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“Umm… she won’t hurt me, right?” I certainly didn’t need a dog bite.
“Only if you have bad character. She’s got a sixth sense for stuff like that.”
“Champ, I promise I’m a good person, or I try to be. Us girls all have our slip-ups every now and then.” I hesitantly smiled, hoping that would win her over. It might’ve looked stupid, but I wasn’t going to mess around with an animal that could do serious damage to me.
Austin snorted, and I shot him a glance. It wouldn’t help if her owner was doubting the stranger.
She got up and walked over to me. I held out my hand. She sniffed it for a moment and then wagged her tail and licked me.
I hadn’t realized I’d been holding my breath or that my shoulders had tensed, but as soon as she approved of me, all my worries evaporated. No getting bitten today, it seemed.
“Well, that’s the last bit of proof I need. If Champ trusts you, then so do I. She’s my personal lie detector test,” Austin said.
“I’m happy to hear I passed then,” I said, taking a seat next to him on the couch. Champ followed me and sat by my feet. Having her close did make me feel safer—now that I was fairly certain she didn’t plan to attack me. Declan couldn’t grab me if he had to deal with a dog, especially one who could tell if someone was a bad apple. He’d never pass her test, and thus, Austin would never trust him.
“Enough talk. Let’s eat.” Austin indicated the two plates on the table.
I grabbed one and a fork and carefully took a bite of the pie.
“Mmmm,” I moaned as the delicious taste of chicken, cream, crisp, flaky pie crust, and carrots danced across my tastebuds.
“You like it?”
“Mhmm,” I responded, taking another bite. It had been forever since I’d had a home-cooked meal, and I was going to savor every morsel.
“You can thank my mama. I used her recipe.”
I swallowed the bite I had just taken. “You made this?”
He beamed with pride. “You betcha.”
Holy crap. This guy kept becoming more like Prince Charming with every passing minute. How he hadn’t settled down with a woman already was beyond me.
“Does she live close by?” I asked, trying to slightly change the subject so I wouldn’t start fangirling over him. I didn’t want to make him regret helping me.
He shook his head. “Sadly, no. She and my father passed away five years ago when I was twenty-three.”
My heart broke for him. No matter how old someone was, losing their parents, and especially both at the same time, was crushing.
“I’m so sorry. No one should have to go through that,” I said, remembering my parents and the day I found out they were gone.
“I agree, but as you know, people generally don’t get a say when it comes to things like this.”
I sighed. “No, they don’t. If they did, it’d never happen.”
Memories flooded my mind of how my friends used to go silent when I’d come to school. They wouldn’t know what to say or how to treat me. It was annoying when my life had already been turned upside down. I hadn’t understood why my friends had to treat me differently too. Because of this, I eventually became a loner.
Looking back now, I realized they simply hadn’t known how to deal with a traumatic event such as the one I had experienced. We weren’t even teenagers yet.
“Hey, I’m sorry if this conversation is upsetting you,” Austin said, putting a hand on my knee.
I pasted a fake smile on my face. “It is what it is. No use dwelling over the past,” I said as I swallowed the second lump that had appeared in my throat in a matter of minutes.
He gave my knee a gentle squeeze and then removed his hand. “What’s your favorite color?”
The question caught me off guard. It was a complete one-eighty from what we’d been talking about. “Yellow and pink. Why?”
“Trying to change the subject and get to know you better. What’s your favorite drink?”
