“Did it?” I croak.
“I guess I know where Mouse gets his manners.”
“Well you weren’t exactly quick to cover up!”
“I mean, you basically catalogued all of my scars.”
There’s no point in trying to hide my blush. “Yeah, well, sue me. I was frozen in shock.”
“Were you? Or was it something else?”
His green eyes find mine and I want so desperately to look away as I ask, “What do you mean?”
He sighs and shakes his head. “Never mind. I need to run or I’m going to be late.”
Oh, right, the meeting—the whole reason he showered here in the first place.
I walk him to the door and try to find something to say to ease the awkward tension between us. Real estate is the only subject that seems acceptable. “So Saturday is still good for you?”
“What?” he asks, confused.
“For houses?”
“Oh, right. Yeah. Send me a text and let me know where to meet you.”
I hold the door open and he steps past. I think he’s going to leave without either of us saying another word, but something makes me want to be brave, to catch him off guard. I think he wanted me to be honest earlier, to say what I was really thinking.
“And Adam?”
He looks over his shoulder.
“If the tables were turned, I doubt you would have looked away either.”
I think my line is killer, one of those moments in life when you say the exact right thing at the exact right time—right up until I get a text from Adam Saturday morning, canceling our meeting.CHAPTER FIFTEENMADELEINEAdam had a good excuse for canceling on me: one of his patients’ owners called with an emergency and Adam agreed to go into the clinic to check it out. He didn’t mention what the emergency was in his brief text, but it’s not like I could question it. He dropped everything on a Saturday to aid a helpless animal. Like I said, it’s a good excuse.
The problem is, he hasn’t bothered to get back to me about a rain check. Over the last few days, I’ve called and left him voicemails, shot over a pair of professionally worded emails, and even slipped and texted him twice when my common sense had already gone to sleep for the night.
In return, I’ve received nada. Zilch.
We are right back to square one, and it makes no sense. When we’re together, he’s friendly, even borderline flirtatious. When we’re apart, he doesn’t just act different, he falls off the face of the earth altogether.
At first, I give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he’s really bad at communication. Maybe he likes to live his life unencumbered by technology. Maybe he’s so embarrassed about me seeing his nether region that he can’t work up the courage to text me back.
Too bad none of those lame excuses stick. There’s something up with Adam, and I think I know what it is.
He likes me.
The clues fit. He flirts with me when we’re together, he got jealous over the cowboy at the singles event, and he came over to run with Mouse. Why would he do any of that if he didn’t like me?
Daisy doesn’t agree.
“It sounds like you’re trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.”
I wave away her pessimism. “Listen, you didn’t see the way he acted around me the other day. He came over to run with Mouse and he was looking at me almost like he wanted me.”
She hums in disbelief. What a good friend. “Are you sure he wasn’t just horny? I mean, how well do you know this guy? If he liked you, he’d text you back.”
I check my phone and the only text waiting for me is from the local pizza shop, offering me a coupon for being such a loyal customer. That’s it, no more giving my number out to pizza places; the only text I want to receive is from Adam. Still, I save the coupon.
“Shouldn’t we go in?” Daisy asks, leaning over to eye the front of the YMCA through my passenger-side window.
It’s the day of the second puppy training class and we’re sitting in the parking lot, waiting for class to start. We stopped for sandwiches on the way over. I think I told Daisy it would be a picnic, but instead we sat in my car. I finish off the last bite and sneak a small piece of turkey back to Mouse.
“Not yet. Last time Mouse was overeager with all the other puppies and everyone acted so offended. I want to minimize the amount of time I have to be around them.”
“Is that Lori?!” she asks, pressing her face closer to the glass.
“Oh, yeah.” I roll my eyes. “She came last time to try to convince Adam to hire her as an agent. I’m not sure why she came back.”