“Yeah, she gets massages and manicures and she has her own TV in her room, plus I get to watch her on live video whenever I want.”
“Christ, that sounds better than some of the hotels I’ve stayed at.”
“It probably is better—then again, it’s not cheap to board her with them, but I know my baby is taken care of, so that’s all that matters to me.”
“Well, if I’m around when you’re out of town, I’ll keep her. I may not give her pedicures, but she’ll be taken care of.”
“That’s nice, but—”
“No buts,” he cuts me off before I can disagree.
“If you’re working . . .”
“I can always stop by,” he interrupts again. “My job’s close by, so I can always get away for a few minutes here or there to take her out.”
“That’s nice, thanks.”
“No problem,” he says as he rests his arm over the back of the couch behind me. I wait to see what he will do, if he will wrap his arm around my shoulders like he did earlier, but he doesn’t make a move, so once again I’m left confused and conflicted.
“Come on, girl.” Hearing that, my eyes blink open. I don’t remember falling asleep, but I must have been so comfortable that I did. Hearing Muffin’s dog tag jingle, I get up on my elbow and watch through the dim light of the living room as Levi leads Muffin out the door.
“Levi?” I call, sitting up, and his eyes come to me over his shoulder and soften.
“Just taking her out, we’ll be back.”
“Um . . . give me a second and I’ll come,” I say, starting to stand, but he shakes his head no.
“I got her—it’s cold out, stay,” he says, then closes the door behind him. Pulling in a breath, I bite the inside of my cheek and look at the open cake box on the table. We ate my birthday cake right from the box with one fork that we both shared. It was sweet—he’s sweet, funny, and easy to talk to, but I still have absolutely no idea if he’s interested in me as anything more than a friend.
Chapter 5
A KISS IS JUST A KISS, RIGHT?
FAWN
Each breath I exhale as I run causes a huge puff of fog to appear out of my mouth. It’s cold; actually it’s freezing, but after last night I needed to get a run in before work so I didn’t spend my morning sitting around thinking about Levi. When he came back with Muffin after taking her out last night, he didn’t stay. He wished me a happy birthday once more, then left with nothing more than a tap to the end of my nose like I was a little kid he found cute. I was so confused by that gesture that I stood at the door for a good ten minutes with my hand on the knob debating whether to go over to his apartment and demand he tell me what the hell was going on. Instead I went to bed, where I tossed and turned most of the night tormented by thoughts of him once again until I gave up on sleep altogether, got up, put on my jogging gear, and went on a run. I need to talk to someone about him. I could call my sisters and ask them what they think it all means, but I know if I do I will never hear the end of it.
Plus, with our parents coming into the city Friday, I can’t trust my sisters not to bring Levi up in front of Mom and Dad. Our parents are not like most parents nowadays who want their kids to wait to get into a serious relationship. No, our parents want the complete opposite—they want their girls settled with babies, the sooner the better. They want us to find love at a young age, like they did. My mom and dad met and started dating when they were in high school. My dad was two years older than my mom, and she was only sixteen, but that didn’t stop him from pursuing her. He says he fell in love with her at first sight, and she says the same thing. They were inseparable from the day they met, and she literally moved in with my dad the day she graduated high school. Six months later they got married at the courthouse, and two months after that, they found out they were pregnant with Mac. I can’t say things didn’t work out for them; our mom and dad are crazy about each other. They have a love that most only dream of finding, but it’s that love that has made them delusional. They don’t understand dating nowadays, and they definitely don’t get that most people are lucky if they find someone they like enough to start a family with, let alone love. So there is no way I want them to catch wind of Levi—I do not want them to do what they did to me when I was with Jayson, which was basically to try to convince me that he was perfect for me when he was anything but.
Feeling Muffin tug the leash in my hand, I slow my jog to match her pace, then squeak when she veers off the running path and takes off at a full sprint across the grass, dragging me behind her. “Muffin, stop,” I scream, stumbling on the uneven ground as my earbuds fall out of my ears and my hand burns from my tight grasp on her leash.
Hearing a deep, rumbled “fuck,” then “halt,” I trip over a tree root protruding from the ground and fall facedown, barely catching myself with my hands before I do a face-plant in the dirt.
“Ugh,” I moan, rolling to my back, trying to pull in a full breath from my overworked lungs and crushed chest.
“Muffin, sit.” Oh god. I close my eyes, hoping I’m wrong, hoping that voice I know so well isn’t the one I just heard. “Baby.” My stomach melts at the endearment as a large, warm hand spreads across my forehead while another very large, very warm hand rests against my stomach, where my running jacket has ridden up. “Are you okay?” Hell, no, my dog almost killed me trying to get to the man she’s obviously in love with.
“I’m okay.” I look up at him and immediately feel a sense of déjà vu as sunlight casts a halo behind him that accentuates his too-gorgeous face.
“We really need to get your dog trained.” He grins as Muffin sniffs my face, then licks up my cheek.
“She must have seen you,” I grumble, glaring at my dog.
“Yeah, I gathered that.” He smiles, patting Muffin’s head as I attempt to push her freezing nose away from my neck, where she is trying to bury it. “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asks tenderly, studying me from head to toe and making those stupid butterflies take flight.
“I’m fine.” I sit up, avoiding his gaze as I dust the dried dirt and leaves off the front of my jacket and yoga pants. With the way I keep making a fool out of myself in front of Levi, it’s really no wonder he doesn’t think of me as anything more than a cute, clumsy kid.
“Are you heading home now?” he asks, and I nod, keeping my head down, using retying my shoe as an excuse not to look at him.
“Yeah, I need to get ready for work soon.” Putting my hands behind me to heft myself up off the ground, I hold my breath as he scoops me up and carefully sets me on my feet.
“If I knew you were running this morning, I would have run with you.” I want to ask why, but then I realize he’s my neighbor and he wants to be my friend. Friends do things like run together, hang out with each other, and bring each other cakes on their birthdays. God . . . I have been friend zoned by the first guy I’m actually really interested in in what seems like forever. I’m officially an idiot.