“Hmm?” I look away from Rex for the first time since I gave him the heel command and he glued himself next to me.
“You were telling me your problems,” he says. “What’s the next one?”
“Problem three is you.”
“I’m not a problem,” he says, lightly bumping into me with his shoulder. “I’m a solution.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
We’ve walked around the back of the main house, and a massive chunk of wood catches my attention. It’s at least four feet tall, made from a giant tree trunk. “Is that… a bench?”
“Yep. Hurricane Harvey.”
“The bench’s name is Hurricane Harvey?”
He grins. “This old tree fell over during Hurricane Harvey years ago. My dad cut it up and used it for firewood, but he carved this piece into a bench. It was too heavy to really move anywhere, so he kept it here. The tree used to be right there.”
“It looks awesome,” I say. “It looks exactly like a fallen over tree that had a bench seat carved into it.”
“Have a seat,” Caleb says, flourishing his hand toward the wooden tree-turned-bench. It’s been carved down smoothly and covered in some kind of shellac to make it shiny and more like furniture. Rex sits at my feet, resting his chin on my knee.
Caleb sits beside me. “We can sit here as long as it takes to convince you I’m in love with you, Ms. Charlotte Brooks.”
My insides dance. I lean forward, letting him wrap an arm around my back and bring me closer to him. When we kiss, it’s like we’ve done this a million times. Like our lips can find each other even in the dark, even with our eyes closed. I breathe him in, soaking up the feel of his arm around me, the warmth of his body so close to mine. He smells good. Intoxicating, really. He’s always attractive but being all fancied up for the gala did something else to his natural good looks.
We kiss until Rex lets out a bored whimper. I pull away, looking at the dog. He’s just sitting in front of me, watching. “Platz,” I tell him. He lays down.
“You remembered the lay down command,” Caleb says. “I’m impressed.”
“I still think I need hours and hours of lessons from you,” I say, running my finger down his tie. “Just to make sure I fully learn everything I need to know.”
“You can have all the hours you want,” he says, kissing my forehead. “I’m hopelessly addicted to you.”
“What made you change, all of a sudden?” I ask. “Why now? Why are you suddenly wanting to be a one-woman man?”
“It wasn’t sudden,” he says, brushing a stray hair behind my ear. “It was pretty much the day I met you. I just lied to myself every day since then, trying to push you out of my mind. Trying not to admit that I was falling for you.” He wraps both arms around me, kissing my hair and cheek and shoulder as I snuggle up close to him, swinging my legs over his lap. “It’s easy to be happily single when you haven’t met the right person. Now that I’ve met you, I can’t let you go.”
“I feel the same way,” I whisper. I tip my head up and his lips meet mine. I can feel him smiling as he plants several smallkisses on me. We sit like this, tangled up in each other on a giant tree trunk bench, talking about everything.
We come up with names for my new business, talk about Rex’s feeding schedule and how German Shepherds often drink so much water they immediately throw it up. We talk about Alden K9, and his brother’s viral social media posts. I tell him about Jenny, and my crazy but loving mom. He tells me about his parents’ mid-life crisis and traveling the country in an RV. Rex curls up on the grass, softly snoring. I tell him about the neighbor's dog who tore into my arm when I was a kid. How blood went everywhere and I was rushed to the ER in an ambulance with an EMT who was short and rude with me, and how my mom cried because we couldn’t afford the hospital visit.
I tell more about myself than I’ve told anyone. He holds me, listening to every word.
“What's that?” I ask, noticing a glow on the horizon.
“That would be the sun,” Caleb says, resting his chin on top of my head.
“Wha—how?” I check my watch. It’s six in the morning. “Did we really stay up all night talking?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he says. “I think this counts as our first date.”
I sit up, stretching out my tired limbs. “I should probably go home and sleep…”
“Yes. Then later today, I’ll take you out on our second date.”
“I’ll put in my notice at work.” Just saying the words sends a nervous zap through my stomach, but I don’t stress over it. This will be scary, but it needs to happen. “Maybe we can get dinner afterward?”
