Decision made. So, by Dad’s logic, I’m 80 percent closer to him liking me than I was a second ago. Funny how I still feel totally unwelcome in my own kitchen.
I keep standing, trying to make it look like I want to by leaning against the marble countertop. Everything looks better when you’re wearing a smile. I flash some teeth, trying to find a balance between the Miss America of Evy’s accusation and the grimace I’d like to wear. “Can I get you anything, Jonah? A drink?”
“No,” he says, then adds, “Sorry if I ruined your plans.” This is addressed to Evy. Apparently my plans don’t matter.
“No worries. I’m in for the night. I was going to make tea and wait for my boyfriend to call. Brighton’s about to walk the dog. You can go with her.”
“Never? No.” If I had been sitting, I’d have bolted to my feet in protest.
“Um, I’ll wait by my car if walking the dog is a private task for you.” Jonah gives me a look of curious disdain.
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
But my words are overpowered by Evy’s opening the French doors to our back porch. She whistles and shouts, “C’mere, boy! Where’s my baby?”
Nearly two hundred pounds of drool lumbers into the kitchen. Jonah’s chair is forced back when Evy’s “baby” pushes his way over to inspect him. Jonah tolerates the sniffing and even scratches behind the demon dog’s ears. Saint Bernard? I don’t think so.
“Who loves me? Never loves me. Good boy, Never. Such a good boy,” Evy coos, and the dog turns his attention to her. Jonah stands up to avoid being beaten by the dog’s tail, which immediately overturns his chair.
“Never?” Jonah asks. “That’s some dog.”
“See, I wasn’t saying you couldn’t come—”
“Never: Not Eve’s Replacement. My mom got this big, beautiful boy right before I left for college. Didn’t she, buddy?” Evy scratches his chin, and he rewards her with a lick that leaves visible slobber across her cheek. Gross.
“And he never listens to anyone but her, so it’s appropriate.” I scowl—not that either of them notices. They’re too busy lavishing affection on the beast, who has a habit of chewing up my shoes and jumping on me when I sit on the couch so I can’t get up until he decides to move or someone bribes him with a cookie. “I’m not walking him. I can’t. He was just in the backyard, I’m sure he’s fine.”
As soon as the word “walk” leaves my lips, Never bounds over, jumps up, and knocks me down. Then he proceeds to lick my face.
“Get him off me,” I beg, but Jonah and Evy are too busy laughing.
When I’m near tears, Jonah does, by holding up a leash Evy must’ve given him. He manages to get Never to sit while he fastens it. I hate the dog and she knows it. The thing weighs nearly as much as the two of us combined, but he listens to her.
“I can’t walk him,” I repeat. I put my headband on the counter and pull my hair into a ponytail so I can splash my face with water from the kitchen sink and remove the drool. All my makeup comes off along with it. My first instinct is to run upstairs and fix it, but Jonah will hate me with or without mascara and sandstone eye shadow.
“Don’t be a baby. He needs a walk—” Her cell rings. “And look, there’s Topher, so I can’t do it. Have fun. I’ll listen for the AAA guys.” Evy zips out of the room, cell phone to her ear, cooing to her boyfriend in a tone similar to the one she used with the dog.
“I can’t,” I say to Jonah.
“He’s just a dog. You’re the owner. Tell him what to do and he’ll do it.”
Like it’s that easy.
Never hasn’t listened to a command from me since he was actually lap sized. The woman at obedience school kept correcting Mom and Evy, telling them to speak softer—that my normal-volume instructions wouldn’t be effective if Never got used to obeying commands at a yell. But they didn’t listen and she was right. By the time he was knee height, all the cookies, cheese, and peanut butter in the world couldn’t convince him to sit or stay for me.
Jonah holds the leash out, but I just shake my head.
“Fine. I’ll walk him then. What’s a good loop so I don’t get lost? Everything in this town looks the same.”
He’s wrong—of course—not only do things not look the same, but all the streets in Cross Pointe are laid out in a grid. I don’t understand how it would be possible to get lost. I open my mouth to give him a route, then change my mind.
“You know what, I’ll come with you.”
If he were any of my guy friends, I’d link my arm through his, but Jonah would flinch or say something scathing. For now anyway.
Seeing him with Evy has given me hope; he’s not a 100 percent miserable all the time. He will like me. I just need to figure out how to get him to take the chip off his shoulder and give me a chance.