"I'm going to take a wild guess that you aren’t here for your car." His voice was smooth, a slight southern twang flavoring the sound. His striking eyes searched behind me to emphasize my obvious lack of a vehicle, but there was humor there, a hint of laughter remaining in his voice.
"Oh, no. I was taking my dog out for a walk when the storm rolled in." A bright flashing light lit up the entire space followed by a resoundingboomthat shook the garage. The immediate verification of my story made me feel marginally more confident. To further prove my point, I grasped for the leash in a weird flourish only to realizethere was no dog at the end of it. Instead, a lovely pink collar sat empty, dangling there between the two of us.
"Oh my God! Ellie!"
Everything else in the moment disappeared as my brain latched on to one detail. My dog wasnotwhere she was supposed to be. My eyes cut to the open office door and beyond to the open garage doors, and I took off. I didn't even look back at the man before I darted through the garage, and back out into the storm. It was nearly impossible to see more than ten feet around me, and I couldn't hear dick other than the rain. In my mind, the little white building was a beacon of light, and I was doing my damndest to wade through the water back to it. I blame this single-minded determination as the reason Tall Deliciously Bearded scared any wit I had out of me, making me scream when he appeared at my side. Like a fucking magician.
My scream was quickly swallowed up by another flash and immediate crash of thunder. I looked at TDB again, blinking against the water pouring into my face, and... word vomited all over him like an idiot.
"Okay, I’m looking for my dog, whatever your name is." I turned away fromhimand back towards the place I was nearly certain my dog ended up. He may have tried saying something, but I couldn’t hear a thing—I was on a mission. "I'm sorry, my guy. TDB isn't going to cut it anymore, I need your name and your help. Kay? Thanks." I was trudging through the puddles, or small ponds, created by the summer storm while squinting through the sheets of rain for my small dog.She wouldn’t stand out in this weather.My mind was on my search, and my words were not being monitored. "There are too many other descriptions I can fill in to it. Ellie! Come here! Tall, delicious, and brooding," I said, horribly loudly, trying to be heard over the cacophony of the storm, eyes constantly scanning the darkened streets for my tiny, black, likely terrified dog. "Too dang beautiful—Ellie! Come here!" My voice was filled with growing panic as my runaway mouth continued to obliterate any chance I had at playing it cool.
"Totally dangerous baddy," I continued, my steps quickening as thegazebo came into view,fucking finally. I turned off the main sidewalk onto the brick pathway. "See? Too many, and look TDB, you seem cool, but I need to focus on finding my?—"
A hand grabbed mine from behind, and I ripped it away and whipped around so fast I lost my balance on the steps.
"Oh, shit." A deep curse cut through the air, and a hand reached out and hauled me back up before I could become an undignified soggy heap on the wooden floor. I blinked, and I was in the arms of this stranger. "My name is Carter. I'm sorry I scared you!" He was loud, likely trying to be heard over the pounding rain on the roof above us; however, we were out of the rain now, standing together, surrounded by the thick greenery I was admiring just minutes before. Our faces were a mere few inches apart as he continued saying something else I never heard.
I tried to shake out of his hold and shouted back, "I'm not scared," flicking strands of wet hair from my face.
"No, hey, wait a second." He gently squeezed my arm until he had my attention. Silly man already did. "Your dog is in my office. She?—"
"Oh my fucking good gracious and everything good in the world." I chanted, as I yanked myself free, barely noticing the way he was standing there, surrounded by the columns, before I was gone, racing for the garage, blasted again by the rain coming down. Through the deluge, the secondary slaps on the ground following me told me he was close behind.
The door to the garage was left open. Only, the door to the office was, thankfully, closed. If what Carter said was true, Ellie was contained. I skirted past the vehicles to the office door once again and opened it. Another blast of thunder shook the shop as my eyes adjusted to the lit room, and a familiar, quiet whimper led me to a corner where my young pup was curled in tight next to this man's, orCarter's, little beagle.
The click of the door shutting behind me made me jump. In surprise or fear, I wasn't quite sure.
"Look, I don't want to scare you. It’s only, did you really just let a strange man, twice your size, lead you back into his empty buildingand secluded office?" He looked almost—amused, maybe?What the hell.
"Should I be scared?" I asked him, my hand surreptitiously reaching into my pocket for my phone. He was right, dammit. You'd think after the relationship I ended, I'd be more wary of men, but I simply wasn't.
"Yes," he said. However, before I could really freak out, he added, "But not of me. I represent creepy dudes."
I snorted at that becausewhat the hell.“My name is Becky,notRebecca. Just Becky.” I gave a decisive nod of my head. “There, now we aren’t strangers, Carter.”
By this point, my dog had extricated herself from the beagle and had started bounding around the room, earlier terror seemingly gone. Ellie then collided with Carter's leg. She stopped, looked at him, and he squatted down to her level, his pants pulling tight on a fine ass.
Then Ellie, the dog who had never let a man touch her sincehim, didn't even hesitate to start jumping all over Carter—tail wagging and looking for affection. I was slackjawed in disbelief as he accepted her love and gave her pat-pats.
I must have been completely zoned out because when I next took notice of my surroundings, Carter was standing next to me with a grin on his beautiful face, holding his phone out expectantly. I took it without thinking, a zing traveled up my arm from where our hands accidentally touched.
"I need you to add your phone number and name for when I call about our first date. You see, LCC isn't going to cut it anymore," He leaned in with a sly grin, "There are too many other descriptions I can fill in to it."
He got my number and my friendship, but not the date. Not yet. Only a few short months later, though, I gave him all three. And then I gave him everything, and he gave me everything—until this past June, when he just...stopped.
?????
Carter
My life changed on a random rainy afternoon.
We’re normally closed on a Sunday afternoon, except my boss-hole told me that he needed me to catch up on some things in the office. Originally, he was going to be there too, but he never showed up.Typical.
I was sitting at my desk, one hand petting my doggo, Daisy, while the other was sorting through bills, receipts, and the other odds and ends that inevitably pile into my desk by the end of each day. The pattering on the roof was a relaxing backdrop to the mind-numbing work of checking, rechecking, and rechecking again, every number I put into the books. Math and I werenotfriends.
A different soft pattering and unmistakable clicking of dog paws on concrete had me do a doubletake.No, Daisy is still here.The sound of light steps in the garage made me look up in time to see an adorable, tiny black puppy plod through the door to my office. The pink leash and collar told me girl, but I couldn’t read the name tag from my seat. Her owner followed closely behind, andwhoa.
A dripping wet curvy little number found her way into my office and I was AOK with that. She was short, from what I could tell—maybe 5’5” or smaller. I knew that the moment I stood up, my 6’2” frame would dwarf her. Her hair was thick and dark and hanging on the side of her head in a decidedly sad looking bun. Little freckles dotted her pale skin in a constellation I’d love to investigate more closely.Where else does she have freckles?Her eyes were green, or maybe brown, and the blatant interest reflecting in them made me smirk.
