“I didn’t know.” Suddenly, all the things she didn’t know about owning a dog weighed down her shoulders. “This is probably a really stupid idea.”
Aidan put his hand on her knee and gently squeezed it. “You’ll be a terrific dog owner. Look at what a good job you’re doing with Jamison. And you don’t have to do it alone. I’m happy to help you train him.”
It would be so easy to lean into Aidan and let him take over her life. “You’re such a good friend,” she said, standing and shifting his hand off her knee.
“Why don’t you leave him here with me now so I can check him over, give him his shots, and I’ll bring him back tonight after work?”
“Perfect,” she said, smiling at him, and wishing his touch could send her pulse racing in the same way Luke’s had.
#
“Explain pheromones to me,” Sophie said to Liz as they sat at Liz’s kitchen table decorating gingerbread men.
Liz’s tube of frosting hovered over a half-dressed cookie and she shot a glance at her three-year-old son. “Is this a conversation Teddy wants to hear?”
“He’s not paying attention to us.”
Teddy sat on the sofa, wrapped up in a quilt with this thumb in his mouth and his eyes locked on the TV screen.
“You think that, but I’ve been fooled too many times. He picks up on stuff. Just last week he told Auntie Susan that her husband was a ten and she was at best a five and that she needed to up her game if she wanted to hold on to him.”
Sophie snorted and even Jamison pounded on his high chair tray as if he thought it was funny.
“Where’d he get that?” Sophie asked.
“Hatty. He was just repeating what she’d said.”
“Catty Hatty,” Sophie said, shaking her head.
Jamison gurgled and waved his spoon at her.
Liz tightened her lips. “My mom was really mad.”
“Was Hatty embarrassed?”
“You know Hatty.”
“So, no.”
“Besides, we didn’t tell Susan where Teddy learned about tens…” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “And I’m not so sure I want him to know about pheromones.”
“He’ll find out on his own soon enough.”
“Anyway, why the interest in chemistry?”
“We all have it, right?” Sophie took a long time to refill her frosting bag, being painstakingly careful not to get any of the goop on her fingers. “But why do some have it more than others?”
Liz slid her glance below her lashes. “You want to know why you get the hots for one guy and not for another?”
“Yeah.”
“Who’s the guy? It’s not Aidan, is it?”
“I really want it to be Aidan…”
“Have you told him that?”
“No. Do you think I should? I’ll see him tonight.”
