“Pen!” Chloe’s eyes dart behind me to my front door.
“Maybe he’s just embarrassed I made him come in his pants.”
Carl jumps forward, the force whipping me around and nearly off my feet, but a strong hand reaches out to steady me. “Oh… shit,” I mumble.
“Hey, Dominic!” Chloe says, giving an awkward wave. “Welcome back! I’ll just, er, I’m gonna go. I’ll talk to you later,Pen.” She steps back and heads to her car, then hisses over her shoulder, “Call me!”
Taking a deep breath, I turn to face Dom for the first time since our steamy night at the store. He looks the same, obviously he wasn’t gone that long, but something about him is different. We stand in awkward silence, Carl trying desperately to jump up for attention, before Dom asks, “Mind if I come in?”
“Yes, please.” Giving Carl’s leash a solid tug, I step past Dom and open the front door.
Once he’s inside, Dom closes the door and gives me a judgemental look. “You don’t lock your door when you leave?”
Shrugging, I unclip Carl’s leash from his collar. He immediately goes to Dominic’s feet, tail wagging uncontrollably, and slides down to flip on his back— belly straight in the air, no shame. “It’s a safe neighborhood. I’ve never?—”
“Going forward, lock the door. Please.” Dominic’s arms are folded over his chest. He glances around at the messy piles of books stacked throughout the room and adds, “And maybe buy yourself a bookshelf?”
“Yes, sir!” I mock a salute, but my smile falters when I see the ultra-serious look on his face. “I will. Sit down.” I pivot, gesturing to the couch. “Can I get you anything to drink?”
“No,” he grumbles, stepping over Carl to sit down on the center of my couch. It’s only been a few weeks, but I’m caught off guard at the sheer size of him in my home. Broad shoulders, muscular arms, tattoos peeking out from the pushed-up sleeves of his henley. Carl follows him up onto the couch, laying his head on Dom’s lap, tail thumping aggressively against the cushions.
“Okay.” Taking a deep breath, I say, “I’m sorry, Dom.”
His brows knit in confusion. “Why? What for?”
Now I feel confused. “Um, I assume you heard what I said to Chloe?”
Dominic’s cheeks flush but he offers me a small smile. “Not my finest moment,” he acknowledges. “But she’s your best friend. I’d be surprised if you hadn’t told her.”
My heart stutters in my chest. “You’re not pissed that I said something?”
Carl paws at Dom, who reluctantly lowers a hand to pet him. If I wasn’t so unprepared for his nonchalance at my apology, I might be laughing at how obscenely needy my dog is for him. “Did you tell anyone else?”
“No!”
“Then, no. Why would I be pissed?”
Holy bananaballs. It’s like, at every turn, Dominic Miller continues to prove to me he’s not what I expect. “Oh. Okay.”
“Now, you sit,” Dom says, patting the empty space on the couch on his other side. “It’s my turn to talk.”
A flurry of nerves assaults me as I settle into the spot next to Dominic, tucking one leg underneath myself and leaning back against the arm of the couch. He takes a deep breath and I feel reciprocating nerves radiating off him.
“I left suddenly, and I’m sorry I didn’t reach out to explain why,” he begins.
“It’s none of?—”
“Pen, please,” he begs, his eyes pleading. Nodding, I let him continue. “I don’t know what Gloria told you about me moving back here, but I ended a really difficult relationship. Two, actually.” A bitter grin graces his face, tension clearly still simmering from these relationships. “I was fully ready to leave them both behind, but…” Dom sighs, running a hand through his hair. “I was engaged.”
The statement rocks me slightly, but I’m not surprised. Dominic Miller is sexy, funny in a dark, sarcastic kind of way, and he’s just a good guy. In half a second, I compare what I now know of his brief past to mine— and it’s laughable. I don’tdate, I haven’t had boyfriends… my love life pretty much begins and ends with my romance books. Up until this point, I hadn’t considered the women Dominic must have been with during our missing years. And now, finding out he was engaged? My cheeks heat with the reality of the major differences between our experiences.
“She supported me in ways I’ve never had before in my life. I think, in hindsight, I just latched onto that and kept us going, long after we should have ended. We were together for eight years.” I’m unable to control my gasp. Dom gives me a sad smile. “Yeah, crazy, huh? I didn’t even realize we were falling apart. My best friend and I were working on funding to start a cocktail bar in our town. The concept was solid. He ran the numbers, I crafted the cocktails. And then I was blindsided when I found him fucking my fiancé on the bar of the place, weeks before we were supposed to launch.”
“What the hell?! Geez, Dom, I’m so?—”
“Don’t you dare say you feel sorry for me.” He glares, his broody side flashing through. “It’s just a shitty situation. One I technically ran away from. I had to go back and sign some legal docs, essentially giving my ex-best friend total ownership over the bar.”
“Completely?” Dominic nods, wincing. His pain causes my heart to physically hurt. We sit quietly for a moment, the only sound being Carl’s tail thumping consistently against the cushions. Dom stares at his hands and I stare at him.
