“No, you don’t understand,” Caleb said. “I literally can’t.”
The dog, undeterred by this news, continued to rub up against him. His new human shifted back, trying to avoid contact, but the dog went with him.
Caleb lifted his head and looked at Sadie. “Help.”
Fascinated by this unexpected show of weakness in the man who always came off as invincible, she shook her head. “I think it thinks you’re its mama.”
He glanced around the courtyard as if to see who the dog might belong to, but there was no one. In the meantime, the dog gave another loud “ruff” and sat on his foot.
“I hear you,” Caleb said. “And we’re going to help you, I promise.”
“We?” Sadie shook her head. “We are most definitely not a we.”
Caleb slid her an unreadable look and got to his feet. Ignoring her now, he lifted his hands at the dog, giving the universal gesture for Wait Here, but the minute he raised his hands, the dog squeaked and leapt back as if Caleb had propelled him with a push.
The poor thing, off balance with only three legs, fell to its back, exposing its underbelly and the fact that it wasn’t an it, but a she.
In Sadie’s experience, getting attached was hard and took a long time but in a blink of an eye, she fell in love. Not partially in love, but all the way in love because neglected and mistreated meant they were soul mates. “I’m going to kill her owner,” she murmured, absolutely swiping a drop of rain and not a tear away.
“Not if I get to them first,” Caleb said, his eyes flashing absolute fury, though his voice remained low and calm. “Okay, forget finding your owner,” he told the dog, squatting low again as if trying to get his six-foot-plus frame as nonthreateningly small as he could. “I’m not going to hurt you, I promise.”
The dog imitated a turtle for a beat but finally figured out how to roll to her feet, still keeping her distance.
“It’s okay,” Caleb told her. “We’re together now, for better or worse, even if you’re going to kill me.”
“She wouldn’t hurt a fly, much less kill you,” Sadie said.
The dog had listened to all this intently and then slowly scooted back towards Caleb, head down but her hind-end a little wiggly. Sadie’s heart pretty much exploded in her chest as the dog crawled into Caleb’s lap and set her oversized head on his broad shoulder.
With a sigh, he wrapped his arms around the dog and hugged her close.
“Yeah, that’s some killer,” she said.
“I’m allergic.”
He said this so nonchalantly, she blinked. “Is that some sort of a euphemism for ‘I hate dogs?’”
“No.”
“You’re kidding me, right?” she asked.
“Look, If I pass out, the Epi-pen is in my pocket. I’m trusting you to use it before I die. If you don’t, at least make up something really good for my funeral, okay? Like I died heroically saving your sexy ass, and not because a sweet dog like this one hugged me.”