He chuckled. “No, they’re not. Look.” He pointed to the middle of the dog park. “See, they’ve got a friend.”
I narrowed my eyes to see through the glare of the bright afternoon sun. “Yeah, one that Andy is humping.”
Another chuckle. “Well, that sounds friendly to me.”
I cast him a sidelong glance. “I’m going to pray you weren’t flirting by using your dog’s sex addiction.”
“What? It’s natural. A beautiful thing.”
I shook my head but didn’t look away. Noah was back in his casual clothes, man bun letting loose tendrils escape. As handsome as he’d been on the Fourth of July, I preferred him this way. Though he’d texted a couple more times since asking for the date, we’d not spoken. Things weren’t tense so far, but neither of us seemed overly sure what to do. I was a little thrown when he showed up at my door with Ron and Andy, but it was a stroke of genius. At least at the dog park, things seemed easy and low pressure.
“Your mom’s event really helped the shelter out. It’s made things possible that would have taken a decade to raise enough fundsto do.” He smiled, but it seemed like he was testing the waters a bit, like he knew family talk might not be where I needed to go.
Smart man.
“I’m glad. I’ve got to be honest, though, Noah. Don’t expect more. She might do something else at Christmas. Maybe. But I doubt it. She typically finds a new cause every season, but once in a while, something will stick around for a bit. I doubt homeless dogs have that type of staying power for her. Especially once she meets Harper. She’ll probably ask you for the money back. If you’d been smart, you would have found a purebred spaniel or something. Maybe one of those dogs the Queen has.”
“Corgis?”
“Sure. Yeah. Something fancy.”
“Nah. You and Harper are a fit. You’re not the fancy-dog type.”
I took a second to study him, once again trying to figure out if there was more behind his words. There couldn’t be. We’d not seen each other in decades. How would he know?
He didn’t give me a chance to ask, which was probably a good thing. “I’m grateful your mom picked us at all. No expectations. And that you decided to come in that day to get Harper. I’d been pray—I had been hoping I’d run into you somewhere. Never thought of it being where I work, though.”
“You were?”
He looked at me like I’d not been paying attention. “Yeah. I’m only going to say this one more time so I don’t chase you off, but I’ve always known you were the one.”
Having that statement bookend Stewart’s crazy definitely made me nervous. It also made me want to tear his clothes off. Of course, I’d wanted that before his freaky declaration of fate.
“I’ve looked for you, several times.” The admission was out before I could stop it.
“Oh?” His smile was beautiful. Full of tender hope.
“Yeah. Online. On Connexion. And then Facebook. Never found you. I even checked for your parents.”
“Wasn’t Connexion a gay site?”
“Yeah, back in the day.”
“You looked for my folks on a gay site?”
I rolled my eyes. “No. Not there. On Facebook.”
“I know, I was just—” Harper bounded up, jumping onto Noah’s legs. Before he could bend down to pet her, she let out a little flinch and rushed over to me, repeating the action.
“Confused your daddy, huh?” I scooped her up. “You really are a little bit special.” Holding her close to my face, I scratched her head and back with my free hand as she snorted and licked my cheek. Never in a million years would I have envisioned letting something with teeth and eyes like hers lick my face. Nor that I could love a little animal as much as I did her. After another minute of bonding, I sat her back on the ground and gave her rump a soft tap. “Now go play again. You’re safe.”
When I looked back over, Noah’s expression had gone all soft, and I would almost swear his eyes were teary.
“What?”
He shook his head. “Nothing, really. You can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat animals. You’re a good man, Randall.”
Stewart’s accusations echoed, and I couldn’t say anything.
