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Of course, he had five dogs to worry about. But they had each other, and Mr. Darcy had only her.
I was thinking you could bring him with.
Meet the pack. How’d he be with that?
Okay, so, she really loved that idea. Clearest sign yet that Seth was truly done with the push-me, pull-you thing. Mr. Darcy was generally great with other dogs; they’d worked hard together on socialization after he’d spent so many years in a cage, but he was moving into senior dog territory, and getting just a touch snappish when he decided he’d had enough socializing.
He can be a little aggressive when he’s overstimulated.
How will your guys deal with that?
They follow my lead. If I tell them he’s pack,
they’ll accept him. Then, if he snaps, they might snap back,
but it’ll just be an argument, not a fight.
You’re talking about Charlie & Ripper, right?
They were so, so much bigger than her little corgi, who thought he was a Great Dane but was really not.
Actually, it’s Lizzie who might get a ‘tude.
She wants to talk to everyone’s manager haha
Kelsey stared at that last line for a while. Had Seth ‘Dexter’ Denson just made ajoke? It was even a decent one! Well, she could hardly pass that by without the reward it deserved.
??????
Okay. We’ll come. I’ve got D with me at work,
so we can come straight over, if that’s okay.
That is perfect. I miss you.??
Now she gaped at her phone. Seth ‘Dexter’ Denson had just used an emoji. Aheartemoji.
Perhaps she shouldn’t be surprised; after all, the man had already told her he was in love with her. And now he was being, like,chattyandlightheartedin text. Apparently, he was a zero-to-one-hundred kind of guy. But she would not have pegged him for a heart-emoji kind of guy.
When he’d told her he was in love with her, her feelings had been wildly complicated, covering the spectrum from an urge to return the sentiment at once, to heartfelt happiness that he had embraced his feelings enough to call them love, to a real concern that he was moving far too fast, especially for someone like him, and that much intensity could only eventually wind up in one place: with her bruised and frightened.
She meant to—sheneededto—keep herself in check for a while. She trusted him, she trusted him as a Bull and a member of her family, and as a man who loved her, but she didn’t entirely trust herself, her instincts. So she’d hold back a bit, until things felt more settled.
But yeah, she was falling for him. And this exchange was giving her a hard push.
I miss you, too. See you in about an hour.
I’ll cook.
A very hard push.
~oOo~
Kelsey laughed as Lizzie and Mr. Darcy zoomed through the dining room, into the living room, and careened into Charlie, a one-two punch. Charlie, who was standing at the slider watching the back yard like he was on guard duty, rocked at the impact of the smaller dogs and lifted one foreleg to let Lizzie pass under him. Mr. D, probably three times Lizzie’s size but one-fifth Charlie’s, went around. Panting, Lizzie spun and waited for him, then flew from the room. Mr. D chased.
“I think the introduction went pretty well,” Seth said as he came up behind her and handed her a glass of wine.
“I don’t know,” Kelsey said with a smirk and sipped her wine. “Looks like theirs will be a slow-burn kind of love.”
