by Mara Wells
“Got her number, did you?” Eliza cackled and gave Lady a strong pat on her broad head. “She sometimes forgets her phone. She’ll be out scouring the neighborhood is my guess. Probably best to wait it out at her place. She’ll eventually come home.”
Caleb thought about the calls he needed to make, the plans he needed to get in order. “I don’t suppose I could leave LouLou with you?”
Eliza inspected him, from dripping hair to soaked footwear. “I don’t suppose you could. Go on, take that dog home yourself.”
The Lab followed them to the front door. From the protection of her covered front porch, Eliza pointed to the Dorothy. “Get on with you. She might be there already.”
“Wish us luck!” Caleb dashed across the street without waiting for an answer, but he heard Eliza’s cackle over the pounding of the rain on the pavement. He opened the double doors that led to a small lobby and once again found himself in front of Riley’s door.
Heels, sneakers, flip-flops, ankle boots, knee-high boots, loafers. The line of shoes outside the front door made him wonder if Riley had enough closet space. It also showed what a safe neighborhood it was, to leave personal belongings in a public space like that. He used the poodle-shaped doorknocker to rap twice. No answer. He used his fist. Still no answer. He tried calling again. Nothing.
“Try to do a nice thing for someone, and they’re not even home to appreciate it.”
LouLou did not share his frustration, seemingly content to let him carry her around forever. Her weight was surprisingly comforting, and since they were both soaked through, he didn’t mind her wet dog smell.
Where could Riley be? If Eliza was right, probably out searching for her dog. So where would a frightened pooch go during a thunderstorm?
“Where’s your favorite place?” Caleb made eye contact with the dog as if that would facilitate mental telepathy or something. LouLou stopped shivering long enough to wag her tail. And then he got it. The dog park! That was why she’d been outside the window. She’d run to the dog park, then spotted him in the building. In her rush to get to him, she’d walked across some glass. It all made sense.
“Back to the park?” He tried eye contact again since it seemed to work last time. She wagged her tail harder, and they headed back into the rain. It only took a few steps before LouLou’s ears perked forward, and her tail beat his bicep like a broom.
“LouLou!” a hoarse voice called. “LouLou!”
“Over here!” Caleb yelled, not sure where the voice was coming from but hearing the pain in it and wanting to do anything in his power to make that pain stop. What could he say? Rescuing furry damsels in distress brought out his mushy side.
Through the sheets of rain, he spotted Riley limping along the sidewalk across the street from the dog park. She didn’t look much better than LouLou had, hair flattened and plastered to her head, clothes sticking to her as though she’d taken a dunk in the ocean. And was she barefoot? All those shoes outside her front door, and she’d run out in the storm without so much as a flip-flop to protect her?
“You’re a pair, aren’t you?” He whispered to LouLou, waving frantically to get Riley’s attention. “Over here! Riley, I’ve got LouLou!”
Riley looked across the road, and he knew the moment she saw them. She collapsed to her knees, hands over her face, and a giant sob racked her body. So they’d be staying out in the rain a little longer. He crossed over and knelt beside her, the soaked poodle between them.
“It’s okay. She’s okay. You’re okay.” He sounded like an idiot. He knew it, but he kept saying stupid things anyway. “I’ve got her. She’s right here.”
Riley sucked in a big breath and looked up at him with her tilted eyes. “Thank you.” She held out her arms for LouLou.
He shifted the dog’s weight to Riley’s hold, but LouLou curled her paw around his wrist, tight.
Riley’s chin sank. “I deserve that.”
“No, it happens.” Caleb didn’t know what he was talking about. What happened? Rain? Dogs running loose in the streets? “You didn’t do anything wrong.” He knew that part at least was right.
“I couldn’t find her.” She scrubbed at her face with the heels of her hands, eyes red and lids swollen from crying. “And now she’s hurt. What happened to her paw?”
“She’s fine, just a small piece of glass.” He pried LouLou’s paw off his wrist and handed the dog over, surprised at how giving her back felt like a loss. If he felt this attached after such a brief time with the dog, how bad must Riley have felt when she realized LouLou was missing? The impulse to make Riley feel better kept his assurances flowing. “Eliza patched her up, and she’ll be good as new in no time.”
“Thank you.” She buried her face in LouLou’s fur and stood, but as soon as she did, she lost her balance and keeled over with a squeak.
Caleb reached out to steady her. “What’s wrong?”
Riley closed her eyes and leaned heavily on him. “Think I stepped on something.”
“Let me see.”
Feeling a sense of déjà vu, he crouched to inspect the bottom of her foot, dark with dirt and specks of gravel stuck to it. “Looks like a bad bruise. Maybe from a rock.”
Riley bit her lower lip. “Sounds right.”
“Can you walk?” He levered her back to standing on her own.
“Of course.” One careful step forward. Then another. “Thanks for taking care of LouLou, but you don’t have to hang around.” She winced and took another step, face as white as the knuckles clutching her dog. “I’ve got it from here. No problem.”
It was painful to watch. Still, she’d said to back off, so he did. Until she stumbled, almost dropping the poodle, and a car horn blared at her for hogging up the road.
“This is ridiculous.” He scooped her up, exactly like he’d done with her dog. Unlike LouLou, she wasn’t grateful.
“Hey! What’re you doing?” Riley couldn’t bat at his chest because she was holding onto her dog, but she glared. “You can’t swoop in and take over everything.”
“Hang on tight. I’m taking you home.” Caleb clutched Riley and LouLou against his chest, her legs over his arm like in some damn rom-com movie, and strode back toward her condo. If he wasn’t mistaken, he could hear Eliza’s cackle following them, but he didn’t care. It felt good to save LouLou, and it felt even better to have Riley in his arms.
Chapter 7
Riley’d never been carried over a threshold like a bride in an old movie before, and it wasn’t going to happen today, either. Not because Caleb wasn’t willing, bless his well-meaning heart and strong biceps, but because she couldn’t get the keys out of her soaked jeans without dropping LouLou. Caleb gingerly lowered her to the ground, making sure she leaned on him to keep weight off her bruised foot. She set the poodle down, only to have her immediately jump back up with her bouncy-bouncy-pick-me-up signal. Caleb apparently liked holding creatures with injured feet because he held LouLou while Riley fished out her keys.
“Thanks.” Riley opened the door and grabbed the dog towel. She wrapped it around LouLou and extracted her from Caleb’s hold. “Really, really thank you. Thank you so much. I don’t even know how to thank you enough.”
“I don’t suppose you have one of those for me?” Caleb pointed his chin at the towel.
Caleb was as soaked through as she and LouLou were. “Oh! Of course. Please come in. I should’ve offered. What was I thinking?”
He swiped at the water running down his face with the back of his hand. “That you met me yesterday? That I threatened to fire you? That I own the building and am technically your boss?”
“You know, suddenly I’m not feeling that much like inviting you in.” Riley pushed the door open a bit wider with her elbow. “Just kidding. You saved my dog. Everything else can be on hold until we get you sorted out.”
“Thanks.” He stepped inside and dripped onto the t
ile floor. “Sorry.”
“No worries. Why don’t you make a dash for the bathroom?” Riley used the arm not holding her dog to point down the hallway. “Toss your clothes out, and I’ll pop them in the dryer.”
“And then?” He was already on the move. “A towel toga? Not that I mind.” He flashed a wink at her over his shoulder.
Riley buried her suddenly overly warm face in LouLou’s damp fur. “Why don’t you take a warm shower? You’ll feel better, and it’ll give me a chance to hunt something up for you.”
Riley took a step away from the doorframe and immediately regretted it. She hissed in pain and leaned back against the wall. Stupid foot. She raised it, crossing her ankle over her knee to have a look.
“Let me see.” Caleb was back, still dripping, but then so was she. He dropped to one knee and took her ankle in his hand. “Does this hurt?” He pressed gently on several points until he found the one that made her wince. “Should we go to the ER? Maybe you should have this looked at.”
“No, it’ll be fine. It’s only a bruise.” She slid down the wall to her butt, LouLou squirming against her. “I’ll sit here until it heals. LouLou has enough dog food in her bowl to make it a few days. I’ll be fine.”
“I think you’re the one who needs a warm shower and a change of clothes. And some ice?”
“Ice would be nice.” Riley’s head thumped against the wall. Of all the stupid ways to get injured. Running out into the storm without shoes. He’d never believe she was competent at her job now, and if he really was the owner and really did have big plans for the Dorothy, she wanted him to respect her. Maybe he’d listen to her about what was best for the building, for the residents, for the neighborhood. Yeah, right. A Donovan who changed his plans because of community input. It’d been a stupid thought to begin with, made even stupider by her stupid injury. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Her second-grade teacher, Ms. Garcia, used to say that stupid was a bad word, but Riley couldn’t think of a better one to describe her current situation.
“Here.” Caleb pressed one of her cold packs—wrapped in her dancing lemons kitchen towel—against the sole of her foot. “Better?”
Riley closed her eyes and nodded. He slid down next to her, and the warmth of his body cut through the chill of her wet clothes. She fought the urge to snuggle against him, to soak up all that delicious body heat for herself. She settled for a long inhale, enjoying his earthy smell. Some kind of cologne, she guessed, smoky and peppery with a hint of leather. Or maybe that was just his soaked footwear.
“Dammit, we’ve ruined another pair of your shoes.” She opened her eyes to check out the second pair of loafers her dog drama had damaged. “I should go ahead and hand over my credit card to you now. What’s this gonna set me back?”
Caleb curled an arm around her shoulders, pulling both her and LouLou against his side. He tilted his head so that his cheek rested on the top of her head. “Don’t worry about it. They’re only shoes.”
She took a moment, then another, to soak in the situation. Sitting on her tile floor, soaked to the bone, with her former—er, current—boss snuggling beside her. Surreal didn’t even begin to cover it. But his scent up this close was even better, clean and crisp, and the man did put off heat like the Dorothy’s old-style radiators. It might be surreal, but it was still really nice.
“The important thing is that you and LouLou are safe.” Caleb gave her shoulders a squeeze. “Do you think if I help, you can make it to the couch?”
Since her couch was pleather—a decorating decision she’d made after LouLou threw up on her chenille sofa a few too many times for Riley to feel like it was ever truly clean—she nodded. “LouLou should probably go outside to the patio for a few minutes, but there’s a rip in the screen. Behind the aloe plant in the corner. That’s how she got out.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Caleb removed his arm, and Riley felt the loss of heat but refused to reach out the hand that wanted to clutch at him and pull him back to her.
In a few moments, Caleb was back from the screened-in patio, crouched in front of her, even more wet than before. He held out his arms for LouLou. “I blocked off the corner with some furniture. She should be safe until we get someone out to patch the screen. Maybe you should think about something more substantial for the bottom few feet, like aluminum or something. You know, to be safe.”
If the Dorothy’s finances were a wreck, Riley’s weren’t much better. There was nothing in her budget for any kind of remodeling, especially not something on the outside of the building that would require permits, and goodness knows, she didn’t need city inspectors taking too close a look at the Dorothy. Not until she’d finished a few more repairs herself. The last thing they needed was to be fined by the city for violation of some obscure building code.
“Sure thing, boss. I’ll add it to the list.” The never-ending to-do list. A to-do list that would soon be his responsibility. Her mood lightened at the thought of Caleb Donovan painting hallway trim. Not that he’d do it himself. No, a Donovan would surely have minions for that sort of thing, but in her imagination, it was Caleb in rough work clothes, sleeves rolled up to the elbow, sweating it out while he wrestled with power washing the front walkway.
“Here, let me take her out.” Caleb held out his hands, breaking Riley out of what had quickly become a handyman fantasy. She was so soaked it had apparently turned even her brain to mush.
LouLou leapt into Caleb’s hold, licking at his wrist, and Riley dealt with the double loss of heat. LouLou’s furnace-like body had been warming her belly, but now the cool breeze of the AC made Riley shiver. Caleb kept up a steady stream of nonsense to LouLou while he carried her to the patio, then stood guard to make sure she didn’t go near the aloe plant. She liked how he was protective of her dog. She liked it a lot. God, she was a mess, and in front of Caleb Donovan, no less. Well, she’d fix that. She could get herself to the couch, no problem.
Riley rolled to her side and gingerly crawled toward the couch. She learned along the way that her floor wasn’t nearly as clean as she’d thought it was. When she reached her destination, she levered herself up and flopped onto the cool pleather with a grunt of satisfaction and, truth be told, a little pain.
“You really couldn’t wait for me, huh?” Caleb stood over her, shaking his head and tsking like one of Grams’ second-floor friends.
“I can handle it.” Riley heaved herself into a more comfortable upright position and strained to reach one of the dog-bone-shaped pillows. “Thank you for the help.” She swept her arm to encompass LouLou out on the patio, happily sniffing at the new furniture arrangement, and her own couch-bound self. “You’re still welcome to that shower, and I think there are some sweats from an old friend in the coat closet.”
“An old friend. Do you mean an ex?” He waggled an eyebrow at her, and she laughed.
“Yes. He never showed up for the traditional exchanging of box-of-stuff-left-behind. I’ve been meaning to donate it.” For over a year. Since before she’d moved into the Dorothy. Why had she even brought that stupid box with her? Losing her job and Aiden—it was a big blur of shattered dreams. Like keeping her CPR training current, she guessed that box was a safety net, a what-if of hope she hadn’t been ready to let go of yet.
Caleb plucked at the neck of his shirt, pulling the cloth away from the defined muscles of his chest. “Sad-sack-ex clothes or not, I’ll take ’em. But let me get you set up first.”
He maneuvered the dog-bone pillows so that one propped her foot and the other protected her back from the hard edge of the couch arm. It had looked comfortable enough online, but there wasn’t a lot of padding between the frame and the pleather. Someday she’d have the budget for a couch that was both comfortable and dog friendly, but for now, she made do. Caleb pulled her favorite fuzzy blanket, the one she used for cuddling up for a good binge-watch, off the back of the sofa and tucked it around her legs. “I�
��ll be right back.”
Riley wasn’t sure what to make of this Caleb. He was nothing like the guy in the park yesterday, so sure he was in the right. He’d rescued her dog, in the rain no less, and her poodle clearly adored him for it. He’d reunited her with her runaway pooch not once but twice and was now rooting around in her kitchen, talking to himself under his breath too softly for her to understand the words but clearly trying to figure something out.
“Let me just…” He was back with the lemon dish towel packed with ice. He held it against the sole of her foot and cocked his head. He took the edges and created a rough knot on the top of her foot. It was bulky and already slipping off. “I don’t have a lot of experience with first aid.”
“That’s, um, clear.” Riley had to fight to keep from laughing at his concentrating-hard face. “I’ll scoot down.” She wiggled until she was lying flat and could balance the ice pack between her foot and the couch arm. “I got it.”
“It’s okay?” He crouched to inspect the setup more closely.
“It’s lovely. Thank you.” She found her eyes drifting closed. Adrenaline crash, no doubt. “Would you please go take that shower and stop dripping all over my floors?”
“Okay, okay.”
She watched him back away through squinted eyes, and she fell asleep to the sound of the shower running.
* * *
Riley woke up to kisses. Doggy kisses. And if she’d been dreaming about another kind during her unplanned nap, well, no one needed to know but her.
“Feeling better?” Caleb appeared over her, behind the couch, Aiden’s old UM sweatshirt stretched tight against his shoulders, so tight it looked like a sudden movement might tear the seams. She scooted up to sitting, bundling LouLou onto her lap for some snuggles, and saw the matching sweatpants ended well above his ankles. He looked like a little boy who’d had a mighty growth spurt. She found herself wondering who’d bought his clothes when he was young. Who made sure his shoes were never too tight and that he wore the right kind of footwear for whatever sports he played?