Good Girl (Love Unexpectedly 2)

I smile over Dolly’s head. “Did you just say ‘a bad ‘do’?”

He gently eases the dog from my arms. “Take care of your feet. I’ll take care of hers.”

I hesitate, not wanting to let Dolly out of my sight, but then I see the way she pants happily, managing to claw her way up his chest to give him a loving lick on the chin.

“Don’t think I didn’t see that smile just now,” I say, pointing a finger at him.

His face resumes its usual impassive mask. “Go. I’m going to wash her down here, where the sink’s bigger. Then I’ll bring her up.”

“For her blow-dry?” I ask.

He glares, and I blow him a kiss before gingerly making my way toward the stairs. Ranger runs back and forth, obviously torn between staying downstairs, where his master and his crush are, and going upstairs with boring old me.

I’m a little touched when he chooses me, bounding up the steps two at a time before turning at the top of the stairs and watching intently as I hobble my way up.

“Good boy,” I say, bending to kiss his head once I’m up. “You’re a good dog, such a good, handsome boy. Such a good, handsome, smart boy.”

“Quit trying to charm him,” Noah calls from the kitchen over the sound of the running water. “My dog.”

“Just like you have my dog?” I call back.

“Your dog, and I use the word loosely, bit me when I was trying to cut her free.”

“Probably because you gave her a bad fringe cut,” I yell.

“Those feet better be clean by the time I get up there, princess.”

I smile and head into my bathroom, where I run some lukewarm water. With a deep breath and clenched teeth, I force myself to put my ragged feet under the flow.

I hiss, but it doesn’t hurt as badly as I’m expecting. Once all the mud’s gone, I look closer, seeing mostly just a bunch of shallow scrapes.

Still, I keep my feet under the stream of water for a good long while as the events of the past half hour settle under me. I still feel as though my heart’s ready to jump out of my chest at any moment.

“When was your last tetanus shot?”

My head whips around, and my heart catches at the sight of a disgruntled Noah holding an even more disgruntled Dolly in a fluffy white towel, her fur all spiky and cute from the impromptu bath.

She starts to wriggle, and I hold out my arms, thinking she wants to see her mama, but instead it’s all about Ranger. The two of them chase each other around the playpen that is my bedroom.

“Tetanus shot?” Noah asks again.

“A couple years ago,” I say, turning off the water. “I’m good. Anyway, nothing’s that deep.”

I stand, but he’s beside me in two steps, scooping me up once more and taking me and my dripping feet into the bedroom before carefully depositing me on the bed.

Even with the sting of my feet and the lingering terror of nearly losing my dog, my mind flits back to the last time we were in this bed together, him commanding and intense, me writhing and wanting…

Tonight, though, he’s all business as he unceremoniously pushes me back onto my elbows, lifting one of my feet, then the other, inspecting them thoroughly but gently.

“You’re fine,” he says finally, carefully setting my leg back down.

“I know,” I say, maneuvering back into a sitting position. “That’s what I said.”

Noah glances over at the dogs, and I follow his gaze, smiling when I see that Ranger’s helped himself to one of Dolly’s bones—or maybe it’s one of his bones, left here, I don’t even know anymore. The two of them are nestled side by side, contently gnawing on their respective bones, Dolly small and wet and fuzzy, Ranger big and a little dirty and protective.

When I turn my head back to Noah, I find him watching me.

“You okay?” he asks gruffly.