Lucas wasn’t going to begrudge a PTO day, except this one felt...off. Neither Kellie or Mary had offered any information about why they were cutting him lose for a day. He was both irritated and proud of them for how they’d managed the delivery. On one hand, it showed that they were really a great leadership team. On the other, he wanted to know what the fuck was going on in this shop.

“Ready?” Jenny grabbed the leashes off the hook by the door.

“As ready as I can be this early.” He scrubbed a hand across his face.

“Come on, it’s eight. That’s not early.”

“I’m old?”

“Not that old.” She grinned and tossed him Omen’s leash. “Come on, I want to try to get this done already.”

He attached the clip to Omen’s collar while Jenny got Dolly’s harness on. She was a breeze to walk, until something startled her and she’d dart off like a freight train to hide.

They loaded up Jenny’s truck with both dogs. Lucas sat shotgun, nursing a cup of coffee, and dug his sunglasses out of her glove box.

“You’re going to lose those if you keep leaving them places.” Jenny sighed.

“I didn’t lose them. I put them there yesterday.”

“What about when you need them?”

“I’ve got a pair in my Jeep and one here. I’m covered.”

She didn’t offer further comment, and her silence grated a bit.

They were sunglasses, and so far, when they went anywhere together, they took her truck. What was the big deal about having sunglasses in her vehicle?

He didn’t press the matter. Jenny was funny about some things and he wasn’t ready to dig deeper, not until they were more at ease in their relationship. Or whatever this was. He should probably keep putting Mom off about dinner.

On some levels, he and Jenny were about as comfortable as two people could get, but something still wasn’t connecting. Was it him? Something he’d done? Or was it not even about him? Did she expect him to be like Walker? Until Jenny decided to grace him with an answer or more insight, he was stuck in the dark, walking on yet more eggshells.

They reached Pawsh Spa and Grooming Boutique well before nine, which meant they would have an hour to tackle Omen’s matted mess before the shop opened.

Lucas hung back, focusing on not getting in Jenny’s way while she set up a few things. He tossed a few balls for the four-legged girls and took out the garbage so he was at least contributing. When Jenny was finally ready, he escorted Dolly to her crate. She really was an easy dog to love, hyper sensitive and not a mean bone in her body. Of all the times she’d been scared or startled, she’d never growled or snapped. The growls had only happened that one time when Dolly was protecting Jenny. So far, so good in his book. He didn’t bother fully fastening the crate, just secured the bottom peg in the slot. They’d do as much as they could and she’d be out in a jiffy again.

That done, he scooped Omen up and carried her to the table.

To date, Jenny had only attempted grooming Omen on her own. They were hoping that having Lucas there might calm the pup a bit more and allow her to finish clipping Omen. It was a theory worth a shot at least.

“Got her?” Jenny asked.

“Yup.” He bent, cupping Omen’s small head in his hands and stroked behind her ears. “You’re a good girl, aren’t you?”

Jenny took a deep breath and flipped the clippers on.

Omen whimpered immediately, her eyes darting back and forth.

“You’re okay,” Lucas chanted.

Jenny placed her hand on Omen’s back, and the puppy let out a series of ear-piercing yips, as though she were in pain.

“I’m not doing anything to her.” Jenny flipped the clippers off and kept her hand right where it was.

Omen relaxed, her tail swishing back and forth, no sounds of protest passing her lips.

“She’s just scared of the noise.” Lucas hated seeing the pup in fear, but this was the safest, quickest way to get the job done since she was too squirmy for scissors.

Dolly barked and rattled her crate.

“It’s okay, Dolly. No one is getting hurt,” Jenny said over her shoulder. “Let’s try it once more.”

She flipped on the clippers, and again Omen’s puppy screams warred with Lucas’ better understanding. Jenny ran the clippers along Omen’s back, shaving off the bit of new growth since her last attempt.

Dolly’s crate banged.

Jenny kept her eyes on the pup but Lucas glanced across the shop. Dolly bounded out of the crate at full tilt, straight for Lucas.

“Shit—”

He cringed, bracing himself for impact.

Dolly dropped her haunches and slid a good three feet past him before getting enough traction to edge forward. She licked at Omen’s face, her whip like tail beating Lucas’ legs. The puppy’s whines lessened, but didn’t quite stop.

I’ll be damned...

Dolly pressed between Lucas and the table so she was directly in front of Omen. Dolly put her paws on the low bar, giving herself a few inches, and continued to offer comforting licks and nuzzles to the pup.

Jenny glanced at him, eyes wide.

“Don’t stop? I don’t know what to tell you.” He shrugged and chuckled. It was the least traumatic attempt at grooming Omen so far.

Jenny carefully proceeded, focusing on the parts of the dog’s body that were readily available. Her sides, back and legs got a quick and efficient buzz job. She didn’t look like one of Jenny’s show dog clients, but at least they were getting rid of the mess. That was all well and great, but it wasn’t the part that worried Lucas. Her stomach was where most of the problem areas were, and he didn’t know if there were enough licks or shows of support to make that happen.

“Okay, I don’t want to turn these off since she seems to be getting used to the sound.” Jenny held the clippers away from her. “What if you sat down on the ground and held her in your lap so I could do her stomach?”

“Let’s try it.” He was willing to do about anything if they could find a solution.

Lucas picked the pup up and eased to the ground, sitting cross legged. He settled Omen on his lap, belly up, and stroked under her chin and on the somewhat cleaned up spots on her stomach.

Dolly settled against his side, dedicated to supporting her friend.

Jenny knelt in front of him and began stroking the clippers along Omen’s side.

The pup squirmed a bit, but mostly hid her face under Dolly’s much larger head. Dolly stared at Jenny as if to say go ahead.

Bit by bit, Omen stopped wiggling her legs and the whimpers ceased. Maybe being the runt of the litter had taught Omen the only way of getting attention was to make noise, be heard.

Jenny kept at it, working at the knots, gently shaving the pup nearly bare. Each tuft of fur that came away exposed more scabs and a few small sores in places they hadn’t yet been able to clean up, yet further evidence that they needed to see under all that fur.

When Jenny was finally done, Lucas brushed the tumbleweeds of hair off his lap, exposing a nearly-naked Omen.

“It’s not my best work, but it’s done.” Jenny flipped the clippers off.

They both breathed a sigh of relief while Omen rolled to her feet and shook herself. Dolly nuzzled the puppy and was rewarded with a paw to the face.

“I was scared for a split-second there when Dolly came out of her crate.” Lucas chuckled.

“Why?” Jenny frowned.

“I didn’t know what was going on.” He reached over and petted Dolly’s head. She no longer flinched or pulled away from his touch, which was more progress.

“What makes you think she’d attack you? In the last few days, what has she done?”

“Nothing. I didn’t say she’d attack me, I just didn’t know what she’d do.” He swallowed his calm down comment. When it came to Dolly, Jenny had quickly become attached. “Dolly’s a good girl, aren’t you? You just wanted to make sure your friend was okay, and you were a big help, weren’t you?”

Jenny stared at him as though she didn’t entirely believe him.

He wanted to call her out on it, figure out what was bothering her, but he kept chickening out. If Jenny’s issue with him was actually because of him, he could lose her. Plain and simple. He wasn’t yet ready to gamble his chance with her away like that. Even if this hot and cold bullshit bothered the fuck out of him.

“What are you going to do with the rest of your day?” Jenny pushed to her feet and began tidying up.

“Not sure. We could play hooky together.”

Jenny glanced over her shoulder, one brow arched.

Yeah, he hadn’t thought she’d go for it, but he had to at least try.

The back door opened and Terry, Jenny’s only full-time employee, ambled in.

“Morning.” The cheerful retiree waved, then headed for the little office with his lunch bag in hand.

“Terry, man, I need your help,” Lucas said.

“Yeah? What about?” Terry popped out a moment later, draping an apron over his clothes with the shop logo emblazoned on his chest.

“Lucas.” Jenny gave him the stink eye.

“I’m trying to convince Jenny to play hooky with me today, but she won’t.”

“You should,” Terry said without hesitation.

“Terry.” Jenny turned that glare on the other man.

“What? Next weekend is that dog show, and we’re going to work eighteen-hour days. A few weeks after that is that thing at Fair Park with the dog parade. All I’m saying is, you work six days a week, eight hours a day. Taking a fun day is something you deserve.”

Jenny kept frowning, but her glare eased.

Lucas couldn’t force her to change her mind, though he did want to spend more time with her, maybe figure out what wasn’t working between them so he could fix it. He pushed to his feet and watched Omen scamper around Dolly.

“Well, I guess we’ll get out of your hair then.” He could always take care of domestic things like laundry, grocery shopping, a haircut. Mom and Dad were after him to come by for dinner, too. Maybe he could talk them into lunch instead, so he could have a nice dinner out with Jenny later.

“You’d be here all day by yourself.” Jenny planted her hands on her hips.

“How many days a week are you here by yourself? You should live life a bit more, boss lady.” Terry countered. He held up his hands. “But, I’m just an old fart. What do I know?”

He winked at Lucas, that mischief in his eye endearing. All Lucas knew about Terry was that he was in his sixties and had taken up grooming as a hobby in his retirement years because his wife wanted him out of the house. He was easy to work with, dependable and plain fun.

“I hadn’t considered everything coming up. I mean, I knew it was, I just...forgot.” Jenny frowned at the floor.

Lucas took the broom from her and swept up the Omen fur.

“I do have a lot of errands to run, and I can’t do them all on Sundays,” she said quietly.

Terry strolled toward the front of the shop, giving Lucas a double thumbs up behind her back.

Jenny lifted her laser focused gaze to Lucas.

“Do you want to ride along?” she asked.

“Sure.” He shrugged, keeping his reaction casual instead of an enthusiastic fist pump.

“I’ll see you kids later then,” Terry called from the front of the shop.

Lucas finished the clean up while Jenny sanitized the clippers. He didn’t allow himself to fully believe she meant to take the day off until the moment she stepped out the back of the shop, her lips pursed and brow furrowed, as though she were confused about why she was there.

He took her hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.

“What do you need to do first?” he asked. Anything on his list could wait.

Jenny glanced at the dogs, then him.

“I’m not sure... Do you need to do anything?”

“Well, it would be nice to pick up a few things from my apartment if we have time.”

“Do we need to take anything back there?”

“Uh, that depends if you mind me doing laundry at your place.”

“It’s all ready there. You can do it and take back to your place. We need to find you actual furniture, too.”

“Yeah.” Lucas kept his expression as neutral as he could. He’d half hoped she’d tell him to just bring it all over and they could forget this furniture buying business, but maybe that was too much too soon.

“Well, I say let’s do the hardware store first. I need a new hinge for the back door, and you probably need your own key if you’re going to be my emergency dog-runner-home person.”

“Okay.” A key sounded like an awfully big step forward to his ears.

g

Jenny was scraping the bottom of her to do list. They’d gone to the hardware store, three thrift stores, the grocery store, dropped off dry cleaning, started laundry, hung laundry, mowed, picked up more paint samples, additional dog stuff, placed an order for the shop, and now she was scraping God-only-knew-what off the P-trap while Lucas fiddled with the upstairs bathroom faucet.

She couldn’t allow herself to sit and relax. If she did that, Lucas would hold her hand or kiss her, and her experience over the last handful of days showed her where that led.

He wanted to move more of his stuff here.

That much was obvious.

Crystal clear.

And that sent her into panic mode.

She’d wanted to know what they were doing, and he’d told her whatever she wanted. She’d been forthright that she wanted him, some sort of commitment, and he hadn’t balked. No flutter of an eyelash, a long sigh, or moment of consideration. He was just...all in.

Who did that?

Oh, that’s right.

Her.

When she made up her mind that she wanted out of her parents house, that she was done playing Mom, she’d moved her things to Walker’s little shack of a house behind his parent’s and they’d more or less married by default.

Now Lucas wanted to move his things here.

If he did, would he take over the rest of her life, too?

Would things change?

Was this all a mistake?

Had she jumped too quick, too soon?

She’d never thought beyond the first meeting. Seeing him again had become her whole focus. Apologizing, setting the world to rights. A big part of her had accepted that they were simply never going to be what they once were. She wasn’t prepared for Lucas, what having him in her life meant. She wasn’t yet totally whole herself. How could she exchange one man for another?

Dolly wandered toward her, licking Jenny’s cheek as she examined the P-trap.

It looked clear now.

She fitted the pipes back together under the kitchen sink and tightened the fastening.

Old houses were wonderful—and terrible—for all the odd jobs they provided. She’d learned to do a lot herself out of necessity, and now she enjoyed it. Throwing herself into a project meant she could think about the rest of her problems less.

Her stomach growled, reminding her that lunch had been a long time ago.

Jenny pushed to her feet and stripped off the gloves.

Lucas’ phone sat on the counter, the screen flashing.

She leaned over and glanced at the message from his mother.

Are you sure you can’t free up tonight?

Jenny frowned.

Lucas wasn’t doing anything tonight.

She swiped her finger across the screen and tapped the message, skimming the back and forth.

Mom: Got any dinner plans? We’d love to see you.

Lucas: Love to see you, too. Busy tonight. :(

Jenny scrolled up a bit more before her conscience got to her. Lucas and his mother texted regularly, which was rather adorable. Jenny had always loved Lucas’ mother and secretly wished for her as a mother-in-law instead of Walker’s mom.

She didn’t expect the Hewitt family to welcome her back with open arms. Not after the way she’d divorced Walker. It had been cowardly, she would admit that, but she’d also been angry, hurt, lashing back. Which meant...this fling with Lucas really was temporary.

Jenny sat down at the dining room table, staring at the floor.

Ever since the divorce, she’d been hyper focused on piecing her life back together, rebuilding herself from the ashes. She’d had next to nothing, and now look at her.

She owned a home. A business. Her social circle was small, but she had friends. Her family had excluded themselves from her life by their choice, something she couldn’t change. She was proud of what she’d done for herself.

Then why did the idea of losing Lucas make her want to cry?

She didn’t need a man to complete her life, but she wanted someone to share it with.

Was Lucas what she wanted? Or was he what she used to want? Maybe all they were doing was what they couldn’t back then? It wasn’t a bad way to look at things. It was realistic and maybe even healthy for her to have a non-serious relationship. Get her feet wet again, so to speak.

Then why did she hate the idea so much?

Why had she asked Lucas for some sort of commitment if all she was going to do was scratch an itch and be done?

God, she was in over her head with no idea what to do next. In the past it’d been so simple. Lucas was the shoulder she cried on, the person she went to for help and the one that would back her up if things went sour with Walker. Now he was...complicated. And Jenny wasn’t sure she was prepared for that. Wasn’t it time for something in her life to be easy? Was that too much to ask for?

Footsteps thumped overhead.

Just the sound of him coming closer made her heart beat a little faster.

On an instinctual level, she wanted to be around Lucas. He was safe. He got her. They understood each other. But she didn’t truly know where she fit in his life or what she wanted.

•  •