Eight

SOMEONE’S HERE! Tweeny launched herself from the dog bed and began her manic barking as if to save the world from evil intruders. Melanie broke the trance she was suddenly under and jumped away from Braden. She instantly regretted overreacting. Braden gave her the look again. The look of partial amusement—or was it sympathy for the simple minded? She couldn’t say what the look meant.

Her face felt like she just stepped out of a steam shower, or a lobster pot. Embarrassment for what she’d just done silenced her. Instead of excusing herself like a normal person, she rushed to the front door and threw it open.

Braden made a “psst” sound directed at the dog. “Tweeny, hush,” he said. She stopped barking and stared at the door in silence. Melanie didn’t have time to fully grasp how significant Tweeny’s behavior was, because overcoming her current state of shock required every ounce of mental focus.

Mortification. Definition: opening your front door after an embarrassing moment and staring into the eyes of someone you don’t want to see.

“Hi, Melanie. I was in the neighborhood and thought I would stop in to see the table you told me about. It’s been some time now and I thought you might have it finished.”

“Romany. Hi! I um…” Melanie found her voice, but it sounded an awful lot like a squirrel in a table clamp—a little high-pitched with a lot of distress.

She sensed more than heard Braden behind her. Romany’s gaze shifted above and behind her. Unable to help herself, she glanced back to see where Braden was. He was putting his T-shirt on about ten feet behind her. Because of his sore shoulder, he had to ease the shirt on, giving Melanie—and Romany—a long look at his partial nakedness.

She couldn’t help the pool of saliva forming inside her mouth. Holy wow, did the man have some muscle definition. Like, who actually looked like that? Was he photoshopped? Her ex wasn’t a slouch in the looks department, but Dylan didn’t hold a candle to Braden. Had she forgotten what a sexy beast of a man could actually look like? She must have. It was yet another forgotten item that accompanied motherhood. She forgot how fun it was to check out men.

Romany entered the foyer without being invited. Melanie stepped aside automatically to make room for him. Romany ranked high in the handsome department as well. Too bad they had no compatibility whatsoever. His uninvited appearance honestly flabbergasted her. After their one and only date ended with exclamation points after the spilled beer on his lap and a very awkward goodbye, she didn't think she’d ever hear from him again.

“Hi, I’m Romany, a friend of Melanie’s.” Romany walked past her and stuck his hand out to Braden.

“Braden,” he said and shook hands, keeping it brief and to the point.

Romany backpedaled to Melanie. He bent down and picked up Tweeny, tucking her into one arm while he placed his other arm over her shoulders and squeezed.

“I didn’t know you had company. Is this the brother-in-law you told me about? Clara’s husband?” he asked.

Melanie vaguely remembered talking to him about her family. She definitely did not recall saying anything about Pete, Clara’s husband. She leaned away from Romany and slid out from under his arm, bumping into the coat closet door. Braden must have noticed her discomfort because he moved forward and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Braden is an old friend of mine from high school,” she explained.

Being sandwiched between Romany, Tweeny, and the coat closet wasn’t the best place to stand. Melanie’s best chance for regaining an inch of personal space meant she had to move toward Braden. Alrighty then, she thought. Why should she be the one who was uncomfortable here?

“Romany works with Emmeline’s husband in Walnut Creek,” she said, trying to explain each other’s presence as she made her way around Braden.

After finding a comfortable perimeter between the two, Melanie raised a brow at Romany. He held Tweeny up in the air, her face an inch from his. Tweeny relished the opportunity to say hello up close and slathered Romany’s chin, jaw, and mouth with dog kisses. Melanie forced herself to look away and hold in the grimace. Tweeny ate garbage, dirt, and anything else disgusting. The dead fish that occasionally washed ashore weren’t exempt. Deer came around to eat the grass and left droppings scattered in their wake. Nothing was off limits when Tweeny was loose in the yard.

Tweeny’s overzealous pink tongue slipped past Romany’s lips as he asked, “Is the pine hall table for sale yet? I’m very interested in taking a look at it. It sounded just right for the space behind my sofa.”

Melanie blinked. Having two men standing in her entryway wasn’t something she’d ever experienced before. On one hand, Melanie couldn’t thank Romany enough for the interruption. Why had she been kissing Braden in her kitchen? It just happened and she needed to think this through. The world suddenly had more than one reality, and she’d never liked watching reality shows. On the other hand, the floating sensation, as if she were made of glittery helium, was worth dwelling on, remembering, and savoring. This realization gave her visions of slapping Romany upside the head.

Not that she would ever slap anyone, but her two hands were at definite conflict with one another.

“She isn’t finished working on the pine hall table. Maybe you can leave your card and she’ll call you when she’s taking appointments to see the furniture,” Braden said.

Melanie was still contemplating which hand Romany was on when Braden spoke up. The disdain for Braden that flickered behind Romany’s nearly black eyes passed so quickly she almost missed it.

She reached forward. “Come here, Tweeny,” she said and took her dog from Romany. Melanie passed the dog to Braden.

“Can you do me a huge favor and make sure she doesn’t get out? I’ll be right back.”

Braden’s expression went flat, unreadable, but not unagreeable. He reached for Tweeny and she kept moving before getting stuck in another inescapable thought rut.

“Will you step outside with me for a second?” she asked Romany and walked out the door.

He followed without a word. She closed the door behind them. Melanie wanted Braden to stay, and she certainly didn’t want Romany here. She could strangle Emmeline for giving him her address. Emmeline meant well when she set up the blind date, but her sister and brother-in-law didn’t think things through when passing along her address.

She moved around the house to the driveway and the front of the garage. Romany’s car was parked behind her sedan.

“You’ve caught me at a bad time. I’m sorry, but my shop is a disaster and everything is covered with dust.” All true, she thought. Melanie never wanted to be caught up in lies or half-truths. Lying was one thing that was incredibly hard for her to get over. What Braden said about having a twin brother and never telling her was almost too much to accept.

“My apologies. I was in town and remembered the table you mentioned. Forgive me, hun, I didn’t have your number after my phone was ruined by the beer Treasure spilled in my lap. I took a chance to stop in and say hello. I see you’re busy. I’ll come by another time when you have the table ready to show me.” He smiled, showing no teeth, which she also found odd. Romany placed a friendly hand on her arm and squeezed.

Did he just call her, hun? Like honey? Term of endearment or not, she didn’t gel with this man.

“Listen, hun. I want to see the table but I really stopped by because I’d love to take you out again. Maybe the three of us could go for a walk by your lake.”

Oh, heaven help me! He knows about Sienna! I purposefully didn’t talk about her during the date. I’m going to rip Emmeline’s head off next time I talk to her.

She waited too long to respond. Romany filled in the silence. “You take Tweeny for walks, don’t you? I could join you. She’s adorable.”

Melanie squinted as if narrowing her eyes could clear up the confusion bouncing around inside her head. Not Sienna. He wants to go out with me and my dog!

She almost said he could take Tweeny with him, but refrained. “Um…I’m not sure. Okay well, I have to get back inside and rescue Braden from Tweeny. Bye now!” She bumbled the excuse as quickly as she could. Melanie spun around and speed walked back to the house before he could say anything else that made her shudder.

Melanie’s heart beat at an ear-pounding level when she wrapped her hand around the doorknob. She hated confrontation and turning someone down right to their face was about as confrontational as she ever got. She swallowed a beach ball sized lump in her throat and inhaled a long steadying breath. Neither effort at controlling her nerves or slowing her heart rate helped. Afraid Romany wouldn’t accept her answer was the only thing that propelled her to open the door and escape inside. Braden was nowhere in sight.

She glanced around the large room, saw Tweeny destroying yet another toy, and tuned an ear toward the restroom down the hall. No sounds were heard. He’d left.

Indecision, uncertainty, these were things Melanie could relate to, not kissing ex-boyfriends and turning down handsome Eastern European men in her driveway. She caught herself wringing her hands as she stared at the sliding glass door that faced Braden’s—no, Braden and Justin’s—house, she corrected.

Was she ready to face the past? Could she believe such an absurd story about an undisclosed twin brother? Could she look at Braden without thinking about the kiss he laid on her without asking? What was that about? And more importantly, he made it clear that he never forgot about her. So many unanswered questions, and there was nothing she could do about it right now. Melanie had to be at the rec center in less than an hour for swim lessons, followed by team practice.

Unable to help her own curiosity, she peeked through the glass slider at the house next door, but didn’t see Braden. A fluttering sensation whirled low in her belly. Melanie closed her eyes and inhaled a long slow breath in an attempt to settle herself. She turned from the glass and rushed through the house so she wouldn’t be late for her lessons. She filled her water bottle, grabbed protein bars, an apple, and threw everything she needed for the day into her coaching bag. She repeated a mental reminder through the entire process of getting ready to remember to grab her swimsuit from the laundry room on the way out the door.

The suit she remembered. The dog was forgotten until she was fifteen minutes down the road. Melanie groaned at the thought of the waiting disaster when she returned home. No matter how many times Emmeline nagged her about using the portable kennel with Tweeny, she couldn’t seem to make the idea stick. Tweeny didn’t like being caged, and Melanie didn’t like using it, but Melanie disliked cleaning up the messes even more. Her mind ran through a mental checklist of all possible scenarios she would find when she returned home. The kitchen trash was fairly secure, she thought, but the bathroom trash would certainly be shredded and strewn across an unknown percentage of the house. If her furniture remained undamaged, she would count herself lucky. Tweeny had already gnawed the corner of the couch and the coffee table leg.

She pulled her car into the parking lot of the recreation center with certain knowledge she wasn’t cut out for dog ownership. Had she been completely out of her mind when she agreed to adopt a dog? What kind of mother would she be if she returned Tweeny to the rescue after promising Sienna she could have a dog? Could she lie to Sienna and tell her that Tweeny’s original owner was found and begged to have the little white hellion back? Who lied to a kid about these things? Melanie instantly felt horrible for even thinking up such a lie. She wouldn’t lie to her daughter. It went against everything she tried to instill in Sienna.

Ugh. Obviously, the dog was turning her into a horrible person. Putting Tweeny out of her mind landed her smack-dab in the middle of Braden-land. As she showered and changed in the locker room, she mentally analyzed every second spent with Braden. Everything he said and did, and those spectacular muscles covering his chest and abs, kept her thoroughly distracted until she entered the pool area.

* * *

Nothing else in the world kept Melanie as focused and in the present moment as spending time in the pool with the kids. They required every ounce of her attention and then some. The students’ safety and her constant vigilance meant she had no time to daydream over Braden’s piercing eyes or how he might look in a pair of swimming trunks. Melanie loved coaching and giving swim lessons. Being with her bright-eyed guppies and minnows, or watching her students advance from fish to flying fish level, and even watching her older kids move on to sharks gave her a sense of accomplishment like nothing else. The joy and satisfaction her job brought was steady, stable, and consistent since she was a teen. The pay didn’t pad her bank account, but she decided long ago she would teach swimming for free if it came down to it. This aspect of her life was integral to her daily existence and she was okay with the idea of teaching forever.

After half-hour lessons with each age group and a break for a small lunch, her high school swim team members arrived. She moved them through the warm up, divided them into teams, and practiced individual events. Melanie guided, suggested, and instructed to the kids’ strengths and weaknesses. As with all groups of teenagers, some were more eager than others. Some students listened better than others. Hormones were always evident. Mood swings and gossip abounded, but all the girls liked praise and, overall, they were a good group this year.

Melanie showered again, dressed, pulled her hair back and was on her way home by late afternoon. The hummus wrap with zucchini, red peppers, pine nuts, and mixed baby greens would be devoured as soon as she walked in the door. And if Tweeny left any messes, she would take her dinner outside to the patio and ignore it until she was good and ready to clean it up.

What she found when she entered the house was as equally distressing as the anticipated disaster. The house appeared exactly the same as when she left. Not a single piece of shredded paper was to be seen. All table legs, cushions, carpet, furniture were left unmarred...and no Tweeny.

Melanie’s heart skipped every other beat as she realized rather slowly that Tweeny was missing. Melanie called and called for the dog. She checked the garage, laundry room, every bedroom, bathroom, and closet in case Tweeny was accidently locked inside. The dog was small enough that you didn’t always see her underfoot and she could have sneaked into the closet or other rooms without Melanie noticing. When she was certain the dog wasn’t inside the house, it hit her. Good gracious! What had she done? Not putting her in the kennel before she left wasn’t nearly as terrifying as the realization that she forgot about the dog door. Hours earlier, she fantasized about bringing her daughter’s dog back to the rescue or some other way to justify finding Tweeny a new home and now the dog might be gone for real. She couldn’t handle even the idea of informing Sienna she’d lost Tweeny because she was so distracted by the sudden appearance of her first love.

Melanie dashed into the garage and workshop and began yelling Tweeny’s name for a second round of searching. The trashcan remained upright. She didn’t know if this was a good sign or bad. She went straight through the workshop to the driveway.

“Tweeny! Come here! Come get a treat!”

She surveyed the front yard, walked to the street, peered at her neighbors’ yards, felt a rush of embarrassment for visually intruding on their privacy, and was near to tears as she jogged around the side of the house to search in the back. Maybe the dog was exploring the shoreline. She realized she should have checked there first. Tweeny liked the smells and the abundance of wildlife that could be found near the water. A mild surge of hope kept her moving across the backyard, but when she hit the water’s edge and no flash of white fur, or pink, was visible, she began deflating again. Melanie wished the dog away and her negativity had manifested into reality.

Guilt-ridden and imagining the worst possible outcome for Tweeny’s safety, Melanie hurried inside to call the local animal control office. She was looking up the telephone number when there was a knock at her door. Intuition, or plain old faith and hope, told her whoever it was had her dog. She opened the front door and was nearly eye to eye with Tweeny. Her dog squirmed for release from Braden’s encompassing arm.

Melanie reached to take her. “You’re alive, you wretched little mongrel,” she said with equal parts relief and frustration. She wrapped both hands around Tweeny’s chest and brought her close. The dog wasn’t having any part of being manhandled and wiggled until Melanie set her down. Tweeny trotted over to her food dish, saw it empty, and turned expectant eyes on her owner. In case Melanie didn’t grasp the obvious order, Tweeny licked the empty bottom of the dish, then eyed her a second time.

Melanie blinked once, twice, then realized her panic over the missing dog was wasted energy. She focused on Braden.

“I’m so sorry about Tweeny. Uh…thank you. Again. I… She’s such a handful.” Melanie’s stammering wasn’t the impression she wanted to make. She bit down on her tongue and sighed.

“I brought her home, but you weren’t here. Your car wasn’t in the drive so I kept her with me.”

“I had to work today.”

Braden nodded. “Swim lessons?”

“Yes.” Melanie unconsciously ran a hand over her head. Her hair was still pulled back and damp after her day in the pool.

“Your ponytail reminds me of high school. You spent every free minute in the water.”

His gaze stayed on her hair for a second too long. The urge to tidy the hasty up-do made her fingers twitch. She refrained.

“You look good,” he said, and brought his luminous eyes back to hers. He licked his lips before speaking again. “I’m not going to pretend I want to see your hall table like that dude who was here earlier just to see you again. I want to clear something up between us.”

“His name is Romany.”

“That’s unimportant.”

Braden’s straightforward approach hadn’t changed over the years. She was simultaneously surprised by the sudden remembrance of that aspect of his personality and the abrupt way he blew Romany off as unimportant. What if Romany was her boyfriend? “Romany is—”

“He’s annoying. Don’t deny it. I saw the way you handled him.”

Melanie wanted to defend the overeager coworker of her brother-in-law, but she couldn’t. Braden pegged her. She didn’t care for Romany and if she never saw him again, it would be too soon. Instead of admitting her feelings she said, “He’s a family friend. Don’t be so quick to judge.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“You’re right. I make quick assessments of people. It’s part of my job. My observations are hard to turn off when I’m not working.” Braden reached into his pants pocket. “I have something to show you,” he said, putting Romany to bed and moving forward.

“Would you like to come inside first?” Melanie asked.