Every Dog Has His Day

by Jenn McKinlay

  “Can you teach me?” she asked.

  “Oh, honey, I don’t know that Zach—” Jessie began but Zach interrupted by strumming a few chords and humming.

  “This baby is pretty out of tune,” he said. “Let me see if I can fix it for you.”

  Gracie nodded. Her eyes shone. Her hero knew what to do.

  “How did you know Zach knew how to play?” Jessie asked Gracie.

  “The picture,” she said.

  “What picture?”

  “The one in his house of him and Rufus in matching Hawaiian shirts,” she said. “Zach was holding a ukulele.”

  “Very observant,” Zach said. He held up his hand and Gracie slapped her palm against his. “I’m impressed.”

  He fiddled with it, while Gracie hopped impatiently from foot to foot. Finally, Zach was finished and Gracie demanded that he play something. He glanced at Jessie and sang the old ukulele standard “Tonight, You Belong to Me.”

  He fumbled a note or two as he tried to master the tiny instrument with his big hands, but his singing voice was rich and pure and it made the vertebrae at the base of Jessie’s spine hum in response. She tried to ignore him, but Maddie wanted to learn the song, too, so they sang it again and again as Zach patiently taught Gracie where to hold her fingers and how to strum the instrument.

  Jessie was pretty sure she’d have to be made of stone not to respond to how great he was with her girls. And the thing was, she knew that this wasn’t a ploy to get into her pants. Zach was completely tuned into the kids on his own.

  While they worked on the song, he gave both girls his full attention. He hadn’t even looked at Jessie in over an hour. It was as if he’d forgotten she was there. On the one hand, she loved how attentive he was to her girls, but on the other, it was making her crazy. At the moment, she was half afraid she was going to jump him. Which would be bad—very, very bad.

  Chapter 13

  When Gracie had gotten the basics of the song down, the instrument was finally retired and they ate dinner, which consisted of sausage and chopped up vegetables that Zach had lightly seasoned with butter, salt, and pepper, and then wrapped in aluminum foil and tucked into the fire. With bread on the side, it made for a tasty meal and the girls had loved helping Jessie dice up the vegetables.

  Zach was the chosen one to read to the girls again. Jessie watched them from the kitchen as she hand-washed the plates and glasses they’d used for dinner. Propped up on a pile of pillows in front of the hearth, with only his camping lantern for light, Zach sat half reclined. Before he was done with the first book, both girls were in his lap, leaning back against his broad chest as he read their book to them. Chaos staked out some turf on the top of the pillow while Rufus stretched his length out along Zach’s legs.

  The girls’ honey blonde hair blended with Zach’s slightly lighter shade, and the three of them looked as if they belonged to one another. Zach made funny voices while he read, and Maddie belly laughed, clutching her favorite stuffie, a penguin who wore eyeglasses, to her chest. Gracie was more serious and watched his face with an intensity that showed she was swept up by the story. Zach took in her concentration and he delivered.

  When he finished book three, the girls lobbied hard for another story but Jessie held firm. It was late and they needed to sleep. Despite their protests, the girls were unconscious within minutes.

  By unspoken agreement, Jessie and Zach took his lantern and moved to the dining room table to keep from making any noise that might disturb the girls.

  Zach sank into a chair and checked his phone; he’d spent part of yesterday calling his staff to make sure they stayed out of the storm and he chatted up a few of the bar owners in Portland he was hoping to convince to carry the local brew on tap. Other than that, he hadn’t done much work that Jessie could see.

  Gavin had told Jessie that she could stay home until the girls were back in school. He knew she had no one to watch them during the day. As it was, she usually picked them up from school and they spent her final two hours of the work day with her at the animal clinic. They had both become expert kitten and puppy snugglers, although that was what had landed them with Chaos, so Jessie wasn’t sure it was an activity she should encourage.

  She took the chair next to Zach’s at the round table and studied him out of the corner of her eye. Despite spending the entire day together, Zach hadn’t mentioned their kiss last night, nor had he tried to recreate it; in fact, he hadn’t done anything that could be construed as a come-on in any way. Jessie knew that it was mental that she was disappointed. This was what she wanted from him. This was what she’d asked for. She should be ecstatic that he was being respectful of her boundaries, and yet, she wasn’t.

  She couldn’t get their kiss out of her mind. The feel of him under her fingertips, the press of his lips against hers, the sense that being with him was so right. How was she supposed to ignore it when she had spent all day watching him with her kiddos? He was so great with them and such a natural at nurturing them that it made her uterus hurt.

  She watched as he scrolled through his phone. He looked like he was checking the basketball scores. She opened her phone. There were no messages. No texts. She hadn’t heard from any of the girls since they’d badgered her for a report this morning and she’d ignored them. Social media was a drag. The news was depressing. Even the weather held no information of interest.

  The worst of the storm had passed but there was so much damage that power remained out in most of the town, and roads still needed to be plowed, so they suspected it might be another day or two before things got back to normal. Jessie’s phone chimed with a request to play an online word game, much like Scrabble, which she accepted, thinking it would keep her from dwelling inappropriately on the man next to her.

  She and her opponent were equally matched, so when she saw an opportunity for a triple letter, double word play with a high points tile, she took it. There was no small satisfaction in watching her points soar past her opponent’s.

  “Buxom?” Zach cried. “That’s cheating!”

  “Shh!” Jessie glanced passed him at the girls to make certain they were still asleep. Then she looked at his phone and saw that he had the same app open. “Hey, I’m playing you!”

  “Of course you are,” he said. “I was sitting right next to you when I sent the request.”

  “Well, your game name is Z-Ro,” she said. “How was I supposed to know it was you?”

  “Fair enough,” he said. “Now you know so quit cheating.”

  “I didn’t cheat,” she insisted.

  “Buxom?”

  “It’s a word.”

  “No kidding, and it’s got me all distracted,” he said. “Which is cheating.”

  “It is not,” she said. “You could use any word you want and it wouldn’t distract me.”

  “You sure about that?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “All right, then,” he said.

  He turned back to his phone and frowned at the screen. He considered it, then shook his head; he plucked his lower lip between his fingers and then tapped his lips with his index finger. Jessie had to force herself to look away from him. Every time he touched his mouth she felt like a plane being directed in for a landing.

  “Do we need to set a timer?” she asked.

  “Don’t rush me,” he said.

  Jessie leaned close, trying to get a look at his letters. “Do you want some help?”

  “No, I got this,” he said.

  He turned away from her and began to tap on his phone. Sure enough, an update to the game popped up on her phone and she glanced down. His word, using the “U” from “buxom,” was “nude.”

  Jessie glanced up at him and he winked at her.

  “Still not distracted,” she said.

  “No?”

  “No.”

 
; “Huh.” Zach grunted.

  He leaned closer to her and took her phone out of her hands and put it on the table next to his. Then he looked at her, really looked at her. His brown gaze was as steady and sure as the sun. She couldn’t have looked away if she tried.

  “About our talk earlier,” he said. “I was wondering if—”

  That was as far as he got before Jessie launched herself at him. She pressed her body up against his, plowed her fingers into his thick unruly hair, and then she kissed him.

  She didn’t mean to jump him. Truly, she didn’t. But he was just sitting there looking so ridiculously attractive and he was so great with her girls and she just wanted him. She wanted him so badly. So she kissed him, moving her mouth over his, sliding her tongue across the seam of his lips until he opened his mouth, giving her full access to the taste of him. She nipped his lower lip and he growled in response, making her want to do it again.

  When they broke apart, they were both breathing heavily. Zach hauled Jessie onto his lap and held her close while he studied her face as if to figure out what the hell had just happened.

  “Sorry,” she said.

  “No need,” he said.

  “What were you going to ask me?”

  “I was wondering if maybe you’d reconsider giving us a go,” he said. “But I think you just answered my question, unless you’ve changed your mind again, in which case I am preparing for whiplash.”

  Jessie cupped his face, liking the rough feel of his stubbly chin against her palms.

  “Watching you with the girls today hit me in all of the feels,” she said. “If I do reconsider and we go forward with a fling, nothing serious, can we be sure that things won’t change for them?”

  Zach leaned back in the chair. He looked thoughtful and Jessie appreciated that he didn’t just tell her what she wanted to hear; he was really thinking about the girls and the impact a fling would have on them.

  “I think you and I have become good friends over the past few days,” he said. “I don’t see that changing except to become even better friends, whether we pursue this thing between us or not. This decision is really up to you, my girl, and I’m cool with whatever you decide.”

  His velvet brown gaze was steadfast and it made Jessie’s heart hammer triple time in her chest. Could she do this? Could she have something, a fling, just for herself? The idea made her positively giddy. She hadn’t met anyone like Zach before. He was so calm and centered and fun. His ego wasn’t involved in every little thing that happened around him. She liked that. She liked him. She wanted to be with him even if it was just once.

  She leaned close and whispered in his ear, “Let’s do it.”

  His hands, which had been resting loosely on her hips, tightened and his voice when he spoke was rough. “When you say ‘it,’ uh, do you mean what I think you mean?”

  “Yes, please,” she said.

  Zach stood, setting her on her feet. He studied her face and asked, “Are you sure?”

  “Positive.” Jessie was pretty sure his pupils dilated.

  “Your room is upstairs?” he asked.

  “Yes—oh, wait, it’s so cold up there—”

  “Not for long,” he said. He pointed at the counter and said, “Let’s take those candles and matches.”

  Then he strode over to where the girls were sleeping on the floor and moved each of them up onto the couch. Rufus hopped up with Maddie while Chaos nestled in next to Gracie. Zach then tended the fire, making certain it was burning low, secure behind the screen.

  In moments, he was striding back toward Jessie. She watched him come toward her with a determined glint in his eye. This was the moment she knew that if she was going to change her mind, it had to be now. Yeah, not a chance.

  Transferring the candles and matches to the crook of her left arm, she held out her right hand to Zach and deliberately led him upstairs to her room.

  It was freezing up there. Zach took the candles from her while she hurried into the girls’ room and took their old battery-operated baby monitor out of the closet. She used the light on her phone to guide the way as she tiptoed downstairs and put the transmitter on the table behind the couch, then she hurried back upstairs and put the receiver on her nightstand.

  Then she closed and locked her bedroom door.

  She turned back around to find Zach standing in the center of the room, illuminated by the soft yellow glow of the candles on the nightstand. He opened his arms and she stepped into his embrace as if it was as natural as breathing.

  They kissed and she felt that same pull from her center, that deep longing, to get lost in him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close, melting into his warmth as he reached around her and cupped her behind, pulling her in close and tight.

  When they broke apart, she hissed and saw her breath on the air. It really was freezing up here.

  “Come on,” Zach said. “Under the covers. I’m not getting naked in this frigid air. It does terrible things to man parts.”

  Jessie laughed as they hustled over to her bed. Zach kissed her and pulled her sweater over her head. She kissed him back and returned the favor. Next he pushed her out of her fuzzy sweatpants and she shivered, her fingers trembling as she reached for the fly on his jeans, but Zach gently brushed her hand away.

  “Go,” he said. He lifted up the thick covers and gestured for her to climb in before he quickly shucked off his pants and joined her.

  “Oh, my god, so cold, so cold,” he said. He grabbed her and pulled her close.

  Jessie laughed as his hands were everywhere rubbing her freezing skin, from her knees to her neck, as he planted kisses on her. Her lips. Her nose. Her eyes. And finally nestling against the curve of her neck into her shoulder.

  Jessie put her arms around his shoulders and hugged him, feeling happy and excited and lusty and desired. It was a potent combination for a woman who had felt mostly sexually dormant for the past seven years.

  “You smell amazing,” Zach said. He inhaled deeply and Jessie felt a small thrill course through her.

  They were lying on their sides facing each other. She was only in her underwear and Zach was down to his boxers. Since Seth had stopped looking to her for sex halfway through their marriage, this was as close as she’d been to a nearly naked man in years. She liked the feel of his skin beneath her fingertips. His chest was defined and sported a little bit of hair but mostly it was bare. He was solid, a wall of masculine muscle, which made her feel powerful and protected and toasty warm.

  Zach leaned in and kissed her just below her ear, and then he ran his mouth down the side of her neck. Jessie felt her insides liquefy and she let out a huff of air. Zach took full advantage and followed her down when she rolled onto her back, sinking deeper into the mattress.

  He draped an arm over her middle, holding her in place while he continued to move his lips down her body, sliding over the curve of her breasts peeking out of the top of her bra down to her belly. Jessie felt herself begin to shake but it wasn’t from the cold.

  As if sensing her sudden bout of nerves, Zach slowed it down. He let his hands run over every inch of her skin, massaging, caressing, tickling every curve and crevice with his fingers and his lips, until Jessie was just a throbbing nerve ending desperate for some sort of finale.

  She wanted to return the favor, and she dug her fingers into his hair and pulled his face back to hers so she could kiss him senseless. Zach let her.

  He moved to lie on top of her, letting his weight settle them both into the soft mattress. Usually Jessie hated feeling pinned down, without an escape, but having Zach on top of her felt more like being draped in a security blanket. And she wanted more, so much more of him.

  “Time to lose these,” Zach said. He trailed a finger over the edge of her bra and across the waistband of her undies.

  “I . . . uh . . .”
Jessie stammered. She was ready. She knew she was. She could feel the slippery wet heat between her legs and the throbbing ache that longed to be stretched and filled so it could finally find its release. And yet, a part of her shut down in panic.

  “Too soon?” Zach asked.

  She could feel the hard part of him, right there, pressing against her thigh. He was more than ready and she desperately wanted to know what it would feel like to have him inside her, stretching and filling what at the moment felt like a howling aching void in between her legs, but performance anxiety was beginning to surge up inside of her.

  “No, not too soon,” she said. “I’m good. I’m totally ready.”

  Zach kissed her. She tried to bring her thoughts back to the moment but suddenly all she could think about was, What if after all of the different women Zach had known in his life, she was the lousy one in bed? What if she made weird noises or wasn’t a good fit, what if it became awkward?

  What if they did this and it was painful or embarrassing? What if it was so bad Zach never wanted to sleep with her again? Not that she was really looking for more than a one-night sort of thing, but still, she didn’t want to be locked forever in his mind as the one who sucked in bed—and not in a good way.

  Her self-esteem in the sexual arts was not hot to begin with. For most of her marriage, Seth had told her that her pregnant body was a total turn-off and it was her fault he’d cheated because the sight of her made him physically sick. After the girls were born, it had taken her a while to lose the pregnancy weight and then, of course, she had stretch marks that Seth had found disgusting. The few times she’d tried to initiate sex with him, he’d said she was a lousy lay and he couldn’t even get hard from kissing her.

  Jessie started to feel her desire slip away from her. She didn’t want it to go, but she couldn’t seem to get back into the lusty brain space of just a few minutes ago. She blinked away some frustrated tears and then did what she’d always done: She pretended everything was great.