Daisy circles my legs and barks her approval of our new digs.
“Yeah. It’ll do for now.” I pick her up and let her drench my face with saliva. Honestly don’t know what I would have done the past few days without her. “I’m gonna have to find you a dog daycare, huh girl?”
As soon as I let my parents know that we’d moved out of our apartment, I got an email from Aunt Dolly insisting that I stay at her place. That’s how it goes in my family—I tell my parents there’s an issue, they say they’re sorry to hear it and ask if there’s anything they can do. I say ‘no’ and then we stop talking about it, my mom emails her sister and then Dolly offers up her opinions and solutions for everything. It’s efficient and effective.
I figured it would be nice for Daisy to be near two big parks for a change, but I’m not going to be able to come home at lunch to walk her like I could sometimes do when we lived downtown. If we don’t move back in with Vanessa, this could be a good opportunity to find a ground floor unit with some backyard space.
But it’s too soon to think about that just yet.
I go back out to the hallway to bring my stuff to the guest room. I could text Vanessa to ask if there was anything else of mine that I missed, but I’m determined to get her to make the first move. After three nights in a hotel with my dog, the least she could do is text to ask where we’ve been staying.
I can hear Bernadette’s front door shut and realize a few seconds later that I’ve been holding my breath. She doesn’t knock on my door. Fortunately. Don’t know why she would. Other than to baby-talk at my dog again.
Suddenly, a yappy dog starts barking downstairs, and Daisy joins in on the fun. Must be Mrs. Benson’s poodle. Daisy’s scampering back and forth along the front door, her flat nose to the ground. Poodle must be barking at the door directly downstairs.
“Hey! Shush.” I raise my finger to her and give her my best alpha voice. “Daisy, quiet.” I pick her up and take her to the guest room, shut the door. She quiets down immediately, and I am one proud dog daddy. The poodle downstairs, though, keeps barking.
When I’m back in the front hallway to pick up my bags, I hear a faint knock. It’s so faint and hesitant that I can’t quite tell if it’s on my door or Bernadette’s. Three louder knocks confirm that someone’s outside my door, and I have to wipe the grin off my face before opening it.
“Hi,” says Bernadette Farmer. She’s still wearing that dress, her arms hiding behind her back, one foot crossed behind the other, looking up at me sheepishly. She wrinkles her nose. “Sorry about the poodle.”
“Should have known you had something to do with that.”
“I just knocked on Mrs. Benson’s door to see if she could help me with something, but she’s not at home.”
“Fascinating. Thanks for the update.” Lavender and something. That’s what she smells like. Lavender and vanilla and something else…Trouble. That’s definitely what I’m sensing. “Good night, then,” I say, as I slowly swing the door shut.
She sticks her leg inside and the rest of her quickly follows. She is quick on her toes, despite her inability to climb three flights of stairs without falling backwards. Not that I minded.
“I didn’t want to bother you,” she says, “but I need help…” She sighs and twists her lips to the side.
“Are you going to make me guess what you need help with?”
“I need help unzipping this dress in the back.”
Now that she’s standing closer, I can also smell wine on her breath. Not something I noticed when she gave me the key. Guess I drove her to drink between then and now. I could use one myself. Hell, I needed one as soon as she ran towards me on the sidewalk and dropped to her knees. Okay, so she was running to my dog—but it will take a while for me to forget that image.
“If I’m going to return it, I don’t want to risk tearing it, and I can’t quite reach the doodad for some reason. This thing is so tight, I’m afraid the sides will rip if I...”
“Turn around,” I say. I honestly didn’t mean for it to sound like a sexual command, but for some reason it came out that way.
She blinks her big hazel eyes, bites her lower lip, then slowly turns her back to me. In one swift motion, she sweeps her long hair out of the way, over one shoulder, then stands straight as a rod, her arms tight at her sides.
This dress.
The front is quite enchanting, or maybe it’s her cleavage that had me in danger of being under a spell.
But the back of the dress, even though it covers a lot more of her, is even more enticing.
It’s a long zipper, from the base of the back of her neck all the way down to her waist. There are still a few hairs in the way, so I brush them aside, unable to avoid touching the bare skin of her long neck. I notice her shiver. She wraps her arms around herself, as if she shivered because she was cold. I’d better get this over with quick.
I unzip her, not all the way to her waist. She can do the rest herself, I imagine. I can’t help but notice that there’s no bra under there. Which is interesting.
Her crossed arms slide up the front of her body, adeptly keeping her private parts in place and out of sight. She glances over her shoulder without turning around. “Thank you. Sorry to bother you.”
“No problem.”
She uses her foot to open the door. “Daisy settling in okay?”
