20. The Dog Story
Chapter twenty
The Dog Story
Sawyer
“I haven’t told this story to anyone but my therapist,” I said, putting a pillow over my face. Somehow, not seeing Neil’s face made it easier for me to open up. I didn’t want to see the sympathy I imagined I’d see there. I didn’t want sympathy, which is why I’d tried to keep my fear a secret.
Neil shifted closer to me but didn’t say anything, waiting for me to tell him in my own time, which I appreciated. God, this story was so embarrassing. But Neil was right; he deserved to know. I took a deep breath, imagining drawing my tattered confidence around myself like a blanket, and started talking.
“You ever been skinny dipping?”
A pregnant silence filled the room for a moment.
“Can’t say that I have.” When Neil spoke, his voice quavered a bit.
Odd, but I needed to focus on getting my story out. “Right, well, Hector and I were hanging out here. Hector, he’s my—”
“Your friend, the writer. I remember from the cover of Faerly Hunter .”
“Yeah, so he was over. We’d been playing video games and drinking. My memories of what brought up skinny dipping are hazy, but it really doesn’t matter which of us suggested it. Anyway, it was like two a.m., the streets were empty, and the beach was right there.” I gestured vaguely at my front wall. I cringed at the memory. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Neil coughed like he was suppressing a laugh. “The phrase ‘seemed like a good idea at the time’ heralds a lot of embarrassing stories.”
“Yep,” I agreed, then blindly punched Neil’s arm, but not with any force behind it.
“Oww,” he said, but not with any genuine feeling. “Sorry, go on.”
“We shucked our clothes in the house and ran over there. We were actually having a lot of fun splashing around in the water.”
“Until the Chihuahuas came,” Neil intoned, doing a good impression of a horror movie narrator.
I laughed despite myself, appreciating the way Neil’s humor loosened some of the tension that had thrummed through me since I saw Princess Bubblegum. “You joke, but that’s exactly what happened. As we were getting out of the water, a pack of feral Chihuahuas—”
“What?” Neil said in a dead tone.
I pulled down the pillow and sat up to look Neil in the eye. “If you hadn’t found Princess Bubblegum, she would have gone feral eventually.”
“But a pack of nothing but Chihuahuas?” Neil’s eyes went wide, probably visualizing a herd of Princess Bubblegum clones, fluffy white dogs with bows in their hair, running up and down the beach.
“Chihuahuas are clannish, so yes,” I said, referring to the way Chihuahuas only liked other Chihuahuas or Chihuahua mixes, shunning other dogs. “Anyway, I assume the end of that story is obvious.” I ran a hand through my hair. Telling the guy I had the hots for that I got bitten all over, and I mean all over , was not on my to-do list tonight.
“You got bit,” Neil said, biting his lip. “But didn’t Hector get attacked too if he was there?”
I groaned and put my head in my hands. “I tripped on a piece of driftwood and fell. Hit my head on something. They all stopped chasing Hector to chew on me.”
“He just left you there?” Neil’s face clouded with anger—misplaced anger, but the thought that he was getting worked up over the thought of Hector leaving me behind gave me warm fuzzies.
“No, he ran back here and grabbed a shovel from the garage, then used it to drive the dogs away.” I rolled up my shirt sleeve and showed him my upper arm, where some of the scars were still visible. My arms had gotten the worst of it since I’d been flailing at the dogs with them. “Afterward, he drove me to the ER. Final tally was a minor concussion, five stitches, and a crippling fear of dogs.”
“Damn.” Neil’s eyes grew round. “I’m sorry about the Chihuahua joke. I wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s okay.” I shrugged and gave him a small smile. “It was actually pretty funny. Mind if I steal it?”
“I don’t mind. But steal it for what?” Neil gave me a puzzled look.
“My therapist said I should journal out my feelings about the attack, but I’m a comic book artist. Pictures are easier for me than words. So I’ve been drawing a little mini-comic about the attack.”
“I’d like to see it when it’s done.” Neil paused and reddened. “If you want to share it with me, I mean.”
“I’d like that,” I said, and I meant it.
A timer went off somewhere in the house. “Dinner’s ready.”
Neil chewed on his lip and checked the time on his phone. “I’d love to stay, but I need to go. I’ve already left her alone in the truck too long.”
“Please stay. Put her in the bathroom. I can deal with her being here. I only freaked out earlier because she caught me by surprise.” A note of pleading entered my voice despite my trying to keep calm. I stood and paced into the kitchen, needing to move. The thought of a Princess Bubblegum in the house made me shake, but I wouldn’t let this fear lose me a cute guy who took my breath away and made me laugh.
A guy who’d tried to dress down for me. Who’d put up with my panic attack without judgment.
Telling myself it technically wasn’t a Chihuahua didn’t help. But ironically, reframing her in my head as Neil’s dog helped.
Neil still sat on the couch, indecision pulling at his features.
“I made potatoes au gratin and steaks,” I called from the kitchen as I pulled the casserole dish out of the oven.
“I love potatoes au gratin,” Neil said. “How did you know?”
“Lucky guess.” More like I’d paid attention to what he’d ordered at Books I assumed he was playing with her to set her at ease. I didn’t rush him, using the time to finish setting the table and clean up.
“Bubblegum is all set up,” Neil said when he returned.
“I thought we’d eat out on the patio,” I said, nodding to the back door on the other side of the kitchen. “Do you want a drink? There’s beer or soda in the fridge.”
“Thanks. That sounds good,” Neil said. He popped the fridge and pulled out a soda. I expected him to go out outside, but he lingered.
“Can you open the back door for me?” I said, grabbing the oven mitts so I could carry out the casserole dish.
My house wasn’t big, and the kitchen was narrow, so I had to brush by Neil to get out. Just that little bit of contact sent an electric thrill through me.
I set the hot casserole dish on the waiting trivet. The day’s heat still radiated off the house, but it had already started to cool. Neil had followed me out and took a seat at the table, then popped the tab of his soda with a hiss.
“How do you like your steak?”
“Medium,” Neil said. “Can we hear Bubblegum out here?”
A sharp yap came from behind him, and Neil spun in his chair, almost spilling his soda.
“That’s the bathroom window right behind you. I left it cracked,” I said as I checked the temp on the grill. Perfect. The steaks sizzled as they hit the cooking grate.
“This is a cute little house,” Neil said.
“Yeah. Belongs to my parents.” I shot him a smile over my shoulder. “They retired to Texas.”
“They retired from a beachfront paradise… to a desert?” Neil laughed.
“It is a lot cheaper than Cali.” I shrugged. “Plus, they wanted to get horses.”
“So you’re an only child?” Neil asked. “I only saw pictures of you and your parents in the entryway.”
“Yeah. You?” I flipped the steaks.
Neil was silent for long enough that I glanced back to make sure he was still there.
“Middle child… of eight.”
I blinked for a moment, thinking I’d misheard. “Huh. What’s it like?
“Having siblings?” Neil hummed in thought for a moment. “Loud.”
I laughed. “I bet.”
God, sitting here on my porch with Neil felt so right. I plated the steaks and admired how the setting sun lit up his hair. I was so glad he’d stayed despite my panic attack about his dog. And he’d stayed even after my confession of getting terrorized by a pack of tiny dogs.