“Some women like weighted vests,” she told him.“I prefer to stock up on wet food, because in moments like this, it’s a lifesaver.”
She set the food down in the little space between them, and all three puppies wriggled their way out of their towels and hurled themselves at the open cans.Matilda found herself grinning down at them, because really, what was better than puppies?Especially happy little puppies like this, who were wriggly and soft and adorable?
Long ago, she’d learned not to ask herself what might have become of them if she hadn’t seen one of their little faces in the flash of her headlights.It made her too sad.
When she looked up, there was the strangest expression on Tennessee’s stern face.She had never seen it before and yet something about it seemed to wind through her like a ribbon, a little too bright and strange.
“Look at them,” she said, as the puppies feasted.She ignored how rough her voice sounded, suddenly.“It’s amazing how little they need to be happy.How little we all need, really.”
She wasn’t sure why she’d said that last part.Rather than sit in it, she stood up and smiled down at him.“Is that your kitchen through there?”
“You can see that it is.”
That was an unhelpful and impolite response, in her opinion, but she only smiled wider.“I’m going to get them some water.”
She marched through his neat and comfortable living room and into the warm, inviting kitchen at the back.Tennessee had moved into this house after high school and the rumor mill had it that he’d renovated the place because he’d expected his high school girlfriend to marry him and live there with him.But that hadn’t worked out, for reasons Matilda knew better than to ask about directly, and so she always felt she hadn’t gotten the full story.
Knowing Tennessee, it was possible no one had.
But what that information meant tonight was that she knew that Tennessee was responsible for pushing out the back wall, and building a cozier space in the kitchen that looked out over a bit of decking that she was fairly certain offered a view over the seasonal creek that ran through here.And then married up to the river a little further on when it wasn’t frozen.
Matilda opened his cabinets, which shouldn’t have felt scandalous, but it did.She found a shallow bowl and filled it with water, and while she was at it, swiped the towel that hung neatly on his wide, gleaming, chef-like range.
A big upgrade from the diner, she thought.And wondered how that tidbit had never made it into the gossip mill.
Still, so far, everything in this house was exactly as ruthlessly uncluttered and clean as she would have expected Tennessee’s space to be.That expectation was based on her observations of him, the state of the General Store on any given day, and how orderly he kept and maintained the diner over the years.
There was no particular reason that she should feel all that like butterflies in her belly, but she did.
Back in the living room, she went over to put the dish on the ground, and found herself laughing again as the puppies tripped over their own feet and stepped on their ears to get to the water.She squatted down and spread the towel out on the floor, and then smiled blandly at Tennessee when he scowled at her.
“They’re going to have to go to the bathroom, Tennessee,” she told him.Calmly.“I didn’t think you wanted them to do that on your floor.”
“I don’t want them to go on my towel, either.”When she continued to do nothing but smile at him, he rubbed a hand over his face.“Matilda.For the love of God.You can’t just come into someone’s house like a wrecking ball—”
“Puppies are a gift, not a wrecking ball.”She shook her head at him, as if he’d disappointed her.When really, she was going to be thinking about those sweatpants and the acres of unshaven jaw for a lifetime or two.She had to force herself to stand up again.“If you can just keep them overnight, I’ll pick them up in the morning and take them down to the vet in Marietta.”
“You’re not leaving three puppies here.”
“You used to have a dog,” she reminded him, and only after she said that did it cross her mind that it was a potentially stalkery, psychotic piece of information to have right there at her fingertips.“When you were in high school.He went everywhere with you.”
But maybe he just gave her the small town out on that one, because he didn’t seem to react to the fact she… just knew his family pet situation.
“I haven’t been in high school for some time now,” Tennessee said instead, each syllabledeliberatein a way that indicated that he was past exasperated and working toward pissed off.
Definitely time for her to leave.
Matilda moved over to swipe her coat off the floor and shrugged it on.“Here’s the situation.If I bring them home with me I have a lot of other animals around, and I don’t want to risk giving them parasites, worms, and any number of infections or diseases they might be carrying.It’s not that I can’t create a quarantine, but it would be so helpful if you could just watch them overnight.That’s all.”
“You do know that I open the diner at five every morning, right?A few short hours from now?But you want me to stay up with these puppies instead?”
“It’s one night,” Matilda said, with a smile he did not appear to appreciate.“And besides, I’ll pick them up before work, which is at nine.So you won’t have them that long.But I promise you, if they make a mess of your tidy little house, I’ll clean it up myself.Deal?”
One of the puppies crawled into his lap.Another was gnawing on the cuff of his sweatpants.The third was chewing her own tail, curled up against the side of his leg.
She would have taken a picture if she didn’t think he’d explode if she tried.
He stared at her.“I keep thinking that this is a nightmare that I’ll wake up from at any moment.”
