Olivia
“You are so handsome!” Olivia gushed as she finished brushing Jaxson’s fur.
Jaxson was by far one of her most high-maintenance clients: a full breed Giant Schnauzer and former show dog in all his glory. While he was now retired from traveling and doing shows, his owner, who still bred and traveled doing dog shows all over the country and the world, liked keeping Jaxson as spiffy-looking as ever.
A knock sounded on the door of her van, and she knew it had to be Jaxson’s momma, Ms. Helen.
“C’mon on in,” she said as she pulled the brush through Jaxson’s shiny fur effortlessly. “We’re almost done in here.”
The door opened slowly, and Olivia smiled at sweet handsome Jaxson, patting his head before turning to Ms. Helen. Only to her surprise it wasn’t Ms. Helen. An apprehensive-looking Elton stood at the foot of the door, half his body inside and the other half outside as if he were waiting for her to throw him out.
“Please don’t be upset,” he said quickly. “I wanted to respect your wishes and not call or come by to socialize, but I got a call the other day and I couldn’t put this off any longer.
Olivia peered at him curiously. Her heart was already beating a bit faster, knowing she’d have to have yet another tense conversation with Lorenzo, as if dealing with Jay’s immature crap wasn’t bad enough. Before she could give another thought to the fact that Elton had ignored her request for him to stay away, he pulled the other half of his body into the van and stepped all the way in. He’d kept his other arm behind his body, and once in, he brought it around so she could see the adorable white little furry puppy he held.
“Ever since you told me about how your ultimate dream dog to own was a Komondor, I remembered an old breeder friend of my mom.”
He smiled nervously as he petted the pup. Olivia brought her hand to her mouth, unable to believe he’d gotten her one.
“She breeds Spanish Water dogs, but I figured she might know of someone who breeds Komondors. She did and she put in my order for the pick of the next litter months ago,” he continued. “She was concerned that whoever I was getting this little guy for knew what she was doing because she says these dogs are a huge responsibility, but I remembered you saying that was part of the intrigue, the challenge to keep up with such a majestic dog. And since”—he looked around her van—“you come fully prepared to and I have no doubt with your talent you’d be able to deal with his heavy coat once it grows in, I did assure her you’d be more than able to handle him.”
“Oh my God,” she whispered, her hand still over her mouth. “I can’t accept this, Elton. I’ve researched these dogs. I know how much they cost and—”
“No, no,” he said quickly before she could even begin to reject such an extravagant gift. “This woman has been telling me for years she’s forever indebted to my mother and if I ever needed anything not to hesitate to ask. Until now I’d never asked her for a thing, so she was able to get me him at a huge discount. Practically free.” He smiled, petting the little guy’s head as the pup whined a bit.
Olivia held her hands out, and Elton handed her the pup as he continued to tell her about how his mother helped Mrs. Rubidoux enormously when she first started breeding dogs and getting into the show dog business. “In the beginning, my mom would sponsor many of her out-of-state trips. Now she’s a highly successful multi-award winner and renowned trainer and breeder.”
While Olivia tried to listen to everything Elton was saying, the puppy had her undivided attention. He was beautiful. Olivia argued with her inner voice, the one that told her she couldn’t accept him. She shouldn’t. Lorenzo would surely object, and this would leave her feeling indebted and possibly obligated to be nice and accepting should Elton ever drop by again. Then he said the magic words.
“No strings attached, Olivia,” he said solemnly. “If you could text me a photo of him once his dreads are all grown out, that’d be cool. I’m curious to see how he turns out. Seeing the parents when I picked him up was the only time I’ve seen one of these full grown in person. That coat is no joke. But even a picture once a year or whatever is not necessary if you’d rather not. I just figured I’d already reserved him months ago, and, of course, I’d get the call that he’s ready to go a week after I agreed to no more inspections. But I promise there’s no other motive for this. This really was something I planned a while back.”
It’d only been a few minutes that she’d held and cuddled the puppy, and she was already in love. She even had a name for him already, one she’d always said she’d name her Komondor puppy if she ever got one—King. Elton brought in the small crate he’d bought the dog, and she thanked him profusely as every moment she held the puppy in her arms she knew it’d be that much more impossible not to take him and run.
As promised, Elton left once she had everything she needed for King. Ms. Helen was at the door almost as soon as Elton left. Unlike most people who wouldn’t know what a Komondor dog looked like full grown just by examining a puppy, Ms. Helen, being in the dog show business herself, knew exactly what Olivia was in for. She warned she’d had her hands full, but Olivia welcomed the challenge. She had no doubt she’d have the best-looking Komondor around with the best dreads ever.
Olivia had one more stop to make before heading home and having that somewhat dreaded talk about her new puppy with Lorenzo. But the excitement of the brand new unexpected addition to the family outweighed the dread. This had been her dream dog to own for as long as she could remember. From every article she’d read on the breed, she knew they were massively protective of their owners and their territory. According to all the articles, she knew she needed to train him well and early on or he would want to run the show. That’s where the name King had come from. While she planned on training him as well as she could, the name fit him perfectly, especially since she knew he was going to be huge. Given that Elton said he was the pick of the litter, he’d likely be as big as Komondor’s get. Just from his oversized paws she could already see Ms. Helen wasn’t kidding. She was going to have her hands full if she didn’t set him straight early on.
Twenty minutes into her next stop King was sound asleep, and Olivia had been lost in thoughts of Margie. She hadn’t heard from her in over a week. The last few times they’d spoken Margie seemed a bit out of it. She was still debating whether or not to have the baby. Jay was continuing to use the passive-aggressive approach he was so good at to try and convince Margie not to have it. The last time she’d heard anything from Margie was an odd text that she now suspected her friend may have sent by accident because it didn’t make sense, and when Olivia had responded to it, she never texted back. Nor did she answer any of the times Olivia had tried calling her since. It worried Olivia because she could tell Margie was trying to tone down just how much this whole thing was messing with her head.
Another knock sounded on her door. Mr. and Mrs. Upton were never the kind of owners to interrupt during her grooming. Their poodle, Sasha, was one of her other high-maintenance girls, and so the Uptons usually gave Olivia all the time and space she needed to deal with her. Not only that but Sasha had uncharacteristically growled and even barked.
Olivia glanced back at King, whose little head had popped up in his crate and was stirring now from hearing the knock at the door and then Sasha’s growling. Would she seriously regret having accepted King from Elton this fast?
Instead of saying “come in” as she had the first time, she called out for whoever it was to give her a second then rinsed her hands. If it was Elton again, she wouldn’t let him in this time. Even if it meant having to give King right back, she was setting him straight this time.
With a mixture of annoyance and concern that Elton might be turning into a creeper, she walked to the door and unlatched the lock. The moment she opened the door and saw the notorious smirk, she froze.
“Well, well,” Jay said with a wicked smile. “Looks like you didn’t fall off the face of the earth like your phone and lack of online presence would suggest.”
Feeling the air completely sucked out of her, Olivia refused to let on what just seeing him—hearing his man voice—did to her. Seeing him after all this time brought back all the memories—memories she felt as if she were drowning in now. Memories he had no right to just show up and thrust back her into her life.
The change in his appearance was also a huge blow. He’d let his hair grow out since she last seen him, and he wore it in a slick ponytail. His facial hair was also grown out. He had a full mustache, and his goatee was just long enough to give him that disheveled yet sexy bad-boy look, reminding her instantly of his older brother. His tatted-up brother rode a motorcycle and was rumored to be part of a notorious underground bike club that dealt with things far worse than drug trafficking and petty theft like the kind Jay had been in trouble for more than once in the past.
He even wore a black leather vest over a sweatshirt and dingy jeans with biker boots. And while the majority of his upper arm was covered by the sweatshirt sleeves he pulled up to just above his forearm, she could still see both his arms had full-sleeve tattoos. Jay had been a tattoo artist for years but had always said he wouldn’t do what his brother did and go overboard on the tats. He was now tatted clear down to his wrists on both arms. Jay had officially turned into his loser older brother, something he’d sworn for years he’d never do.
Olivia let out a slow breath, trying to gather her wits. As unexpected and troubling as this was, she felt strangely relieved. She’d often wondered what it’d be like to see him again—be this close to him again. Would he still possess that power he had over her for so long? So far the relief came from the fact that she’d managed to distance herself from this man, but she was struggling to put together a single coherent string of words now.
Clearing her throat, she finally spoke. “What are you doing here?”
“I need to talk to you.” The smirk flattened a little as he slipped both hands into his jean pockets and stared her down. “You can block me from calling or even contacting you online, Ollie, but you can’t block me from your life. You should know better than that, baby.”