As soon as he walked out, I picked up the phone and dialed up the kennels to let them know that I would be stopping by later on.
“Just so you know, I have an older dog that I’m going to be bringing in,” I told the answering machine. “This is Raina, by the way. Raina Walters. I’ll see you later today if everything goes well.”
I hung up and went over to tend to the old, tired little dog that that guy had brought in just a few minutes before.
“Hey, boy,” I said softly, petting the rough fur on his head. “Don’t know how you managed to end up here, but you’re in good hands now, okay?”
The dog snuffled, as though acknowledging what I was saying to him and thanking me for my effort.
“You shouldn’t be thanking me,” I told him gently. “You should thank that guy who brought you in here. And if you could get him to call me, too, that would be great.”
I shook my head at myself. I needed to get my shit together. I was asking a dog for help with dating? Yeah, it was hardly my proudest moment.
I took him back to the kennels at the back of the exam rooms that we hung onto for just this reason. Even though he was clearly a sweet little thing, it wasn’t like many people went for older dogs these days, so I didn’t feel too confident that he was going to have much luck finding a home. It made my heart sad, but that was just the way it worked, like it or not. I had to accept that there wasn’t always something I could do for these sweet old dogs, no matter how much I would have liked to.
If I’d had the chance, of course, I would have loved to take him home myself, but that was a rule I had set up for myself a long time ago. I couldn’t just start taking home any old animals that I wanted to. Once that started, there was no way I could get it to stop again, and I didn’t want to end up with a zoo back at my apartment.
He fell asleep as soon as we had him bedded into his kennel, and I headed out to join Hannah again.
“Oh my gosh, did you see that guy?” she asked, clapping her hand to her chest as though she was trying to prevent a cardiac event.
“What, the one who just came in with the dog?”
“The very same,” she replied. “He was hot as hell, wasn’t he? And did you see how sweet he was with that little girl?”
“Yeah, he was cute,” I replied with a shrug. Truth was that he was a smoking hottie, and I was already having a hard time getting the image of his face out of my brain. Which was dumb, really dumb, and I shouldn’t have been giving him a second thought. But Hannah was right. This guy had been cute as hell, and he had come to the rescue of this little old dog who so clearly needed help. I had to admit, it was more than a little charming.
“Cute?” Hannah exclaimed. “That hardly does him justice, does it?”
I thought back to his dimples, his dark wavy hair, that expensive suit that he didn’t mind getting covered in dog fur. He had these dark eyes that seemed to smile when he looked at me, and yeah, sure, I would have been lying if I said that I didn’t get just a little fluttery over the thought of him.
But a guy like that was likely already locked down with a wife. He certainly had a kid, though he had referred to her as his niece. Whatever. He was committed, and I had no intention of trying to get in on that. Not when everything in my life was complicated enough.
“I’m surprised you let him walk out of there,” Hannah teased. “I’d have been finding reasons to keep him sticking around.”
“Okay, I think I have some intake forms to get ready,” I told her firmly. I knew she was just kidding around, but she was hitting a little too close to home for my liking, and I didn’t want her to see the flush on my face.
I made it through the rest of the day as usual, managing not to think about him at all. Or at least, not to think about him much. I couldn’t remember if he’d had a ring on his finger or not. I should have made a point to check, if just for my own peace of mind. If he was married, then he was off the market. But if not...
I took the dog that he had brought to us down to the shelter that would take him. I wanted to keep him another night, but Hannah pointed out that we had spaces booked already from other animals who needed somewhere to stay for the night.
I handed him over to the shelter, and Jackie, the woman who ran the place, took him from me carefully.
“How’d you come across this little fella?” she asked me, smiling down at him as she set him on the table for a checkup.
“Some guy brought him by this morning,” I explained. “Said he almost backed over him with his car. Seems like this dude really wants the attention, huh?”
“Well, he’ll get lots of that here tonight,” Jackie replied. She was a good couple of decades older than me, and it warmed my heart to know that she had been working with animals for this long and still hadn’t grown tired of it. It gave me hope for my own future, for what I had in store for me when I had been doing this a few more years.
“Thanks so much,” I told her, and I gave her a quick hug. “I’ll come in over the weekend to check on him, okay?”
“Okay,” she agreed, and she turned her attention to the dog. “Now, let’s get you all settled in, shall we?”
RainaI watched the dog for one more moment before I turned and headed out the door. I was a little sad, leaving him behind like that—well, I was always a little sad when I had to leave a dog behind, but even for me, I was sadder than usual. Maybe because I knew that that dog was the only connection I had to one of the only men in years who had actually turned my head, and now that I had handed him over, there was no reason for him to get in touch with me again.I decided to treat myself to some Greek takeout on the way home. There was a beautiful restaurant not far from me that made an amazing vegetarian gyro, and I was obsessed with them. I inhaled the deliciously savory scent as I tucked it into my bag and carried it down the last couple of blocks to my house. The fact that I had walked most of the way home meant that I had totally earned this, right?Right.I tried not to get too hung up on my body. I was tall, and I had the body to match my height. I wasn’t tiny and lean and litt
HarryI knew that I should have been replying to all my emails at that moment, but in truth, I was more caught up in making sure that I had everything covered for Winnie for the next few months.I had no idea how my sister had managed to take care of her by herself for so long. Sure, I had seen the struggle when she had first had her, but I’d had no idea just how much it was going to take out of me on a day-to-day basis.Jesus Christ, the stress of it all. The running around trying to make sure that everything fell into place, that all the bits and pieces came together at just the right moment and just the right time to be sure that everything worked out. She did band and played soccer after school, and that meant I had to make sure there was always someone there who could pick her up and take her home—whether it was Yara, me, or one of the sitters I practically had on twenty-four hour call right now.My sister had worked her ass off to get Winnie this far in life, and it was the leas
HarryI hesitated. I didn’t want to just come out and agree so quickly because that would be tantamount to agreeing that what she had done was a good idea. But she had a point. I had been off the market for such a long time, and it wasn’t doing me any good to be cooped up in the house alone all the time. I would have to get back out there eventually, one way or another. Maybe this was a blessing. I was never going to do it myself, so perhaps Yara putting in the effort was how I could get back into it.I had dated before what had happened, of course. Quite a bit actually. But I had never found anyone who had actually made me want to settle down. Most of the women I met had this edge to them, like there was something on their mind other than just spending time with me. I soon came to figure out that it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with the family name that I was attached to.They took one look at that, and dollar signs started pulsing in their eyes. They couldn’t see a
RainaI rubbed a smear of blood off my wrist and sighed. Ugh.This had been a whole lot harder than I had thought it would be. Work had been pretty mellow right up until the last half hour. Then someone had brought in their dog, who’d been hit by a car and broken his leg.I’d had to set the fracture and get this poor thing all calmed down and dosed up so that he wasn’t freaking out too badly. I was covered in blood, and all I wanted in the world was to go home, have a hot shower, and clean myself up.But instead, of course, I had to go and get myself ready for my darn date. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t found some way to wriggle out of this since Reed had announced that he had set it up in the first place. I had credited myself with more in the way of guts than that, but I figured this was the only way that I was going to get my brother off my back so I could get back to work again.“You’ve deleted the dating profile thing, haven’t you?” I asked over our coffees the day after he’d
RainaI put a pair of heels in my bag, put on some sneakers so I could actually be comfortable, and went to my truck to start the trek across town to this date that I had no choice but to go on. As soon as this was done, I was going to go to Reed and watch him delete that dating profile myself.No way I was letting this slide again. I couldn’t believe he’d let it go this far, and I was already mad as hell at him for thinking he could just interfere like this. I didn’t get myself involved in his dating life.But then, I knew that he didn’t need my help. He was a great guy, and he was always attracting women, whether or not he was making the effort to do it. His job meant he was in contact with a whole host of different people, and he had the easy, charming confidence to get anyone he wanted to fall for him.It was what made him such a great guy to have on your side in the courtroom, and it was what made all the girls in town tumble over themselves to get their hands on him. He didn’t n
HarryYara is getting a raise.That was the first thing that crossed my mind as soon as I saw the woman who was waiting for me at the table at the restaurant I had been sent to for this date. I couldn’t believe it. It was the very same vet who had treated that dog that we had brought in a few days ago. And damn, if she didn’t look even more outrageously gorgeous than she had then.Her hair was loose around her shoulders, and her gorgeous green eyes seemed to shine in the light of the candle flickering on the table between us. Once we had gotten over the initial shock and ordered our wine, Raina looked at me across the table and shook her head.“Okay, I have a confession,” she admitted. “This wasn’t actually my idea.”“No?”“No, my brother set me up on this date,” she confessed. “I was going to cancel it, but I knew the only way he was going to get off my back was if I just went along and played through the evening for him. I had no idea it was going to be you.”“In that case, I guess
Harry“Yeah, it was my best friend who set me up on this date, and trust me, I wasn’t exactly pleased when I found out what she had done,” I replied with a shake of my head. “I would have canceled it, but I knew that she wasn’t going to let it drop until I had actually been out on a date.”“Oh my God, that’s the same with my brother,” she exclaimed. “We should set them up together.”I laughed. “Yeah, that would show them. Prove that they’re not the only ones who can pull this shit, huh?”“Don’t tempt me,” she replied, lifting her finger as though she was on the brink of setting it up at that very moment. “I’m still so mad at him for this. Trust me.”“Still?” I asked.She smiled at me. “Well, maybe not quite so much anymore,” she conceded, and a little flush ran up her cheeks.The flicker of the candle on her skin made her look even more beautiful than ever, and I glanced down to her mouth, her soft plump lips all but begging me to lean down and taste them for the first time. The stir
RainaI threw on the grungiest clothes I could find, climbed into my truck, and headed out to the shelter. I was dressed so badly, it felt like I was trying to put as much distance between the version of me that existed now and the version of me that had existed last night as possible.And in some ways, I supposed I was.I’d had a great time the night before. A better time than I had ever imagined I would.When I had seen it was him, I had instantly found myself way more interested in what this night had in store—though I was never going to admit to Reed that it had gone well, in case he got it in his head that I was asking him for further help to find a man. Last night had been fun, but that was all it had been, and it was better to keep it as a fun one-off than an awkward set of encounters.I arrived at the shelter just before nine, as I always did. I came down here as many weekends as I could to do some of the treatment on the incoming dogs. Jackie insisted on paying me a little mo