by Natalie Ann
“Yum,” she said. “French toast and pancakes are my favorite breakfast for dinner meals.”
“I didn’t think of them. Bacon, eggs, and toast here. It was pretty fast.”
“Did you eat the whole package of bacon?” she asked. “That is one of those things I struggle with. If I make anything with bacon I have to use the whole package or I pick at it until it’s all gone and then I regret it.”
“Guess we share that. It was just a small package. When we are done on the phone I’ll go work out so that I can absolve my guilt.”
“You’re so skinny though. You don’t need to work out.”
“What no guy ever wants to hear,” he said, knowing his voice was on the grouchy end.
“I didn’t mean it that way. Just that you must have good metabolism.”
Many had said that to him before. “I do work out though. Just lift weights.”
“Hmm,” she said and he’d felt his pulse pick up some.
“So I’m going to take a guess that we are on the same page about another date?” he asked, knowing that he needed to get this clarified and set up. He wasn’t sure how long he could wait to see her again.
“We are,” she said. “Could I cook for you again if it’s before Saturday? I just don’t want to leave the dogs locked up all day and then leave at night too.”
He was going to suggest Saturday night out, but if she wanted to get together sooner, he was all over it.
“We can do dinner at your place one night. Then maybe I can take you out to dinner on Saturday?”
“Sounds good. What is your schedule like this week? I get out of work at four and am normally home no later than four thirty.”
“I can make any day work,” he said. If he had work, he’d catch up another day, but he wasn’t passing up the opportunity to spend time with her.
“How about Thursday then? Since I’m off, it will give me more time to figure out dinner. Does six work for you? I know your office closes at five, but I’m sure you’ll want to go home and change. Not that I mind you in a suit.”
He smiled. “Yeah. It’s expected to wear a suit and tie, but it’s what I hate the most about my job. Thursday at six it is.”
“Then I’ll let you go and work off that bacon,” she said. He could hear the laughter in her voice and as much as he wanted to stay on the phone and talk with her, he didn’t want to push his luck.
“See you Thursday, Robin.”
“Bye, Brian.”
It was the first time she’d said his name and he liked the way it sounded on her lips almost as much as he liked the feel of her lips against his.
7
The Shy One
Robin was running around faster than the roadrunner after ingesting a five-pound bag of gummy bears.
Luke and Leia were under her feet, they were tripping her up, and they were getting into everything.
She’d lost her mind thinking she could handle two puppies in a brand new house as well as trying to cook dinner for a guy she wanted to know better.
She could barely balance her life from her boring dull existence and here she had three new things going on at once.
She’d had a short day at the shelter, which worked in her favor. Then she’d come home and played with the puppies in the yard, trying to tire them out. Good grief, all they did was sleep when they arrived at the shelter, but when she was home all they wanted was attention.
Part of her was thrilled they were so comfortable in their new surroundings; the other part wondering what the heck she’d gotten herself into.
By three thirty, they were up from their nap and she immediately took them outside to do their business. Potty training was hit and miss, but so far she’d kept it to piddle pads in her office that was now the dog’s room.
But the minute she was outside with them on their leashes—finding it was easier to train that way for now—Livi started calling her name in the back. She still had her bookbag on and must have just gotten home from school.
“Livi, leave Robin alone,” she heard Philip say. She’d only met him that once at the closing, but of course she’d been in the house just a week. He seemed like a nice guy and was probably giving her space.
“She’s got puppies, Daddy. I want to see the puppies,” Livi shouted.
There was no way she could tell the little girl no. “Come on over if your father will let you,” she yelled back.
“Let’s put your bag in the house first,” Philip said.
The dogs finished their business while her neighbors were in the house, then Philip and Livi returned and entered through the fence in the back, shutting it behind him.
Robin unclipped the leashes from the dogs and Leia took off first, Luke following his baby sister, the two bundles of fur charging the little girl and jumping all over her.
“Oh my God,” Livi squealed. “They are so soft.”
“Be careful,” Robin said. “Their teeth are sharp and they nip while they try to lick. They aren’t trying to bite you as much as they are young yet and can’t seem to control themselves.”
“What are their names?” Livi asked.
“Luke is the bigger one and Leia the runt. They are brother and sister. I couldn’t separate them.”
“Looks like you aren’t wasting any time planting roots,” Philip said. “Getting any sleep with these two?”
“It’s not too bad. I keep them in the office. Sorry,” she said. “It’s their space now. I need to get someone here to put a dog door in for me so they can let themselves out when they get older. Once I can trust them more I’ll let them loose in the room, but for now they are crated.”
“Don’t apologize,” he said. “It’s your house now to do what you want.”
“I know. It feels weird in a way.” She hadn’t thought much of it until now.
“Daddy, can we get a puppy?” Livi asked.
Philip rolled his eyes. “I’m not sure Blair would like a dog running around and getting into her flowers and herbs. It might be toxic for them too.”
Robin grinned since Livi already confessed Blair and she were working on Philip for the dog.
Livi’s bottom lip came out. “How about a cat?”
“How about we change the subject,” he said.
“You can come play with my dogs anytime you want. They would love to have a kid run around the yard with them.”
“Can I, Daddy?”
“If Robin says so, then it gets you your puppy fix.”
“What’s a puppy fix?” Livi asked.
“It’s where you get to visit, play, and then leave the hard work with me,” she said.
“Exactly,” Philip said.
They stayed in the yard for about twenty minutes, the dogs running everywhere, and thankfully Philip said they needed to get in and have Livi do her homework. She was grateful as she was having a hard time figuring out a way to get back in the house.
She collected the dogs and went back to the kitchen, stirring her sauce and checking on the meatballs that were cooking. It was a chilly fall day out and sauce would hit the spot.
And it was easy.
She needed something easy for today.
By the time she was done cleaning the house and changing her clothes, checking herself out in the mirror, the doorbell rang and she went rushing to answer it, slowing down a few steps before so she didn’t look like a lovesick fool over a second date.
The dogs had been chasing her, thinking it was a game and when she slowed down they bumped into her legs, sending her toward the wall to catch herself, her hair falling into her face. What a great way to make an impression.
She got to the door and opened it, Brian standing there looking yummier than the chocolate he’d brought her days before. She’d never reacted over a man like this in her life.
“Hello,” she said.
“Hi,” he said, moving into the foyer, lowering his head and putting his lips to hers. Oh man, what a welcome, and she found herself putting her arms ar
ound his neck and deepening the kiss.
That is until Luke started to bark and jump up on their legs.
“Looks like someone is jealous already,” Brian said. “Is he going to bite me if I pet him?”
“I think it might be smart if I introduced the two of you. I should have realized how protective he’d be, but I figured it was just for his sister.”
“Looks like it’s for his owner too. I guess I can’t blame him one bit.”
Brian hadn’t expected that exuberant of a welcome but was damn glad of it.
When Robin leaned back, her brown hair was half in her face, her eyelids were slightly closed and her mouth was parted, her breathing a little heavy. What he wanted to do was yank her in again, not bend down and meet the two new additions to her family.
No reason to rush though.
“And you must be Luke,” he said to the bigger of the two bundles of fur as he squatted down. The dog took a minute to sniff his hand while his little sister sat back. He put his other hand out for her to see what she’d do and she charged him.
Not that these dogs were big, maybe ten pounds tops, at least Luke was, but he hadn’t been expecting it any more than the way Robin returned his kiss and he found himself on his ass on the floor.
“Oh boy, I’m so sorry,” Robin said. “They aren’t the best behaved dogs at the moment.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “I didn’t expect that with Luke not moving. You said she was the shy one.”
“She is, but I guess she likes you. Must be we share that trait.”
He laughed and sat up, both dogs in his lap now while he gave them equal attention.
Once he felt they were fine with him being in the house, he stood up and took his jacket off, hung it up and followed Robin to the back of the house. “When is your furniture coming?”
She’d told him she’d gotten new living room furniture for the front room. There was a dining room table in the other room now.
“Living room furniture in two weeks. I special ordered the fabric. The table and two beds arrived on Monday. They were pretty fast since they had them in stock. Now I’ve got places for guests.”
“Do you get guests often?”
“No,” she said. “My brother, maybe. Normally he’d stay with my parents because he never wanted to stay with me and Alex. And my apartment only had one room in it. But here there is plenty of space.”
“How often does he visit?”
“One or two times a year, if that. Normally holidays. He said he was coming for Christmas this year, so he’ll skip Thanksgiving. He’ll probably stay a week or so. He doesn’t take much time off.”
“That’s nice,” he said. It’d give him time to prepare for the older brother introduction, but he had no plans on saying that to her. He knew how he was when Meena brought a man home so he was expecting something similar if they were as close as Robin had said.
“I hope you’re hungry. I made a lot of meatballs. I figured I’d send you home a couple of containers of it to put in the freezer too. That way it’s a quick dinner for you.”
Talk about sweet. “That’d be great.”
“Can I get you a drink? I picked up a few of the beers you told me about. Just help yourself.”
He walked to the fridge and opened it up, saw two different kinds of his favorite and grabbed one. “This was nice of you.”
“I said I was going to do it,” she said.
“I know, but I didn’t expect it already. I guess I’m finding I didn’t expect a lot of things so fast.”
She angled her head at him, then smiled. “Same here.”
A few hours later, Brian found himself walking in the door of his house, three containers of sauce and meatballs in a bag to stick in the freezer. That would come in mighty handy for a meal.
He never expected to stay as long as he had tonight, but the two of them just had no end to conversations. There wasn’t a lot of personal talk, more about life around them.
They laughed. They smiled. And they kissed some more.
He didn’t want to push her, but it seemed like she was pushing him to his limit and he was going to have to figure out how to get everything under control.
Something told him that though she liked to kiss, she wasn’t going to be jumping into bed with him anytime soon.
Unfortunately.
8
Take The Initiative
Brian pulled into Robin’s house Saturday at five thirty, ready to pick her up for their first real date in his eyes.
Sure, they’d had two dinners together already and shared some kisses that had kept him up at night, but truthfully, he was a little old fashioned and felt bad that he hadn’t really taken her out.
Other women loved that trait of his, that he always wanted to pay and be a gentleman. That he was old school. Until they took advantage of it.
In the beginning he was completely fine with it, but when he was dating someone for a period of time, he’d felt that the woman would do a little bit of something. Maybe not pay for dinner out, but if they went to the movies or something, at least offer. Cook a meal, take the initiative. Not just give demands and expect him to do it all. He was sick of one-sided relationships.
Nope. They knew he was a lawyer and felt he had more than enough money.
He had plenty, but he didn’t flaunt it. His practice cost money to run, he had staff to pay, insurance premiums to maintain and plenty more expenses no one thought of. But he was his own boss and that was well worth it.
Cases like Robin’s...he got a few thousand in legal fees, just like most divorce cases. An hourly rate was charged and they moved on. Same with house closing. Criminal cases, if they were long and drawn out, money was made there because of the man hours. Where he got the bulk of his money was personal injury lawsuits.
He wasn’t someone to go running after those cases. He wasn’t an ambulance chaser. But he had a reputation for being fair and reasonable and oftentimes settled out of court if he could. No one wanted a long drawn out battle and if he thought someone was trying to pull something over for a quick payout, he wouldn’t take the case.
Had he been told he was nuts to do that before? Yeah, he had and he didn’t care. Cases like putting a hot cup of coffee between your legs while you drove, then slamming on the brakes and spilling it...come on. Common sense.
But if someone wanted to sue, they could sue for any reason and plenty of lawyers took the cases for a quick payout.
That was what gave so many lawyers a bad name.
He might not get rich being a good guy, but he could put his head on the pillow at night and sleep well.
Unless it was filled with a brown-haired beauty that was shy and awkward, giving him mixed signals and making him stumble more than a newborn colt just birthed and trying to stand for the first time.
He got out of his car and walked to the front door, only to have it opened before he could knock. He hadn’t thought he was late and looked at his watch.
“Sorry,” she said when she caught the motion of his eyes on his wrist. “I just got the dogs in the crate and if they heard the doorbell or someone in the house they might get wound up.”
He hadn’t thought of that. “How have they been?” He leaned in to give her a kiss on the lips and got a sweet smile out of her.
“Better. House training is getting there. I want to get them to doggy daycare, but they have to be ten weeks old where I want them to go. They are just eight weeks at this point.”
She followed him to his car and got in. “Will you bring them there five days a week?”
“No. Just the three days I work. I’m not at the shelter full days and they do need to get used to the crate too so that I can go places and do things and not worry. I was going to sign them up for obedience school but then realized I can’t handle them both at the same time and don’t want to take them at different times.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to offer to go with her, but he realized that was rushing way t
oo fast. Not only that, he couldn’t commit to a night a week with his job.
“Have you tried to look online for ways to do it at home?”
“That is exactly what I did this morning. There are all sorts of YouTube videos out there, so I’m going to start this week with some simple sit and stay commands. It’s not like I want them jumping through hoops. I just don’t want them jumping on people and knocking them over when I’ve got visitors.”
“Like me?” he asked, trying not to be embarrassed that two barely ten-pound dogs had him on the floor. It’d be worse when they were fully grown. “How big do you think they will get?”
“Cooper says about sixty to seventy pounds each since they aren’t purebreds.”
“Cooper?” he asked.
“Oh, Cooper Winslow. He’s my vet. He’s one of the vets that volunteers at the shelter and was there when Luke and Leia came in.”
“Those are going to be two big dogs for you to handle on your own.”
“Which is why they need to be trained. I can do it. I love animals, but I must admit that volunteering in the shelter isn’t nearly what it takes to own a dog.”
He laughed. “We had a few dogs growing up. My parents haven’t had one in years. I think they had them because Meena and I wanted them, but then the care fell to them. I’m sure they’d agree with the amount of work it takes. We said we’d help out, but we were always running around playing sports and hanging with our friends. Getting up in the middle of the night to let the dog out isn’t something any kid wants to do even if they swear they will.”
“That is my least favorite thing to do and I’m hoping that they can hold it all night long before winter comes. But if not, then I’ll be trekking outside with them.”
“Not if you’ve got a dog door,” he pointed out.
“Yes and no. It’s going to depend if they go out and do their business or want to run around and play. I don’t want them out there barking at night while they want to be chased. I’ll see how they are. I can easily just open the door to let them run out too at some point.”