by Cranford, B.
Even if Rose did have something of a crush on Liam, and even if Tanzi was somehow involved with him, Tanzi had proven to be good people in the five minutes Rose had known her.
You could tell a hell of a lot about people by the way they treated animals.
“I’ll be up front when you’re ready to check out. If I look like I’m about to explode, it’s because I attempted too much rice, and I’d appreciate if you’d intervene and save me, like you did this one.” She gestured to the dog, then waved before exiting the room.
It was quiet without her there, and though Liam still stood nearby, Rose suddenly felt desperately uncomfortable.
Liam coughed, and the noise echoed off the walls of the room. Yeah, whatever had existed between them for that window when they’d been alone and uninterrupted had dissipated. “Okay, so, ahh—”
“I should probably go,” she interrupted before he could finish. Though she didn’t know what he’d been about to say, she couldn’t stop the words from coming out.
Her flight instinct was kicking back in and, though it wasn’t going to be as bad as fleeing the scene of her crime at the march, she was fearful of making a fool of herself again.
He nodded, a half-smile on his face. “Sure, right, yeah.”
She thought she could see a twinge of disappointment on his face, but unsure if it was real or wishful thinking, she decided to press on. “I’ll go settle up and make sure your assistant isn’t out there drowning herself in rice.”
“Wouldn’t be a bad way to go.”
“I can think of better ways, to be honest,” she replied without thinking, her mind conjuring thoughts of him and her tangled together. Then, realizing what she was thinking—and therefore implying—she felt a blush begin to work its way into her cheeks. Oh my God.
Fortunately, Liam didn’t seem to understand her implication—or maybe he was too much the gentleman to comment on it. Either way, he took a couple of steps past her, opening the exam room door without a word.
She was dismissed.
“Thank you so much, Liam.” She shifted the animal in her arms, so she could reach out and offer him her hand. “And sorry. Again.”
Chapter Eight
She was leaving.
He’d shaken her hand and accepted her seventh or eighth apology, then she’d left him standing in the exam room, thinking over—and overthinking—every moment of their interaction as he finalized the paperwork and tidied up the room.
The way she’d looked completely shocked at seeing him.
Her pacing in the exam room as she’d waited for him to enter.
The kind way she’d looked after the dog, staying close to the pup at all times.
How it’d felt when she’d reached out to stroke his hair, her fingers gently probing the spot she’d hit him.
And those were just the highlights.
“Shit,” he said aloud to the empty room, drumming his fingers on the steel table and knowing a quick decision was needed. Also knowing what that decision would be. He’d thought about her more than once over the past week and this was his chance to get to know her better.
Even if it wasn’t part of the plan.
He’d have to be a complete idiot to miss this opportunity. And, though Sasha might argue differently, he wasn’t a complete idiot. Still, he couldn’t help but think about the consequences of pursuing her when he was still working overtime to build Pupp’s up to what it had been under Doctor Sands.
New plan, he thought. Ask her out, see what happens. What were the chances something would even come from it? He didn’t know, but he was willing to find out.
He jogged from the room, wanting to catch her before she left, but not wanting to startle her. She might swing around and try to brain him with the only weapon she currently had at hand—the dog.
And although the little guy wasn’t exactly a baseball bat, Liam didn’t really want to deal with the fallout of Rose inadvertently using an animal for self-defense.
He didn’t think she, or the animal, would want to either.
“Rose,” he called, slowing down as he neared her. She was smiling and chatting with Tanzi, taking her card back and sliding it into her pocket. Which meant she was moments away from leaving. And he really didn’t want her leaving before he’d asked her a really important question.
“Rose,” he said again, ignoring the knowing look on Tanzi’s face and waiting for Rose to turn around before asking her his question. “How would you feel about grabbing dinner?”
She turned, raising her eyebrows just enough that Liam thought maybe he’d surprised her with his question. Not that he could work out why—after all, he thought he’d been pretty obvious about his interest in her. “Well?” he asked, impatience getting the best of him as he waited for her answer.
Tanzi laughed, and if he’d been able to take his eyes off Rose, he’d have glared at her. Instead though, he reined in his impulse to ask again, and waited. Thankfully, she didn’t make him wait long.
“Oh, um,” she started after a beat, looking down at the dog in her arms, “I don’t think tonight is a good time.” She looked back up at him and he wondered if she thought he was going to give up.
Nope. Not a chance.
“You can bring him? Or I could come to you?” Shit, he was sounding a little desperate. But the thing was, he was feeling a little desperate, even though he couldn’t quite explain it.
He didn’t want her to get away again.
“I think I should take him home.” She paused, and he waited for her to either leave—which would suck—or take pity and invite him over.
Though why she would do that when she barely knew him, he wasn’t quite sure.
He was just hopeful, is all.
“And besides, it’s getting kind of late for dinner.” She cocked her head towards the window, which showed that full dark had fallen. But then she smiled, her eyes shyly moving away and back to meet his. “Maybe tomorrow night instead?”
He was already nodding before she’d finished talking. “I’ve got your info,” he said, pointing to Tanzi and her computer, where Rose’s details would now be stored. “Is it okay if I grab your number from there?” He wouldn’t take anything she didn’t want to give—and that included her phone number from the clinic’s computer system.
“Sure, yeah, yep.” Her cheeks started to color, and he lifted a hand to brush some loose strands of hair behind her ear, enjoying the heat radiating from her way too much. She looked a little unsure and he couldn’t blame her.
Not that he could say he felt the same. There was something about her that made him feel very sure—and it was that which had him questioning himself.
Deciding not to worry about it too much, until at least after their first date, he leaned in to brush a light kiss on one of her reddened cheeks. The warmth of her skin under his lips drove him to press a second kiss there, a little harder, and he heard a low sound escape her.
She liked it.
And damn but he did, too.
“I’ll talk to you later,” she said, stepping back and tightening her hold on the puppy in her arms a little, as if seeking comfort or some kind of a reprieve from him, before turning to Tanzi. “Don’t eat too much.”
Tanzi laughed, then waved. “I make no promises. I’ll send Liam with an update tomorrow.”
Rose smiled at his assistant, a warmth emanating from it that made him all the more certain that he needed to know more about her. A small laugh bubbled up and out of her before she walked out of the door and into the evening. He couldn’t help but watch her, wondering where her car was and how she was going to get home.
“She took a Lyft here.”
Liam turned his attention to Tanzi, who was now leaning partway over the counter, and looking at him with raised eyebrows. He thought about the way she’d answered his question meant for the dog, and how she’d seemed so embarrassed after.
He hadn’t minded it a bit though. But still, “How do you know?” he asked Tanzi
.
“Because she told me. She ordered another one while I was getting her checked-out.”
He turned back to watch Rose just as she slipped into the backseat of a small white car. Damn, he could have offered her a ride if he’d realized.
Chapter Nine
Liam stared at the screen on his phone, wondering when was too soon to send Rose a message.
He’d wanted to message her the moment she’d walked out of the clinic, but he didn’t want to frighten her off with his eagerness, nor give her the wrong impression about what he wanted from her. But he also wasn’t interested in another week or so of regret, so he’d waited patiently.
For, like, an hour.
Surely that was enough? Their date was the following night, and he wanted to lock their plans in. He felt almost a little desperate about it, which wasn’t typical for him. In fact, he didn’t think it was typical for anyone. And yet . . . that was what he was dealing with.
In his hand, his phone vibrated, the sound on silent. The screen flashed his sister’s name and he thought about letting it go to voicemail to keep thinking about whether it was the right time for his opening salvo with Rose. Ultimately, though, he decided to answer.
Sasha might need him. And she might also have some advice for him, and advice was sorely needed.
And chill. He also needed to find some chill.
“Hey,” he answered casually after swiping his finger over the screen.
“Geez, I thought you weren’t going to answer.”
“I was in the bathroom,” he lied seamlessly, not wanting to own up to the fact that he’d been on the verge of ignoring her call.
She’d never let him hear the end of it. Little sisters were so annoying.
“Thanks for sharing.” Sasha’s voice held a note of disgust, which he ignored. If she was going to give him grief about taking ages to answer the phone, then she had to be prepared for the answer.
Even if wasn’t entirely truthful.
“You’re welcome, darling sister. Hey, can I ask you a question?”
She didn’t answer, and he took that to mean that yes, he could. “When’s a good time to message someone? About a date?” Immediately, he felt like an idiot. He should’ve just asked her why she was calling and gone back to staring at his phone. Except . . .
God, I am so out of my depth here. Why does this feel so important? He’d asked himself the question several times since he’d arrived home, and still didn’t know the answer.
“Um, whenever you want?” Sasha’s reply came out sounding like a question, a hint of duh in her voice that Liam wasn’t sure he appreciated. “Is this about the special visitor Tanzi said you had tonight?”
He groaned. Of course, Sasha knew about Rose already. And now, even though he’d thought to ask her advice, all he wanted to do was clamp his lips shut and give her nothing.
He was feeling protective all of a sudden.
But of what?
“Oooh, you like her a lot, don’t you?” Sasha sounded entirely too gleeful for his liking. “Is Liam in love?”
“Is it that obvious?” he asked, no small amount of sarcasm coloring the question.
But instead of replying to him, Sasha sighed and diverted the conversation back to the original topic. “Look, you could sit there and wonder about the right timing, or you could just find your balls and send her a message. Believe it or not, you’ve already done the hard part and asked her—now you just need to make plans.”
“Sash—”
She cut him off. “Here’s an idea—don’t play games. You clearly like her—a lot. Like, a whole lot based on what Tanzi said about how you looked at her. So, send your message and just be honest.”
“Okay,” he started, thinking to add more only to be cut off.
Again.
“It would be really freakin’ amazing if men didn’t think everything had to be a goddamn game, you know? If they could just be honest. Tell the truth. You like her? Here’s a brilliant idea: say ‘I like you’ to her and see what she responds with.”
He could practically hear her eyes rolling. And if she’d been in the room with him, he was fairly certain he’d have been able to see the tension rolling off her in waves.
Something told him it had little to do with him and Rose.
“Hey, Sash?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you okay?” The conversation had come full circle, and it had only been a few minutes.
“Yes. No.” A pause. “I don’t know.”
“Well, that answers that then.” His voice was thick with sarcasm once more, but this time it earned him a slight laugh from his sister.
“Tucker is,” she started, her voice hitching, “cheating on me.”
“Mother. Fucker.”
Through tears that had either started to fall or were about to start falling, Sasha let out another low laugh. “Funny you should say that. He’s cheating on me with a woman from his office who is, you guessed it, a single mother.”
* * *
It was another hour before Liam finally got around to sending his message. He’d talked more to Sasha about what was happening with her husband—soon to be her ex-husband, he was happy to hear—and then decided to take her advice and just send a message.
Liam: Hey, it’s Liam.
Liam: The vet.
He groaned as soon as he hit send on the second message. He was acting like an idiot, an inexperienced teenager. For fuck’s sake, he was thirty-four years old and sitting around stressing over sending messages.
Rose: Oh, so not Liam the dentist?
Rose: Or Liam the pharmacist?
Rose: Are you sure you’re not Liam the banker?
He laughed, relieved that she’d both responded and seemed to be teasing him for his terrible first attempt.
Liam: Yeah, sorry about that.
Liam: How’s the patient?
He wanted to know how the dog was, sure, but mostly, he wanted to get back on better footing. Animals, he knew, understood, and could talk about for hours.
Depending on how detailed someone wanted to be, that was.
Rose: He still needs a name.
Liam: Having trouble deciding?
Rose: Loads. My cousin did helpfully suggest Liam, though.
Rose: So, really, it’s good you identified yourself.
Rose: I mean, what if I HAD called him Liam? If you hadn’t said you were the vet, I might have thought I had a miracle dog on my hands.
Liam laughed a second time, especially when Rose followed up her joke with a GIF of a dog playing with a phone.
Liam: Wait, if she suggested Liam, does that mean you told her about me?
Rose: Sure, I did. I told her how I found a dog and took him to a vet.
Rose: Whose name just so happened to be Liam.
Liam relaxed back on his bed and decided to press for more. He just hoped it was the right decision.
Liam: Did you tell her anything else?
Liam: Like, say, our plans for tomorrow night?
Rose: Not that you’re the guy I abandoned *her* baseball bat over?
Liam: It was hers? I’ll have to thank her for loaning it to you.
Rose: Do you still have it, by any chance?
Liam: Or maybe curse her name.
Rose: It might come in handy to have it tomorrow night.
Liam considered her message, only for another GIF to pop up on his screen. Thor giving a smile and a wink. He replied with a lips-zipped emoji, considering what to say next. Tapping his phone against his chin, he settled on—
Liam: So, a name, huh? Maybe you should give him an Australian name. Like your friend Thor there.
Rose: A dog named Chris?
Liam: I see animals named all kinds of things. Chris isn’t so bad, is it?
Rose: No, I guess not. But . . . he doesn’t look like a Chris.
Rose: Give me some more suggestions. Please ← remembered my manners at the last second.
Liam: Well, thank
god, or else I wouldn’t have replied. What about Steve?
Rose: Like Irwin? Hmm, nope. Roger?
Liam: Better for a rabbit. Waldo?
Liam: You can put a red and white striped sweater on him and play a game when he gets lost!
Rose: Fun fact: Where’s Waldo is called Where’s Wally back home.
Liam: Didn’t know that. Weird. Why not Wally then?
A GIF came through, a late-night comedian asking “How dare you?” in a clearly indignant way, making him laugh.
Liam: That’s a hard no on Wally then.
Rose: No to Waldo, no to Wally. But I like the W theme. What about William? Wendell?
Rose: WAIT!
Liam: Wait is kind of a strange choice . . .
Rose: LMAO. No. He’s Wilbur. I just asked him and he yipped at me, which I assume means yes in puppy?
Liam considered the name, thinking of the dog’s brown and white fur, his big eyes and floppy ears and passed judgment.
Liam: Wilbur is a good name for him. He looks like a Wilbur.
Rose: Right? He definitely looks like a Wilbur. It’s the ears. YAY!
Rose: Thank you for helping me. (Though you can lose the attitude about Where’s Wally anytime.)
Liam: I’ll try, but I make no guarantees.
Rose: I guess I’ll have to accept that.
Liam laughed, then decided to get to the reason he’d started messaging her in the first place—the overwhelming need he had to confirm their date.
Liam: So, we’re on for tomorrow, right? Is 7 okay?
Her reply was slow in coming, and he half wondered if his joking had scared her off. Should I apologize for real? he wondered, right before his phone beeped with another text.