by Melinda Metz
“Mac! Diogee!” she cried. “Get in here. Mac, sardines! Diogee, treat!”
Mac didn’t have to be asked twice. He raced through the door. Diogee came right behind him. Mac headed for his under-the-bed hideout. He thought he might have gotten the mutt a little too riled up. The bonehead might think Mac was the treat!
Jamie shut the bedroom door, and he heard her scolding the dog. Ha!
Mac had done what he could. He’d have to wait and see if it worked. If it didn’t, he’d come up with another plan. He was never giving up.
* * *
At first David thought the beeping was his alarm, then he realized it was his cell. He checked the time. A little after one. He grabbed the phone. Jamie was calling him. He hesitated, but only for a second, then answered.
“I’ve got your dog,” Jamie said.
“What?”
“I heard him barking outside my house, so I brought him in,” she explained.
“The gate was locked.”
“Well, I don’t know how he got out, but he’s here,” Jamie told him. Her voice was brisk.
“Okay, well, I’ll come get him.” David hung up and pulled on his clothes. He jammed on his sneakers, not bothering with socks. When he stepped outside, he saw the gate swinging in breeze. He was always so careful about latching it. But he’d been distracted lately. Screwing up recipes at work. Even burning two dozen cupcakes.
His chest started feeling tight as he headed to Jamie’s. He’d only have to see her for a minute. There was no reason for a freak out. But by the time he knocked on her door, he was struggling for every breath. His ribs were like a vise crushing his lungs.
“It’s like Diogee’s been taking lessons from Mac. They were both out there, and—” Jamie said when she opened the door. Then she broke off abruptly and stared at him. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Still half-asleep,” David managed to say, panting. He needed to get home. He’d be okay if he could just get home. Diogee barreled toward him. David managed to grab the door frame before Diogee jumped on him in greeting. “Come on, D.” He’d forgotten to bring a leash, but the dog should follow him home. He turned to leave.
Jamie grabbed his arm and pulled him inside. She shut the door behind them. “David, you’re hyperventilating,” she said, speaking slowly and deliberately. “Hold your breath, okay?”
David shook his head. “Already can’t get enough air.”
“You’re breathing really fast and really hard,” she explained, without releasing his arm. “You’re getting too much air. Hold your breath and you’ll feel better. I’ll do it with you.” She pulled in a breath and locked her eyes on his face.
He managed to hold his breath along with her, even though it increased the pace of his heartbeat, the drumming of it loud in his ears.
“Okay,” Jamie finally said. “Take a breath. Just a regular breath. Not a big one.”
Diogee whined and pawed David’s leg. “It’s okay, dude. It’s okay.” David took a breath. He patted the dog’s head.
“Better?” Jamie asked.
“Better,” David answered.
“Panic attack?”
“Yeah.”
“Come sit down for a minute,” Jamie said. “Or is it making it worse being here?”
Now that he was a little calmer, the urgency to get home had drained out of him. His legs had gone to jelly, and he felt exhausted. He let Jamie lead him over to the sofa. “I’ll get you a drink of water.”
Diogee jumped up onto the sofa next to him, and then Mac leapt up onto the sofa back and gave David a head butt. “I’m okay, guys,” he said. His heart rate was slowing down a little.
“Here you go,” Jamie said as she came back into the living room with the water. She handed it to him, then sat down in the chair across from the couch.
David’s hand shook as he raised the glass to his lips, but he managed to get some down. “Sorry. I just need a couple more minutes, and then—”
“Don’t be stupid,” she told him.
He leaned his head back and focused on pulling himself back together. When he felt ready and lifted his head, he found Jamie looking at him, her eyes full of concern. “Is this how you felt that night?”
“Pretty much,” David answered.
“I wish you’d woken me up,” she told him. “But I guess that would have made it worse.”
“Probably,” David admitted. “I’m actually going to see someone. A therapist. Lucy nagged me into it.” After she’d apologized repeatedly for pushing him too hard to get into online dating and for being drunk when he told her what had happened after he slept with Jamie.
Jamie nodded, but didn’t say anything. She probably didn’t know what to say. Was there a right thing to say to someone when they were about to start therapy? He still couldn’t believe he was going to do it. He’d always thought it was fine for other people, but a part of him felt like he’d never need it, that he was smart enough to solve his own problems. But clearly not.
“I don’t want to have a panic attack every time I start to care about a woman,” David continued. Jamie still didn’t say anything. “The way I care about you.” Her eyes widened, but she didn’t speak. “I think it was getting close to you, not just us having sex, that got to me.” He choked out a laugh. “I sound like I’m in therapy already.” Mac leaped down onto his lap. It put him inches away from Diogee, but they didn’t start another staring contest. They just pressed themselves close against David.
“Looks like you’re getting a little pet therapy right now,” Jamie said. “It’s really late. Do you want to just stay here tonight? On the couch, I mean,” she added quickly.
“Yeah. Thanks,” David said.
“I’ll get you a blanket and a pillow.” Jamie disappeared into her bedroom.
David felt wrung out, but not like he couldn’t breathe or that his heart was going to burst. He pushed off his shoes and stretched out, forcing the animals to resettle themselves, Mac on his stomach, and Diogee curled up at his feet. He closed his eyes, and began to drift off almost immediately. He was only vaguely aware of Jamie covering him with the blanket.
* * *
Jamie checked the clock. Almost ten, and David was still asleep. She’d called his boss at the bakery and told him David was sick. She hoped he wouldn’t mind. He seemed to need the rest so badly.
When he’d e-mailed her and told her he’d had a panic attack, she’d understood—intellectually. But seeing him last night made her understand in her gut why he’d taken off the way he had. He must have felt like he was dying. It was actually kind of brave of him to ask her to the movies the next day. He had to know it might bring on another attack, and maybe it almost had. Maybe that’s why he had jerked his hand away from hers in the theater. Maybe touching her started bringing the panic back.
Mac gave a yowl, bringing her out of her thoughts. He sat on the sill of one of the living room windows, staring out into the courtyard. “Shhh!” Jamie hurried over to him. Mac yowled again. Jamie glanced at David. Still asleep, with Diogee lying at his feet, awake, watching over him.
“What’s the problem?” she whispered to the cat.
Mac started clawing at the screen. Jamie batted his paws down. She looked into the courtyard to see what had gotten him so riled up. She was expecting a squirrel or another cat, but all she saw was Sheila, the mail carrier, heading across the courtyard, and Hud at his usual spot by the fountain.
“There’s nothing out there,” she told MacGyver.
He leapt to the ground and ran to the door, then yowled again, like he wanted to go out. As if she would ever just open the door and let him go. He paced back and forth, then streaked across the living room and climbed up the chimney!
Jamie bolted outside. She stared at the roof. Would he come out up there? Or could he have gotten stuck? No, there he was. Trotting down the roof, jumping down to the bushes, and then taking off toward Sheila. Before she could open her mouth to call him, he leapt up and managed to fr
ee one of the keychains on her mailbag. Then without a second’s hesitation, he raced over to Hud and dropped the keychain at his feet.
“I didn’t tell him to do it!” Jamie exclaimed, holding up her hands as Hud stared at her.
Hud leaned down to pick up the keychain. “I’ll get it!” Sheila cried, rushing toward him.
He beat her to it, studying the silver fish dangling at the end. “The whole crew got one of these when the Catch of the Day pilot got picked up. They were specially made.” He pulled down his sunglasses and stared at Sheila.
“I bought it on eBay,” she admitted. Her cheeks were flushed. So was her neck. So were the tips of her ears.
“You’re a fan?” Hud couldn’t keep the elation out of his voice.
“I’ve seen every episode a million times,” Sheila admitted, speaking to the ground instead of Hud. She likes him, Jamie realized. She likes Hud. That’s why she knew every guest spot he ever had, but didn’t know any TV trivia that night at the pub.
“Which was your favorite?” Hud reached over and tilted Sheila’s chin up so that she was looking at him.
Jamie suddenly felt like she shouldn’t be standing there watching them. She scooped up Mac. He didn’t protest. Then she returned to the house. David was sitting up, putting on his shoes. “I’ve got to get to work.”
She shook her head. “I called in sick for you. I hope it’s okay.”
“Thanks.”
Jamie didn’t know what to say, now that he wasn’t in the middle of a crisis. “Oh! Hud is going to have to accept that Mac is behind the burglaries at Storybook Court. He just witnessed Mac stealing something with his own eyes. And I wasn’t there giving Mac signals and sardine bribes. Also, I know how he’s been getting out.” She pointed to the chimney.
David looked at MacGyver. “Impressive.”
Jamie looked at her cat, too. “Not the word I’d use.”
David stood. “You think you might want to get some breakfast?”
“I . . . don’t know,” Jamie answered. “I’m not sure I can shift into friends again without a little more time. I know I was completely onboard with the whole friends-with-benefits thing, but I was fooling myself. We were too good at being a fake couple. It felt too real.”
David nodded. “To me, too. I don’t want to be friends with benefits. I want to be friends with the possibility of taking it to the next level—for real—once I get my head on straight.”
“Oh. Well. Hmm.” Jamie hadn’t been expecting that. But it was exactly what she wanted. Even if it happened during The Year of Me. It wasn’t men who had gotten in the way of her dreams. It was the particular men she’d gotten involved with in the past. That and the way she’d turned herself inside out to please them. She hadn’t done that with David, because they’d been friends first. And because he’d never have wanted it.
She looked at him for a long moment, then nodded. “I’ve been thinking about checking out Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles.”
“Another place in LA I’ve always wanted to go, but never have,” David said.
Mac began to purr.
One Year Later
The doorbell rang, and Jamie rushed to open it. “Happy Moving In Together Day!” Lucy exclaimed, handing her a doormat that said HOME IS WHERE THE PETS ARE.
Jamie gave her a hug. Getting to be friends with Adam and Lucy was a huge side benefit to her relationship with David. “I’m putting this out right now,” she announced. “Go out to the backyard. David’s getting the barbecue fired up.”
She’d just finished laying out the doormat in front of the round Hobbit hole door when Ruby, plus Riley, Addison, and their mom—and, of course, Zachary—strolled up the walkway. Zachary and Addison were pretty much always together. They’d been going out for a little more than a year and were working on a graphic novel together. They hadn’t broken up once.
Diogee galloped toward the door, and Jamie barely managed to shut it before he made it outside to greet, and possibly knock down, the new guests. “You look fabulous,” she told Riley, kneeling down so she could take in every deal of the little girl’s fuchsia cowgirl outfit, which Ruby had been working on for months.
“I do!” Riley gave a little twirl and everyone laughed.
“Okay, I’m going to open the door now. Get ready to be Diogee’d,” Jamie said, then ushered them into the house, where they were all enthusiastically licked.
“He kisses better than you do, Zachary,” Addison joked, but her tone was light and affectionate.
“More tongue. Got it,” Zachary asked.
“Not hearing this,” said Addison’s mom.
Ruby wrapped her arm around Jamie’s waist as they headed through the house to the backyard. “I’m so thrilled for you. I knew from the beginning you and David were perfect for each other.”
“Marie and Helen are both trying to take credit for getting us together. They’re out there right now arguing about it. Nessie is trying to referee. They’ve managed to completely forget about the dentist and the godson. Also, they’ve each somehow decided to take credit for Hud and Sheila falling in love, too, even though the credit for that has to go to Mac.”
“Mac does get all the credit for that. But I can see Helen’s point about you and David,” Ruby answered. Jamie stared at her. “Well, the godson did lead to you going to the bar, where you had drinks with David,” Ruby explained. “So I think Helen deserves a little credit. But don’t tell Marie I said that.”
Jamie veered toward the kitchen. “I’ve got to show you something. You’d see it soon anyway, but I can’t wait.” She opened the lid of a large cake box. “David made me this.” The cake—jam-filled, of course—had a perfect replica of the cover of Jamie’s book on top. “Can you believe my pictures are going to be published?”
“Not really,” Ruby answered. “I didn’t think there was any possible way you’d get a book together with a clingy, needy, controlling guy like David around.”
“Funny. You’re very funny,” Jamie said. “Come on. Let’s get out there.” She looked over her shoulder. “Not you, Mac,” she warned. “You are an indoor cat. The chimney is closed.”
* * *
Mac stared at the young one, Riley, until she came over and opened the glass door leading to the backyard. Who needed a chimney? There were lots of ways to get out of a house if you were MacGyver.
He sauntered toward the grill, enjoying the smell of the cooking meat and the scents of the happy people, especially Jamie and David. The tip of his tail gave a little flick. He’d done good. He took in another breath, using his tongue for a deeper exploration of the air. There were people nearby who needed him. He’d start following the scent trails tonight.
He jumped up on the table next to the grill. A platter of cooked hamburgers sat on it. He gave a meow and Diogee trotted over. Mac flipped him one of the burgers. He might need muscle on some of his missions. The bonehead could handle that. Mac had enough brains for both of them.
Photo © Julie Blattberg
MELINDA METZ is the author of the Roswell High series, the basis of the hit television show Roswell. She is an Edgar Award nominee for the Wright and Wong mystery series, written with the lovely and talented Laura J. Burns. She lives in North Carolina with her dog, Scully, who sometimes acts in a very cat-like manner.