The worst part was that she could see all of that, every bit of it laid out before her in a neat little line. And Adley didn’t care. She just didn’t. She’d never felt a connection like this. Not in her entire life, and there was a voice in her head that kept telling her if she didn’t act on it, didn’t at least say what she was feeling, she’d regret it for the rest of her life.
“Fine,” she said again with more sighing as she took off her apron and moved the Baby Bear to the freezer. She’d go. She’d talk. And if Sabrina told her to jump in the lake, she’d leave knowing she at least gave it a shot. Right? She looked down into the container of Baby Bear as she stood in the cold. “God, is this the stupidest thing I’ve ever done?”
The ice cream didn’t answer.
* * *
“Is this the stupidest thing I’ve ever done?” Sabrina asked the puppy as she held him up to her face so they were nose to nose. “Is it? ’Cause it just might be. What do you think?”
The puppy put his paw on her face and licked her chin in response.
“Oh, little dude, you know how to get everything you want already, don’t you?” She kissed his head, which smelled kind of funky, but she wasn’t sure if she should wash him with her own shampoo. Adley would know.
And why? Why would Adley know? She’d said nothing about having any pets, so why did Sabrina think she’d know anything at all to help?
She didn’t. That was the answer. She just wanted to share the puppy, and Adley was the first—and only, if she was being honest—person she wanted to share him with. She hadn’t even called Teagan, and that spoke volumes about where her brain was.Volumes.
“God, what am I doing?” she whispered to the empty living room of her rental. She was supposed to be at the construction site but had asked Bryce if he minded taking over for the day, as she wasn’t feeling well. Which was sort of a lie. Her stomach had been churning unpleasantly since seeing Adley’s sweatshirt on Monday. Now, it was four days later, she’d hardly eaten, she’d avoided Adley like she was contagious, and here she was, waiting for her to come to her house.
Seriously, how much could she take?
The Universe decided she didn’t get an answer because her doorbell rang right then. The puppy barked in her arms. Well, bark-squeaked, which was adorable. Sabrina took a deep breath and looked at him. “Here we go,” she said softly, then crossed to the door and opened it.
Adley stood there looking gorgeous, as always, despite her very casual attire. Today’s outfit was a pair of well-worn jeans with holes in both knees and a white T-shirt with capped sleeves and a V-neck. Oh yeah, and a pink hat with the Get the Scoop logo because of course. Sabrina had called her away from work. Her eyes were stuck on the hat when Adley dissolved into nonsensical baby talk sounds, her eyes on the puppy.
“Oh my goodness, who is this adorable-worable wittle guy?” She put her nose right up to the puppy’s, and the puppy began to writhe and wiggle in her arms, clearly excited about this new human in his life.
“I found him this morning on my run. He was curled up in some trash.”
“He smells like it,” Adley said, but still in the baby voice. Then she glanced up at her with those dark, dark eyes. “I didn’t know you ran.”
“It’s been a really long time.” She pointed at the puppy, now in Adley’s arms and licking her face, Adley giggling like a small child. “I think God put him in my path to keep me from keeling over, which Iprobably would’ve done if I’d kept running.” Watching Adley with the little fur ball, how happy it made her, did warm things to Sabrina’s body, to her heart. “Anyway, I’m sorry to bother you midday, but…I don’t know the first thing about what I need for this guy. He needs a bath, like, now, but I don’t think you’re supposed to use human shampoo on dogs. I don’t know why I think that, but maybe I read it somewhere?” She was babbling now, and she knew it, but if Adley noticed, she hid it well, cooing at and nuzzling the puppy.
“No, I think you’re right. Let’s go to the pet store, then. Yeah?”
And just like that, they were in Adley’s car. Sabrina sat in the passenger seat with the puppy in her lap, then up near her shoulder because he clearly wanted to look out the window but was too small. He watched the world go by, totally content with his tiny front paws on the ledge of the door. “I think he likes to ride.”
Adley glanced over with a smile, then went back to driving, and Sabrina was just about to say something about…What? Their jobs? Not showing up the other night? How she’d missed Adley all week? But suddenly, they were in the parking lot of the pet store, and all the starts of her conversations stayed in her head. “Let’s go see what we need.”
The pet store wasn’t a chain or a franchise. It was a locally owned small-town shop, like so many businesses in Northwood seemed to be.
“Hi there,” a woman stocking shelves said to them as they entered. She wore a blue apron, her name tag said she was Beth, and her gaze immediately fell on the puppy in Sabrina’s arms. “Oh my goodness, who do we have here?”
Sabrina explained the story of finding him that morning. “He needs a bath badly. And he’s probably hungry. I made him some scrambled eggs, and he gobbled them right up, but I’d like to get him some dog food.” She felt Adley’s eyes on her and turned to meet her gaze.
“You made him scrambled eggs? How cute are you?”
And Sabrina blushed. She knew she did, could feel the heat rise up her neck and into her cheeks, as Beth stood close and petted the puppy, looking him over.
“Okay, let’s get him some flea shampoo and some food,” Beth said. “Follow me.”
The two of them followed her down an aisle, then up another. “You gonna keep him?” Beth asked.
Sabrina hesitated. “I haven’t really made a decision yet.” As ifunderstanding her words, the puppy shifted in her arms so he faced her. He swiped his tongue across her chin, and damn if he didn’t look right into her eyes. “You stop that,” she whispered to him, but Adley was watching, a sweet, sexy grin on her face.
“Yeah, she’s keeping him,” she said to Beth, then looked back at her, rubbed a hand down her arm, and said softly, “We’ll figure it out.”
They’d figure it out.
