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His mom had called an hour earlier, panicked because Sadie was peeing blood and she didn’t have time to take her to the vet because of Paul’s physical therapy. Neither Annette nor Bennett seemed particularly worried that it was anything more than a urinary-tract infection, since she’d had one before, but we still had to solve the problem, which was why I was currently watching Bennett get peed on by a dog.
“Got it.” He grimaced and shook the excess liquid from his hand. Sadie looked at him, her expression clearly asking,What did you expect?
I wrinkled my nose. “Do you want me to take the leash so you can deal with that?”
He handed it over, keeping his hand as far away from both of us as possible. “Thanks.”
Thirty minutes later, we were on our way to his parents’ house with medication in hand. Sadie sat on my lap, and I stroked her silky fur. “Poor baby. You’ll feel better soon.” Sadie looked at me with true puppy-dog eyes, which clinched it for me. Forget getting a cat—I was getting a dog.Just as soon as I figure myself out.
Bennett’s parents weren’t home yet, so Bennett wrapped Sadie’s pill in cheese, and she happily ate it. A bottle of carpet cleaner and a rag sat next to the kitchen sink. Bennett eyed it warily. “If we leave her alone, she’s bound to have an accident in the house.”
Aww… poor girl.I’d had exactly one urinary-tract infection during college, and I totally sympathized with her.
I knelt in front of her. “You’ll just have to come with us, then. Do you want to go visit your boyfriend, Larry? Do you want to walk on the beach?” Covering her ears, I looked up at Bennett. “Sorry. I guess I should have asked you first if that was okay.”
“Are you covering her ears so she doesn’t hear our conversation?” He seemed amused.
“Well, yeah. I don’t want her to hear if you crush her hopes and dreams.” And I didn’t want to be subjected to her sorrowful gaze if I let her down. Maybe I was reading too much into it, but I swore she had understood me.
Bennett leaned his head back and laughed. “Hopes and dreams?”
I nodded solemnly. “She’s a very sensitive soul.”
“In that case, I don’t see how we have a choice.” He paused. “Are you sure you’re okay with facilitating a doggy playdate? This really wasn’t what I had in mind today.”
“Sure.” I ran my fingers through Sadie’s fur. “This little girl has grown on me. And you already know I have an intimate relationship with Larry.”
Laughing, he pulled me to my feet and flush against him. “You’re about to make me jealous of my dog again.”
“Again?”
“Do you remember when you came to Paul’s last supper?”
I snorted. “Sometimes I wish I could forget, but go on.”
“Larry got to lie between your legs while you rubbed his belly.”
I blinked. “You saw that? You weren’t in the room.” I’d been acutely aware of Bennett’s proximity the whole evening, especially after our kiss in the backyard. I’d wanted to leave immediately after that, but Stephanie had been enjoying herself, and I didn’t want to disappoint her. Plus, part of me hadn’t wanted to give Bennett the satisfaction of seeing me run away with my tail between my legs.
“I might have been spying from the kitchen.” Bennett sounded sheepish, a novelty for him. I kind of liked it.
I gazed up at him. “Do you want me to rub your belly and make it even?”
He considered. “Tempting. Maybe later, you can rub something else.”
My lips squeezed together in a thin line as I struggled not to laugh. After a moment, I gave up the fight. “Are you sure you don’t have a queue of ladies somewhere? Your sweet talk is at another level.”
He stepped back, releasing me but keeping hold of my hand. “Just trying to keep things interesting.”
His tone was light, a good reminder that I still didn’t know what this was between us. Anyway, it was too soon to define things. So far, we’d had a mutual attraction, and we’d finally acted on it. True, I’d had feelings for Bennett for as long as I’d known him, and despite the animosity between us this past week, those feelings had persisted. But I needed to be careful and remember the lesson I’d learned in my last relationship—men didn’t end up with women like me.
“I would never accuse things of being boring while you’re around,” I joked, following his lead in keeping things light.
From me thinking he was an intruder in my rental house to Larry bowling me over, things had definitely been interesting, if not humiliating. At least, with the recent dog-pee incident, he’d joined me on the embarrassment scoreboard, though he had a long way to go to catch up to me.
“Ditto,” he said, and he seemed troubled. But then he clipped Sadie’s leash onto her collar and motioned me toward the front door.
Bennett’s house wasn’t very far from his parents’, in a quaint neighborhood with brick ranches. If not for the tang of salt in the air, you’d never know the neighborhood existed on an island. Though I was curious to see the inside of Bennett’s home, I offered to wait outside with Sadie while he retrieved Larry. A few minutes later, Larry busted out of the front door, and I braced myself for impact. It wasn’t necessary. The pooch yelped when he got to the end of his lead and was jerked backward. Bennett let out an exasperated sigh.
