not at all in the pretentious way hipsters were as they sat in coffee shops behind their laptops, pretending to write important things as they slurped lattes in their skinny jeans. Matt was truly clever, a deep thinker, but he had such good looks that anyone who wasn’t talking to him face to face might not assume that about him; it certainly wasn’t something he flaunted. He was modest in a way that completely defied all the natural gifts the cosmos had chosen to bestow upon him, but modesty and intelligence were really just the tip of the iceberg.
He was also empathetic in a way that surpassed all conforming social stereotypes and broke through the expected barriers, curio
us in a way that had driven him to forsake a more conventional career and choose to become a writer. Matt was sincere in a way I had come to believe didn’t exist in real life beyond the wisdom of my Post-Its.
Of course he was also funny, charming, and playful, with beauty inside and out. He was heroic, full of compassion, the type of person who would spontaneously adopt an orphan dog who needed him. In short, he was the guy I had always been looking for.
At the same time, though, I never wanted to be that girl, the girl who wormed her way between a couple who was clearly having a hard time. I didn’t want to be the kind of person who would take advantage of that situation.
Not that it matters anyway, I surmised, knowing full well that what happened at the dog wash had to be a fluke. There is no way in hell someone like Matt would be interested in me. He probably just thinks I’m funny, a little comic relief to pass the time.
On that depressing note, I slid farther beneath the covers before eventually just pulling them over my eyes. My troubled thoughts held sleep at bay, and I dozed fitfully for the next few hours. It was only an hour or so before dawn before I finally drifted away.
Chapter 20
I WOKE UP THE NEXT morning to a furious knock on my door. The clock on my bedside table declared that it was only seven-thirty, and I blinked in confusion for a moment before leaping to my feet in a sudden wave of panic.
Steph! She’s come to kill me after all!
With the caution of a girl who greatly valued her life, I threw on my bathrobe, then yanked Dick out of bed as well. I forced my furry bodyguard to walk in front of me as I made my way cautiously to the door. It wasn’t that my human-pet was much of a watchdog; if asked about security, he probably would have just recommend a digital defense network instead, but he at least looked a little intimidating. Even though she came off as quite the bitch, Steph seemed to have an aversion to dogs.
