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“Nobody goes out of their way for me like you do. I mean, it’s not glamorous or even interesting, the shit you’re willing to do for me.” Rafe came back to the entryway of the closet to listen to her. “Some people would want a fancy dinner or roses, or I don’t know, what do people think is sexy? Horseback riding on the beach? But you get out of bed to drive me back to Wellesley to pick up my iPad and it’s, like, the mostromanticthing anyone’s ever done for me.” She swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat. “I just thought I should tell you that.”
She couldn’t really see his face because his head was bent and he was fiddling with a pair of track pants in his hands. “I’d love to take you out for a fancy dinner and buy you roses,” he said. “Shit, I’d even do the horses on the beach.” He paused and she could feel something reaching out across the room, and tying them together. “And we will.”
He went back into his closet to get dressed. She didn’t regret saying what she had. Telling Rafe how she felt about him wasright, for some reason. Abbe smiled as she got up, searching around on the floor for her clothes.
Sixteen
As the end of the month approached, Abbe and Rafe fell into a rhythm.
She half killed herself at work every day, trying to get every single animal in her care adopted before she had to close her doors, and Rafe would show up at the shelter at around eight every evening after she had settled the animals down for the night.
She would rush out to his car as it pulled up, her iPad in hand, and they would go back to her place. She knew eventually she would have to tell him that her shelter was being shut down, but she was still holding out hope that her appeal would go through at the last second, her license would be reinstated, and she could start taking new animals before then.
“How’s Alejandro?” she asked, realizing that she hadn’t seen him in a while.
“He still drives me to work in the morning. But I’m not going to make him wait in the car every night, so I drive myself to you.”
She considered the logistics Rafe had been dealing with the past few days. “So, tomorrow morning you’ll drive back to your place in Boston, shower, change, and then Alejandro will take you to work. After work, he’ll take you back to your place where you get your other car and come to get me? That’s a lot.”
He glanced over at her. “It’s not ideal, but we’ll figure something else out soon.”
She stared at his profile, knowing he was holding something back. “What are we going to figure out, exactly?” she asked.
“Well, first of all, I’d like to figure out what we’re doing tonight,” he said. “It’s Friday.”
“It is,” she agreed.
“Most people go out on Fridays,” he said, glancing over at her playfully as they pulled up in front of her place.
She dropped her face into her hands and rubbed her tired eyes. “I can’t. I have to get up early to take Jinx to an ugly dog competition this weekend,” she said, groaning.
“Awhatnow?” he asked as they both got out.
Abbe laughed. “An ugly dog competition at a festival on the North Shore. I signed up Jinx—remember the pig-toad-dog?”
“Oh, I remember Jinx,” Rafe said. “My sister can’t stop talking about him.”
“I meant to tell you about it sooner, but things have just been so busy. I have to have him up there tomorrow for the competition,” she said apologetically.
“Oh,” he said sounding disappointed. Then he forced a positive tone. “Well, if any dog could win an ugly dog competition, it’d be Jinx.”
“He’d better,” she said, too tired to keep her tone light.
Rafe stopped walking up the drive to face her. “Why?”
She could have kicked herself. “It’d be good for the shelter,” Abbe said, trying to sound nonchalant. She took his hand and pulled him into a walk again. “Do you want to come with me?” she asked, cringing a little.
“To a country fair to find out which dog is the ugliest?” he asked as if clarifying.
“I know,” she said as she opened the door to her guest house. “It’s not exactly the most exciting way to spend a weekend—”
“—Abbe? I would love to go with you,” he said, pulling her into his arms. “One condition, though?”
“What?” she asked, winding her arms around his neck, and smiling up into his face, already knowing she would do literally anything he asked.
“You have to invite my sister,” he said.
“Really?” Abbe said, surprised. “She’d want to go?”
