“Yeah.” Autumn took a lick of her vanilla ice cream. “He’s finding it tough getting through the night without sleep though. He has such a physical job. He needs rest.”
“You should definitely let me babysit this week. You two deserve a break.”
Autumn nodded. “I’ll think about it.” She looked over at the beach. “Hey, look, there’s Riley. Ally’s stepdaughter.” She lifted a hand to greet her.
It was funny, but they could hardly walk a yard without Autumn seeing somebody she knew. Lydia knew a lot of people in a lot of cities, but her sister knew everybody in Angel Sands. It was a different kind of life.
And it made Autumn happy. There was something to be said for that.
Jackson woke in the middle of the night to find something hard and heavy on the mattress next to him. It took a moment, and a few blinks, to figure out that Eddie had managed to push open the bedroom door, and jumped up beside him at some point in the night. He was lying diagonally, his paws resting on Jackson’s chest, snoring happily as Jackson winced at the smell of his dog breath.
He thought about waking him up and sending him back to his bed in the kitchen, but he didn’t have the heart to move him. Eddie was clearly enjoying whatever dream he was having. His tail was twitching, and his tongue lolling over his teeth, as long heavy breaths escaped from his mouth.
Gently removing the paws from his chest, Jackson turned over to check his phone. Three a.m. Great. It was supposed to be his first full night of sleep for a week, and now he was wide awake. He unlocked the screen on his phone and scrolled down, his eye catching on Lydia’s message
Thank you again for all your help at the mall today. I was wondering if I could repay the favor by taking care of Eddie tomorrow? – Lydia.
His first instinct had been to refuse her help. He didn’t need any complications, and as much as she entertained him, she was one big complication with a capital ‘C’, wrapped up in a pretty package.
Jackson blew out a mouthful of air, looking over his shoulder at Eddie. His mouth was moving now, like he was eating something he couldn’t get enough of. How easy it must be to be a dog. Nothing to worry about except eating and walking. But then he remembered how he’d been lost, and it had taken Lydia’s eagle eyes to spot him in the brush. Yeah, maybe being a dog wasn’t that much fun.
And that brought his thinking around to Lydia once more. It didn’t surprise him – she’d been in his thoughts ever since he’d dropped her off at Griff’s house after their shopping expedition. He’d tried to shoo away the thought of her with numbers and coding, as he leaned over his laptop with his reading glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, his eyes too tired to focus on the screen without them.
He really had to work. They wanted to run this new application next week, to test it and work out any bugs. Without his part of the coding, it wouldn’t work.
Yet… every time he tried to concentrate, there she was. Just like she was now, when he should be asleep until his six a.m. alarm. Instead, he was thinking about the way she’d danced in the middle of the mall, just to make him smile.
Ah, smiling was overrated anyway. Let’s face it, he had no time for things like that. Not when he had a business to run, and a dog to take care of.
As if he knew Jackson was thinking about him, Eddie let out a low growl and rested his muzzle on Jackson’s shoulder. It was strange how comforting it felt.
Jackson quickly tapped out a reply on his phone, because he knew himself well enough that he’d forget to reply by morning.
I’m taking Eddie to the office, but if you want to take him for a walk in the evening, he’ll be waiting for you at seven. - Jackson
And if that meant Jackson had to wait with him? Well, wasn’t that what good dog owners did?
“Oh my god, what’s that?” Lisa asked the next morning, as she walked into the office to find Eddie curled up at Jackson’s feet.
“It’s a banana,” Jackson replied, looking up from his laptop. He’d been here for almost an hour, having arrived after taking Eddie for a long stroll on the beach. And of course, Eddie had run into the ocean, making himself wet and sandy, which meant an impromptu shower in the office bathroom.
“Shut up, it’s a dog,” Lisa said, her face lighting up as Eddie slowly stretched and stood, then padded over to her and started sniffing her legs. “Aren’t you a gorgeous thing,” she said softly, ruffling his ears. “But who are you and what are you doing here?”
There was silence. Jackson shook his head and looked back down at his laptop screen, as Lisa fussed over Eddie, making cooing noises as she cupped his furry face.
“So why have you got a dog?” she asked, her voice a little louder this time.
Jackson sighed. “He’s a stray. We found him in the brush and I agreed to take care of him.”
Lisa snorted. “You’re taking care of a dog?” She looked down at Eddie again. “You poor little baby,” she said in a cooing voice. “Has he even fed you?”
“Yes, I’ve fed him,” Jackson said, swallowing down a sigh. “And I’ve walked him, washed him, and now he was trying to sleep until you walked in.”
Eddie’s tail started to wag like a metronome, hitting the trashcan and almost knocking it over. “Sit!” Lisa called out.
Much to her – and Jackson’s – astonishment, Eddie did exactly as he was told, slamming his behind on the tiled office floor as he looked at Lisa with a pleased expression.
“Oh wow. I’m good, right?” She grinned. “Let’s try another. Lay down.”