It can’t be.
My head whips between the kitchen where Joanne and Ellis are chatting and back in the direction of my new neighbor’s house, wondering if my eyes are playing tricks on me.
She hustles back down the driveway and dips inside of her car, cranking the engine and barely waiting for it to start before backingout onto the street. I try to catch another glimpse of her face through her window, but she speeds out of her driveway before I can, taking off like someone’s chasing her.
I rub my eyes because I have to be seeing things. There’s no way that the woman I’ve been thinking about all week is now my new neighbor.
Right?
***
I’m in my bathroom, getting ready to put gel in my hair, the glob resting in my palm, when a scratch from outside makes me freeze.
“What the fuck was that?”
It happens again, this time followed by a whine.
Like lightning, I race out of my room, down the hallway, and out to the backyard deck, searching the yard for the source of the noise.
And then I see it.
A German Shepherd puppy is digging up one of the rose bushes on the side of my house.
“Hey, you little shit!” As soon as the dog hears me, its head pops up, tongue lolling and a nose covered in dirt. “Get out of here!”
It doesn’t budge. Our eyes stay locked, each waiting for the other to make the first move.
I’m supposed to leave for Ellis’s career day in five minutes. Joanne took her to school this morning so I could take care of a few things around the house before heading for the school. I don’t have time for this shit. If I’m late because of this dog, and my daughter thinks I’m not going to show up for her, I’ll never hear the end of it.
“Come here, puppy,” I say sweetly, slowly walking toward the dog. Once I’m within five feet of it, it takes off.
“Oh no you don’t!” I run after it, darting around the patio table as the dog weaves between the chairs. I chase it through the flower beds, kicking up more dirt in the process. And once I think I have it cornered beneath Ellis’s playset, it fakes me out and slips through my hands as it darts right between my legs. The dog races to the waist-high fence before sliding through the hole it must have dug to get here, straight into my new neighbor’s backyard.
The same neighbor who might be the woman I wanted to kiss last week, but I don’t trust my eyes when I’m this fucking exhausted.
Apparently, Joanne was right about the dog. It’s definitely a menace.
I grab a few bricks from a pile in the corner of the yard that I’ve been saving for a project and toss them in the hole, hoping they’ll prevent the dog from returning to my yard for now, and then run into the house. I grab my keys and scrub my hands clean of hair gel, dirt, and dog fur. Then I rush to my truck, hoping I don’t make a scene when I inevitably show up to my daughter’s school later than planned.
***
I jog through the doors of the cafeteria, barely catching my breath before I hear Ellis’s voice.
“Daddy!” She wiggles out of Fletcher’s arms and runs across the room to me.
My entire friend group is already here for my daughter’s first career day, and I’m the one who’s late.
Stupid fucking dog.
Fletcher and Henley are mid-conversation with Laney and Elodie, and Elliot and Dilynne are standing off to the side, not arguing foronce. But Ellis has her hands on my face, forcing me to lock eyes on her. “You made it, Daddy! I thought you weren’t coming.”
“I told you I would be here, sweetie. I just had a little trouble getting out of the house.”
“How come? Did you lock yourself inside?”
Sweet girl. I momentarily debate educating her on how that’s not possible, but I quickly decide this is not the time. “No, Ellis. There was a dog in our yard.”
Her eyes light up. “A dog? Can we keep it?”
