37
T he farther we get into November and the holiday season, the more daily foot traffic and more online orders I see. I’m up at the crack of dawn every day and sew any moment I get between customers. Still, I’m busy well into the night, and from the look of things, so is Leo across the street. He texts me Wednesday morning asking if it’s always like this this time of year, and I confirm. It’s been only four days, but I already can’t wait to see him at training again.
Micki shows up at lunch with soup, sandwiches, and cupcakes from my favorite bakery.
“Happy, happy birthday,” she hollers, even though I still have customers in the store. She’s the only person I know who keeps a list of birthdays and anniversaries for her friends. It’s the sweetest thing.
I finish ringing up the customer before I flip the OUT TO LUNCH sign on the door and let Micki give me a hug.
“Big twenty-eight!” Micki pretends to stick a microphone in my face. “How does it feel? Do your hips hurt? Any new wrinkles?”
“Shut up.” I take the bag of food from her and proceed up the stairs. “Just because you’re a year younger.”
Micki grabs two plates from the cupboard while I pull out sparkling, nonalcoholic cider from the fridge where it’s been chilling. It’s a tradition her ex started that stuck around even when he didn’t—special drinks for special days. This one is apple pomegranate.
“Fancy.” She nods as I pour two wineglasses full.
I sit down and light the candle I keep on the table. “Thanks for bringing food.”
“It’s the least I can do. I don’t have a present. Things are a bit tight right now. Turns out Jaz isn’t much more reliable than you when it comes to rent.”
I finish chewing my first mouthful of herby focaccia. “Oh no. Sorry.”
She waves off my concern. “I’m fine. I’m holding her goldfish hostage until she coughs it up. I know she’s good for it. Also, I’m taking on a few more hours at the salon.”
“Won’t that affect your study time?”
“No, I think I’m ready. I swear I dream about joint anatomy and body systems at night.”
“Well, let me know if you need any more quizzing.”
My phone vibrates with another text from Leo:
Diane is wondering if we want to eat there tonight before training. Something about the flank steak being too big for two.
Not having to make dinner—count me in. Sounds good , I text back.
He sends a thumbs-up.
“Leo?” Micki asks, mouth full of bread.
She knows we’ve gotten past the awkwardness of Halloween night and that nothing of significance has happened, and she’s been admirably restrained about not giving me a hard time about it, but I can’t help the smile currently plastered across my face. “Mm-hmm.”
She has a sip of her drink, watching me continuously. “It must be exhausting,” she says after setting her glass down. “You’ve got it as bad as anyone I’ve ever seen, and… nothing? I mean, I know he’s Mister Bad Guy and all, but still. A girl’s gotta butter that biscuit.”
A deep gulp of cider sends bubbles fizzing up my nose. “That’s… colorful,” I wheeze in the middle of a coughing fit that brings all three dogs to my side.
Cholula jumps into my lap, but not to make sure I’m okay—in two seconds, she’s hauled half my sandwich into her retreat beneath the bed.
“You stinker,” I scold when I’m able to talk again. I attack the rest of my sandwich before someone else steals that, too. When I look up, Micki is watching me, eyes narrowed. “What?” I ask.
“No other reaction?” She points at me with the tip of her spoon. Two splats of soup land on the table. “You’re thinking about it.”
I glance out the window toward Canine King where two customers are exiting. Leo doesn’t close for lunch like I do. Maybe I shouldn’t either if that’s what success requires. “Only around the clock.” I sigh. “But like… what if I don’t win the show? Or what if he decides he misses his old life and someone even worse takes over? What if we lose the store? How could I not blame him?”
“Someone worse than Leo?” Micki asks with exaggerated horror. “Not possible.”
“Ha, ha.”
“Dude, I’m telling you, you are overthinking this. Enjoy him. He’s here now, you’ll figure the other stuff out, and for what it’s worth, I don’t think he’s going anywhere. He’s very into you.”
That, finally, brings a real smile back to my lips. “I know.”
“Well, there you go.”
“Okay.” I shimmy the gloom away and raise my glass. “To friends who make other friends see reason.”
A quiet smile plays across Leo’s lips off and on during our drive into the countryside. With a playlist of random hits on in the background, the rush of the day slowly fades. After my lunch with Micki, the afternoon was a constant stream of customers. Unfortunately, I had to turn two of them away without making a sale. We’re out of one of our bestselling dry foods and more should have been delivered last week at the latest. I’ll have to get to the bottom of that in the morning.
“You good?” Leo asks as we stop at a light.
“Yeah, it was a hectic day.” I lean my head against the headrest and turn it his way. “You’re in a good mood.”
He presses his lips together briefly. “I suppose I am.”
“Any particular reason?”
“No.”
His answer is too quick. I squint at him. Something’s going on. “Let me guess, Tilly learned a new trick?” Which reminds me, Cholula and I need to practice the talent portion of the pageant. That’s the one thing I don’t want to do in front of Leo, and I still haven’t figured out how to progress her balancing act.
“No, no new tricks. I don’t know why I even bothered training on Sunday when Cholula wasn’t there.” Leo’s grip tightens as he turns off the main road onto the bumpier country one. I think he’s going to explain himself better, but instead he says, “We’ll eat first, train later. I didn’t take a lunch today.”
“Yeah, I noticed.”
His face lights up as he puts the car in park. “Did you now?”
“Not in a creepy way. Micki was over, and I happened to look out the window, and there were customers.”
He stops me by nudging my thigh with the back of his hand. It’s a split-second touch, but I’m already wound so tightly that it triggers a ripple of heat up my spine. “You don’t have to explain,” he says. “I’m glad I was on your mind.”
Once at the house, we walk into a cloud of heavenly sweet and savory smells. Something warm and sugary drifts behind more demanding scents. There’s a glow coming from the kitchen, and some eighties band sings about not being able to fight a feeling anymore over the built-in speaker system. How apt.
Leo takes my jacket and hangs it up. I turn to follow the dogs into the interior of the house, but he takes my hand and holds me back. “One thing first,” he says, eyes shifting away from me. He smiles to himself but hesitates.
“Yeah?”
He takes a deep breath. “If this is too much, promise you won’t get mad.”
“What are you up to?”
“In here.” He leads me through the doorway, not to a midweek dinner, but to a feast.
“Surprise!” Diane calls out, coming at me with outstretched arms.
I stare in awe at the scene before me. The table is set with fancy china, flowers, candles, cloth napkins, and decorative confetti. There’s a balloon tied to one of the chairs, and on the counter sits a two-tiered chocolate cake.
“Happy birthday,” Leo says in a low voice next to me.
I force my jaw shut and blink at the scene before me. “How… I mean, I didn’t…”
“I overheard you on the phone with your mom that night.” He looks suddenly nervous. “It is your birthday, right? If not, I’ll feel like a total jackass.”
“No, it is.” I take another step into the room, a lump forming in my throat. “But this is…”
“Too much?” He scratches his neck. “Sorry. I just love birthdays and I wanted you to have a good one.”
Tears well up even as astonished laughter spills out of me. No one has ever done something like this for me. Not my parents, and certainly not past boyfriends. I want to jump into Leo’s arms right then and hold on for dear life. “It’s perfect,” I say instead. “Better than perfect.”
Leo beams.
“I hope you’re hungry,” Diane says. “When you get to be our age, the desire fades to celebrate yet another year gone by. This is a rare occasion for us.”
I hug her and Dawn again. “I can’t believe he roped you into this. This is amazing.”
Leo pulls out the chair with the balloon for me, and I sit.
“I know it’s late,” Leo says once we’ve polished off three courses and several glasses of wine. “But there’s one more thing.”
I put my napkin down and wish yet again I could unbutton my pants. After generous helpings of salad, bread, steak with béarnaise sauce, twice-baked potatoes, sautéed mushrooms, and cake, I suspect I won’t need to eat for another week. If I make it home that is. I may have to roll out the door.
Leo stands and pulls out my chair. “Cap and Boris can wait here but bring Cholula.” He grabs my jacket and hands it to me.
“What about dishes?” The kitchen counter is overflowing.
Dawn titters. “Don’t be silly. No chores on birthdays.”
“Go.” Diane smiles. “Both of you.”
“No point in arguing,” Leo says, close to my ear. “They never lose.”
He leads me to the barn and pulls open the heavy door with a creak.
I try to adjust to the impenetrable dark. The moon doesn’t reach more than a yard into the space. “What did you do?”
“Hold on.” He aims the flashlight at the wall and finds the light switch. “Ready?”
He turns on the light, which floods the front part of the barn, a space roughly forty feet square. The floor is lined with wood chips, and the boards, wheelbarrows, tires, shovels, and old windows that used to litter the space have been moved to the back of the building. The tunnels and cones we use for training are set up as are several new obstacles—three jumps of different heights, a seesaw, and two raised platforms. It looks like a real agility space.
He returns to my side. “As far as birthday presents go, I realize this is pretty lame, but I had limited time to work with.”
I take several steps into the space. “It’s not lame. At all.” It is the absolute opposite.
“You like it?” Leo rests his hand on the top horizontal bar of one of the jumps. “I figured, with temperatures dropping, it might be nice not to have to train outside anymore. Even though this isn’t heated, it at least offers some protection from the elements.”
Tilly and Cholula are running laps around the obstacles, a physical manifestation of the giddiness bubbling inside me. Leo is vastly underestimating the thoughtfulness of this gift and the veritable earthquake it’s set off inside me.
Enough thinking.
I don’t know how I get to him, whether I run or walk, all I know is that suddenly I’m in his arms with mine wrapped around his neck.
“I need to…” I say, trying to find more words. I run my palms down the front of his jacket and up again as if I’ve only just discovered he’s there. “I more than like it. I…” I look up, willing him to understand what I want. And of course, he does.
His lips crash down on mine, and it’s everything I’ve wanted for a while now. If kissing Leo has been a quiet thrill in my imagination, reality is a thunderous torrent that reverberates deep in my core. His hair and skin are cool from the air, but his lips are warm and supple as they explore mine with a hunger that makes me lose any sense of where I end and he begins. I’m equally ravenous and help myself to plenty of him—fistfuls of cotton, greedy pecks along his jaw, and always, always one more kiss. His hands cradle my neck and my shoulders, skim lower over my breasts, and grip my waist. I pull him down to me, and it’s almost like a tug of war—he gives, then I give, while we both hold on for dear life. Fortunately, this particular contest can be enjoyed whether on the winning or losing side.
I’m dizzy when we pull back, out of breath and unmoored. He looks as wild as I feel.
“I think we need to stop,” he says while exhaling before he kisses me again.
I smile against his lips and then graze them with my teeth. “You are very good at birthdays,” I say between licks and nips. “Did anyone ever tell you that?”
Leo caresses my hair and groans, pulling away again. “No, we really need to stop, now. You’re so…” His eyes roam my face, like he’s drinking me in.
I lean my cheek into his palm. “So?”
“Alive.”
That’s a first as far as compliments go, but the wonder in his voice stifles my laugh. “And you’re not?”
He smiles. “Not like you. But being with you makes me think I could be.”
His words make my throat tighten. Shame on me for pegging him as a one-dimensional snob when we first met. The more he shows me, the more I want to know.
“For the record,” I say, once again nudging my lips near his, “I like you just fine the way you are right now.”
“Yeah?” His arms encircle me, lifting me closer.
“Mm-hmm.” The only thing that would make this full body embrace better is less clothing, but considering where we are, I’m thankful for the obstacle. Lord knows what would happen otherwise.
“Want to get out of here? We could train twice this weekend to make up for lost time if you want.”
Training… Who cares about that?
He can bet his sweet ass I want to get out of here.