By the time I made it to BowWow, I was twenty minutes past the pickup time, and there was only one dusty sedan in the lot.
Hank’s car.
My pulse spiked, and not only from nerves about being late. Every time I saw him, my stomach fluttered like I was a twelve-year-old with his first crush. I couldn’t seem to turn it off.
This was the fourth time I was picking up my dogs from doggy day care. The free trial had gone really well—and Tramp had settled down on those evenings—so I continued to take them in on my busiest workdays, at least. Sammi loved the dog biscuits enough that she gave me a discount rate. It gave me an opportunity to pick her brain about the best biscuits, so it was good market testing too.
I rushed to the front door, but it swung open before I got there. Hank’s wide shoulders filled the door frame. “I was just about to call hospitals and make sure you weren’t gravely injured.”
“I’m so sorry!” I blurted. “There was this bridezilla in the shop, and her tasting was supposed to be over an hour ago, but she refused to like anything until the third time she’d tried it.”
He chuckled. “And I thought the dog mommies were bad.”
“I’m sure they are.” I shoved a couple of take-out boxes at him. “Here. This is for your trouble. Sorry for being late.”
He looked down at the boxes. “More dog biscuits?”
“No. Some of the wedding tasting menu. I figured it shouldn’t go to waste.”
A grin spread over his face. “Well, hot damn. If I’m goingto get food, I’m happy to stay a few minutes late. Come on in. The dogs are in the playroom.”
I followed him inside and through the door to the playroom. It was just my dogs and Bruno at this late hour. They came running toward us as we stepped inside.
I crouched down to greet Tramp and Lady—and Bruno nosed forward for some pets too—but they quickly turned their attention to Hank. He gave them a few pats, then said, “Go play!”
They all trotted off, and Hank nodded toward a pleather couch to one side of the room. “Sit down for a minute?”
“Uh…sure.”
Even though I’d seen Hank in passing as I dropped off and picked up my dogs, we hadn’t talked a lot. He was often busy with a grooming job or handling other customers.
Maybe I’d been avoiding him the tiniest bit. Because I wasn’t quite sure how to interact with him, given our awkward start.
Hank opened up the first box, eyes widening. “Well, this is beautiful.”
I flushed, which was stupid. He was complimenting the food, not me. But Ihadmade that. “Thanks. The bride thought they were too pedestrian.”
Hank popped a bacon-wrapped shrimp into his mouth and groaned. “My godddd.”
I chuckled nervously. “Good?”
“Very good.”
Too good, maybe, because my temperature rose a few degrees as he licked his fingers clean and grabbed a second one, making a sound of utter delight.
The dogs rushed back over, sensing that they were missing out.
“I guess we’ll have to share.”
Hank jerked the box to his chest protectively. “No way. There’s some treats on the shelf. They can have those.”
He curled over the box like Gollum with hisprecious,and I snorted a laugh I was sure was incredibly unattractive. But hey, there was one perk of the friend zone. It didn’t matter how I looked.
“Easy, man. There’s more to life than bacon-wrapped shrimp.”
“Mm-mm,” he denied with a shake of his head, mouth still full, as I got off the couch to grab the bag of dog treats. Tramp took his treat happily—he was a bit of a himbo and easily fooled—but Lady and Bruno both turned their eyes back to Hank.
With a defeated groan, he pulled off a tiny bite of bacon for each of them to scarf up. Tramp chuffed and ran over, his expression betrayed.
