Puppy Love, Volumes 1 to 13 Page 4

  She knew she wasn't supposed to let him off leash, but, honestly, who cared if a four-month-old puppy was running around off leash at three in the morning?

  She let him loose and he raced after another leaf, darting one way and then another in a vain attempt to catch it.

  Jessica laughed. "You get 'em, boy," she called.

  If anyone ever tried to invade the world disguised as leaves, Baxter would single-handedly defeat them.

  "He's quite the little warrior, isn't he?" a man's voice said from behind her.

  Jessica whirled around.

  The man was about five feet away from her, dressed in blue hospital scrubs under his windbreaker. He held up his hands as he smiled at her. "Sorry. Didn't mean to startle you. I sometimes forget what time it is when I finally get home."

  Only as he spoke did Jessica realize that he was possibly the most attractive man she'd ever met. He had dark black hair, lightly tanned skin, emerald green eyes, and a perfect smile. Seriously, he had to have paid a pretty penny for those teeth. Either that or he had the most fantastic genes known to man.

  Before she could respond, he nodded in Baxter's direction. "I think he's making a run for it."

  "What?" Jessica turned around to see that Baxter was halfway across the courtyard, chasing after a rabbit. "Baxter! Come back here." She ran after him, slowly gaining ground until she finally caught him at the other corner of the courtyard.

  She scooped him up in her arms. "Bad puppy. You don't run away from me like that."

  Baxter squirmed and cried to get down, trying to climb her shoulder in the direction of the rabbit. She fastened his leash to his collar and set him down.

  He, of course, immediately started pulling frantically and crying.

  The man walked up to them, laughing softly. "He certainly gave you a run for your money there."

  Jessica shook her head. "That he did." She glanced down at Baxter. "Sneaky pup. Trying to run away when my back's turned."

  By now Baxter had lost any interest in the rabbit and was sniffing at the man's tennis shoes. The man knelt down and Baxter jumped on him, licking his face with reckless abandonment.

  The man almost fell over backward trying to escape Baxter's kiss attack.

  "Baxter, down." Jessica pulled him away. "I'm so sorry. He's still very much a puppy."

  The man laughed, wiping at his face with the back of his hand. "That's okay. I don't mind. I miss having dogs." He reached out to scratch Baxter's ears. "I grew up with dogs, but with my hours it wouldn't be fair to have one now."

  "Well, you're welcome to borrow mine. He has me out here at three most mornings."

  The man laughed again and stood. "I may just take you up on that. By the way, I'm Bruce. And you are?"

  "Jessica. And this is Baxter."

  She shook his hand, trying to hide her surprise at the little thrill she felt as their hands touched. He had a good handshake, firm but not too firm. His hands were soft but strong.

  Baxter, since no one was paying him any attention, decided it was the perfect time to start chewing on Jessica's shoelaces. He had one untied and halfway down his throat by the time she glanced down.

  "Baxter…" She shook her head, bending down to scoop him up. "What am I going to do with you, you silly boy?"

  Bruce shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged. "Well, I should be getting home. It was nice to meet you." He reached out to scratch Baxter's nose. "And you, too, little guy."

  "Nice to meet you," Jessica said.

  She watched Bruce make his way towards the building behind her, but turned away before she saw which apartment he lived in.

  * * *

  The next night when she heard Baxter's little puppy yip in the middle of the night, Jessica jumped out of bed with a little more enthusiasm than usual. Maybe she'd see Bruce again.

  If nothing else, Bruce was attractive to look at and someone to talk to other than Baxter who, while cute and attentive, didn't exactly hold up his end of a conversation.

  This time Baxter just wanted to lay in the cool grass and stare up at the sky.

  She sat down on the sidewalk a couple feet away and looked upward, but she couldn't for the life of her tell what it was he was so fascinated with. Stars? The moon? Whatever it was, Baxter refused to budge for a full ten minutes.

  Jessica, secretly hoping she'd see Bruce again, didn't try very hard to make him move.

  But Bruce never showed.

  * * *

  He didn't show the next night either. Or the one after that. Jessica started to think that maybe he'd been some figment of her sleep-deprived imagination. Her perfect man, cooked up by her imagination as a way to lure her out of bed when she'd rather be sleeping and warm.

  * * *

  That Saturday afternoon, Jessica ran into one of her friends in the complex, Joanne, who had a one-year-old Boxer, Roxie, that loved to play with Baxter. They let the dogs off leash and chatted while the two puppies ran around, chasing each other back and forth until they were completely winded.

  Not that that kept the puppies from continuing to play. No, they just laid down on the ground and pawed and nipped at each other from there.

  Bruce, dressed in black slacks and a polo shirt and carrying a bag of golf clubs over his shoulder, came up next to them. "Now that has to be one of the cutest things, I've ever seen.

  "Yeah, they're pretty adorable, aren't they?," Jessica replied, unable to suppress the smile that spread across her face at the sight of him.

  Joanne raised an eyebrow at her and nodded in Bruce's direction.

  "Oh, sorry," Jessica said. "Joanne, this is Bruce. Bruce, this is Joanne." She smiled at Bruce before turning back to Joanne. "Bruce was kind enough to warn me when Baxter tried to run away in the middle of the night on Tuesday."

  "Is that so?" Joanne asked, her lips pressed firmly together but eyes dancing with amusement. "Well, nice to meet you Bruce. What do you do?"

  He shifted the bag on his shoulder before answering. "I'm a doctor at Mercy General."

  "Really?" With the tone she used, Joanne might as well have said, "ooh, my, how fascinating, you hot sexy man you." Jessica wanted to drag her away before this got any more embarrassing, but Joanne continued, "What kind of doctor are you, Bruce?"

  He blushed. "ER."

  "Ah, so you're good under pressure then?" Joanne looked at Jessica with a raised eyebrow.

  Jessica was so mortified she turned away from both of them. "Hey, Baxter, buddy. You about done there?"

  It seemed that was Baxter's cue to notice Bruce, because he leapt to his feet and came barreling over to them, running straight into Bruce's legs like a little furry cannonball.

  Jessica cringed, but Bruce laughed. "Hey there, little man. You miss me?"

  Baxter tried to climb his legs, wiggling and crying upset little puppy whimpers.

  "I'm so sorry," Jessica reached for Baxter, but Bruce waved her away.

  "It's alright." He set down his clubs and picked Baxter up.

  Baxter promptly proceeded to cover Bruce's face with a hundred licks of his tongue.

  Bruce laughed, holding him at arm's length for a moment.

  Jessica thought he wouldn't be laughing if he'd seen some of the things she'd pulled out of Baxter's mouth in the last hour.

  "I can take him, it's okay," she offered again, but Bruce shrugged her off.

  "Nah, it's fine." He snuggled Baxter close and pet him until he calmed down slightly, still licking Bruce's face, but not near as frantically as before.

  "He ruined your nice outfit," Jessica said, gesturing to the dirty paw prints covering Bruce's black pants.

  Bruce shrugged. "Nothing a run through the washing machine won't fix. Good thing I was coming back home, though, instead of heading out to the course."

  Joanne glanced back and forth between the two of them with a little smile on her face. "Well, Roxie and I better get going. Steve'll be home soon and we're supposed to run up to the store. You two take care." Joanne wink
ed at Jessica as she turned away.

  Jessica blushed scarlet and stared at the ground.

  "You okay?" Bruce asked, still playing with Baxter, who was now trying to crawl over his shoulder.

  "Yeah. Joanne means well, she's just…Eh. You okay?" She asked, nodding towards Baxter who was now almost completely over Bruce's shoulder.

  "Actually, I could use some help," he said, turning around so she could reach Baxter easily.

  Jessica managed to catch the pup just as he finished scaling Bruce's shoulder and started to fall. She swung Baxter to the ground and latched his leash onto him before he could get away.

  She let out a deep sigh as she stood back up. "He's a ball of energy."

  "I see that." Bruce reached down and scratched Baxter's ears. "But cute as hell. Aren’t ya, boy?"

  Baxter wiggled with happiness and gazed up at Bruce.

  "I should get him back inside," Jessica said. "It's almost his lunch time. Good to see you again."

  Bruce watched her back away. "Good to see you again, too. Until our next meeting."

  Jessica hurried away as fast as Baxter would let her. She didn't know why. Bruce was gorgeous and she'd happily spend an entire day trying to figure out exactly what color of green his eyes were. But after Joanne's little overdone act, Jessica felt an intense need to get somewhere private so she could die of embarrassment.

  * * *

  That Wednesday Jessica had a date with a guy her co-worker had set her up with. She didn't want to leave Baxter alone for too long, so she arranged to meet him at the local pizza parlor, just five minutes from her apartment.

  The beginning of the date went really, really well. He was a good-looking guy, charming, intelligent. He checked all the boxes.

  Only problem was the service at the restaurant was so slow that after an hour and a half their pizza hadn't even arrived.

  Jessica glanced at her phone and at her date, Rick, and back at her phone.

  "What is it?" he asked, noticing her look.

  "Um, this is going to sound forward, and I don't mean it to be, but…" She took a deep breath. "Baxter's already been alone for over an hour and a half and I think by the time we get our food and pay and all that it'll be like three hours. I really don't want him to be alone that long."

  She could see Rick's disappointment, so Jessica rushed on before he could reach the wrong conclusion. "Do you think we could get dinner to go and take it back to my place to eat? I'm really enjoying myself and don't want this night to end, but I don't want him to be alone that long either."

  Rick sat back, clearly surprised by her suggestion. "Yeah, yeah, we can do that. Let me take care of it." He left to round-up their waiter and within ten minutes they were on their way to Jessica's apartment.

  She would've never even dreamed of bringing some random guy back to her place before she'd had Baxter, but now she figured she'd rather take the risk of letting him know where she lived than let her puppy sit at home alone for another moment longer.

  * * *

  The minute they walked through the door, Baxter started lecturing her for leaving him alone so long, letting out a series of highly animated whines and barks.

  "I know, buddy, I'm sorry. But I'm home now, right?" She sat down on the floor, letting him crawl all over her. "Come on. Let's go outside real quick." She leashed him up and was halfway out the door before she remembered Rick who was still standing in the entryway, the pizza box clutched in his hand. "Make yourself at home, I'll be right back," she said as Baxter dragged her out the door.

  Once he'd done his thing, Jessica tried to pull Baxter back to the apartment. "Alright, buddy. Let's go back. We have a visitor waiting."

  Baxter was having none of it. He jumped backwards twisting his head from side to side, trying to get out of his collar.

  "Baxter, come on. Not now."

  She let up on the leash, worried he'd hurt himself if he kept jumping and pulling so hard.

  Of course, Bruce sauntered up at that exact moment. "Looks like someone doesn't want to go back inside just yet." He reached down and scratched Baxter's ears.

  Jessica flashed him a smile. "Yeah. Bad timing, too. I just left a virtual stranger alone in my apartment and now Baxter wants to take his time playing in the grass." She shook her head.

  "A date?" Bruce asked, glancing up at her.

  "Yeah. First date." Jessica fidgeting, not meeting his eyes.

  Bruce turned back to Baxter. "Must be going well for you to invite him back to your place."

  Jessica wished he'd look up so she could see what he was thinking, but he didn't. Was he judging her? Was he jealous?

  She shrugged. "Well enough. We went to Mario's but the service was so slow I started to worry about Baxter so I suggested we bring the food back here instead."

  Bruce scooped Baxter into his arms. "Well, don't want to keep you from it. How about I walk you guys back? I think he'll behave as long as I'm with you."

  "My date?" she asked, surprised.

  Bruce laughed. "I was referring to the puppy. But, yeah, your date, too. At least now he'll know someone has seen him in case he tries to pull any funny business later." He winked at her to show he was kidding.

  Jessica shook her head. "Sorry," she said, "I'm just…between lack of sleep and Baxter being Baxter and…I think my subtle humor detector must be busted."

  By then they were at Jessica's door. Bruce was kind enough not to actually come inside. He just waved at Rick, set Baxter on the floor, and made a quick and graceful exit.

  "Who was that?" Rick asked, clearly irritated.

  "Oh, that's one of my neighbors, Bruce. Baxter refused to come inside so he offered to carry him back for me."

  "Nice neighbor," Rick said with a grunt.

  Baxter chose that moment to jump on the couch and lick Rick's ear. Rick flinched away with a disgusted look on his face. "Stop," he yelled, his voice like a lash.

  Baxter backed away from him, confused. Nobody had ever used that tone of voice with him before.

  "It's okay, buddy. Come here." Jessica sat on the other end of the couch and Baxter buried himself in her lap.

  "You really need to discipline your dog better," Rick said, taking a big bite out of a slice of pizza. "You need to show him who's master so he obeys you without question. And you should never, ever let a dog on the couch."

  Jessica continued to pet Baxter, her eyes narrowed and lips pressed tight together as she watched Rick. Baxter was trembling and kept nuzzling into her side trying to get as far away from Rick as possible.

  Rick glanced at her. "Aren't you going to have any pizza?"

  "I'm suddenly not feeling very hungry." Jessica glared at him, trying to figure out how to get him the hell out of her apartment without a big scene.

  Rick rolled his eyes. "You know, you women are all the same, aren't you? So frickin' sensitive all the time." He rubbed his hands off on his napkin and stood up. "I think I'll head out now before this evening really takes a downhill turn."

  Jessica kept her face carefully neutral. "I think that would be a good idea. I'd get the door for you, but…" She gestured at Baxter. "I'd rather not upset my puppy more than he already is."

  Rick mumbled something about the cost of the pizza and not getting any action as he walked towards the door, but Jessica really wasn't paying attention.

  Jessica stayed on the couch petting Baxter until he jumped down and ran to the door, crying to go out.

  "Alright, fine. Might as well. Pizza's probably already cold." Jessica shoved the pizza box into the fridge and led Baxter back outside.

  As Baxter rolled in the grass, kicking his legs in puppy ecstasy, she realized that without Baxter around she may well have dated Rick for months before she saw what an ass he was.

  She leaned down, rubbing his belly. "You saved me, buddy. Good job."

  * * *

  Ten minutes later, Jessica was sitting on the ground throwing leaves so they'd catch the breeze and Baxter could chase them when Bruce
came and sat down beside her.

  "Well, that fizzled fast," he said.

  "What did?" she asked, staring at him blankly.

  "Your date…"

  She blushed. "Oh, yeah. He turned out to be one of those woman-hating assholes. Of course, he'd already blown it when he yelled at Baxter and told me I should never let a dog on the couch." She rolled her eyes.

  "Who could yell at this little guy?" Bruce reached out and Baxter crawled into his lap, rolling onto his back so Bruce could pet his pink little tummy.

  Jessica shredded the leaf she was holding into little bits. "The type of guy I have no interest in dating."

  They sat there in companionable silence for a moment before Jessica spoke up again. "So where are you headed? Am I keeping you from a hot date?"

  Bruce laughed. "No. Just headed out to grab a bite to eat. Turns out I have nothing in the fridge. And your mention of pizza made me think that sounded pretty good."

  She bit her lip. What the hell. Didn't hurt to ask. "Did you already order?"

  Bruce shook his head. "No. I figured I'd go somewhere and sit down. Always fun to be the awkward single guy taking up a whole booth on a busy night."

  She laughed. "You know…That jerk left before we could really eat anything, so I have a large pizza minus one slice back home. You're welcome to come over and join Baxter and me for dinner." She flashed him a smile. "Beats eating alone at a restaurant."

  Jessica held her breath, waiting to see how he'd respond.

  "I'd love that." He smiled at her with his picture-perfect smile and once again she wondered if it was the result of years of dental work or very, very good genes.

  "Alright. Let's go."

  Bruce scooped Baxter up and followed Jessica back to her apartment.

  * * *

  They sat on the couch and talked about anything and everything for two hours while Baxter slept on the couch between them, his little head burrowed into the side of Bruce's thigh.

  They would've probably sat there for another six hours or more, but Baxter woke up and demanded to be let outside.