He looked over and smiled. “You’re surprised he loves you?”
“Uh, yeah.”
Cash stopped scrubbing Moose for a long second as he drank me in with his eyes. “I’m not.”
I was a lightning rod, and his words were the bolt that lit me up. Something hot and delicious erupted in my gut and overflowed into every part of my being.
His words may have sounded mundane to anyone else, but to my ears they hid a tantalizing secret. It was thewayhe’d said them that had held so much promise. The flicker of desire in his eyes, the seductive tilt of his lips, and the way his breaths came slow and deep, as if he were consciously holding himself back from something. Those were the keys to unlocking the coded message hidden in what he’d just said.
He wasn’t surprised Angel loved me. Why? Could it be becauseCashloved me?
No! That was crazy talk. We were much too early in our relationship to even consider love… weren’t we? Sure, we’d known each other for two years, but that was just casual, get-to-know-you stuff. It wasn’t anything romantic.
How long did it take to fall in love, anyway? Unable to tear my eyes away from Cash, I poured more soap onto Angel’s head and back as I contemplated the question.
Cash’s sudden half-smile sent a wave of goosebumps up and down my arms. “What are you thinking?” he asked.
“Me?” I could not tell him the thoughts flying through my head.I’m thinking you just told me you loved me without telling me you loved me. And now I’m kind of thinking that I might feel the same way about you. Why? What are you thinking?Yeah, those words would not be leaving my lips today—or ever. “I’m not thinking much at all.”
“I can tell,” he laughed, pointing at Angel.
I sucked in a sharp breath when I saw that I’d emptied the rest of the bottle of shampoo onto the tiny dog. It might have been watered down, but it was still enough soap to wash at least three Mooses, and I’d just dumped all of it onto a dog that could easily fit in my purse.
“Oh man! What do I do now?” I said, using my hand to try to squeegee off the excess soap.
“You’re going to have to go hose him off.” He jerked his head toward the rinsing station at the back of the shelter.
A few hoses with shower-like nozzles trailed out the door where they lay on the ground waiting to be used.
“I think Angel is about as clean as he’ll ever be in his life, right about now,” Cash said.
I looked over my shoulder, wishing the hoses were long enough to reach my washing station. “How do I get him all the way over there?”
Cash stopped for a moment and pretended to think. “You could try walking him.”
“Yeah, but he’s in the tub.”
Cash just nodded. I huffed when I realized he wasn’t about to lift a finger to help me. I took away a few of the points he’d earned when he introduced me as his girlfriend earlier. “So, that’s it? You’re not going to help me out over here?”
“Nope.” He smiled and watched me with that annoying twinkle in his eyes that told me he was enjoying my predicament a little too much. “I put him in. You can get him out.”
Sure. I could get him out. No problem. I just had to grab a slippery, squirmy, tooth factory and pick him up. I reached down and he spun away from my hands. “I don’t think he wants me to.”
“Don’t ask him what he wants to do. Tell him what you need him to do.”
“Great advice,” I said, struggling to gather enough courage to get a firm grip on the dog’s mid-section. “If only he spoke English.”
Finally, by some miraculous combination of Angel’s impressive athletic abilities and my bumbling dog handling skills, he managed to leap out of the tub. The moment his feet hit the ground, he shook himself, flinging soap, suds, and water in every direction. I grabbed the end of the leash, grateful that I’d never taken it off him, and led him to the hoses.
I couldn’t help but notice that Cash shifted his position so he could keep an eye on me. While that might sound romantic on the surface, I was pretty sure his interest was only in watching thefun—aka the unfolding disaster that was washday.
I picked up one of the hoses and was pleasantly surprised at the water temperature. Not too hot and not too cold. Angel might have been a little pain in my rear, but I didn’t want to shock him with the water.
I pulled the trigger and water blasted out of the nozzle. Despite the tepid temperature, being sprayed with a hose was definitely not one of his bucket-list items, and Angel wasn’t about to stand for being hosed down like a common animal.
He squirmed and tugged. I sprayed and prayed.
I learned a valuable lesson that day. Pressurized water plus inordinate amounts of liquid soap equals suds for days. The more I rinsed, the more suds appeared. One minute Angel sported a Santa bubble beard, the next he was nearly lost in a miniature mountain of suds. If it wasn’t for his incessant barking and yanking on the leash, he might have been lost forever.
