I disentangled my fingers from his shirt, then gave it a little pat, as if I could smooth out the wrinkles I’d left. “We did it again.”
He cleared his throat. “Yeah.”
“We said we wouldn’t.” It was a stupid thing to say, but my brain hadn’t yet really started to work again.
“Yeah,” he said, still breathing heavily.
He dropped his hands to his sides, and the connection between us ended.
I took a little step back and rubbed my arms. “We decided it would put our friendship at risk.”
“I’m sorry.” He rubbed his hands over his face. “Totally my fault. There’s just been so much tension around here lately, then you not talking to me…”
I frowned. “You thought kissing me would make me talk to you?”
The corners of his mouth twitched once. “Well, it did, didn’t it?”
I drew in a deep breath, but before I could speak, he barreled on. “Look, it wasn’t deliberate. I just meant that with everything going on, I guess I wasn’t thinking.”
“So you accidentally kissed me?”
“I guess so,” he said on a sigh.
“And I accidentally kissed you back.” I paced to the other side of the room, trying to get some space in my head, or some air that wasn’t full of him. There was too much of him—he was everywhere I looked, everywhere I went…just everywhere.
“Finn, this is crazy.” I clenched my hands and dug my nails into my palms. “We’re best friends who live in the same house, are involved in each other’s families, interfere in each other’s love lives, and now we accidentally kiss. Doesn’t that seem a bit much to you? Maybe a bit unhealthy? Enmeshed or codependent or something.”
He winced. “Yeah. We need to back off a bit.” There was silence for a minute before he said, “Look, I need to apologize.”
“You did, though I should probably apologize for kissing you back.”
“Not about the kiss, about…” He swallowed and looked at the ceiling. “Having a word with your dates.”
“Okay, then.” That apology, I was totally up for. I lifted my chin. “Do it.”
He nodded and looked back at me. “I’m sorry. While my intentions may have been good, I should never have said anything to your dates without your knowledge. I was horrible and I’ll never do it again.”
As apologies went, it was a pretty good one, and after that kiss, I was in a forgiving mood. I nodded. “Thank you. Just remember, you’re not the authority on who’s good for me.”
“I’ll remember. Are you still mad at me?” He flashed me an uncertain smile.
“A bit. But I also realize I probably overstepped the line a few times with you, so I’m willing to be lenient. This time. But”—I summoned a serious expression—“we now have a zero tolerance approach to your involvement in my love life.”
“Got it. No kissing you and no stopping other guys from kissing you. A healthy friendship is the name of the game.” He let out a breath that sounded a bit pained and headed out the door. “See you in the morning, Scarlett.”
“Night,” I called after him, then went back to my painting. Only this time I wasn’t painting away my annoyance at him. No, this time my brushstrokes were all about the fire in my body that had lit when he kissed me. The fire that—despite how much I wished it wouldn’t—was still burning now.
Finn
Waiting in the veterinarian’s consulting room, Harvey sitting at my feet, I still wasn’t sure how I’d ended up here. John and Jane had made the appointment for him as we’d agreed, but had needed to rush off to a friend’s emergency involving the breaking down of a car full of rescued chickens. Scarlett couldn’t get time off work, and I didn’t have any classes today, so they’d asked me to bring him in. I could hardly say no when I’d been the one to demand the appointment, but still.
Harvey had been thrilled about the trip, especially the car ride. He loved the vet nurse who took his details, and showed her his sore right paw. She made sooky noises at him and told him he was a brave boy, and he looked up at me with his ears back and his eyes half closed, doing a slow pant—his grin looked suspiciously triumphant today.
The vet, an older woman with curly gray hair and kind eyes came in with a clipboard in hand. “This must be Harvey.”
“Yes,” I said, and shook her hand. “And I’m Finn.”
“We haven’t seen Harvey here at the clinic before?”
“He’s not actually my dog. He was a stray and we’ve taken him in for now.”
“You’ve rung the shelters?”
I nodded. “And left our number at them all. But in the meantime, I just wanted to see if he needed any shots or anything.”
“That’s very responsible of you, Finn.”
I didn’t tell her it was mainly concern for the welfare of my household in case Harvey had anything contagious…
She whipped out a handheld device. “I can also see if he’s micro-chipped.” She held the device near his ear then shook her head. “Unfortunately not, but it was worth a try.”
At the end of the checks and injections, she said, “Is there anything else you’re worried about with him?”
I looked down at the dog. “He sometimes limps and acts like he has a sore paw, but I think it comes and goes.”
“Which one?”
“Front left,” I said without thinking, because that was the paw he’d shown Scarlett and Amelia. But a little while ago, he’d shown the vet nurse his front right paw. Hadn’t he? “Actually, I’m not sure.”
She picked up Harvey’s front left paw and did a thorough inspection, followed by the same for the front right. “I can’t find anything, and he doesn’t seem to be reacting as if he has pain in either paw, but perhaps it isn’t acting up for him just now.”
Harvey glanced over at me, giving me his satisfied slow pant.
“Could he be faking it?” I asked.
She put her hands on her hips and looked at him. “Possibly. Border Collies are very intelligent, and since he’s been a stray he might have learned that pretending to be injured gets better results when he begs for food.”
Aha. I knew it.
The vet grabbed some dog treats. “Would you like a treat, Harvey? Have you been a good boy?”
Harvey stilled, then held up his front left paw and whined. The vet held back a smile as she said gently, “Do you have a sore paw? You poor boy.”
Harvey stood and did a limping circuit of my legs before sitting in front of the vet, once again holding his paw in the air. The vet laughed and gave him the treats. “Yep, I’d say you have an exceedingly intelligent dog on your hands, and he’s learned how to manipulate people into giving him sympathy food.” She rubbed the top of his head. “Good for you, Harvey.”
I was torn between grudging respect and unwillingness to be outfoxed by a Border Collie. Harvey grinned at me.
“I know this will probably sound weird,” I said, glancing back at the vet, “but can dogs smile? Sometimes I get the feeling that he’s grinning at me.”
She gave Harvey another treat. “It’s not uncommon for dogs to smile. Dalmatians have their own special one, but smart dogs, like Harvey, can learn to mimic elements of human facial expressions.”
I looked down at the dog sitting at my feet—showing his fake sore paw to the vet, while grinning at me. Yeah, this was my life now. I narrowed my eyes at him, hoping he read human expressions enough to work out that I was on to him, then I sighed and went out to pay the bill.
Scarlett
Eight minutes after my lunch break had started, I turned my house key in the lock and opened the front door to find Finn working at the dining table and Harvey sitting on the other side of the screen door, waiting patiently, as if he was certain Finn would open it for him soon.
Finn glanced up, startled. “Is everything okay?”
“I’m on my lunch break so I can’t stay long.” Luckily work was only five minutes away, but I’d have to keep an eye on the time. “I wanted to check on Harvey.”