“I don’t know. If we want to? I feel… free. Like I’ve pushed off a weight that’s been smothering me most of my life, and now there’s all kinds of possibilities. Including a dog.”
“Better invest in a good vacuum.” His tone was dry, but I got the impression my decision pleased him.
“And an array of brushes. Would you like us to keep her?”
That got me a lift of one shoulder. “She respects Mimsy. That’s a plus.”
“We have two months anyhow, while she’s nursing. But I always wanted pets.”
“I guess you have them now.”
“I guess I do.” Mimsy meowed at us from the bookcase, then leaped down to the side table and the floor, coming over to head-butt my shins. I knelt and stroked along her back with the extra little scritch at the base of her tail she seemed to like. She twined around for three repeats, then scampered off to chase a fluff of dog fur across the floor.
When I looked back up, Shane was watching me steadily, his expression indecipherable.
“Do you mind me petting Mimsy without asking?” I straightened.
“She did ask you. I’m not the boss of her. Why did you scratch her butt?”
“She seems to like it?”Did I misread her?
“Yep. She does.” A smile dawned on Shane’s face, making him look young and carefree. “You really pay attention.”
“When it matters.”When I have clues.Shane was still a mystery in so many ways. I knew what he looked like when he came, but other than books and pets, I didn’t know what made him light up. Which was why I’d spent an hour deciding on the next step. “Would you go on a date with me today?”
“Another date? Why? I’m a sure thing now.”
“Not to get into your pants. Just for fun, to do something together.”
“Oh?” He tilted his head, his forehead creasing, and I wondered what he’d done with other men in the past. Had every date been only a short route to sex?
I wouldn’t ask. Pushing Shane for more than he wanted to tell me felt like a sure way to lose him. He was more like Mimsy than he’d probably admit. “For fun. We could take Mimsy with us.” That was a last-minute bribe, since he hadn’t jumped on my idea. “We could go to the bookstore downtown and then walk along the water again.” I’d thought about a café and lunch, but they wouldn’t let Mimsy in.
Shane brightened. “I wouldn’t say no. Mimsy would like it. She’s probably bored. And I could busk outside the bookstore again. That was a pretty good haul last time.”
“You want to?” I hadn’t meant our date to be work.
“I need to earn some bucks. We need groceries, and I’m gonna pay my share.”
I bit back every word of how I could afford to feed us and nodded. “I’ll take Foxy out to pee first.”
“I’ll change my shirt.”
“For me?” I put a little camp into my tone. “Ooh, wear that blue T-shirt that’s too tight.”
His smile looked awkward but pleased. “It has a rip. You’re weird. Also, it’s too cold out not to wear a jacket.”
“Wear it under the jacket, just for me.”
“All right.” He headed down the hall to our bedroom—our bedroom. I let those words roll around in my brain.Progress. Step by step.
In the spare room, I struggled to put the harness on Foxy. Not that she made it difficult, just that there were three buckles and half a dozen straps, and I always put some part of it inside out at first. On the second try, all the buckles matched up. “There,” I told her. “I can replumb a goddamned house. I refuse to be outsmarted by a dog harness.”
I bribed her with a treat to step out of the kiddy pool and follow me outside. She took quite a while sniffing around before doing her business, but I figured she was probably bored in that single room, puppies or not. We had a radio playing for her in there, but that wasn’t much company for a dog. “Raise your babies,” I told her. “Then we’ll take you downtown with us, too.”
She wagged her curled tail, the moth-eaten semicircle whacking me across the knee. Finally, she peed and I led her back indoors. Shane was kneeling by the puppies when we reached the spare room. “Are they okay?” I saw he had a couple of little bowls of stuff on the floor. “Is there a problem?”
He turned and lifted the bowls off the ground before Foxy could stick her nose in them. “I was trading out the dirty towels, and I thought I’d start scent socialization.”
