Page 30 of Return to You

The man oozed sex-appeal, charisma, and magnetism. Plain and simple. No argument. It was a scientific fact. The earth was round. The human head weighs eight pounds (at least according to the Jerry Maguire kid). And Kade McKnight oozed sex-appeal, charisma, and magnetism.

Scared she might start drooling, Ali forced herself to look away from the sexiest man on the planet and glued her eyes to the boys and their friends. They’d abandoned their kickball game and were running around with the dog. The dog was the breakout star of the impromptu birthday barbeque. He’d greeted each and every person with sloppy kisses and a goofy grin and had been entertaining the guests with his fun-loving personality and his impressive tricks.

“Over here, Dumbass, over here!” Ricky yelled, waving his arms before throwing the ball to the dog who jumped in the air and turned in a full circle to catch it.

Some of the adults watching from the deck broke out in applause at the impressive play and the pup clearly loved all the attention.

It was official, everyone loved Dumbass and Dumbass loved everyone.

“Do you really think that’s an appropriate name?” Chrissy Caldwell asked as she bent down, lifted the lid of the ice chest, and grabbed a bottle of water.

Well…almost everyone.

“No. I don’t,” Ali answered honestly. “But that’s the name he came with and he loves it.”

They’d tried a handful of other names, but so far even with adding incentives when they called him, he had no reaction to any of them. But the second one of them said “Dumbass” he’d come bounding over with barely restrained enthusiasm. He seemed to wear the name with pride and dignity.

“Allison, he’s a dog.” Chrissy spoke to Ali in the same voice you’d use to explain to a child why they couldn’t have ice cream for dinner. “He doesn’t understand the word that you use. You could call him anything with a happy tone and he’d respond.”

Chrissy Caldwell was the girl in class that always sat in the front row and whose arm sprung up when the teacher asked a question. Any question. She had an answer for everything.

“Thanks for the tip.” Ali plastered a friendly smile on her face.

“Watch. Call him over,” she instructed.

Ali liked Chrissy; she really did. But she just had a prickly way about her. It wasn’t that she thought she was better than everyone else, it was just that she thought she knew better than everyone else.

“Dumbass,” Ali said with zero emotion.

The dog bounded toward them, happy as could be, tongue hanging halfway down to the ground. He skidded to a stop directly in front of Ali, plopped down on his rear end and looked up at her with sheer, unadulterated adoration.

“Okay, watch,” Chrissy instructed briskly before clapping her hands and chirping, “Rufus.”

Dumbass continued staring up at Ali.

“Buddy!”

He glanced over distractedly.

“Buddy!” she repeated with even more excitement.

He instantly lost interest and turned his attention back to Ali.

“Rocky!”

He wasn’t even looking at her.

“Bear!”

He yawned, still focused on Ali.

“Duke!” her voice was so high-pitched Ali was worried she was going to shatter the window beside them.

“Sampson!”

Finally, mercifully, the boys called the dog back over to them and he ran away happily.

Chrissy regrouped without a moment’s hesitation. “I think the problem was that he’s not familiar with me. I’m sure if you work with him to find a more appropriate alternative to—”

---