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And what might he think of me? Olivia wondered. She peeked over at the mirror again. If I was grinning like this, he would have thought I was high on something.
And there was that whole thing about Mickey.
The more Olivia went back sentence by sentence through their discussion, the more uncomfortable she became with her behavior. If that were a movie scene, it would depend entirely on the background music to define the genre of the film. Put a little horror music on, and her “Hey, I live behind you. I’m getting divorced, I watch you run” conversation would make most audiences call out, “Boy, you’re in danger.”
Olivia reached for her phone. “Hey, Jaylen, I’m driving with you on speaker. Whatchya doing?”
“Tilly is fresh from her bath and is reading to her dolls. I am picking rice out of the carpet from her dinner. I forgot to lay the plastic down under her seat. Are you heading home?”
“Home to feed Henrietta and let her take a quick pee. I give her ten - fifteen minutes tops. I need to text her pet sitter and ask for some extra snuggle time tomorrow. I think Henrietta needs me to get another dog so she can have a companion. She used to have Mickey’s cats, and she did fine, but she’s been mopey lately. She has to be lonely.”
“Another Cockapoodle-do?” Jaylen asked.
“Maybe? I don’t think it would be fair to get a puppy. I just don’t have the time right now. Maybe a rescue that’s about Henny’s age. It’s something on my list of things to figure out. First, I want to get the divorce finished up.” Olivia looked in the mirror, and her expression had returned to normal. Jaylen was a dependable, stabilizing influence, and Olivia was grateful for that.
“So why fifteen minutes tops?”
“Looming deadlines. I’m going back to the office to get some paperwork done. Later this evening, I have a meeting with Steph.”
“Did you eat?”
“No. I plan to go through a drive-through or something on the way home from the office later.” Olivia reassured her. “My day’s just been slammed.”
“Hey, wasn’t this afternoon the meet and greet with the court dog? How did that go? Was she sweet?”
“Beowolf? Boy dog. He was like hot chocolate on a snow day. I don’t know any other way to describe him.”
“So he and the handler person got along well with your witness?”
“Yeah, it’s usually a woman. But this time …” Olivia felt herself blush. “Jaylen, it was ridiculous. My mouth opened, and it was like I just decided to get fully naked in front of this guy.”
“What are you saying? Like you lost your mind and ripped off your clothes? This guy must be sexy as hell.”
Olivia wiped a hand over her forehead, into her hair, and scratched her scalp. “Yeah, he is. But that was a sad attempt at a simile.” She checked her side mirrors and switched to the fast lane. “And get this, turns out that he’s my behind-the-house neighbor.”
“The one with the great fence?”
“That one. Also, the one that I told you about, the guy that jogs by most mornings, the one that Henrietta drools over in the front window? Yeah, he noticed her. He knew the house when I told him. Though, fortunately, when I told him about seeing him jogging, I left out any mention of drooling.”
“The neighborhood Adonis? Are you kidding me right now? Great fence and killer bod?”
“He’s better close up. He’s got hazel eyes that are smart, engaged, emotional, thinking. Yeah, good eyes. And I liked the amusement crinkles at the corners. Like he sees life for all of its absurdities. Mmm, it wasn’t like he thought what was happening was some kind of joke. It was that he seemed nice. Genuine.”
“Genuine crows’ feet,” Jaylen deadpanned.
Olivia ignored that. “And he had this rich brown colored hair with bronze highlights, and it looked clean.”
“Clean hair, huh? Well, that’s a positive.”
“I mean, it looked—” Olivia searched for a good descriptor. “Yeah, clean and soft.”
Jaylen snorted. “So you pet him like the dog?”
Olivia caught herself grinning again. “Maybe I wanted to. But I was able to restrain myself.”
“So a chiseled jawline, an athletic bod, and amusement crinkles. No wonder you were ripping off your clothes.”
“Cut it out. I didn’t rip off my—okay, not literally. In my mind? Possibly. Probably. We sat off to the side while my witness sobbed against the dog. Beowolf, by the way, is the most loveable carnival first-prize-sized teddy bear of a dog I have ever seen. Do you know who he reminded me of? Nana from Peter Pan.” Olivia answered herself without giving Jaylen a guess.
