“Thank you, Charlie, for being the best reading dog in the whole wide world.” He hugs the dog, who gives a happy doggy grin.
Logan’s mom approaches the threesome and spots me with Deacon. She smiles at us. “Hey, Deacon. Hey, Noah.”
Deacon waves at her, then looks in Charlie’s direction.
I return her greeting, after which, she walks over to collect her son. “Do you want to meet the dog?” I ask Deacon.
He nods with supersonic speed.
I push myself to my feet. “All right.”
Deacon scrambles off the pillow and we head over to Kate and Charlie. Logan and his mom are already walking away from the pair.
Kate stands from her chair and nods at me.
“Kate, this is my rambunctious nephew, Deacon. Deacon, this is Kate and Charlie.”
“Can I pet him?” Deacon asks her. His parents have an Australian shepherd, and Jake and Sophie have a one-year-old black Lab who practically grew up with Deacon. But even though he’s familiar with dogs, Violet taught him to always ask strangers first if it’s okay to pettheirdog.
“Yes, you may. In fact, he’ll be disappointed if you don’t.”
Deacon crouches next Charlie and gently strokes him.
“I texted you earlier to see how things went this morning,” I tell Kate. “Since you never responded, I take it things didn’t go too well?” There might be a twinge of smugness in my tone, which I guess isn’t totally fair. Kate might be cut from the same designer cloth as my ex-girlfriend, but she’s not the one who sucker-punched me.
That would be all Samantha.
Kate shrugs her delicate pale shoulders, the scar there more noticeable than it was yesterday. “Sorry, I didn’t see it. My phone isn’t currently working.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“It had an altercation with a muddy puddle this morning. The puddle came out the winner. I’m just waiting to see if my phone can be brought back to life.” The corner of her mouth twitches briefly to one side.
“You dropped it in a puddle?”
A slight scowl appears on her face. “Not on purpose. If I had my way, neither myself nor the phone would have ended up in the puddle.”
This is getting better and better.
“You ended up in the puddle, too?”
“Well, it wasn’t so much a puddle as it was mud. And yes, I ended up in it because my boot got stuck and when I tried to pull it free, my foot came out but the boot didn’t go anywhere. As a result, I went flying backward and landed in the mud. So I guess you can save yourself a phone call tomorrow morning.” Now she’s grinning at the realization that I won’t be able to bug her at six a.m. like I did today.
“That’s too bad, Princess. I was really looking forward to that. Now my day won’t be complete.” I wink at her. “So is there any particular reason why you and Charlie are in the library?”
The grin from earlier, the one that lit up the room, is back. “Charlie is a reading-therapy dog. He helps kids who struggle with reading. Instead of getting stressed by reading to an adult, they read to the dog instead.”
Well, that’s different.“Does he do that often?”
She nods. “Yes. We volunteer weekly at an elementary school in LA. The kids love reading to him, and it helps improve their skill level.”
So Kate’s not only beautiful and sexy, she’s sweet and giving, too. Which means, she’s earned another two check marks in the Why-she’s-nothing-like-Samantha column.
But that still doesn’t mean I want to get mixed up with her sort again.
“How did Charlie end up being a therapy dog?”
“After my accident, I struggled with depression. One of my cousins thought a puppy might cheer me up, so he gave me Charlie. And he was right. Looking after an energetic puppy helped me forget…” Her gaze drops to Charlie and Deacon. “Anyway, I was bored one day and decided to read to him. He lay down and listened to me as I stroked his fur. I remembered an article about reading-therapy dogs, and I searched online for more information.”
