Head Over Paws

by Debbie Burns

Rhonda agreed before pulling Gabe to the first row of dogs to look at one that had come in this morning, an energetic Lab-collie mix who was running a fever. Olivia took the opportunity to walk her sister around the other cages and share some of the rescue stories she’d heard this afternoon.

  “These dogs are adorbs, Livy, especially that pointer.” Ava dropped her voice and nudged her in the ribs. “But I want deets on the hottie. I take it he was the one who picked you up? Which begs the question, why didn’t you find a way to mention how phenomenal looking he is? And what am I doing here? You should’ve asked to ride back with him.”

  Olivia gave her sister another he’ll-hear-you glare and pulled her over to the cat kennels on the opposite side of the shed. “Hush, will you? I’ll fill you in in the car. And I didn’t know how things were going to turn out.”

  Ava was stubborn and determined, but she was also a cat person, and luck was on Olivia’s side in terms of adequate distraction from her sister’s train of thought.

  A few particularly adorable cats had been brought in. Two had been wandering the town, and one was rescued off a tractor in a flooded field. Ava seemed especially drawn to a silver-and-cream long-haired tabby with bright-green eyes. “They don’t know how she came to be there, but she turned up at the filling station. She slipped inside with one of the customers, and she seemed terrified of the outdoors.”

  “Can I hold her?”

  Olivia nodded. “Rhonda told us we could so long as they don’t fight it.”

  When her crate was opened, the dainty cat practically hopped into Ava’s arms, and Ava let out a heartfelt coo. “I forgot how much I love cats.” Her sister smoothed the cat’s long, silky coat, sending tufts of fur flying into the air. “Her coat’s soft and tangle-free like an indoor cat.”

  Olivia ran her hand along the cat’s smooth coat. “She seems to be in great health, that’s for sure. And she’s not underweight either.”

  “Oh, Sis, I want a cat. And not just a cat. I want this cat. Don’t you think my failing marriage entitles me to a cat?”

  Olivia choked back a laugh. “Yes, definitely, but I think you should sleep on it first.” Hearing a deep, thrumming purr erupting from the cat, she shook her head. “Though something tells me you two are a great match.”

  Ava wasn’t one to make impulsive decisions often, but when she did, she could forget to take things into account, and right now, that included who was going to be getting the house, and if it wasn’t her, where she was going to live, among other things. Fortunately, this kitty would still be in limbo another day or two. It would give her sister time to take stock of some of the big decisions awaiting her if she and Wes were in fact calling it quits.

  The next several minutes passed in a blur. After seeing that the pointer was curled atop his wadded-up blanket at the back of his crate and falling into a doze, Olivia figured it was best not to disturb him with a goodbye that would serve her more than it would him.

  “Sweet puppy, you’re safe now.”

  She refused to let herself think she wouldn’t see him again. The shed was full of deserving dogs with their own touching stories, but this one now mattered to her more than any dog had in a long time.

  “I’ll check in with you tomorrow,” she promised Rhonda and Karen as she and Ava joined the group before heading out. “I understand everything has to be done within the confines of the law, but I have huge reservations against him going back to that house.”

  “Me too,” Gabe agreed.

  Rhonda gave them a reassuring look, complete with a gentle smile and a little nod, reminding Olivia of how she herself must appear at parent-teacher conferences when meeting with parents of kids with bigger-than-average struggles. “With that pen of his collapsing like you said, and the fact that yard won’t be habitable for some time after the water recedes, there’s a chance he could be surrendered even if his owner does come forward.”

  With nothing else to do, Olivia determined to hold onto this.

  Her sister jangled her keys, switching them from hand to hand. Suddenly Olivia realized she wasn’t just leaving the dog, she was leaving Gabe too. She cursed herself for bringing up her past and not finding time to finish the story. Now she was leaving him with two very distinct images: the girl who’d initiated a make-out session in the middle of the day on a public road that culminated in her crawling onto his lap, and the girl who’d walked out on a guy three weeks before a wedding.

  Why did you blurt out that you had, you idiot? The truth was, even if she’d had another ten or twenty minutes to explain herself, there was a good chance she wouldn’t see him again. Not only did they live on opposite sides of metro St. Louis, but he was a new vet taking over a practice and working exhausting hours, and she was still establishing herself as a teacher and crossing her fingers her contract would be extended and she wouldn’t need to come crawling back here where she’d forever be the girl who all but left Trevor Jones at the altar.

  She swallowed hard. The thought of never seeing Gabe again had her throat tight and dry and tears stinging the backs of her eyes for the second time in a half hour. But crying over a guy she’d only known for a handful of hours seemed a touch more pathetic than crying over a mistreated dog.

  She hugged Rhonda and Karen, promising again to call tomorrow to check on the pointer, then turned to Gabe awkwardly. She sucked in the side of her cheek and stuck out her hand. “It was really nice meeting you.”

  He gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head, causing Olivia to wonder whether or not to pull her hand back. Before she determined what to do, he closed his hand over hers but didn’t shake it. His gaze shifted from her to Ava, then to her again. “Do you have a minute?”

  Ava’s eyebrows nearly disappeared into her hairline. “She can have several. I’ll be in my Jeep checking my email…assuming I’m lucky enough to get reception.”

  Olivia’s palms broke out in a sweat. “I need to grab my things from your truck anyway.” Doing her best to appear more confident than she felt, she trailed outside after her sister with Gabe following just behind her. Her pulse began to sprint.

  Gabe followed her around to the passenger-side door. As she grabbed her things, he opened the back door and placed the stool for Samson to hop down. “You probably need to stretch your legs a minute, bud.”

  When’s the last time you met someone sweet enough to always make sure his dog had his needs met like that? Never, that’s when.

  Olivia tucked her jacket over her arm but left her purse clutched in front of her like an added layer of protection against the wave of uncertainty rocking her.

  “Look,” Gabe said, dragging one hand through his hair. “I want to apologize.”

  “You don’t have to,” she burst out before he could finish. “It was clearly me who started it.”

  A crooked smile lit his face, tugging Olivia’s heartstrings. “Olivia, I’m not apologizing for kissing you. I’m apologizing for being the guy that gave serious consideration to leaving you stranded at that gas station because of a bunch of stupid baggage that’s been weighing me down.”

  Olivia smashed her lips together. There was no denying it now; she was very close to crying. “It’s okay. You didn’t know me from anything.”

  “That’s what I keep thinking. I could’ve missed this opportunity. I could’ve missed out on today. And it was the best day I’ve had in a long time.” He swept his thumb over the corner of her eye, brushing away a stray tear she’d not realized had slipped out. It was so dark out here, just a single floodlight shining onto the pavement, and he’d still spotted it. Maybe it was because he was looking at her as if he couldn’t see anything else.

  “You saved that dog’s life today.”

  He blinked abruptly, and the set of his shoulders visibly stiffened. Had she said the wrong thing? She’d have sworn he’d been about to kiss her, but he stepped back half a foot.

/>   “Tell me the truth, will you? The truth you wouldn’t normally tell someone at this stage in the game.”

  She didn’t understand it, but there was something very raw and real happening right at this moment, and as scary as it seemed, she committed to complete honesty. “Yeah, okay.”

  “When did you first want to kiss me?”

  She forced herself to breathe through her thoughts rather than spout out an answer. When had she first wanted to kiss him? There’d been so many little things, from him asking her to take a picture of his license plate to his soft, easy laughter and that irresistible dimple to the way he treated Samson, and of course there’d been the heroics in the water.

  Finally, she gave a resigned shrug. “It was a dozen little things more than any one big one. If I had to put it to one thing, I guess it would be the way you treat Samson. The stool to help him get up and down. The incredible bond you two have. The way it’s so clear that he sets his world by you.”

  To her surprise, a look of sheer relief swept over Gabe’s face. He pulled her to him abruptly, smashing her purse between them, and pressed his lips against her temple. He let out an easy chuckle, then pulled away just enough to find her lips. His hands locked at the back of her head and he kissed her, soft at first, then harder as a rush of hunger swept into it.

  Olivia decided that she didn’t care Ava was certainly spying through the windows and opened her mouth more fully to his. If she’d said the wrong thing, then surely she’d followed it up with the right one. This reminded her that she barely knew him. It was crazy to feel such a strong connection with someone she’d only known for a handful of hours.

  And from the way he was kissing her and the way that rock-hard frame of his was shaking ever so slightly, she was certain he felt it too.

  A high-pitched yawn carried up from knee level, and Samson could be heard settling down onto the ground beside them. Apparently, he’d had enough adventure for the day.

  Gabe pulled away and kissed her forehead. “If your sister wasn’t ten feet away, I’d have a hard time stopping this here.” He brushed fresh tears from the corners of her eyes. “What you were trying to tell me back at the house before we spotted the dog… I want to hear it. All of it. I’ll call you.”

  She nodded and fought back a flood of fresh tears. It was the weirdest feeling. She was wildly happy and impossibly sad at the same time. Why did this feel like hello and goodbye at the same time? And why the hell had she called Ava to take her home? She could’ve ridden back with him and had a few more hours before they went back to their separate lives.

  “I—I haven’t given you my number.” She stepped back and opened her purse, sifting through with a shaky hand for a pen and a piece of scrap paper.

  “I’ll just put it in my phone.”

  “That makes sense.” She waited as he pulled up his contacts and typed in her name.

  “G-r-a-h-a-m?”

  She nodded. “I forgot I told you my last name.”

  “I didn’t.”

  She shook her head, laughing and fighting away the tears that were still pressing in. She recited her number, waiting as he typed it in and showed her for confirmation, then nodded.

  She bent down and wrapped Samson in a whole-arm hug. “Bye, buddy.” He licked her ear, and that was all it took for Olivia’s tears to rush forth unchecked. “Dammit. I hate goodbyes,” she said, standing back up.

  Gabe pulled her in to his chest again. “If I have anything to say about it, it’s not goodbye, just good night.”

  Somehow Olivia made it through another kiss without falling into full, blubbery oblivion—What the heck was wrong with her anyway?—and over to her sister’s car. She plopped into the passenger seat and shut the door, wiping the stream of tears from her cheeks.

  “Don’t ask, just drive, okay?”

  Ava squeezed her knee before flipping on the ignition. “Yeah, okay, Sis. But I’m pretty sure I don’t have to ask a thing. I know the real thing when I see it.”

  Chapter 10

  Gabe was still a half hour from home when he determined he couldn’t drive another mile without a pick-me-up of some sort. Spotting a gas station, he pulled off the highway and filled his less-than-half-empty tank simply to stand in the chilly night air for a few minutes. As it filled, he let Samson stretch his legs and take a leak on the grass at the far end of the parking lot. Afterward, Gabe headed inside for a king-size Snickers and a 16-ounce coffee that he suspected couldn’t have been accurately described as fresh for half a day at least. Normally, he liked his coffee black, but after a cautious sip, he decided he wouldn’t be able to choke it down without a spoonful or two of sugar.

  Welcome company that Samson was, the tuckered-out dog proved to be no help in the final stretch of the drive. The methodic, heavy snore that lulled Gabe to sleep most nights filled the cab and counteracted the soft buzz he got from chugging the coffee.

  By the time Gabe finally made it home, he couldn’t recall the last time he’d been so bone-tired. He found an open parking spot on the crowded street half a block from the old redbrick home—now divided into apartments—in Tower Grove South where he’d been renting the last several years. He’d been running short of sleep for weeks, no question. Added to that, he was sore, bruised, and exhausted from the struggle in the cold, flooded river.

  He trudged up the steps inside the main entry. When he didn’t hear Samson’s toenails hitting the wooden steps behind him, he turned around to find his dog stretched over the bottom three steps. Meeting his gaze, Samson let out a well-timed whine and pumped his tail.

  “Too stiff, bud?” Gabe jogged back down and carefully lifted his dog into his arms, craning his head to avoid a mouthful of dog hair. Considering Samson’s size and weight—close to eighty pounds—carrying him up the steps wasn’t a thoughtless feat. A support sling tucked away in the hall closet enabled Samson to climb the stairs on his own with Gabe lifting the sling, but his dog moved at a snail’s pace when they used it, and Gabe wasn’t in the mood to delay collapsing on his bed another minute.

  Samson thanked him with a wag of the tail when Gabe set him down on the stoop. Gabe entered the often glitchy code to his apartment, willing it to open without the usual struggle. “You know, bud, we’re gonna have to find a different place if your hips get any worse.” Samson was on Rimadyl and chondroitin supplements, and Gabe could perform a hip replacement on him if necessary, but there was something uncomfortable and daunting about the prospect of doing surgery on his own dog. If it came to it, he’d probably place Samson in Yun’s capable hands instead. But he’d have to move before then. Samson wouldn’t be able to take the steps during recuperation.

  Gabe kicked off his shoes and debated how badly he needed a shower tonight instead of in the morning. You went swimming in floodwater. Is there any question?

  He stripped out of his clothes in the middle of the living room, headed into the bathroom, and flipped the shower knob to hot. Thoughts of Olivia floated through his head the same as they had most of the drive home. Would it be too early to text her tonight?

  Yun had been telling him for months he needed to get back out there again, and Gabe had all but dismissed her as not knowing what he really needed. He liked being able to eat whatever called to him in the moment and shoot away for the weekends with Samson. He still got satisfaction in not picking up his messes until doing so suited him. And he already had to fight Samson for adequate space on the mattress. But maybe Yun had been more right than he could even begin to comprehend. It was as if a long-slumbering part of him was stepping out of a nearly impenetrable fog.

  Hot water washed over him as he stepped in, stinging the scrapes on his back and sending a cascade of floodwater residue down the drain. How come he’d never realized his shower was so heavenly? Tonight, it didn’t even matter that the showerhead was partly calcified from hard water and beat down on him in an irregular stream.<
br />
  Olivia’s face was burned into his mind as clearly as if he were looking at a high-resolution photo of her. Those remarkable hazel eyes with flecks of gold and green, the delicate speckling of freckles across the bridge of her nose and tops of her cheeks, the long red hair that beckoned him to bury his hands in it, the long curve of her neck, the gentle point of her chin. And her lips… Just thinking about them sent a rush of blood to his groin. He could still recall the subtle hint of citrus that floated off her when she was against him. Then there was her body, long and lean and supple and yielding.

  There was also the way she’d opened up around him, the way she’d let him in, telling him little bits about her life with rare and refreshing humility.

  And possibly more important than any of this was what she’d said about him and Samson. Fear had rocketed through him when he’d spotted the unchecked admiration on her face about his heroics in the river. He’d not realized it at the time, but that’s what had initially drawn Claire to him, the allure of connecting with someone stronger than life, stronger than death. Then he’d walked into that fire, and she’d realized no one was stronger than either of those. Instead of accepting that the human experience was inextricably woven into both, she’d walked away in hopes of claiming a life more under her control.

  What would he have done if Olivia had answered differently? Or if the answer she’d given had only been one she’d wanted him to hear? But he’d seen the truth of it in her eyes; she’d spoken from the heart.

  Maybe Olivia hadn’t been in his immediate plans, and maybe the idea of letting her in was about as daunting as walking into a four-alarm fire, but the way he’d felt around her today made it worth exploring this new, unexpected path.

  He lingered in the shower until the tank emptied of hot water, then dried off and headed into his room. Samson was sprawled across the center of his bed, snoring the snore that Gabe had committed to memory, even and peaceful and unreserved. Gabe tugged on a fresh pair of boxers and collapsed beside his dog after shoving him over a foot with his hip. Samson slept through it undeterred, and his warmth soaked into Gabe’s side, a wash of familiar comfort.