“Oh, she already said I could if you agreed to it,” Karen answered quickly. “Just pretend like I’m not here.”
And for the next hour that proved to be impossible. My agenda for the session was packed and included starting the critical “watch me” cue, fine-tuning Dude’s “sit,” teaching “down,” introducing recall training, and helpingbothends of the leash learn that wearing one was a good thing. Instead we barely got through “sit” and “watch me” thanks to Karen’s incessant questions and commentary. By the end of class I was ready to murder her.
But a tiny part of me appreciated the fact that she absorbed any of the potential awkwardness between me and Andrew. With Karen why-ing the entire time I couldn’t obsess about how incredible he looked even though he was just in his usual blacksweats/pants hybrid and a slim-fit gray Crush hoodie. I was too busy dealing with her to wonder if he meant to brush my hand that way when he gave me Dude’s leash. I was forced to pretend Andrew was any old client even though it felt like we kept exchanging secret glances while Karen chattered on.
“That was wonderful!” Karen sang as she finally collected her things. After hanging out in Frolic for two hours Bella only had eyes for the door. “I picked up quite a few tips.”
“It was nice to meet you,” Andrew said with a friendly wave. If he was frustrated he sure wasn’t showing it.
I managed a nod in her direction as she and Bella headed out and let out a long exhale when the door finally closed behind her.
“Well, that was the worst,” Andrew laughed. “Not the lesson,her.”
“She eats up more time and attention than anyone else.”
He smirked. “It’s always like that. One person who sucks the life out of you. I have a few clients I’d like to fire, but every time I even hint at it they book another package of twelve sessions.”
I pointed at Dude, who was circling around Andrew looking worried. “He needs to go out for a potty break.” As much as I wanted to finally talk to Andrew one-on-one I wasn’t about to make Dude suffer.
“Yeah, and I have a client coming in thirty minutes and I need to run him home.” Dude pulled toward the door and Andrew followed behind him.
“Hey, be careful. The pulling.” I grimaced and pointed at Dude. “If that strategy works for him he’ll keep doing it.”
“Right, right,” he said, reorienting himself so Dude wasn’t sled-dogging. “You’re teaching me as much as him.”
I watched them walk politely toward the door and felt myheart sink despite the progress I was witnessing. We weren’t going to talk about it after all. The kiss and all that it meant, or could mean. But I wasn’t about to bring it up. I’d been burned once before thanks to the text never answered.
Andrew was nearly out the door when he stopped. “Did you hear that Sam and Nolan are back?”
My heart warmed at the thought of my friends so near. “I did. Can’t wait to catch up with them.”
“I’m having them over to my place Thursday night for pizza. You want to come too?”
It was perfect. The four of us together again, ignoring whatever weirdness remained. We all hadn’t been in the same room since their wedding. Hope surged through me at the thought of smoothing over our rough edges.
“Yeah, that would be really great.”
“Perfect, I’ll throw you on the group text.” Dude scratched at the door and Andrew got the hint. “Bring Edith too,” he yelled as the door shut behind him.
chapter twenty-six
As I placed the vintage pink bulb on the Christmas tree I realized that I’d never been happier for catastrophic flood damage.
While Taylor and Ryan had been able to deal with their massive kitchen renovation during the summer, there was no way she was going to suffer through it during the holidays, especially with her pregnancy further along. My mom had opened her home to them until the renovation was completed, which meant that she would be totally focused on fussing over them as Christmas got closer. Imagining the three-point-five of them together was a weight off my mind. My mom would be too busy caring for them to overthink everything, which in my opinion was the best way of coping with those heart-fracturing memories that popped up as the holidays got closer.
“Mom likes to put that one toward the top of the tree because it’s so old. It’s safer up there,” Taylor said, pointing to the bulb that I’d just hung in the perfect spot.
“Yes, ma’am,” I muttered and moved it higher.
“Thank you, honey,” my mom said, beaming at me.
Ryan and Taylor had brought home a tree for Mom and invited me to help decorate it, so we were gathered together in our great room with a fire crackling in the fireplace and hot chocolate at the ready. Despite the stupid old jokes about in-laws not getting along, it was obvious that my mom and Ryan adored each other. We all loved him, it was hard not to. Taylor had picked a good one. He had shaggy brown hair, a quiet, dry wit, and a devotion to my sister that verged on sickening. But I could see him treating my mom with the same care, as well as assuming bottle- and jar-opening responsibilities and other assorted dude chores.
The tree was already filling the room with that familiar piney scent, bringing back memories of so many happy moments. The rest of the room had been decked out for weeks, with holiday rugs on the floor and garlands strung up on the wood ceiling beams. Everything felt familiar and comfortable despite the vacant recliner yawning in the corner.
“Tay told me about your building being for sale,” Ryan said as he hung up a Santa ornament. “Any movement on it?”
“I’ve seen people checking it out, but with the holidays coming it’s tapered off,” I said, reaching into the plastic tub for the next ornament.
