“Well, that’s very . . . sweet of you,” her mom said sounding surprised. “And very unlike you.”
Hoping she hadn’t just agreed to wearing a frothy pink Little Bo Peep bridesmaid dress, she shrugged off the sarcasm and let her gaze shift to the window. The Pacific Pier Building had been built around a cobblestoned courtyard that each of the ground floor shops and businesses opened to, making it convenient for people watching.
One of her favorite pastimes.
But it was January in San Francisco, specifically the Cow Hollow District, and a thick icy fog had descended over the early evening with the promise of rain. The courtyard was lit with strings of white lights and lined with potted trees and wrought iron benches around a hundred-year-old fountain, and was usually a hub of activity.
Tonight only the faint glow of the lights was visible behind the wall of fog. The courtyard was empty. Except . . . wait a minute. A form moved through the fog. A tall, leanly muscled form, his overcoat billowing out behind him like he was some sort of super hero.
She called him Suits.
He had a real name, she knew. Caleb Parker. But she’d never said it out loud, preferring her nickname for him since with the exception of the one time she’d run into him at the gym, she’d never seen him in anything but a suit. And though she wasn’t a suit kind of girl, she could admit there was something about watching him move in the clothes that had clearly been made to fit his rangy build and probably had cost more than an entire year’s rent.
“Mercedes?” her mother said in her ear. “You still there?”
Being full-named always got her back up. It wasn’t that Sadie had anything against it per se—okay, so she sort of did, because who named a kid after the car where that kid had been conceived?—but more than anything, she had a whole lot against her mother’s tone. “I heard everything you said, Mom. I’ll be on time for Clara’s wedding dress fitting appointment.”
“Speaking of that, don’t forget you need to find a date for the wedding.”
“Mom.”
“What?” her mom asked, playing innocent. “It’s a wedding, you’ll need a date. And you’re past due to find your Prince Charming. Way past due.”
Ignoring the dig at her bad luck in choosing men, she said, “I don’t need Prince Charming. Forest animals who clean, yes, that’d be great, but it’s a hard pass on Prince Charming.”
Her mom said a few more things that Sadie didn’t catch because she was making her way from one window to the next in order to keep Suits in her sights. It was misting now and his dark hair shimmered with the droplets every time he passed beneath a lamp post.
Then he abruptly stopped between the day spa and the Canvas Shop, which was only twenty feet from her.
He didn’t move.
“Mom, I’ve gotta go,” she said.
“But—”
“I’ll call you back.”
“Yes, but you always say that and you’re lying. You’re not supposed to lie to family, Sadie—”
“Tooth fairy, Santa Claus, and the Easter bunny,” she responded, and at her mother’s gasp, Sadie disconnected the phone, squelching her grimace because yes, she’d most definitely pay for hanging up on her mom later, big time. The woman had a lot of talents, and one of them was the ability to hold a grudge for a hundred years.
Sadie had a few talents herself, such as not sleeping at night and enjoying chocolate just a little too much. And okay, she also was talented at drinking tequila in the form of margaritas, preferably frosty lime, sue her.
Slipping her phone away, she craned her neck to see what Caleb Parker was up to. He’d crouched low, easily balancing on the balls of his feet, looking at something she couldn’t quite see as the wind and now rain pummeled his back, seemingly unnoticed.
What the actual hell.
She didn’t know much about him other than he was some sort of tech genius and used to work at a government think tank. He’d invented a bunch of stuff including a series of apps that he and his business partner had sold to Google, and more recently the two of them had created a way of getting meds and medical care into remote developing nations via drones.
Oh wait, there was something else she knew as well; that the two of them didn’t like each other. She wasn’t even sure how it’d started. They had a lot of mutual friends, which often landed them at the pub together. She couldn’t explain it, but there was an energy between the two of them she didn’t understand. At best it made her uncomfortable. At worst, it sometimes kept her up at night.
Her best friend Ivy, who ran the taco truck parked outside the building, said it was unrequited animalistic lust.
But Ivy was wrong.
It wasn’t lust, because Sadie no longer gave into lust, animalistic or otherwise. Personally, she thought the supposed mystery was far easier to explain. It was simply that she and Suits didn’t like each other and never had.
But what was he doing all hunkered down like that in the rain? Was he hurt? Driven by curiosity and the inability she had of letting anything go, she unlocked and opened the front door of the day spa and stuck her head out. “Hey.”
Staring at the brick wall, Caleb didn’t react. He didn’t turn her way or glance over. He simply said “shh.”
Uh, no. No, he did not just shush her. Clearly, he was asking for a blast of her temper and she stepped out the door to give it to him.
He held up a hand in her direction, silently ordering her to stop where she was.
No, really, what the actual hell?
Then he reached out towards the wall and she realized through the wind and rain she could hear him talking quietly to something.
Something that was growling at him fiercely.
“Don’t be scared,” he said softly. “I’m not going to hurt you, I promise.”
The growling got a little louder, but Caleb didn’t back away, he just held eye contact with what sounded like a huge dog that she couldn’t see in the dark shadows.
“Okay,” Caleb said. “Come here. Slowly.”
Sadie realized with a start that he was talking to her. “What? No way. What is it?”
“Come closer and you’ll see.”
Dammit. She stepped out from beneath the spa’s overhang and immediately got wind and rain in her face. She pulled out her cellphone and accessed her flashlight app, which she aimed at the wall.
“Don’t—” Caleb said and reaching up, wrapped his hand around her wrist, bringing the phone down to her side. “You’ll scare it.”
“I’d rather that than being eaten,” she said, shrugging off his warm hand but going stock still when the growling upped a notch.
“I need you to check for injuries,” Suits said. “I think it’s hurt.”
“Are you crazy—” she started but then stopped as the matted, drenched shadow scooted away from the wall. She could see now that it wasn’t nearly as large as she’d thought. Not a young puppy, but not a grown dog either, it had a too skinny tan colored body and a black face with black eyes. “Looks like an oversized pug,” she said.
“Too big for that. It’s got some bullmastiff in it though,” Suits said.
A teenaged bullmastiff with three legs, Sadie realized as it shifted closer, and her entire heart melted. “Oh my God.” Moving toward it now without hesitation, she got only a few steps before the thing backed away from her and took a leap in Suits’ direction.
With a surprised grunt, Caleb fell to his ass on the wet cobblestones. “Okay,” he said, holding up his hands at the dog as if suddenly terrified of it. “Okay, see? You’re safe now, right? Stay.” He gestured with his still raised hands. “Stay and sit.”
The dog didn’t stay. Or sit, for that matter. Instead, it took a few uneven steps on its one front and two back legs, and then wound its way around Caleb’s body, brushing up against him, leaving dirty, beige fur sticking to his wet suit.
He sucked in a breath and seemed to hold it. “Listen,” he said. “I’d really like be your person, but I can’t.”
The dog looked up at him and gave a single bark, like you’re totally my person . . .