Groomed For Love

What the hell was I thinking?

“It was my first day at the salon yesterday,” I confess to Parker, wincing as I recall the events leading up to Sasha being taken to hospital.

He lifts his brow, but shrugs.

“Everyone’s first day is a nightmare,” he consoles me, adding that he’s never seen Moose more at ease with anyone apart from himself.

“Even Sasha?” I venture.

“Even Sasha,” he confirms, and Moose barks again, almost winking at me as he agrees with his master.

“Then let’s go,” I hear myself say. Feeling like I’m being reborn as I leave my apartment.

A part of me is thrilled but also a little scared too once I feel deep down that I’ll never be coming back.

Chapter Six

Parker

I won’t have her here another minute, but I can’t just tell her what to do either.

I want to take her home, to have her all to myself. Just me and her.

Naomi.

But I figure seeing as Moose still needs his bath pretty desperately, and that we still need to get that note off the salon window it might be best to start there instead of the hallway of her shitty landlord’s building.

He’s going away for a while if I have anything to do with it. And I mean to make sure my report reflects that once I write it up.

But for now, I want Naomi, Moose, and me to just get out of here.

Uniforms don’t blink once I let them know I’ll get Naomi somewhere safe and hand in my own paperwork ASAP.

It’s a typical call out for them, angry landlord taking matters into his own hands. And once they see the knife as evidence and I explain what happened, they’re happy to drag his sorry ass off to jail where it belongs.

Moose, me, and Naomi? We’re headed back to the salon.

Starting over where maybe things should have started in the first place if I hadn’t been sucked into visiting my mom for the weekend.

“Why dog grooming?” I ask her as we weave through downtown traffic.

Moose has settled on the back seat of my truck, happy now that all three of us are together and heading someplace I know he likes.

Naomi shrugs. “It’s work, I guess…” she offers, and I can tell she’s uneasy about my asking about her employment.

Hell. She’s just been evicted, probably homeless and here I am asking why she wants to work in a dog groomer’s salon.

“I mean,” I tell her frankly. “Is there anything else you really want to do?” I ask her, meeting her gaze in the rearview.

Losing myself in those baby blues as she gnaws at her puckered lip.

I focus back on the road but take in as much of her as I can as I drive.

Her voice, her eyes.

That fucking chest.

My greedy eyes scanning down to the space between her thick thighs once we stop at a set of lights, feeling my tent pole hard on bobbing to attention in a second.

Telling myself to keep things professional, and failing.

“I know Sasha will fire me,” she says, a matter of fact as she sighs and looks away. “Already has probably, just not able to tell me yet, I guess.”

I feel my knuckles tense with the steering wheel under them.

“You don’t know that,” I tell her, wishing she wouldn’t assume the worst when she has so many bright things ahead of her.

Ahead of us.

I’m here now. We can all go home once Moose is done.

Wanting to just pull over and tell her how it’s gonna be from now on, but she kinda has to have her say so in things as well.

I can’t just make someone love me, can’t force them to want to be with me.

Still not really sure how she really does feel. I mean, love at first sight?

An older guy like me with a younger girl like her. Especially someone so dammed perfect.

As if that stuff even really happens.

“Why can’t you wash Moose yourself again?” she asks me, breaking the silence as we get closer to the salon.

Her question makes me smile, and Moose lets out a little whine.

“Because…” I start to explain patiently, eyeballing him in the rearview. “Every time I get Moose in the bath he starts to disobey all his training. It’s like he turns into a puppy all over again,” I explain with a smile.

Because it’s true.

We should be grooming our own dogs at the precinct, and some handlers do. But with Moose, it’s different.

Very different.

“Sasha’s the one person who won’t take Moose’s shenanigans,” I explain further. Feeling bad for not mentioning straight up once again that Naomi is the only person I’ve seen Moose behave around one hundred percent, even including myself.

“So what does happen if you bath him at home?” she asks innocently.

I break into a wide smile at the most recent memory.

“Water. Everywhere,” I inform her. “It’s like all his training goes out the window once he’s in the tub and I’m there… If I reported it he’d probably be taken off the force,” I caution my partner, narrowing my eyes as he drops his head, hiding his muzzle with his paws in the back seat.