“I don’t have any plans other than to spend time with you and Maverick.”
“No date?”
“Ha! No, I don’t really date. I always thought I’d be with Trevor.” She shrugged. “You know how you make plans that never materialize. Guess that one’s mine.”
“I’m sorry, MJ. I wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s okay. Maybe I’ll date, eventually. There aren’t a lot of eligible men in Ridgeview, though. Plus, working in the library doesn’t exactly put me in the middle of the social scene. I’m not somebody who enjoys going to bars. Occasionally, I go out with my brother and his girlfriend, or a group of friends. I go to parties once in a while, but I can’t remember the last date I was on.”
Before he could stop himself he said, “Maybe while I’m here, I can take you dancing or something.”
Her eyes widened, and then she broke into a huge grin. “I’d like that! I’m not great at traditional dancing, where I have to follow somebody, but I love line dancing.”
“Good. It’s a date, then.” He looked up and noticed the blush that had given her face a rosy glow. “Let’s clean up these dishes and take Maverick to the park.”
***
A date. Rob had asked her out. What did it mean? Was he just being nice, or did he really want to go out with her? Gosh, this stuff always confused her. Maybe she ought to ask Tess, her brother’s fiancée. She and Nick got together last year and had become engaged last spring.
MJ needed to get a hold of herself. He probably meant nothing by it. “It’s a date” was just an expression, right? They’d spend a lot of time together as she learned how to handle Maverick, so maybe he thought they ought to have a change of pace now and then.
She put on yoga pants, a sweatshirt, and her sneakers. They’d be working out at the park, so she ought to wear clothes she could move in. What she needed to do was stop overreacting to Rob’s invitation. Crap, what if he felt sorry for her because she didn’t date? The last thing she wanted was a pity date. Ugh. How did her life get so complicated?
“I’m ready,” she announced as she came into the living room to find Rob in front of her television, roaming the channels.
“I was checking out baseball games. Looks like the Yankees are playing the Pittsburgh Pirates.”
She made a face.
“What, you don’t like the Yankees?”
“I’m not a big baseball fan, but when I root for a team, it’s usually the underdog. Like the Cubs. Would you rather watch than go work out with Maverick?”
“Nope. I think this is much more important. I need to stop by my apartment and change, though.”
He hooked on Maverick’s leash and gestured for the dog to lead the way, and he and MJ followed side by side out of the house, and over to the truck. He gestured the dog into the backseat, and came around to open the passenger door, helping MJ up into the high seat.
“Thanks. I’m not exactly used to somebody opening doors for me.”
“That’s too bad. While I’m here, plan on me doing it. It’s a small thing, but it’s a sign of respect.”
Hmm. Rob really was unique. A gentleman. Not at all what she was used to. But, boy, she’d love to get used to it.
When they reached his apartment, she slid down from the passenger seat as he let Maverick out.
“Why don’t you and Maverick go into the backyard and play while I change into workout clothes?”
“Okay, that sounds like a plan,” she agreed, smiling up at him.
“Ball or frisbee?” He pulled both out of the backseat.
She eyed the slobber glistening on the ball. “I think the frisbee.” He handed it to her and she held it in front of Maverick and led him into the fenced backyard, while Rob went up the stairs to his apartment.
“C’mon, boy.” She threw the frisbee toward the back fence and was astounded by how quickly Maverick ran after the disc and leaped high into the air before it turned back. He trotted over to her, and she reached for it. He started a game of tug-of-war with it, until she remembered to tell him to drop it. What was the phrase? “Maverick, buttala!”
The dog immediately dropped the frisbee and wagged his tail, waiting for her to throw it again. She launched it as hard as she could and again marveled at how quickly he ran and leaped after it.
“That’s quite a jump,” said a male voice, making her startle and jump, too.
She turned and her eyes widened at the man. “Derrick! What are you doing here?” Her brother’s buddy from high school stood in front of her.
“I live here, MJ. I moved back to Ridgeview a few months ago, and I live in the lower unit.”
He leaned in and gave her a hug, but they both jumped back when they heard Maverick’s warning growl.
“Oh, sorry,” she told Derrick. “Va bene,” she told Maverick, and he sat next to her leg, eyeing Derrick suspiciously.
“Is he your dog?” Derrick asked.
“Well, sort of. He was a canine warrior in the Marines with Trevor Baird. When he was killed in action, I sort of inherited him. Trevor’s buddy, Rob Michelini, brought him here and is teaching me how to handle him.”
Derrick winked at her. “I guess I’d better keep in mind that you’ve got a canine protector.”
She’d forgotten how flirtatious Derrick had been. He hadn’t turned the charm on her before. Her brother Nick had kept all his friends from making a move on her. Not that Derrick would have. She felt herself blush at the idea.
She turned as she heard the door to Rob’s apartment close and watched him scowl at his neighbor. Uh oh. She didn’t need two warriors protecting her from Derrick Marsden.
“Hi, Rob. I just found out that your downstairs neighbor is a friend of my brother’s from high school. Rob, this is Derrick Marsden. Derrick, this is Rob Michelini. He’s already met Maverick.”
Rob’s scowl didn’t change. “I saw that. I’m glad Maverick didn’t attack you,” he told Derrick.
MJ wasn’t sure he was glad. Somehow, the testosterone leaping back and forth between the two men made her want to roll her eyes. She’d seen this sort of posturing with Nick and his friends, and thought it was absurd when men behaved this way, especially around women.
“Well, it was good seeing you, MJ. Tell your brother I’ll call him one of these days. I’m the regional manager in this area for Tambora Foods, so I’m on the road a lot. I hope to see you again when I’m back in town.”
She felt Rob’s posture stiffen next to her. He put his arm around her shoulder as if to claim her. She looked down at Maverick. The dog seemed to smile. It was all she could do to avoid rolling her eyes.
“Sounds good, Derrick. It’s nice to see you again. I’ll tell Nick to call you.”
“Oh, then I’d better give you my cell number so that you can pass it along.”
She handed over her phone and Derrick called her. “There, now you’ve got mine and I’ve got yours.”
As Derrick walked away, she elbowed Rob in the side. “What the heck is the matter with you?”
“I’m sorry. Maybe I overreacted. I didn’t like the way he was looking at you.”
She let out a sigh. “Oh, good grief. Save me from possessive males. Between you and Maverick, you made your feelings about Derrick very well known. It just so happens that he’s an old friend of my brother’s. I knew him in high school. He’s always been a flirt. He doesn’t mean anything by it.”
Rob muttered something that sounded like “wanna bet,” but she ignored it.
“Listen, he’s your neighbor. You should probably be nice to him.” She pulled away and threw the frisbee for Maverick. Once again he caught it on the fly. “He’s amazing. I can’t believe how high he’s able to jump!”
“Yeah, he’s great. This breed has amazing capabilities.”
“I had to remember my Italian to get him to let go of the frisbee, and to calm down when he saw Derrick hug me.”
“He hugged you? And Maverick reacted?”
“Yeah, he growle
d.”
“Good boy, Maverick,” said Rob, stroking the Malinois’ head. “I’m glad he’s paying attention. Trevor wanted him to protect you, you know.”
“I know, but I don’t need protection from Derrick.”
“Well, don’t underestimate Maverick’s instincts about people. He knows when someone doesn’t have good intentions.”
She slapped her hands over her face and shook her head. “Stop. Derrick is harmless. He’s not somebody I’d want to go out with, anyway. I remember only too well what he was like in high school—he thought he was God’s gift to girls. Not my type at all.”
“What is your type?” Rob raised an eyebrow and smiled at her.
She shrugged. “I guess it’s somebody with more substance than Derrick. Somebody who respects me. Somebody who does things for others, rather than being conceited and self-absorbed. Somebody who believes in me and brings out the best in me. Somebody who bothers to get to know me.”
She stole a look at Rob out of the corner of her eye. His expression was serious, as if he were taking it all in.
“I get it,” he said. “A man like Trevor.”
She didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t been thinking about Trevor. She’d been thinking about Rob.
Chapter Ten
After spending a few hours in the park, throwing the ball for Maverick, teaching MJ to get the canine to heel, and taking MJ through a series of commands, Rob dropped her off and made plans to get together on Sunday afternoon. He watched as she waved from the front door before closing it.
He’d offered to grill the steaks he’d bought this morning, but she’d turned him down, telling him she had a gender-reveal baby shower to attend. Although he was disappointed, he couldn’t monopolize all her time, even though he’d like to.
He smiled about how far she’d come. The Italian phrases weren’t second nature to her yet, but she could use the country accent with ease when she gave them. Although he didn’t think of her as having much of an accent, she could speak with the twang necessary to match Trevor’s.
Sadness hit as it usually did whenever he thought of his buddy. “I’m doing what I can,” he said aloud. “I’ll teach her to manage Maverick, but it should have been you with her, not me.”
He couldn’t help feeling guilty over being able to spend time with MJ. He loved her laugh. When she and Maverick were playing “keep away,” she’d laughed uproariously. She was a sweet woman. He stopped himself. He couldn’t get attached to her, much as he’d like to.
He wasn’t a guy who had ever planned to settle down. He’d convinced himself he’d spend his life dedicated to the military rather than a woman, but somehow, spending time with Mary Jane Van Buren made him yearn for something he’d never wanted before.
He shook his head to clear his mind and looked into the rearview mirror at the panting Malinois staring back at him.
“You like her, don’t you, buddy? I do, too. Wish things could have been different for all of us.” Maverick leaned forward and rested his head on Rob’s shoulder, his hot breaths panting against an exposed neck.
“Good boy, Maverick. I love you, buddy. Leaving you will be one of the most difficult things I’ll have to do. Tough enough losing Trevor, but I’ve become attached to you. And your new owner.”
Maverick turned and licked Rob’s cheek, making him laugh. “Yeah, don’t rub it in. I know you own her heart.”
He pulled into his driveway. Derrick’s truck sat off to one side. He let Maverick out and urged him to heel. He needed to be more friendly to his downstairs neighbor.
He knocked on Derrick’s back door, and the man immediately opened it.
“Hey, Rob, what’s up?”
“I thought if you weren’t doing anything, I’d grill some steaks and we could drink a few beers and get to know each other.”
“Sounds like a good plan. I’m leaving tomorrow morning for an area sales conference, but packing won’t take me very long. What time were you thinking?”
“I want to go take a shower. I’ll meet you in the backyard in about an hour.”
“Sounds good.” Both men nodded at each other, and Rob headed up the stairs with Maverick close beside him.
Several hours later, Rob felt like he and Derrick had known each other for years. They’d polished off the perfectly cooked medium-rare steaks, grilled vegetables, and a six-pack of beer. They’d traded stories—Rob about his time in Afghanistan and the Marines; Derrick about his adventures traveling around the South Pacific and Southeast Asia after college. It was hard to imagine somebody that much into adventure had settled in Ridgeview.
“What made you come back and work in a small town?” He was curious about what would hold an adventurous guy like Derrick in a place with less than 15,000 people.
“I got sick of meeting strangers. Initially, it was exciting. So many new places, with different food, different music, cultures that were much more interesting than small-town Ridgeview, Tennessee. After a while, though, I missed the warmth and familiarity of this town. Now I think I’ve got the best of both worlds. I travel a lot, and visit other small and medium towns in the area, but I get to come back and have Ridgeview as my base.”
“Anybody special pull you back?”
“Not really.” Derrick shifted his eyes away as if he were hiding something. “But if I ever want to settle down, this is a good place to do it. People in small towns care about each other and look out after each other.” He looked over at Rob with a glimmer of a smile. “Don’t worry, I don’t have my eye on MJ. She’s a sweetie, but a bit too shy for me. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Not for the right guy.”
Rob started to deny that he wanted to be the right guy, but the minute he opened his mouth, Derrick burst into a laugh.
“Don’t deny it. I could see it written all over your face when I met you this afternoon. Your feelings were plain by how you snarled at me.”
Rob rubbed his face, sure that he’d turned bright red. “MJ was special to Trevor. He was my best buddy, and it doesn’t seem right to—I don’t know, try to have a relationship with her. Sort of like moving in on his territory. Goes against the code, you know?”
“I get it,” said Derrick. “But Trevor is gone. Wouldn’t he want somebody like his best buddy to take care of the woman he loved? Seems to me he’d want her to be happy. If he wasn’t around, wouldn’t he want somebody he trusted to be there for her?”
Rob shrugged. It made sense, but it still seemed somehow disloyal for him to move in on Trevor’s girl.
Derrick gave him a grin. “How long are you going to be around?”
“As long as it takes to get her comfortable with Maverick and able to handle him.”
“Hmm. Sounds like you may have time to see what develops between you and MJ. She has a choice in who she wants to have a relationship with too, you know.”
Hell, Derrick was right. Rob had been trying so hard to do the right thing, he hadn’t even considered what MJ might want. She’d loved Trevor, but she was still young. Too young to give up on future relationships. The thought of her in a relationship with another guy made his stomach hurt. He needed to think about this.
Their conversation lagged, and he felt relieved when Derrick begged off to pack for his upcoming trip. “I’ll be back at the end of the week. I’ll buy the beer next time.”
Rob carried the dirty dishes up the stairs and stacked them in the sink. Maverick had been chewing happily on a steak bone during their impromptu dinner. “Time to go to bed, Maverick.”
It had been a full day. Hopefully, neither he nor Maverick would be bothered by nightmares or flashbacks tonight. At least he knew what to do for the dog. It might take time, but with luck, they’d both get beyond the images that haunted them.
***
MJ looked around the room at the party her friend Meredith and her husband, Blake, had thrown in the private room of Boyd’s Steak House, one of the few places big enough to host a party this size. She knew many of the p
eople, especially the women from high school. In a small town like Ridgeview, they’d grown up and attended elementary, middle school, and high school together. Meredith and Blake had been college sweethearts, and she’d roomed with Meredith in college at UT, so she’d gotten to know him well. She smiled at the way the two kept exchanging longing glances at each other whenever they got separated by party guests. Meredith’s baby bump was about five months along, and she kept her hands cradling her belly or rubbing it absently.
It was tough not to be jealous. MJ had dreamed of having her own children for years, but had always imagined Trevor would be the father. In her fantasies, they’d both be over the moon at sharing that special bond. Now, all that had changed. Would she ever have children? Would she ever have someone she loved as much as she had Trevor? A touch of melancholy ran through her, and she sighed, hoping nobody would notice her downer mood. Someone sat down next to her. Meredith.
“Are you doing okay?” her friend asked.
MJ forced a smile. “Sure. I’m so happy for you and Blake. I can’t wait to find out whether you’re having a little boy or a little girl.”
“It won’t be long.” Meredith nodded her head toward a large box that sat on a separate table against the wall. “I thought this might be difficult for you. I suspect you haven’t recovered from Trevor’s death.”
“You’re right, I haven’t. It’s only been nine months.”
“I haven’t seen you much since then.”
“I know. I’ve been trying to deal with it. Keeping busy helps.”
“I heard that a friend of his is in town and brought you Trevor’s dog.”
“Yeah, Rob Michelini. He’s helping me learn how to manage Maverick, a beautiful Belgian Malinois.”
“Rumor has it Rob isn’t so bad himself.” Meredith raised an eyebrow at her.
“He’s very nice.” MJ looked around to see if anyone was close enough to hear. “And, yes, he’s good-looking in that warrior-type way.” She felt herself blush. She shouldn’t be so attracted to him, but the more time she spent with him, the more she noticed that the man was hot.
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