“Then I wish I had my phone on me to capture your face for all eternity.” She threaded her fingers through the fur of the dog across her lap. I hadn’t realized I was beaming, too.
I pulled mine from my pocket and waved it in the air. “Let’s do it.”
She scooted closer to me, shoulders pressed, faces close, dogs squished around us. I stretched my arm as far as it would go. I snapped the shot with as many goldens as I could cram into the frame. She gave me her number, and I sent it to her.
“There. Proof I can smile with the best of them.” I tucked my phone away before I could second-guess what it meant to want this moment memorialized, positive with one look I’d regret walking out of here soon.
The door opened and parents arrived one by one, calling names and clipping leashes. Dogs left until there were only tumbleweeds of fur skating across the floor. All the while I could see how much the clients loved Penny as she checked them out and handled payments. What was not to like?
She locked the door after the last group to leave. “Alone at last.” She handed me a lint roller with a laugh. “You’re going to need this more than I do.”
I understood why she wore a staff T-shirt and leggings in pale pastel colors now. My navy blue was not fur-friendly. Mysteriously, despite the coveralls, the fur got everywhere, like sand at a beach getting into every crack.
Side by side we worked, brushing at sleeves and pant legs. Our shoulders almost touched. A tiny spark of her perfume teased under the scent of fur.
She chuckled. “Here, let me help you get this one spot on your back,” she offered. I turned and twisted, not seeing it, but she did. She rolled low down my back and my ass. I licked my lips, wondering if that was on purpose.
Fuck me, getting all turned on from the pass of a roller…
I swiveled on my heel. We stood close. Her breath caught. The urge to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear became an intense distraction. Another inch and I’d know the taste of her lips. My tongue would tangle with hers, staking a claim and taking possession of her.
Then the warnings of Rex and Richard swam in my head again. The figure $105,274 flashed through my mind in bold red print, the total I had paid out for Brianne’s grad school, but even that didn’t come close to what she cost my heart.
What if I was too broken from the past to love again?
I stepped away and pressed my phone to my ear, faking a call. It was the coward’s way out of the situation with Penny before it’d even begun.
“Yeah. Uh-huh. I’ll call you back.” I pocketed it with a forced smile, while she spritzed her chest with an overwhelming floral scent from a spray bottle of fabric freshener. “Sorry, Penny. I have to run. Thanks for the playtime, though. It was fun.”
“It was. Wish we had more time to talk, but I understand you’re a busy man. Oh, what was this?” She held up the folder I’d brought.
“Right. That. Uh, I wrote you a letter of recommendation.” I scratched the back of my neck, likely more fur there I missed. “You shouldn’t sell yourself short, Penny. You have the education, so go after what you want, even if you have to start at the bottom somewhere.”
“A letter?” She blinked and read, eyes skimming down it, mouth agape.
“You’re smart and willing to work. Those are the people I hire. I’m sure other potential employers will see that too. Even when you smell like a floral-bouquet-grenade exploded on your chest.”
She chuckled. “Archer, you don’t have to do this for me.”
“But I want to. Put me down as a reference. I know most of the firms and people in this business around the city. If you get a job offer, text and run it by me. I’ll give you some inside intel on them.”
“You’re serious?”
“I’m always serious about good people who deserve a chance.”
“Thank you.” She held the folder close to her chest, her fluttering lashes as flirty as her pretty full lips. “You might be the nicest man in New York.”
I cringed. “Please don’t spread that rumor.” I wanted to argue that I really wasn’t, wanted to explain that this was a way for me to say goodbye and to let her go, but the curve of her mouth, dog-kissed or not, had my full attention.
“Sometimes what people need most are options, Penny. Believe me, my letter will open doors for you.”
There. White-knight chivalry done. I can rest easy now and put Penny behind me.
“Options. Right.”
“So, um, I’ll see you around, okay?”
“Sure. Thank you again, Archer.”
