Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Layla
T he workday was winding down, and it had started with a bang. I walked to the back to help Isla clean some baking pans. “How are you doing after the incident with Dustin?” Isla asked.
She wiped her hands on her apron and walked over to the sink where I was stacking pans. “I was thinking, maybe you should have Dex talk to him, you know, give him a little scare. Nothing bad, just enough to make him understand that it’s in his best interest to let this whole thing go.”
“I know Dex would relish the idea,” I said. Aria’s boyfriend, Dex, was built like a freight train, and no one messed with him. He was very protective over all of us, but sending Dex to see Dustin seemed like overkill. “Like I said, someone stepped in this morning, and that seemed to do the trick. Dustin scurried out, red in the face, and thankful to be leaving with all his teeth.”
“That’s right. You said it was our new neighbor, who also happens to sing in a band, and who your friend Emily is nuts about. I guess she has good taste.”
“She sure does,” I said under my breath. Isla couldn’t hear me over the clanging of pans.
I finished my closing chores, blew Isla a kiss and hurried out the door. I was anxious to get home and change for the dog walk. Ava and Jack were having lunch on the back patio when I arrived at the cottage. I poked my head out to say hello, but they were so involved in their flirty lunch neither noticed me.
Jack was one of those cool professor types, with rolled up shirt sleeves and an intellectual-ish look on his face. Although, the whole academic aura was shattered when I looked out and caught Ava hand feeding him a bite of her chicken sandwich. Ranch dressing dripped on his chin as he nodded his head in approval.
“I always wondered what went on behind the closed door of the staff lounge at college,” I said.
Ava and Jack laughed as they looked toward the door. Jack wiped the ranch dressing from his chin with a napkin. “I suppose you thought we were all sitting at tables exchanging dissertation nuggets and scholarly opinions,” Jack said.
“Well, I certainly didn’t think you were exchanging sandwich bites. I’m just here to change, and then I’m taking the neighbor’s dog on a walk, and I’m ridiculously excited about it.”
Ava turned more my direction. “Which neighbor? What dog?”
“The man who’s renting Audrey’s cottage has the coolest big dog. His name is Rocky. Carry on with your lunch.”
I always smelled like sugar after a day at the bakery. I normally showered after work, but something told me Rocky wouldn’t mind the scent. I pulled on shorts and sneakers and went out to the kitchen for a quick snack and glass of water. My plan was to walk Rocky down the road all the way to the end, where the public beach access trail started. It was a relatively quiet road, and aside from Mr. Roberts’ barking dogs behind his front gate, there weren’t many obstacles to pass.
I walked next door and pushed the key in the lock. Rocky started barking. I opened the door. “Hey, Rocky, it’s me. Your new best buddy.”
Rocky leapt off the couch, knocking over the guitar that was leaning against the sofa. It made a clamoring noise, which panicked the dog. He scurried over to me and sat down with a worried look. I rubbed the top of his head. “It’s all right. No damage done.” I walked over and picked up the guitar. There were some sheets of paper with words and musical notes scribbled on them in pencil. Emily mentioned that the band had been sought after for a record deal, but they didn’t have enough original songs for an album. It looked as if Nash was working on one of those songs. The papers had been sent into disarray from Rocky’s sofa dismount, so I straightened them. My eyes just happened to pass over some scribbled lyrics. “Copper hair and a smile that could break a heart in two.” I stared at the words a second, then shook my head with a laugh.
Rocky’s cold nose pushed against the back of my calf. “Well, sir, we’re going on an adventure.” I headed toward the hook with the leash, and Rocky bolted past me, sat beneath it and started twirling his tail around fast enough to cause a breeze. He sat perfectly still like a gentleman as I attached the leash to his collar. I smiled, pleased with myself for handling this like a pro. Then, I opened the door, and he shot out like a torpedo. I pulled the door loudly shut behind us and followed behind like a kite on the end of a string as Rocky headed down the driveway to the road.
“Whoa, there, buddy. You’re pulling too fast.” My feet finally caught up to him, and once the tension on the leash lightened, Rocky slowed his pace. He dropped his head to start a sniffing extravaganza like I’d never seen before. His nose must have brushed over every blade of grass, every crack in the sidewalk, every mailbox post before he finally tired of sniffing. He lifted his big head and trotted proudly ahead of me, tail in the air and ears shifting forward and back. We headed toward the small green space at the end of the road. It wasn’t a park, more of a big shade tree with a bench below it.
After marking some territory, Rocky returned to sniffing mode. His tail began to wag wildly as he picked up the scent of something that excited him. His head shot up and he barked once. A squirrel dashed out of a nearby shrub and ran for the tree as if his tail was on fire. Stupidly, I hadn’t braced myself for what would follow. Rocky bolted, and the leash left my hand. He ran for the tree and, once at the trunk, got up on his hind legs. His two front paws were halfway up the tree. His ears fell back as he stared up into the branches.
My body relaxed with relief as I reached him. I was sure he’d take off at a full run, and I’d have to chase him. He was so fast I’d never catch him and then I’d have to let Nash know that I’d lost his dog. Rocky stayed there, pressed against the tree, in a dog-squirrel game of chicken.
It was such a funny sight; I pulled out my phone and leaned in with Rocky for a selfie. “All right, Rocky, I think we’ve pestered the squirrel long enough. Let’s go.”
He released a doggie sigh of defeat as he pulled his paws off the trunk and started back toward the road. My phone rang as I pushed it into my pocket. It was Emily. I froze. I wasn’t exactly sure why. Actually, I knew why. Walking Nash Ledger’s dog was like a massive act of betrayal. I hadn’t even let my best friend know that I was living next to her crush yet, and here I was out walking his dog. Maybe it was time to come clean. As Ella liked to point out—no one dealt with guilt worse than her baby sister, and she was right. One time I borrowed Jenny Furman’s pretty ladybug pencil sharpener, and I liked it so much I didn’t return it. I put it in my backpack hoping she wouldn’t notice it missing. By the time I got home, my stomach hurt, and I was in tears. I spilled out the whole confession to Nonna in loud sobs. She walked me right over to Jenny’s house to return the sharpener and apologize. I felt better, but the guilt of my indiscretion made it hard for me to ever look Jenny in the eye again.
I considered letting Emily’s call go to voicemail but decided to just confess. “Hey, Emily, what’s up?” Rocky trotted ahead, once again tail in the air and ears on alert. Now that I knew how he’d react to a squirrel, I was ready.
“I’m on my lunch break.”
“Wow, that’s a late break.” Rocky stopped to sniff some shrubs, so the walk was paused.
“Tell me about it. I was so hungry it felt like my stomach was chewing itself. We had a sale, and the shop was packed. I love summer, but it’s hard work.”
“I know. The line to get in the bakery lasted until eleven o’clock.” I was about to mention the incident with Dustin, something I would have normally called her about right away, but I didn’t want to explain how it ended. I now had two stories that involved Nash Ledger and both were the kind of stories that you’d definitely relay to your best friend, but I couldn’t talk about either of them with Emily. At least not right now.
Rocky’s nasal inspection was interrupted when a cat decided to meander across the street. The cat looked the dog’s way with that typical cat arrogance and kept walking at a leisurely pace. Cats were smart, and this one knew his big furry nemesis was attached to a leash that was attached to a human, so he could stroll across without worry. Rocky didn’t react as wildly as with the squirrel, but his tail started wagging and he barked.
Emily laughed. “Did you just bark?”
“Yep, been taking bark training. Woof, woof.”
“I hope you’re not paying too much for that training. Are you out on the beach?”
She’d given me an out. I could just say yes and mention that there was a dog out on the sand, but lying always came with guilt, and I was having such a great time on my walk with Rocky, I didn’t want to spoil it with a stomachache.
“Actually, I’m out walking this big, wonderful dog named Rocky.”
There was a pause. “You got a dog, and you didn’t tell your best friend?” Boy, if only that was the big secret I was keeping.
“He belongs to my neighbor, the man renting Audrey’s cottage for the summer. He has to work all day, and I told him I didn’t mind taking Rocky out for a walk in the afternoon.”
“Well, you’ve always wanted a dog. I guess that’s the second-best thing. What’s he like?” she asked.
“Big and shaggy, sort of like a Muppet with a long tail.” We reached the end of the road and began to circle back. We walked on the opposite side, so Rocky could gather up a whole new crop of smells.
“I meant the owner, the new neighbor. You said it was a man. What’s he like?”
It was my turn to pause. Just out with it, Layla. “Well, Emi, now try to absorb this information with dignity and decorum, all right?”
She laughed. “Uh, okay, Miss Big Vocab, I think I can handle that. What—is he some kind of serial killer or something?”
I scoffed. “Would I volunteer to walk a serial killer’s dog? For that matter, what would a serial killer be doing in a cozy cottage on the cove?”
“I don’t know—trying to blend in with the summer crowd?” She grunted. “All right we’re getting into one of our comedic, senseless debates. Obviously not a serial killer, so what’s the big deal? Why the warning?”
“It’s Nash Ledger,” I blurted it so fast I might have said Lash Nedger.
Emily clucked her tongue. “All right, I guess I’m not going to get the truth out of you because I only have fifteen minutes left on my break.”
“It’s the truth, Emi. I was waiting for the right time to tell you. I didn’t want to intrude on his privacy, so I didn’t say anything yesterday … when I found out it was him.” My voice trailed off because of the deafening silence coming through the phone. She was so quiet I could hear the muffled voices of customers in the shop. “Emi?”
“You’re telling me, your best friend of many years, the friend who held your hand as you sobbed at your grandmother’s funeral, in fact, the friend who sobbed right along with you, that you’ve been living twenty feet away from Nash Ledger, the man of my dreams, my future husband, and now you’re even out walking his dog? What else haven’t you told me? Let me hear it so I can feel the full weight of betrayal all in one shot.”
“See, this is why it was so hard to tell you because even though I had nothing to do with him moving in next door, I knew you’d blame me for it, like it was something I planned. And it’s more than twenty feet to Audrey’s door. It’s at least fifty feet. And you know how much I love you, Emi, and you were so supportive after Nonna died. That alone makes us sisters in spirit for the rest of our lives.”
“You’re deflecting. Fine. I know you didn’t plan this betrayal, but you should have told me. When can I meet him?”
I laughed. “Cool transition there from betrayal to how can I meet him. I’m not sure, Em. I don’t want to be that pushy neighbor, hey, come for a party, hey, let’s meet for coffee, hey, come meet my best friend, she’s nuts about you.” And then it hit me. I’d already told Nash that part. Emily sensed there was more to my sudden silence. She couldn’t read my mind like my sisters, but she could get pretty darn close.
“What aren’t you telling me?” She groaned sadly. “No, don’t tell me he’s married. How dare he? He never mentioned it on social media. He’s got all of us spending our days dreaming about him, and all this time he’s been married. Are there kids, too? Please don’t tell me there are two adorable twin toddlers who look just like Nash.”
“Whoa there, bestie. You’re spinning out of control. He’s not married and I’m walking his only child, and he looks nothing like Nash. However, he is just as adorable.”
“Phew. So there’s still hope.” Emily seemed to be talking more to herself than to me. “When can I meet him?” And there it was. My main worry coming to the surface.
“Let me see what I can do.” She squealed, but I talked through the squeal. “No promises, Emily. He’s a busy man, and like I said, I’m not going to be a nosy, pushy neighbor.”
“No, but you got yourself a pretty sweet dog walking job. Was it your suggestion?”
I blew out a puff of air. “It was.”
“Aha. So, you like him, too. I guess that puts me at a big disadvantage. For one, I’m not a beautiful, sparkly Lovely sister. I’m just a sidekick friend. And two, hmm, where was I going with two? Oh, that’s right. Proximity. You’ve got proximity on your side.”
“Are you done now, you crazy woman? I would never try for him, and I’ve got my two reasons, too. One, you love him, and so that puts an end to it because you are my best friend who held my hand and sobbed with me through Nonna’s funeral. Plus, you always gave me half of your Hostess Twinkie at lunch. Those aren’t the kinds of things I dismiss easily. Two, uh, you’re right, it’s hard to hold onto all the thoughts—that’s right, two—I offered to walk his dog because as you well know since we’ve been besties since your ketchup-mustard days, I’ve always wanted a dog to hang out with. And Rocky is super cool, dare I say even cooler than his owner.”
“Don’t see how that’s possible, but I suppose you’re right. I’m acting crazy. I’ve got to get back out on the floor before dragon lady snorts fire. We’ll talk about our plan to get me hitched to Nash Ledger later. And be careful with that dog. He certainly won’t fall in love with the best friend of the woman who lost his dog.”
“I’ll try my best. Bye.”
Before I pushed the phone into my pocket, I decided to send off the photo with Rocky standing at the tree. I wrote “there was a squirrel” under the picture and sent it to Nash, then I put the phone in my pocket. Rocky glanced back at me, and I was almost sure I spotted an eye roll. Apparently, he didn’t approve of me spending part of our quality time on the phone. “Sorry, you have my full attention now. Let’s forge ahead, pal.”