I felt a ridiculous thrill at being called “favorite” even though he was talking about his dog’s opinion of me. If I was going to twist everything he said I was in for a long night.
“Yup, just keep him on leash until we figure out how this is going to go.”
“Oh, trust me, I know how you feel about leashes,” he said as he walked out of the kitchen.
I looked around the house for an appropriate spot for the introduction since it was too cold and dark to try it outside. The brick-walled space was mostly open, but there were enough places for Dude to hide if Edith went into piranha mode. I had a feeling that he was going to act like Birdie: kowtowing to the bossy baby. I leashed her up as well.
The sound of too-long nails on hard wood echoed down the hallway.
“This is gonna be good,” Nolan said under his breath. “Dude is a maniac.”
I felt a little injured by the comment, considering he was in training with me, but then again, if Andrew wasn’t practicing with him then I couldn’t be blamed.
Dude spotted me and went into a full-body wag, but Edith let out a bark and his attention shifted as if he could hear it too. It took a few seconds of leash juggling, sniffing, and circling before I felt confident that they were okay to be off leash together.They were both interested in each other, and Dude seemed appropriate with Edith. The puppy, however, was anything but.
Edith launched herself at Dude’s face with her mouth wide-open. She seemed to pause, then twisted in midair when he let out a low growl and raised his lip.
“Is that okay?” Andrew asked, sounding like a nervous parent at the playground.
“It’s perfect,” I reassured him. “This is exactly what she needs. She’s kind of a jerk and my dog Birdie is too sweet to tell her off.”
Edith kept up with the same ridiculousness that she always pulled with her sister, nipping at Dude’s ears and bumping against him with her nose repeatedly. I crossed my fingers that Dude wasn’t going to take it.
It only took a few more nose punches and nips before Dude had clearly had enough. He let out a string of fierce barks and leapt at Edith, startling her so badly that she fell over backward. She stood up slowly, seemingly dazed by the first real correction she’d ever gotten. Dude shook off, then walked away with his tail wagging.
“That wasamazing,” I said even though I knew he couldn’t hear me, leaning down to pet him. “Thank you for teaching her a lesson, sir.”
Now that the dogs had sorted themselves out we grabbed beers and headed for the couches in the open family room. Edith stuck close to me and pretended she couldn’t see Dude.
“So what’s it like being neighbors?” Nolan asked as he settled in.
Andrew and I glanced at each other. Such a loaded question.
“Once she laid out all the ordinances, several times, we were fine. Parking, garbage, and mandatory leashes were the biggies,” he said. “It was dicey at first. We all know Higs and her rules.”
I felt a flicker of anxiety as Nolan and Sam laughed with him. This was how it used to go, back in the day. Andrew would start off with a little joke about me, some “good-natured” teasing, and the next thing I knew my neck felt tense and I was searching for light insults to lob back in his face. But everything was different now. Make-out-session-in-the-goat-barn different.
At least I hoped so.
“Yeah, but we also know how you don’t aways listen, so I don’t blame her for repeating the rules,” Sam said, making me want to high-five her.
Andrew was directly across from me on a leather lounger and it felt like we were both trying to avoid looking at each other, as if Nolan and Sam would be able to figure out that something had happened and would then subject us to relationship Q&A for the rest of the night. Everything felt weird, like the lights in the room were too bright and the thermostat was set a little too high. But it wasn’t like I’d expected a totally casual hang, considering how many things were evolving, both with Andrewandwith Sam.
“Are you going to decorate this place for Christmas?” Nolan asked, gesturing around the room with his beer. “It’s looking pretty sad.”
“I’m going to, yeah. Get a tree, throw up a wreath on the door. I actually won a tree—” Andrew stopped abruptly and glanced at me, probably thinking about the corn maze incident. “I, uh, won a Christmas tree at a fall festival. I need to go back to the farm and cut one down.”
I sneaked a look at Sam, hoping that she wasn’t picking up on any weird vibes, but she’d pulled out her phone and was texting with a frown on her face.
“Your mom says Mia got out of her bath and won’t put her pajamas on. She’s running around naked.”
“Takes after her daddy,” Andrew laughed and pointed his beer bottle at Nolan. “You used to get drunk and sleep naked.” He shuddered at the memory.
“Let’s not get started on the topic of nakedness, okay? Because I could tell the story...”
“Oh God, not the ass-in-the-air story.” Andrew rolled his eyes. “How many times have we heard this one?”
“I’ve actually never heard it,” I said, perking up. Nolan was a great storyteller and I wanted to laugh at Andrew as a payback for his rules comments. “Tell me.”
