Page 11 of Always My Love

ChapterFour

It took Blue two weeks and hours and hours of training to stop peeing in the house. By then, Nick had rolled up all of his area rugs and replaced them with pee pads.

About the only other thing the little dog had learned so far was to sit. He wondered if Harper was having better luck with Yellow.

He hadn’t seen her since the day they’d picked up the dogs, and he was dying to see her again. Even though they hadn’t really talked about anything personal, he felt as if she’d finally started to relax around him.

It was probably the fact that he hadn’t been in uniform that day.

He decided to swing by the Golden Oar and grab a burger to go for lunch before heading home to let the dog out.

He parked next to her car in the parking lot and was a little surprised to see her heading out the back doors towards him when he got out of his patrol car.

“Hey,” he said, getting her attention.

One minute she was relaxed and the next her entire body was on guard and tense. Her eyes went wide for a split second before locking with his own. Only then did she relax a little.

At least it was an improvement.

“Hey.” She smiled at him. “Heading in for lunch?” She pulled her keys out of her purse.

“Yeah, I was going to grab a burger to go and head home to let Blue out. You? Heading home to let Yellow out?”

“Lucy,” she said with a smile. “I named her Lucy.”

He nodded. “I like it. Who’s she named for?”

“I Love Lucy,” she answered. “How’s Blue doing?”

He shrugged and rested his hand on his belt, a move he made often. Usually when he did that, her eyes traveled down towards his gun. This time, though, her eyes remained locked on his face. Another improvement.

“He’s stubborn. At least he’s somewhat potty trained. Lucy?”

“Fully potty trained. She learns a new trick every day. Yesterday I taught her how to whisper.”

“You…” He blinked and then frowned. “Seriously?”

She laughed. “Yes, what about Blue. I’m sure he’s picked up a few tricks by now.”

“He can sort of sit,” he said with a frown. “Okay, one out of four times he’ll sit.”

Harper tilted her head. “You know what they say, girls are smarter than boys,” she teased.

It was the first time she’d really shown him any of her real personality, and it was a total turn-on. Seeing a glimpse of the real Harper was like seeing sunlight for the first time in your life.

“Your smile is truly amazing,” he heard himself saying out loud.

Suddenly, her smile was gone, as if his words had caused the spark to be blown out in one single moment.

“I… have to go,” she said, looking around. Then, without responding any further, she turned quickly and unlocked her car.

“Hey.” He touched her arm lightly, and she jerked away from him. “I’m sorry, I…” he started.

“No, it’s okay, I just… have to go.” She shook her head as if frustrated and, before he could think of anything else to say, she climbed into her car and drove off.

Feeling bad, he took a moment to regroup before heading inside to order his food.

He knew something had happened in the sisters’ past. That much was obvious to everyone in town. But what? He itched to try and find out. The logical part of his mind knew that was crossing a line. The emotional side, however, wanted to kick someone’s ass for scaring them so much that they jumped at shadows. And at police officers.