It made him so aware of what a gift his family was. Theresa, Mike, the nephews, but also that brood of boisterous aunts and uncles and cousins who always had your back, who always made sure you knew you belonged to something larger than yourself.
It made Jonas, perhaps foolishly, commit to something: showing her how it could be. He wanted her to experience his family reunion, and somehow the motive of having her as his fiancée had become muddied.
But the woman who opened the door had replaced the librarian-in-need with a woman who didn’t look as if she needed his help at all.
Krissy, in the hot pink shoes and those crazy cutoff tights that made her legs looks endless, looked fun and sexy. She had on a touch of makeup: just enough to make her eyes look huge and gorgeous and to make her bottom lip look full and glossy and tempting. Her hair was pulled back in a stern ponytail, but it showed off the bone structure in her face.
And made him want to send it cascading around her shoulders the way it had the other night.
See? Complicated. He, a person who prided himself on his razor-sharp ability to focus, was off-balance.
A man, Jonas reminded himself, focusing on the only safe thing in the vicinity, the dog, should always go with his first instinct!
He took shelter from the bombarding of his senses by hiding behind what he knew about dogs, which was, thankfully, quite a bit.
As soon as she brought the leash out, the dynamic changed. Jonas became instructor, and Krissy became student.
“Let’s start by giving him a name.” He snapped the leash on the dog’s collar.
“Beauregard!”
“Something short would be better. Preferably one syllable. Beau?”
Krissy actually blushed, as if he had asked if he could be her beau!
“How about Chance?” she said. “I’m kind of taking a chance on him.”
“And giving him a second chance. From the look of his face, he’s had a hard life.”
“Perfect, then!” she said, beaming.
Happiness became her. As he watched the light come on in her face, he felt awareness whisper to life within him. Not just of her, but of what a beautiful day it was. Spring in the air, the leaves and grass nearly exploding with shades of green, the scent of blossoms in warm air, the sky bright blue and cloudless. The whole drive here, he had been so focused on his muddled thoughts, he had totally missed that.
Despite the opportunities for potholes and pitfalls, it seemed as if maybe coming to Sunshine Cove this morning wasn’t such a bad road to have chosen, after all. He felt something relax within him.
Jonas demonstrated how to walk the dog in front of her cottage, walking away from her.
“Super relaxed,” he said. “No tension on the leash. Expecting him to pace himself to you. You stop, he stops. You pick up the pace, he picks up the pace.”
When he turned back, there was something faintly guilty in her face, as if she hadn’t just been watching the dog! Unless he missed his guess, she’d been checking him out!
“He’s always nearly pulled my arm off,” Krissy said, just as if she had not been checking him out. “If he sees something, well, you saw it the other night. A squirrel, another dog, someone who looks friendly, he’s off. To be honest, it’s made me reluctant to walk him.” She seemed to realize she was chattering. She stopped abruptly. She looked anywhere but at Jonas.
It added the most interesting little sizzle to his heightened awareness of the day.
Stick to business, Jonas ordered himself. “This is a big dog. He needs to walk twice every single day. Once in the morning and once at night.”
“I know. You said I can’t even go inside the house after work until he’s had his walk. I can’t believe how wonderful he is for you!” she said. Her eyes skittered back to him. This time they didn’t skitter away.
There was something intoxicating about being admired by a pretty woman on a spring day. They walked through the sleepy, lovely streets of Sunshine Cove. An old man was getting his garden ready, stringing rows. Children shrieked on a trampoline. A small dog raced up to a picket fence and barked hysterically at them.
It felt as if they were a couple, and it felt shockingly good and not just because it suddenly seemed like he had a very real chance of convincing his sister and Mike this was the real deal and keeping his car.
“I can’t believe he didn’t acknowledge that dog,” Krissy said beside him after they had passed the yappy Pom-cross.
“He needs a leader. He wants one.” They arrived at the wide arch that led to the park and pathway that ran along the Hudson. Jonas passed the leash to Krissy. “Now you’re his leader.”
She took the leash gingerly. She stepped out hesitantly. The dog sensed her lack of confidence and pulled eagerly at the leash when a bike went by.
Jonas stepped in and covered her hand with his, and tugged at the leash. “See? Just a slight correction. Bring his attention back to you.”
He seemed to have succeeded at bringing her attention back to himself. And his to her. That scent filled his nose: the spring bouquet freshness of her. The softness of where her skin touched his intensified some feeling of being totally alive.
He could have let go and stepped away, but there were two little old ladies in the distance coming toward them. He didn’t want Chance jumping at them.
After they had passed, he moved away from Krissy, aware of his reluctance to break contact with her and annoyed with himself because of it.
The dog immediately sensed she was on her own. It yanked on her, and she lurched forward. Jonas fought the impulse to leap in and
