I hit the footpath with a jarring thud that feels like it breaks every single bone in my body. A nanosecond later, Erin lands on top of me, driving what little air remained in my lungs from my body.

Stars dance behind my closed eyelids as I instinctively close my arms around Erin’s body, desperately trying to protect her from whatever unknown foe has just caused the world to turn upside down.

The barking continues, getting louder and louder.

Harlan! I was so wrapped up in the kiss and promise of what was about to come, that I completely forgot about Erin’s big dog. At least it doesn’t sound like he’s wandered too far.

The weight on my chest seems to double. It feels like Erin is being forced directly into and through my body. My lungs flatten as what little air that remained in them following the fall is forced out.

Desperate to know, if not the reason, at least the cause, of this torture, I reluctantly crack open one eye and find myself staring straight up at Harlan’s toothy grin.

“Ugh, Harlan,” Erin groans. She waves her hands backwards, the movement pushing her even more firmly against me. Under any other circumstances, I’d be delighted by the way her perfect breasts are squashed against my chest, but not at this precise moment. “Get off me.”

Rather than obey her somewhat garbled order, Harlan lowers his face, licking her ear, and then drops lower still and runs his tongue over the entire side of my face, adding insult to injury.

“Damn dog,” I groan with what little breath I have remaining.

“Here, let me help,” an unfamiliar voice says.

A pair of hairy legs calves appear in my peripheral vision.

“Come on, boy,” the stranger’s voice says, and a moment later Harlan’s paws appear on the foot path beside my head and most of the weight lifts from my chest. “Good boy.” The voice continues to talk as I feel someone groping around my legs. “Just give me a sec to get this untangled and then you should be able to get up. There.” Something between my legs and the hard foot path moves in a slithering sliding motion.

Please don’t let that be a snake, I silently hope. I can’t deal with a snake right now.

“Here, Miss, let me help you.” Erin’s weight lifts off my body.

A second later she kneels by my shoulder. Her soft, warm hands cup my face. “Oh, Garret, are you okay?”

“I’ll live.” Probably. “Just give me a few seconds to catch my breath.”

I lie flat on my back on the footpath, focusing on drawing one breath of air into my lungs, reflating them, while enjoying the sensation of Erin’s fingers moving through my hair. Finally, I sit up.

“What the hell happened?” I demand.

“Dude, it was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.” The guy who help remove Erin and Harlan from my crushed body is a young black man with dreadlocks who’s wearing a faded University of Arizona T-shirt and expensive wet running shoes. “My girlfriend Liz and I were watching birds, and we come around the corner and see the two of you all hot and heavy for one another. I wanted to watch; the way you two were going at it was a lot more interesting than any of the stuff birds do ‘round here.”

“Jamal, you wanted to watch because you’re a pervert.” A thin blond girl who looks about the right age for a U of A student moves to stand beside him. She punches his upper arm and rolls her eyes. “Always have been, probably always will be.” She loops an arm around his waist and smiles at Erin and me. “I told him watching was rude, that you were having a private moment on a public path, and that we should sneak right past, but he wouldn’t listen.”

“But your dog wouldn’t let us. He started barking his damned head off, probably trying to protect you from us.” The guy’s grin widens. “And the two of you didn’t hear a thing.”

“I didn’t,” Erin confesses, her cheeks turning a pretty shade of rose pink.

“You had other things on your mind,” the guy says easily. “I get it. When the barking didn’t scare us away or pull the two of you apart, your dog started circling round you, wrapping you up in the leash.”

“I started to say something,” Liz interjects, “but before I could—”

“Wham!” Jamal claps his hands together, the sound disturbingly like a shot. “The two of you were down and the dog jumped on top of you both.”

“I think he was trying to protect you,” Liz says. “It was very sweet of him.”

“Yeah.” I give Harlan a dark look. He blinks innocently at me and leans against Liz’s legs, begging her to scratch behind his ears. “Sweet is one word for it.”

I suspect that in a few days, I’ll find this situation as funny as Jamal and Liz do, but right now I’m too bruised and humiliated to be amused.

“Do you want us to call someone, the park rangers, and tell them that there’s been an accident?” Liz asks. “They’ll probably have a stretcher and other medical things for you.”

Being carried off the birding trail on a stretcher, that’s just what I need to make my humiliation complete.

“No,” I tell her. “I’m okay.”

Erin frowns at me. “Are you sure?”

“You hit your head when you fell,” Liz adds. “You should probably get checked out for a concussion.”

My head doesn’t feel too bad, and now that I can finally breathe again. I realize that most of the damage seems to have been done to both of my shoulders. “I’m not concussed, and nothing’s broken so I should be able to get out of here under my own steam.”

Jamal helps me to my feet while Liz and Erin look on.

I shake both of their hands. “Thanks for your help.”

Liz drops to her knees and wraps her arms around Harlan’s neck. It figures. I’m the injured party, but the girls are all over the cute dog. “Goodbye, sweet boy,” she whispers against his fur. She stands up, but instead of continuing her trek with her boyfriend, she hesitates and looks at Erin.

“Um, this might sound a little weird, since we really don’t know anything about one another, but um, if you ever need someone to take care of your dog, feel free to give me a call. I love dogs, well, all animals really, but they’re not allowed in my apartment. Hanging out with yours, it’d be a real blast.”

“Of course.” Erin rattles off her phone number which Liz enters into her phone.

We stand side by side and watch the pair walk hand in hand down the path, chattering excitedly to one another before they round another corner and disappear.

Erin turns to me. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Embarrassed, but fine.” I reach for her hand, threading our fingers together. An unexpected jolt of awareness, much stronger than the simple touch warranted, shoots through me, so powerful, I nearly drop her hand before I catch myself. I glance down, surprised when I don’t see bright sparks of electric light dancing around our digits. “Now, how about we get home before something else happens?”

Erin’s grin is pure sunshine. “Sounds good to me.”