I inspect her from head to toe, lingering my gaze on her hips for a moment before I say my next words.
“You look fine to me.”
“It must have been something I ate. I feel a lot better today.”
“And who is this with you?”
The prettiest Rottweiler has taken a seat and is sitting patiently by Katrina as she watches me closely. It’s almost as if she can sense the tension between me and her human and she’s ready to chomp my head off if I make a wrong move.
“This is Butters.”
“Do you two come here often? Do you live around here?”
“I can’t afford to live around here,” she scoffs. “I try to take her for a long walk on days that I don’t have morning appointments so that she isn’t too destructive during the day. Sometimes I’m out for a long time and she has a thing for chewing shoes.”
“She can hold her pee that long, huh?”
“She could if she needed to, but I don’t like to do that to her. My neighbor Max will take her out if I think I’m going to be too long, or sometimes I can pop by and let her out, then go back to work.”
I feel my eye twitch at the mention of a man’s name.
“Who’s Max?”
“I just told you. He’s my neighbor.”
“Right.” I feel like an idiot and can hear Cap’s voice in my head.
Be nice.
Why am I grilling this woman about her life as if she owes me an explanation? I barely know her. I quickly refocus the subject back to her dog so I can stop sounding so intrusive.
“Miss Butters is a gorgeous girl, but I have to say, I didn’t peg you as a dog person.” I bend down and scratch behind Butters’s left ear, hoping this will win her over. “Especially a big dog person.”
Katrina chuckles, a soft sound that I’m hearing for the first time, and now I’ll never forget it.
“My sister is the one with little dogs. I like them big.”
“Is that right?” I smirk, wondering if she likes her men big too. “I’m figuring your sister was the woman in the photograph in your office. You two definitely look alike. Is she your nephew’s mother?”
“Um, yes, that’s her.”
Butters places a paw on my thigh, clearly requiring some more affection from me, so I continue to pet behind her ears.
“Hmm, she really likes you,” she says, as if it’s baffling.
“What can I say? Ladies love me,” I grin. “Have you had her long?”
“She’s five.”
“And you’ve had her since she was a puppy?”
“You sure ask a lot of questions.”
“Well, we’re outside of a normal session, aren’t we? We’re just two acquaintances who ran into each other at a park, getting to know each other a little better. This is perfectly normal. What isn’t normal is a woman having a dog taller than she is,” I jest as Butters stands on her hind legs to jump on me.
“Butters, sit,” Katrina orders in a firm voice.
The adorable Rottweiler emits a low whine but obediently sits back down on her hind legs with her eyes focused back on me. Katrina strokes the top of her head as a reward for being obedient. And I don’t think I’ve ever been so jealous of a damn dog.
